By REY FLORES
As I was a lapsed Catholic from the time I was twelve until I got married at 33, I knew little or nothing at all about many aspects of our faith. While I did attend a couple of Catholic schools as a child from 1972 through 1981, and I am grateful to my late mother for her commitment to affording us an education, members of my generation were the first post-Vatican II victims of modernism. The “boomer” teachers, including some nuns, did little to truly provide us with a quality Catholic education.
It wasn’t until we began home-schooling our kids that I started learning more about the sacraments, the beatitudes, Church history and theology, but especially the wonderful stories of the saints.
Aside from books, movies were also an important tool we used to teach our children about our Catholic faith. Our kids loved watching movies like The Miracle of Marcelino, The Bells of St. Mary’s, and more recent films like For Greater Glory, about the persecution of Catholics in 1920s Mexico, and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
However, most affecting were the movies about specific saints, like Victor Fleming’s Joan of Arc starring Ingrid Bergman, Franz Werfel’s The Song of Bernadette, the wonderful A Man for All Seasons about the life of St. Thomas More, and of course, the 1952 classic The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima.
Fast forward to 2020, and now we have a fantastic new film about the undeniable miracle of Our Blessed Mother’s apparitions in Fatima, Portugal.
Originally scheduled for an April 2020 release, the film’s premiere, like almost everything else, was postponed due to the Wuhan virus. Now the film is finally being released to the public in late August 2020.
Fatima is a story most of us Catholics already know, or should know, so I am glad that filmmakers like Picturehouse Studios and writer and director Marco Pontecorvo, who is an award-winning Italian filmmaker and cinematographer, have brought a new vision of this most important and miraculous event in our faith’s history.
The film’s synopsis on its website says: “A powerful and uplifting drama about the power of faith, Fatima tells the story of a 10-year-old shepherd and her two young cousins in Fatima, Portugal, who report seeing visions of the Virgin Mary. Their revelations inspire believers but anger officials of both the Church and the secular government, who try to force them to recant their story. As word of their prophecy spreads, tens of thousands of religious pilgrims flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle. What they experience will change their lives forever.”
I would add that it wasn’t just a secular government, but passionate anti-Christian enemies of the Church. In 1917 when our Lady brought her message of hope to us, World War I was in full swing, so the “miracle of the sun” was a welcome sign from Heaven.
According to Lucia’s account of her encounter with our Lady, she described her as being “brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal glass filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun.” Mary confided to the children three secrets, known as the three secrets of Fatima.
She urged the children of Fatima to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners. The children wore tight cords around their waists, abstained from drinking water on hot days, and performed other works of penance. Most important, Lucia said that the Lady asked them to say the rosary every day, reiterating that the rosary was the key to personal and world peace.
Our Lady of Fatima explained to the children that war is a punishment for sin and warned that God would further castigate the world for its disobedience to His Will. This would be done through war, hunger, and the persecution of the Church, the Holy Father, and the Catholic faithful. Sadly, we continue to sin, thus more punishments have come our way.
The cinematography in the film is spectacular from beginning to end. The locales, costumes, and all the details from the hairstyles on the women and the facial hair on the men were portrayed to great effect.
Since I know the story of Fatima, watching a new version of it was nice, but when watching films like this, I already know what’s going to happen, so it lacks that element of surprise for me. I do recommend it anyway, especially for newbie converts and for children who may or may not know the story but would enjoy this wonderful new version.
Fatima stars an array of actors, starting with Harvey Keitel playing Professor Nichols, while Alejandra Howard plays Jacinta and Jorge Lamelas plays Francisco. Meanwhile, the young actress playing Lucia is Stephanie Gil, who has had previous acting experience on film and television.
Fatima premieres August 28 at some select AMC, Cinemark, and Regal cinemas and on-demand with certain movie streaming services.
People can also organize screenings at theaters or in their homes for their parish, school, or homeschooling group. For more information on Fatima and to watch the preview, visit www.fatimathemovie.com.
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