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On the fiftieth
anniversary celebration of the
apparitions, May 13, 1967, after the mass, the
crowd
cried out to Pope Paul VI. “We want to see Lucia!”.
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The Church does not and would never declare Fatima with the infallibility of a dogma. What took place there occurred in an intermediate domain between the natural and the supernatural. Therefore, as everything related to matters of faith, it cannot be proven in a fully convincing manner to rational thinking just as it cannot be refuted. The Church confines herself to declaring that whatever happened in Fatima can be accepted with a reasonable certainty. It is plausible because faith can never be rational or rationalised; it must, however, always be reasonable.
Fatima took a long and arduous road to be accepted by the ecclesiastical authorities and tolerated by the ruling power. A road where, certainly more than once, God intervened in order not to be ignored. Yes God, because the three little shepherds were not at all passionate in defending their testimony. On the contrary, in some way or so it seems from the numerous cross-examinations that it mattered very little to them whether or not they were believed.
Voice of the people, voice of God
People continue to flock to Fatima on the 13th of each month by the hundreds of thousands even after the death of Francisco in 1919 and of Jacinta in 1920. This despite being ridiculed by the secular newspapers and hampered by the civil authorities and even after the original chapel was bombed in 1921 by the Freemasons.
Because Jacinta was not able to keep the May 13th apparition a secret as she had promised Lucia, the children were no longer alone during the remaining five apparitions occurring on the 13th of each month, ending in October. On June 13th, fifty people were with them and on July 13th, around three thousand were there surrounding the little shepherds. On the 13th of August despite the seers been thrown into prison, some 18,000 people gathered at the place of the apparitions; in that month, the seers saw the Lady on the 19th at another place after they were released from jail. On the 13th of September, a sizeable crowd of 30,000 people were present and finally, on the 13th of October, the day of the last apparition, up to 70,000 witnessed the miracle that was announced well in advance, just as the Lady had promised Lucia three months before on July 13th.
It was not just faith that led the masses of people to Cova da Iria from the second appearance onwards, but also the participation and preparation just prior to each apparition that always began with the praying of the Rosary led by Lucia. It is true that only the seers saw Our Lady. Among them, only Lucia could converse with her, but the rest of the people could sense or hear something...
All of them were unanimous in declaring that at the solar midday of every 13th of the month, including August when the children were absent because they were detained by authorities, the sunlight intensity was lowered, a breeze of fresh air could be felt and a small cloud would descend on the holm oak where the little shepherds said that Our Lady stood.
During the course of the apparitions, everyone could see Lucy in ecstasy and heard her speak; in answer to her questions, they could hear a noise similar to a "buzz of bees". Lucia always gave a warning when the vision ended and the moment when the Lady was withdrawing to the East from where she would always come.
One day Jacinta cut a sprig of the holm oak on which Our Lady had stood and everyone who smelled it experienced a delightful unknown scent. Finally, the Miracle of the Sun sealed in the people’s minds the authenticity of Fatima which since then is visited by the hundreds of thousands and even millions of faithful.
"Voice of the people, voice of God". - Who promoted and defended Fatima, imposing it on a perplexed Church and prevailing against the insidious attacks of the atheistic, anticlerical and freemasonry republicanism, were the common people. They started flocking to Fatima by the thousands from the very beginning. Without the people, Fatima would have been ignored and long forgotten. The paradigm of the Bible that the ignorant confuse the sages is once again verified. (Matthew 11: 25)
Those who argue, without any proof, that it was the Church who invented Fatima, ignore the historical documentation that proves precisely the contrary. Fatima was not approved until 1930, after 13 long years of careful and thorough investigation. The initial reluctance of the Church in relation to Fatima is notorious as shown by the testimony of Fr. Lacerda, the director of a newspaper of that time called "the Messenger", about the parish priest of Fatima:
As a last bit of enlightenment, I have to say that the parish priest of Fatima, my friend Fr. Manuel Marques Ferreira, was kept oblivious of everything, making sure to never go to the Cova da Iria on the days of the apparitions. Finally, he gave in to peer pressure and went there only on the last day.
Speaking still about the parish priest of Fatima, Mr. Marto, the father of Francisco and Jacinta who unlike Lucia’s mother was the first to believe in the testimony of his children, stated that the parish priest doesn’t believe nor does he allow anyone to believe. The incredulity of the parish priest influenced and partly explains the refusal of Mrs. Maria Rosa, Lucia’s mother, to admit until almost at the end of her life the grace that the Blessed Virgin had granted her daughter. She had in fact given Lucia a very hard time regarding her testimony of the apparitions.
It was the people who ran to the Cova da Iria by the thousands who kept the flame of Fatima alive to compel the civil authorities to respect it and the ecclesiastical authority to take a positive stand. That took place on May 13, 1922, the day when Dom José Alves Correia da Silva, bishop of Leiria, published the “Provision on the events of Fatima”.
It summarizes the events that took place in Fatima in recent years, pointing out precisely the massive public support despite the persecution of the civil authorities and the aloofness of the religious authorities and appointing a commission to study the extraordinary occurrences according to the canon laws.
It also calls on the faithful of his and other dioceses to “give account of everything you know either in favor or against the apparitions or extraordinary facts, to say with respect to them, and to testify especially whether in them there was or is any exploitation, superstition, doctrines or damaging things against our Holy Religion.”
How were the apparitions seen by the authorities
Again, those who say that Fatima was invented by the Church do not have the documents to prove their slanders and surely have not read the Critical Documentation of Fatima which describes:
It is not plausible that three children of such tender ages, (…) rude and ignorant, lying and persisting in lies for so many months, despite been harassed with questions and interrogations (…) and threatened by representatives of ecclesiastical and civil authority (…) No fear is capable of deterring them from affirming that they see Our Lady (…) The naturalness and frankness with which they express themselves, the simplicity and candor with which they present themselves, the indifference and disinterest that they show as to whether or not they are credible. – Critical documentation of Fatima
This is the conclusion reached by the Canon Fr. Manuel Nunes Formigão after countless interrogations carried out by himself, his friend Fr. Manuel Marques Ferreira the parish priest of Aljustrel and Fatima at the time, and a countless number of other clerics. They were critical and sometimes even sarcastic but never abusive in their cross-examinations of the children seers, although at times would drive them to exhaustion, especially right after the miracle of the sun.
Much more condescending were the civil authorities, as they went to the extreme of submitting the children to psychological torture. They kidnapped them and threatened to throw them into a huge pot of boiling oil that was waiting for them in the next room unless they recanted their testimony. The first to be questioned was Jacinta, followed by Francisco and then Lucia. One by one all three entered the dreadful room certain that they would be fried. Francisco thinking that his beloved sister was already dead, and Lucia thinking that her dear friends and cousins were already in heaven as the Lady had promised that she would take them soon.
Adding to this torture was the constant pressure from the people; some tried to cajole and bribe the children out of their secret while others made fun of them. It was almost impossible that anyone let alone three young children could withstand so much badgering and harassment if what they declared was just a lie and the apparitions were only make-believe. Because of the threats and fearing the worse, Jacinta's parents thought of taking the children away from Fatima, but the children refused saying, “If they kill us, it's okay! We will go to heaven more quickly!"
On the 13th of October a large crowd was expected because Lucia had said since the July 13th apparition that the Lady was going to perform a miracle for everyone to believe. As the day approached, the fear and pressure on the seers’ families mounted; so unbearable it became that Lucy's mother early in the morning of October 13th suggested that she and her daughter should go to confession in case the miracle does not happen and the mob kill them all.
Calmly and self-assuredly Lucia consoled her mother by saying that if she wanted they could indeed go to confession, but she was sure that the Lady would perform the miracle because not only had she promised that she would, but she had also restated the promise at the August and September apparitions.
Alone and against all odds, only the divine providence mattered to them, because even their closest families especially those of Lucia contributed to their suffering for considering them liars. They were certainly willing to pay with their lives for the testimony that they gave because they not only proclaimed the message of Our Lady as their own but also incarnated it in their lives. (…) they will arrest you and persecute you; (…) putting you into prisons. (…) This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. (Luke 21:12-15)
On one hand, the strategies followed by the civil authority to discredit and silence the children and prevent them and the people from going back to Cova da Iria, the place of the apparitions.
On the other hand, the rigorous process that was followed by the ecclesiastical authority that in addition to the interrogations and cross-examinations carried out by the parish and canon priests had set up a commission that instituted an official canonical inquiry to ascertain the veracity of the apparitions. Finally on October 13, 1930, thirteen years after, with the knowledge and approval of Pope Pius XI, Bishop Dom José Correia da Silva announced the results of the investigations in a pastoral letter:
(…) humbly invoking the Divine Spirit and placing ourselves under the protection of the most Holy Virgin, and after hearing the opinions of our Rev. Advisors, we declare worthy of belief the visions of the shepherd children in the Cova da Iria, parish of Fatima, in this diocese, from 13th of May to the 13th of October, 1917… We permit officially the cult of Our Lady of Fatima.
Fatima and the popes
On May 5th, 1917 when World War I was still at its height, Pope Benedict XV in a letter addressed to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Gasparri, the Holy Father prayed vehemently for Heaven’s help through the intercession of the Mother of God,
In consequence, we call upon you, Eminence, to make known to the entire episcopate our ardent desire that all have recourse to the Heart of Jesus, throne of graces, and that they have recourse by the mediation of Mary (…) the pious and devout invocation and let it bear to Her the anguished cry of mothers and wives, the wailing of innocent little ones, the sighs of every generous heart; that her most tender and benign solicitude may be moved and the peace we ask for be obtained for our world that has gone mad, the aspired peace, and may it be remembered in the future centuries the efficacy of Her intercession and the greatness of the benefit that She has obtained for Her children”.
Eight days later Our Lady appeared in Fatima announcing to the Pope and to the world her plan for peace. A year later that same Pope in his letter to the Portuguese bishops to re-establish the diocese of Leiria, referred to the occurrences at Fatima as “an extraordinary aid from the Mother of God”.
Pius XI, the successor of Benedict XV, personally distributed holy cards of Our Lady of Fatima to the seminarians. Pius XII publically spoke of Fatima for the first time in 1940 in his encyclical the Saeculo exeunte; in 1950 he addressed the Superior General of the Dominicans: “Tell your friars that the Pope’s thought is contained in the Message of Fatima”.
In 1964 at the end of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI gave his Golden Rose to Fatima, commissioned the whole Church to the care of Our Lady of Fatima, and even visited the Cova da Iria on the 50th anniversary of the first apparition. Pope John Paul II visited Fatima three times – in 1982, 1991 and again in 2000. During his final visit in 2000, he beatified the two deceased seers, Jacinta and Francisco. He also made it universal the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, ordering it to be included in the Roman Missal. Finally, Pope Francis asked the Patriarch of Lisbon to consecrate his pontificate to the Virgin of Fatima, and that happened on May 13, 2013.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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