Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Fatima conspiracy theorists...

... aren't going to like this, but: Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, has given his blessing, and written a Foreword, to a new book "FATIMA FOR TODAY" which explains the huge significance of the Fatima visions and their message. The book makes it clear that the Church has not been lying to us, that the whole of the famous Third Secret has indeed been revealed, that the message is one of prayer and penance, and that this is all central to the evangelistic work of the Church.

The book is by Franciscan Friar Fr Andrew Apostoli and is a very good read.It includes a series of appendices tackling the publication of the Third Secret in 2000, affirms the full validity of the Consecration carried out in 1984, gives the full text of Cardinal Ratzinger's statement in 2000, and has information on his recent visit as Pope to Fatima and what he said there, and details of interviews with Sister Lucia.The information on Russia is of particular interest.

None of this will make much difference to the "Fatimists", who will doubtless redouble their efforts to claim that Pope Benedict is really holding back secret information, that he and Blessed John Paul haven't told the truth...one school of thought argues that Sister Lucia wasn't the real Sister Lucia but a double put forward in her place to talk to people from the Vatican...etc...etc...etc.

Pope Benedict has noted that the "beyond this great vision of the suffering of the Pope which we can in the first instance refer to Pope John Paul II" the message of Fatima indicates a continued suffering "The need for a passion of the Church...the Lord told us that the Church would constantly be suffering, in different ways, until the end of time." Perhaps part of that suffering is the chatter of the conspiracy-theorists whose noise drowns out the message of prayer.

Do read this book.

1 comment:

Banshee said...

It does sound like a good book on Fatima. I will look forward to reading it.

It's a shame that conspiracy stuff is so prominent, because the Fatima messages themselves are very simple and sensible, even though full of emotion and drama in their imagery.

Meanwhile, a lot of the conspiracy versions of messages are full of hooey that they add on. You can go online these days and easily look up the original Portuguese for yourself, so I don't see why they bother.