Exposing the Errors of the Marian Apparitions at Fatima
READING TIME: 21 MINUTES
The following are the notes to the discussion found at this link (https://www.facebook.com/tammy.cheetham.77/videos/vb.100014691523242/227800994386283/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab).
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to the three shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal, where the apparition appeared once each month from May 13 until Oct. 13, 1917. Today, October 13, specifically marks the 100th anniversary of the “Miracle of the Sun.”
Apparitions are appearances, most often of Mary, and according to some Catholic sources I checked, they are not a necessary component of the faith, but rather something that would contribute to building one’s faith and to living it out more fully. They would always point to God and this is how many would excuse their belief in these occurrences and how many have been fooled and will continue to be so unless they leave these false religious systems.
I watched a clip promoting a National Geographic episode about Mary's role as mother of Jesus which stated that since the beginning of Christianity, all around the world, there have been 2500 claimed apparitions of Mary. (So, straight away we are going to say that evil spirits have been quite busy.
Now, we realize there are millions of people out there who think these manifestations are from God, but they’re not. We know these are not from God because another Jesus, another gospel, and another spirit are presented. We make this point all the time that people can say the name of Jesus all day long, but what are they adding on, or taking away, or denying, that means they have another Jesus?
You know, everywhere we look we see people chasing after signs and wonders, chasing after experiences.
However, Matt. 16:4 says, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.”
And, it is absolutely heartbreaking to see so many, not just in the Catholic church, but in the Word of Faith and NAR and other groups as well, attending conferences and worship events looking for some spine-tingling emotional experience.
2 Peter 1, verses 2 and 3 say this: “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” (Where exactly do we find the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord? In the Bible, not in all these experiences! Experiences are subjective, meaning I can feel one thing and you can feel another and there is no standard by which to go. But, God’s Word is a sure standard and we all need to look there so as not to be led astray. We have the admonitions of studying to show ourselves approved and to be as the Bereans and we’d better take these seriously).
This is some information from Roger Oakland who has written a book entitled “Queen of All” concerning Marian apparitions. Almost all of the apparitions have stated that Mary is going to usher in a new era of peace and unity. Under her mantle all people will gather in peace and solve the problems facing the world. Her emphasis on unity and ecumenism has increasingly garnered attention from the media. The Los Angeles Times reported in an article entitled "Mary's Rising Popularity Goes Beyond Faith," that:
A growing number of Americans from all Christian denominations are reaching out to the Virgin Mary as a comforting conduit of spirituality and a symbol of peace in troubled times.... Reported sightings of Mary have steadily increased across the globe in recent years.... Her maternal gaze seems to have an ecumenical appeal.... It's not just Roman Catholics who are interested in Mary and following the apparitions.... Each day, thousands of people bring their troubles to the sites where the Virgin is claimed to have appeared.
Fatima is one of the most significant of all Marian apparitions. Along with Guadalupe (Dec. 12) and Lourdes (Feb. 11), it is one of three Marian apparitions honored with a feast day. In 2002, Pope St. John Paul II added the May 13 feast of Our Lady of Fatima to the general Roman calendar. May 13 was the day of the first Fatima apparition of 1917, and May 13, 1981, was the day when St. John Paul II survived an attempt on his life in St. Peter’s Square. John Paul II credited his survival to the intervention of Our Lady of Fatima. Fatima is also linked with the collapse of Russian communism more than 25 years ago.
It is estimated that some 4-5 million people visit Fatima each year. (So, while the Catholic church would say belief in these apparitions is not a necessary component of one’s faith, they do place great importance on them by honoring them with feast days. And, then individual Catholics obviously consider them to be quite important if 4-5 million people would visit just one of these locations every year. But, we know that many people are drawn to what they consider supernatural events truly from God, and we will have much more to say about this throughout the discussion).
Now, rather than describe each apparition I will just give some general information concerning the messages.
These messages present a request for prayer, reparation, repentance, sacrifice, and the abandonment of sin. Before Our Lady appeared to the three shepherd children, Lucia Santos, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the Angel of Peace visited them. The Angel prepared the children to receive the Blessed Virgin Mary, and here are some of his instructions:
"The Angel demonstrated to the children the fervent, attentive, and composed manner in which we should all pray, and the reverence we should show toward God in prayer. He also explained to them the great importance of praying and making sacrifices in reparation for the offenses committed against God. He told them: 'Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication, for the conversion of sinners.' In his third and final apparition to the children, the Angel gave them Holy Communion, and demonstrated the proper way to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist: all three children knelt to receive Communion; Lucia was given the Sacred Host on the tongue and the Angel shared the Blood of the Chalice between Francisco and Jacinta.”
"Our Lady stressed the importance of praying the Rosary in each of Her apparitions, asking the children to pray the Rosary every day for peace. Another principal part of the Message of Fatima is devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, which is terribly outraged and offended by the sins of humanity, and we are lovingly urged to console Her by making reparation. She showed Her Heart, surrounded by piercing thorns (which represented the sins against Her Immaculate Heart), to the children, who understood that their sacrifices could help to console Her.
"The children also saw that God is terribly offended by the sins of humanity, and that He desires each of us and all mankind to abandon sin and make reparation for their crimes through prayer and sacrifice. Our Lady sadly pleaded: 'Do not offend the Lord our God any more, for He is already too much offended!'
"The children were also told to pray and sacrifice themselves for sinners, in order to save them from hell. The children were briefly shown a vision of hell, after which Our Lady told them: 'You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.'”
"Our Lady indicated to us the specific root of all the troubles in the world, the one that causes world wars and such terrible suffering: sin. She then gave a solution, first to individual people, then to the Church’s leaders. God asks each one of us to stop offending Him. We must pray, especially the Rosary. By this frequent prayer of the Rosary, we will get the graces we need to overcome sin. God wants us to have devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to work to spread this devotion throughout the world. Our Lady said, 'My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.' If we wish to go to God, we have a sure way to Him through true devotion to the Immaculate Heart of His Mother.”
Then, I want to share some from an interview that took place in 1957 between Lucia, who became a nun, and Father Fuentes. Lucia said, “Look, Father, the Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we will sanctify ourselves. We will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls. "Finally, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Most Holy Mother, consists in considering Her as the seat of mercy, of goodness and of pardon, and as the sure door of entering Heaven."
Wow. Such a number of errors many, of course, having to do with the beliefs of Catholicism itself. For example:
1) Mary is referred to as the "Most Holy Mother" and having an "Immaculate Heart." By this Catholics mean she was saved from sin in every form through having been conceived in her mother's womb without the stain of original sin. However, the Bible never refers to Mary as being sinless. Never does it refer to her having an immaculate heart. Rather, Mary refers to God as her Savior (Luke 1:47). This places her with the rest of humanity, as a sinner needing a Savior.
2) Lucia speaks of devotion to the "Immaculate Heart" of Mary and saying the Rosary as the "last two remedies to the world." She also states that there is no problem that cannot be solved by saying the Rosary. It is the teaching of Fatima that saying the Rosary will lead to the salvation of many souls. Again, never is such a teaching found in Scripture. The Rosary's main prayer is the "Hail, Mary," which is repeated fifty times. The first half of it is a quote from Scripture of the greeting of the angel to Mary, "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." but the second half says, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." Besides giving Mary a title which Scripture does not, it asks Mary to pray for us. Indeed, Catholics not only see Mary as the one through whom ALL of God's grace flows, and the one who intercedes to her Son on our behalf, but Catholics also direct prayers to her to deliver people from sin, from war, etc. Pope John Paul II's prayer from the early 1980s to Mary is an example of such. In this prayer he repeatedly pleads to Mary to "deliver us" from nuclear war, famine, self-destruction, injustice, etc.
Again, never do we find a godly person in Scripture praying to anyone but God or asking for prayer by anyone but those still living on this earth. Prayer to Mary or to saints is not found in the Bible. Rather, Scripture directs us to pray to God (Luke 11:1-2; Matthew 6:6-9; Philippians 4:6; Acts 8:22; Luke 10:2, etc.)! God entreats us to come boldly unto the throne of grace (His throne) that we may find grace and help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16). God promised us that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us according to the will of God with groanings that cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26). Why do we need to go through a saint, angel or Mary, especially considering the fact that neither the example of doing so nor the command of doing so is ever given in Scripture? Concerning prayer, we have the repeated example of two things in Scripture:
a) Prayer is made to God alone (1 Corinthians 11:5; Romans 10:1; 15:30; Acts 12:5; Acts 10:2; Acts 8:24; Acts 1:24; Zechariah 8:21-22; Jonah 2:7; 4:2, etc.)
b) Requests for prayer are made only to the living. For example in 1 Thessalonians 5:25 the Apostle Paul says, “Brethren, pray for us.”
In addition, nowhere is it taught that Mary is all-seeing, all-hearing, and omniscient (or nearly so), as she would have to be to hear and respond to the multitude of prayers that are directed toward her from the many Catholics who pray to her simultaneously around the world.
3) One of the repeated messages of Fatima is the call for personal "reparation" or "penance." This Catholic concept teaches that we must make amends to God and to Mary for the sins we have committed against them. The angel told the children to "make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended..." Reparation is defined as "an expiation ... something done or paid as amends; compensation." This ties in with the Roman Catholic teaching of temporal punishment which a person can take care of through penance now or through time spent in purgatory later. The Bible NEVER speaks of the need to make "reparation" for our sins or doing "penance" to pay for our sins. Rather, what it teaches is that we are to offer our lives as living sacrifices to God in gratitude for all of the mercies He has shown us in salvation (Romans 12:1-2). When a person becomes a Christian, his sins are forgiven and paid for in full by Christ. There remains no further payment that can be made for them, no further expiation required.
4) A key aspect of following the Lady of Fatima is the bowing down before and venerating the images associated with the apparition. Throughout the Bible, we find that any time someone bows down before one of the "saints" or angels, he is told to get up and to stop. Only when done to "the Angel of the Lord" (a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ) or before Jesus or God the Father is such veneration accepted. Catholics make a distinction between "worshiping" God and "venerating" Mary and the saints, but when John the Apostle prostrates himself before an angel, the angel does not ask, "Are you worshiping me or venerating me?" The angel simply tells him to stop and to "worship God" (Revelation 19:10). Likewise, when Peter was being "venerated" by Cornelius in Acts 10:25, Peter tells Cornelius, "Stand up, I myself am also a man."
Thus, praying to Mary is contrary to the scriptural admonition to pray to God and the scriptural example to do so. It is also illogical to substitute praying to an all-loving, omniscient, omnipotent God (Psalm 139; Hebrews 4:14-16) for praying to some saint or Mary, when there is no scriptural evidence that they can even hear prayers. To pray to saints and Mary on a worldwide basis is to ascribe to them the attributes of omnipresence and omniscience which God alone possesses—this truly is idolatry!
I do want to give more details concerning the sixth apparition which occurred on Oct. 13, 1917. This was the most dramatic of the apparitions. Some 55,000 people gathered on a rainy day near Cova da Iria in Fatima and witnessed the “miracle of the sun.” Some 20,000 other people witnessed the miracle from as far away as 25 miles. The sun started spinning and grew larger. It looked like it was going to fall on the earth. People fell to their knees in fear. The people then noticed that their clothes were completely dry even though they had been standing in the rain for some time. Even unbelievers and skeptics witnessed the phenomenon. The newspaper, O Século, had a front page story on “How the sun danced at midday in Fatima.”
While the people were looking at the sun, the three children saw a sequence of apparitions. St. Joseph was seen with the Christ Child, and they appeared to bless the world. The Blessed Mother was seen robed in white with a blue mantel; then she appeared as Our Lady of Sorrows and then as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The Lady revealed her identity to the children as “Our Lady of the Rosary.” She asked them to pray the Rosary every day, as she had previously asked, and to have a chapel built at Cova da Iria, the site of the apparitions.
Now, concerning the "Miracle of the Sun," there are repeated cases in which "lying wonders" are spoken of in Scripture.
For a Christian, the "content of faith" ought to be the Bible and what it teaches (Isaiah 8:20; 2 Timothy 3:16).
Catholics will argue that the "Lady of Fatima" is not calling on us to worship "strange gods" but to worship the true God. In fact here is a comment at the end of an article I read concerning Marian apparitions – “I believe it is true because all things revealed through our beautiful, blessed Mother help her children draw closer to God. If it was from Satan, he would have been leading people away from God.” (Now, this is an extremely important concept. It is an example of 2 Cor. 11:14 and the enemy coming as an angel of light. Supposedly, if it looks good it’s of God and if it looks scary it’s from Satan. But, Satan very often does not coming looking like a big, scary monster because people would recognize him right away. No, rather, Satan often appears to lead people to God, but what God? Not the God of the Bible, but a god of people’s own imaginations. We see this all the time with the seeker sensitive churches that have rock concerts in place of the worship service and have replaced sermons with movie reviews. We saw it during the election cycle when a large number of evangelical pastors were urging Christians to vote for the lesser of two evils, apparently ignoring the fact that this is not a biblical concept and that evil is evil. We also see this in any movie or book with a good witch/bad witch storyline. There are far too many examples to mention them all, but I pray that people will take this scripture to heart because it will help us all to understand many events and situations in the world today.)
But, continuing with the idea of venerating Mary and her "Immaculate Heart" this is undeniably the exaltation of a woman to a position never given to her in Scripture—equality with God. To honor her as one would honor Christ is to exalt her. Likewise, to focus on Mary to such an extent that we spend more time praying to her than to God is also idolatrous, especially in light of the direct commands of Scripture to pray to God and the complete silence in Scripture concerning any exaltation of, or prayer to, Mary.
Now, I want to spend just a minute discussing some information from an article entitled the “Real Secrets of Fatima.” The article states: “Lucia was the youngest of seven children. Five years younger than her next-oldest sibling, Lucia was a petted and spoiled child. Her sisters fostered in her a desire to be the center of attention by teaching her to dance and sing. At festivals, Lucia would stand on a crate to entertain an adoring crowd. Among her other talents was a gift for telling stories—fairy tales, biblical narratives, and saints’ legends—which made her popular with village children, as well as an ability to persuade others to do her bidding.
Two years before the famous series of apparitions occurred at Fatima, eight-year-old Lucia and three girlfriends claimed to have seen apparitions of a snow-white figure on three occasions. Lucia’s mother called the experiences “childish nonsense.”
It is clear that she played the leading role in the scenario of the apparition itself. All accounts agree that she was the only one of the three to interact with both the apparition and with the crowd, carrying on conversations with both while her two cousins stood by silently. She has said, moreover, and probably not incorrectly, that Francisco and Jacinta had been accustomed to follow her directives before the apparition began.” (Now, of course, we have seen plenty of instances down through time where Satan has worked through one person who may be prideful, manipulative, charismatic, and so forth, to deceive great numbers of people, so this information shouldn’t surprise us one bit).
I want to move on now and discuss some statements Pope Francis made this past weekend (May 2017) as he attended the 100th anniversary events.
In his message the Pope said he is entrusting all Portuguese faithful to Our Lady asking her to “whisper into the ears of each one of them, and assure them that her Immaculate Heart is a refuge and a path leading them to God”. “In His name, I come to you with the joy of sharing the Gospel of hope and peace. May the Lord bless you and Our Lady protect you” he said. (But, of course, we know Mary cannot whisper into these people’s ears and she cannot protect anyone.)
Then one of the pope’s planned activities for the trip was the canonization of Francisco and Jacinta. Now, this practice of canonizing dead Catholics who had been said to perform two miracles started with Pope Innocent III in the 12th century. The number of miracles required even changed over the centuries. (However, the word ‘saint’ appears over 200 times in the New Testament and none of those instances refer to someone who had performed miracles and then had been given the title of saint after they died. You know, this is just one of multiple of examples of why we can truly say Catholicism is a religion based on the traditions of men).
Continuing, at this canonization the pope made the following statement: “We have a mother. Let us cling to her like children. From her arms come the hope and peace that’s needed.” (You know, many have pushed this concept of God as a vengeful, wrathful deity, with Jesus being less harsh, but Mary being the one we need to appeal to because Jesus cannot refuse to grant her wishes, being his mother and all. All of which is absolutely unbiblical).
Then, on his plane trip returning to Rome Pope Francis said this: Fatima certainly has a message of peace. It’s brought to humanity by three great communicators that were less than 13 years old, which is interesting… What can the world expect? Peace. And what am I talking about from now on with whomever? Peace. (But, of course, man has the idea that he can usher in an era of peace and we see this with all the false unity occurring every direction we look and much of it fostered by this pope himself as we have discussed many times. True believers know, however, there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace returns to rule and reign on this earth. Sadly, those looking to man will be deceived by the work of the antichrist).
Also, during an evening prayer, the pope told the tens of thousands of pilgrims: "We will tear down all walls and cross every frontier, as we go out to every periphery, to make known God's justice and peace." (Here, of course, is another reference to his work of false unity of which we have seen so many examples since he became pope in 2013).
Continuing, it is through Mary’s cooperation and participation in salvation that she also became a channel of God’s mercy, he explained, praying that with Mary, we might “each of us become a sign and sacrament of the mercy of God, who pardons always and pardons everything.”
“No other creature ever basked in the light of God’s face as did Mary,” he continued, and “she in turn gave a human face to the Son of the eternal Father.”
“Out of the pride of my heart, I went astray, following my own ambitions and interests, without gaining any crown of glory!” he prayed. “My one hope of glory, Lord, is this: that your Mother will take me in her arms, shelter me beneath her mantle, and set me close to your heart. Amen.” (You know, with statements like these we see such unbiblical adoration and worship of Mary being suggested by this pope. Reading such things shows that Catholics cannot possibly be reading the Bible, but rather just listening to their priests and of course the pope. We so pray for Catholics to come away from such practices and actually read the Word of God).
Now, I also wanted to mention that on May 12 the United Nations Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima and its custodian, Marian Helper Judy Studer, were present at the UN headquarters in New York City for a conference titled "The Centenary of Fatima and the Enduring Relevance of Its Message of Peace." This event was sponsored by the Portuguese delegation at the UN and the Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations and was free and open to the public.
This is part of the message given by Archbishop Auza, who is the apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the UN: “For those of us who could not be in Fatima with him to mark the centenary, I think this is the next best place to be, here at the United Nations, talking about the Enduring Relevance of the Message of Peace the three shepherd children credibly testified that 100 years ago tomorrow, a lady in white who said she was from heaven first announced to them.
Today after almost 65 years, this replica of the statue that rests in the Little Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima, returns to the United Nations. We hope that the prayers for peace that have been made before this statue in the intervening six-and-a-half decades, by literally millions of people throughout the United States, Canada and various other countries, might be heard in a particular way for peace in the world today where violence is raging. We pray with her help in particular for an end to the war in Syria, for an end to the growing threat of war on the Korean peninsula, for the cessation of violence in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Eastern Ukraine and other places of conflict. We pray as well for an end of terrorism, religious, ethnic and racial persecution, totalitarian crackdowns, murderous drug cartels and organized crime, trafficking in persons and other forms of modern slavery, and various national insurgencies that have stained the world with blood and hatred.” (I hope everyone caught the phrase “prayers for peace that have been made before this statue.” How very sad that so many are putting their faith and trust in an idolatrous, religious system that teaches them to break commandments and to follow religious observances based on the traditions of men. We want to be strong in these warnings because there is so much deception where the Catholic church is involved).
READING TIME: 21 MINUTES
The following are the notes to the discussion found at this link (https://www.facebook.com/tammy.cheetham.77/videos/vb.100014691523242/227800994386283/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab).
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to the three shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal, where the apparition appeared once each month from May 13 until Oct. 13, 1917. Today, October 13, specifically marks the 100th anniversary of the “Miracle of the Sun.”
Apparitions are appearances, most often of Mary, and according to some Catholic sources I checked, they are not a necessary component of the faith, but rather something that would contribute to building one’s faith and to living it out more fully. They would always point to God and this is how many would excuse their belief in these occurrences and how many have been fooled and will continue to be so unless they leave these false religious systems.
I watched a clip promoting a National Geographic episode about Mary's role as mother of Jesus which stated that since the beginning of Christianity, all around the world, there have been 2500 claimed apparitions of Mary. (So, straight away we are going to say that evil spirits have been quite busy.
Now, we realize there are millions of people out there who think these manifestations are from God, but they’re not. We know these are not from God because another Jesus, another gospel, and another spirit are presented. We make this point all the time that people can say the name of Jesus all day long, but what are they adding on, or taking away, or denying, that means they have another Jesus?
You know, everywhere we look we see people chasing after signs and wonders, chasing after experiences.
However, Matt. 16:4 says, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.”
And, it is absolutely heartbreaking to see so many, not just in the Catholic church, but in the Word of Faith and NAR and other groups as well, attending conferences and worship events looking for some spine-tingling emotional experience.
2 Peter 1, verses 2 and 3 say this: “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” (Where exactly do we find the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord? In the Bible, not in all these experiences! Experiences are subjective, meaning I can feel one thing and you can feel another and there is no standard by which to go. But, God’s Word is a sure standard and we all need to look there so as not to be led astray. We have the admonitions of studying to show ourselves approved and to be as the Bereans and we’d better take these seriously).
This is some information from Roger Oakland who has written a book entitled “Queen of All” concerning Marian apparitions. Almost all of the apparitions have stated that Mary is going to usher in a new era of peace and unity. Under her mantle all people will gather in peace and solve the problems facing the world. Her emphasis on unity and ecumenism has increasingly garnered attention from the media. The Los Angeles Times reported in an article entitled "Mary's Rising Popularity Goes Beyond Faith," that:
A growing number of Americans from all Christian denominations are reaching out to the Virgin Mary as a comforting conduit of spirituality and a symbol of peace in troubled times.... Reported sightings of Mary have steadily increased across the globe in recent years.... Her maternal gaze seems to have an ecumenical appeal.... It's not just Roman Catholics who are interested in Mary and following the apparitions.... Each day, thousands of people bring their troubles to the sites where the Virgin is claimed to have appeared.
Fatima is one of the most significant of all Marian apparitions. Along with Guadalupe (Dec. 12) and Lourdes (Feb. 11), it is one of three Marian apparitions honored with a feast day. In 2002, Pope St. John Paul II added the May 13 feast of Our Lady of Fatima to the general Roman calendar. May 13 was the day of the first Fatima apparition of 1917, and May 13, 1981, was the day when St. John Paul II survived an attempt on his life in St. Peter’s Square. John Paul II credited his survival to the intervention of Our Lady of Fatima. Fatima is also linked with the collapse of Russian communism more than 25 years ago.
It is estimated that some 4-5 million people visit Fatima each year. (So, while the Catholic church would say belief in these apparitions is not a necessary component of one’s faith, they do place great importance on them by honoring them with feast days. And, then individual Catholics obviously consider them to be quite important if 4-5 million people would visit just one of these locations every year. But, we know that many people are drawn to what they consider supernatural events truly from God, and we will have much more to say about this throughout the discussion).
Now, rather than describe each apparition I will just give some general information concerning the messages.
These messages present a request for prayer, reparation, repentance, sacrifice, and the abandonment of sin. Before Our Lady appeared to the three shepherd children, Lucia Santos, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the Angel of Peace visited them. The Angel prepared the children to receive the Blessed Virgin Mary, and here are some of his instructions:
"The Angel demonstrated to the children the fervent, attentive, and composed manner in which we should all pray, and the reverence we should show toward God in prayer. He also explained to them the great importance of praying and making sacrifices in reparation for the offenses committed against God. He told them: 'Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication, for the conversion of sinners.' In his third and final apparition to the children, the Angel gave them Holy Communion, and demonstrated the proper way to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist: all three children knelt to receive Communion; Lucia was given the Sacred Host on the tongue and the Angel shared the Blood of the Chalice between Francisco and Jacinta.”
"Our Lady stressed the importance of praying the Rosary in each of Her apparitions, asking the children to pray the Rosary every day for peace. Another principal part of the Message of Fatima is devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, which is terribly outraged and offended by the sins of humanity, and we are lovingly urged to console Her by making reparation. She showed Her Heart, surrounded by piercing thorns (which represented the sins against Her Immaculate Heart), to the children, who understood that their sacrifices could help to console Her.
"The children also saw that God is terribly offended by the sins of humanity, and that He desires each of us and all mankind to abandon sin and make reparation for their crimes through prayer and sacrifice. Our Lady sadly pleaded: 'Do not offend the Lord our God any more, for He is already too much offended!'
"The children were also told to pray and sacrifice themselves for sinners, in order to save them from hell. The children were briefly shown a vision of hell, after which Our Lady told them: 'You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.'”
"Our Lady indicated to us the specific root of all the troubles in the world, the one that causes world wars and such terrible suffering: sin. She then gave a solution, first to individual people, then to the Church’s leaders. God asks each one of us to stop offending Him. We must pray, especially the Rosary. By this frequent prayer of the Rosary, we will get the graces we need to overcome sin. God wants us to have devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to work to spread this devotion throughout the world. Our Lady said, 'My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.' If we wish to go to God, we have a sure way to Him through true devotion to the Immaculate Heart of His Mother.”
Then, I want to share some from an interview that took place in 1957 between Lucia, who became a nun, and Father Fuentes. Lucia said, “Look, Father, the Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we will sanctify ourselves. We will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls. "Finally, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Most Holy Mother, consists in considering Her as the seat of mercy, of goodness and of pardon, and as the sure door of entering Heaven."
Wow. Such a number of errors many, of course, having to do with the beliefs of Catholicism itself. For example:
1) Mary is referred to as the "Most Holy Mother" and having an "Immaculate Heart." By this Catholics mean she was saved from sin in every form through having been conceived in her mother's womb without the stain of original sin. However, the Bible never refers to Mary as being sinless. Never does it refer to her having an immaculate heart. Rather, Mary refers to God as her Savior (Luke 1:47). This places her with the rest of humanity, as a sinner needing a Savior.
2) Lucia speaks of devotion to the "Immaculate Heart" of Mary and saying the Rosary as the "last two remedies to the world." She also states that there is no problem that cannot be solved by saying the Rosary. It is the teaching of Fatima that saying the Rosary will lead to the salvation of many souls. Again, never is such a teaching found in Scripture. The Rosary's main prayer is the "Hail, Mary," which is repeated fifty times. The first half of it is a quote from Scripture of the greeting of the angel to Mary, "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." but the second half says, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." Besides giving Mary a title which Scripture does not, it asks Mary to pray for us. Indeed, Catholics not only see Mary as the one through whom ALL of God's grace flows, and the one who intercedes to her Son on our behalf, but Catholics also direct prayers to her to deliver people from sin, from war, etc. Pope John Paul II's prayer from the early 1980s to Mary is an example of such. In this prayer he repeatedly pleads to Mary to "deliver us" from nuclear war, famine, self-destruction, injustice, etc.
Again, never do we find a godly person in Scripture praying to anyone but God or asking for prayer by anyone but those still living on this earth. Prayer to Mary or to saints is not found in the Bible. Rather, Scripture directs us to pray to God (Luke 11:1-2; Matthew 6:6-9; Philippians 4:6; Acts 8:22; Luke 10:2, etc.)! God entreats us to come boldly unto the throne of grace (His throne) that we may find grace and help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16). God promised us that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us according to the will of God with groanings that cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26). Why do we need to go through a saint, angel or Mary, especially considering the fact that neither the example of doing so nor the command of doing so is ever given in Scripture? Concerning prayer, we have the repeated example of two things in Scripture:
a) Prayer is made to God alone (1 Corinthians 11:5; Romans 10:1; 15:30; Acts 12:5; Acts 10:2; Acts 8:24; Acts 1:24; Zechariah 8:21-22; Jonah 2:7; 4:2, etc.)
b) Requests for prayer are made only to the living. For example in 1 Thessalonians 5:25 the Apostle Paul says, “Brethren, pray for us.”
In addition, nowhere is it taught that Mary is all-seeing, all-hearing, and omniscient (or nearly so), as she would have to be to hear and respond to the multitude of prayers that are directed toward her from the many Catholics who pray to her simultaneously around the world.
3) One of the repeated messages of Fatima is the call for personal "reparation" or "penance." This Catholic concept teaches that we must make amends to God and to Mary for the sins we have committed against them. The angel told the children to "make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended..." Reparation is defined as "an expiation ... something done or paid as amends; compensation." This ties in with the Roman Catholic teaching of temporal punishment which a person can take care of through penance now or through time spent in purgatory later. The Bible NEVER speaks of the need to make "reparation" for our sins or doing "penance" to pay for our sins. Rather, what it teaches is that we are to offer our lives as living sacrifices to God in gratitude for all of the mercies He has shown us in salvation (Romans 12:1-2). When a person becomes a Christian, his sins are forgiven and paid for in full by Christ. There remains no further payment that can be made for them, no further expiation required.
4) A key aspect of following the Lady of Fatima is the bowing down before and venerating the images associated with the apparition. Throughout the Bible, we find that any time someone bows down before one of the "saints" or angels, he is told to get up and to stop. Only when done to "the Angel of the Lord" (a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ) or before Jesus or God the Father is such veneration accepted. Catholics make a distinction between "worshiping" God and "venerating" Mary and the saints, but when John the Apostle prostrates himself before an angel, the angel does not ask, "Are you worshiping me or venerating me?" The angel simply tells him to stop and to "worship God" (Revelation 19:10). Likewise, when Peter was being "venerated" by Cornelius in Acts 10:25, Peter tells Cornelius, "Stand up, I myself am also a man."
Thus, praying to Mary is contrary to the scriptural admonition to pray to God and the scriptural example to do so. It is also illogical to substitute praying to an all-loving, omniscient, omnipotent God (Psalm 139; Hebrews 4:14-16) for praying to some saint or Mary, when there is no scriptural evidence that they can even hear prayers. To pray to saints and Mary on a worldwide basis is to ascribe to them the attributes of omnipresence and omniscience which God alone possesses—this truly is idolatry!
I do want to give more details concerning the sixth apparition which occurred on Oct. 13, 1917. This was the most dramatic of the apparitions. Some 55,000 people gathered on a rainy day near Cova da Iria in Fatima and witnessed the “miracle of the sun.” Some 20,000 other people witnessed the miracle from as far away as 25 miles. The sun started spinning and grew larger. It looked like it was going to fall on the earth. People fell to their knees in fear. The people then noticed that their clothes were completely dry even though they had been standing in the rain for some time. Even unbelievers and skeptics witnessed the phenomenon. The newspaper, O Século, had a front page story on “How the sun danced at midday in Fatima.”
While the people were looking at the sun, the three children saw a sequence of apparitions. St. Joseph was seen with the Christ Child, and they appeared to bless the world. The Blessed Mother was seen robed in white with a blue mantel; then she appeared as Our Lady of Sorrows and then as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The Lady revealed her identity to the children as “Our Lady of the Rosary.” She asked them to pray the Rosary every day, as she had previously asked, and to have a chapel built at Cova da Iria, the site of the apparitions.
Now, concerning the "Miracle of the Sun," there are repeated cases in which "lying wonders" are spoken of in Scripture.
For a Christian, the "content of faith" ought to be the Bible and what it teaches (Isaiah 8:20; 2 Timothy 3:16).
Catholics will argue that the "Lady of Fatima" is not calling on us to worship "strange gods" but to worship the true God. In fact here is a comment at the end of an article I read concerning Marian apparitions – “I believe it is true because all things revealed through our beautiful, blessed Mother help her children draw closer to God. If it was from Satan, he would have been leading people away from God.” (Now, this is an extremely important concept. It is an example of 2 Cor. 11:14 and the enemy coming as an angel of light. Supposedly, if it looks good it’s of God and if it looks scary it’s from Satan. But, Satan very often does not coming looking like a big, scary monster because people would recognize him right away. No, rather, Satan often appears to lead people to God, but what God? Not the God of the Bible, but a god of people’s own imaginations. We see this all the time with the seeker sensitive churches that have rock concerts in place of the worship service and have replaced sermons with movie reviews. We saw it during the election cycle when a large number of evangelical pastors were urging Christians to vote for the lesser of two evils, apparently ignoring the fact that this is not a biblical concept and that evil is evil. We also see this in any movie or book with a good witch/bad witch storyline. There are far too many examples to mention them all, but I pray that people will take this scripture to heart because it will help us all to understand many events and situations in the world today.)
But, continuing with the idea of venerating Mary and her "Immaculate Heart" this is undeniably the exaltation of a woman to a position never given to her in Scripture—equality with God. To honor her as one would honor Christ is to exalt her. Likewise, to focus on Mary to such an extent that we spend more time praying to her than to God is also idolatrous, especially in light of the direct commands of Scripture to pray to God and the complete silence in Scripture concerning any exaltation of, or prayer to, Mary.
Now, I want to spend just a minute discussing some information from an article entitled the “Real Secrets of Fatima.” The article states: “Lucia was the youngest of seven children. Five years younger than her next-oldest sibling, Lucia was a petted and spoiled child. Her sisters fostered in her a desire to be the center of attention by teaching her to dance and sing. At festivals, Lucia would stand on a crate to entertain an adoring crowd. Among her other talents was a gift for telling stories—fairy tales, biblical narratives, and saints’ legends—which made her popular with village children, as well as an ability to persuade others to do her bidding.
Two years before the famous series of apparitions occurred at Fatima, eight-year-old Lucia and three girlfriends claimed to have seen apparitions of a snow-white figure on three occasions. Lucia’s mother called the experiences “childish nonsense.”
It is clear that she played the leading role in the scenario of the apparition itself. All accounts agree that she was the only one of the three to interact with both the apparition and with the crowd, carrying on conversations with both while her two cousins stood by silently. She has said, moreover, and probably not incorrectly, that Francisco and Jacinta had been accustomed to follow her directives before the apparition began.” (Now, of course, we have seen plenty of instances down through time where Satan has worked through one person who may be prideful, manipulative, charismatic, and so forth, to deceive great numbers of people, so this information shouldn’t surprise us one bit).
I want to move on now and discuss some statements Pope Francis made this past weekend (May 2017) as he attended the 100th anniversary events.
In his message the Pope said he is entrusting all Portuguese faithful to Our Lady asking her to “whisper into the ears of each one of them, and assure them that her Immaculate Heart is a refuge and a path leading them to God”. “In His name, I come to you with the joy of sharing the Gospel of hope and peace. May the Lord bless you and Our Lady protect you” he said. (But, of course, we know Mary cannot whisper into these people’s ears and she cannot protect anyone.)
Then one of the pope’s planned activities for the trip was the canonization of Francisco and Jacinta. Now, this practice of canonizing dead Catholics who had been said to perform two miracles started with Pope Innocent III in the 12th century. The number of miracles required even changed over the centuries. (However, the word ‘saint’ appears over 200 times in the New Testament and none of those instances refer to someone who had performed miracles and then had been given the title of saint after they died. You know, this is just one of multiple of examples of why we can truly say Catholicism is a religion based on the traditions of men).
Continuing, at this canonization the pope made the following statement: “We have a mother. Let us cling to her like children. From her arms come the hope and peace that’s needed.” (You know, many have pushed this concept of God as a vengeful, wrathful deity, with Jesus being less harsh, but Mary being the one we need to appeal to because Jesus cannot refuse to grant her wishes, being his mother and all. All of which is absolutely unbiblical).
Then, on his plane trip returning to Rome Pope Francis said this: Fatima certainly has a message of peace. It’s brought to humanity by three great communicators that were less than 13 years old, which is interesting… What can the world expect? Peace. And what am I talking about from now on with whomever? Peace. (But, of course, man has the idea that he can usher in an era of peace and we see this with all the false unity occurring every direction we look and much of it fostered by this pope himself as we have discussed many times. True believers know, however, there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace returns to rule and reign on this earth. Sadly, those looking to man will be deceived by the work of the antichrist).
Also, during an evening prayer, the pope told the tens of thousands of pilgrims: "We will tear down all walls and cross every frontier, as we go out to every periphery, to make known God's justice and peace." (Here, of course, is another reference to his work of false unity of which we have seen so many examples since he became pope in 2013).
Continuing, it is through Mary’s cooperation and participation in salvation that she also became a channel of God’s mercy, he explained, praying that with Mary, we might “each of us become a sign and sacrament of the mercy of God, who pardons always and pardons everything.”
“No other creature ever basked in the light of God’s face as did Mary,” he continued, and “she in turn gave a human face to the Son of the eternal Father.”
“Out of the pride of my heart, I went astray, following my own ambitions and interests, without gaining any crown of glory!” he prayed. “My one hope of glory, Lord, is this: that your Mother will take me in her arms, shelter me beneath her mantle, and set me close to your heart. Amen.” (You know, with statements like these we see such unbiblical adoration and worship of Mary being suggested by this pope. Reading such things shows that Catholics cannot possibly be reading the Bible, but rather just listening to their priests and of course the pope. We so pray for Catholics to come away from such practices and actually read the Word of God).
Now, I also wanted to mention that on May 12 the United Nations Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima and its custodian, Marian Helper Judy Studer, were present at the UN headquarters in New York City for a conference titled "The Centenary of Fatima and the Enduring Relevance of Its Message of Peace." This event was sponsored by the Portuguese delegation at the UN and the Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations and was free and open to the public.
This is part of the message given by Archbishop Auza, who is the apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the UN: “For those of us who could not be in Fatima with him to mark the centenary, I think this is the next best place to be, here at the United Nations, talking about the Enduring Relevance of the Message of Peace the three shepherd children credibly testified that 100 years ago tomorrow, a lady in white who said she was from heaven first announced to them.
Today after almost 65 years, this replica of the statue that rests in the Little Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima, returns to the United Nations. We hope that the prayers for peace that have been made before this statue in the intervening six-and-a-half decades, by literally millions of people throughout the United States, Canada and various other countries, might be heard in a particular way for peace in the world today where violence is raging. We pray with her help in particular for an end to the war in Syria, for an end to the growing threat of war on the Korean peninsula, for the cessation of violence in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Eastern Ukraine and other places of conflict. We pray as well for an end of terrorism, religious, ethnic and racial persecution, totalitarian crackdowns, murderous drug cartels and organized crime, trafficking in persons and other forms of modern slavery, and various national insurgencies that have stained the world with blood and hatred.” (I hope everyone caught the phrase “prayers for peace that have been made before this statue.” How very sad that so many are putting their faith and trust in an idolatrous, religious system that teaches them to break commandments and to follow religious observances based on the traditions of men. We want to be strong in these warnings because there is so much deception where the Catholic church is involved).