THE SECRET OF FATIMA

Whilst travelling on board a plane, Pope Benedict XVI was conversing with some journalists about the Fatima Secret.  He is reported to have said, about the prophesied hard times  the Church had to experience, that it could be interpreted that it might have been a clear reference  to the crisis the Church is undergoing because of certain sexual abuse by some of its ministers. At the same time he did warn all Christians not to interpret such messages as referring to particular persons, or happenings.

The Third Secret about the vision of a Bishop dressed in white, who would be fatally wounded, though many interpreted this message as a clear reference to John Paul’s II attack by the Turk in 1981. The Pope’s opinion is that the vision might have presented the white-robed Bishop as a ‘symbol’ of the suffering, persecuted Church, so the message is more of a challenge that should be tackled and solved.

We know that the Lord Himself prophesied that the Church had to carry the cross all the way, always,  till the end of times. Our reaction to the Fatima Message should not be simply devotional.  Rather, we should brace ourselves for conversion, a genuine ‘on-going conversion’, temperance and sacrifices, and that in our life we should embrace the three virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.