By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
Part 3
This article will look at the importance of the modern Marian apparitions, and particularly Fatima, and in this regard, this is what the Church, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 67) says about private revelation:
“Throughout the ages, there have been so-called ‘private’ revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.”
The role of the apparitions and miracles at Lourdes, and of St. Bernadette, profoundly strengthened the Church in France in the face of the 19th-century onslaught of materialism. And given France’s position at the time as the “eldest daughter of the Church,” that is the most influential Catholic country, then what happened in France very strongly influenced what happened in the Catholic Church generally.
And we also have the later apparitions of our Lady, such as those at Pontmain, again in France, in 1871, and at Knock in Ireland in 1879, followed in particular by Fatima in Portugal in 1917, and then by Banneux and Beauraing in Belgium in the 1930s.
It can certainly be argued that Fatima is the most important of all the Marian apparitions, because of the crucial nature of the message given by our Lady, particularly during the July 1917 apparition, and also because of the miracle of the sun before 70,000 amazed spectators on October 13, 1917.
But Fatima is important too because of its connection with the papacy, and because a period of peace was promised to the world by the Blessed Virgin, provided people heeded her words.
The essence of the Fatima message is focused on our Lady’s words to the three seers, Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia, during the June 13, 1917 apparition at the Cova da Iria at Fatima, that Jesus wanted to use the children to make her known and loved, and that He wished to establish devotion to her Immaculate Heart throughout the world.
So fulfilling our Lady’s requests at Fatima is essentially about our become devoted to her Immaculate Heart, to seeing her as, under God, our all-powerful spiritual Mother, who came down from Heaven precisely to lead her children back to God. That is the most crucial thing, although her other requests, such as praying the rosary, the Five First Saturdays devotion of reparation, and wearing the Brown Scapular, are also clearly very important, as is doing our daily duty.
On June 13, 1917 our Lady said to the children: “I will take [to Heaven] Jacinta and Francisco shortly; but you will stay here for some time to come. Jesus wants to use you to make Me known and loved. He wishes to establish the devotion to My Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to those who embrace it, and those souls will be loved by God like flowers placed by me to adorn His throne.”
She also said: “I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.”
One of the things our Lady particularly emphasized at Fatima was the rosary. On every one of her six Fatima apparitions our Lady specifically asked for the rosary to be said. This aspect of her message could not have been more emphatic.
On May 13 she said: “Pray the rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and an end to the war,” and on June 13 she said: “I want you to pray the rosary every day,” while on July 13 she expanded on this theme: “I want you to continue to pray the rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war because only she can help you.”
When she appeared to the children at Valhinos on August 19 she told them that they should, “Continue praying the rosary every day.” And she repeated this message the following month, on September 13, when she said: “Continue to pray the rosary every day in order to obtain the end of the war.” Finally on October 13 she told them that she was “the Lady of the Rosary,” and asked them to, “Continue always to pray the rosary every day.”
So she not only asked for the rosary every day, but even took as her title at the apparitions at Fatima, “The Lady of the Rosary.”
St. John Paul II, in his homily at Fatima on May 13, 1982, said, “The rosary is Mary’s prayer, in which . . . she herself prays with us. Take care of your inheritance of faith . . . do you want me to teach you the secret of keeping it? It is simple. Pray, pray very much, pray, recite the rosary every day.”
This brings us to the New Evangelization, which we can see it as the whole program enacted by the Church in various ways from the latter part of the 20th century onward, that is, the great attempt to mobilize the Church for the evangelization of the world in the third millennium in which we are now living.
Organizations such as the Legion of Mary, founded by Frank Duff, and St. Maximilian Kolbe’s Militia Immaculatae have been very much involved in the work of evangelization. This is to say nothing, of course, of all the religious orders dedicated to our Lady, such as the Carmelites, the Marists, and the Servites.
So it’s not an exaggeration to see that our Lady, either personally in her apparitions, or through her influence via religious orders or lay organizations, or on a cultural level, has been at the forefront of efforts to promote and expand the Church down through the centuries, which of course is what the essence of evangelization is all about.
From a Marian point of view, one of the great forces working within the Church for this end prior to the Second Vatican Council was the Legion of Mary. This spread all over the world from the 1930s onwards and showed that it was possible to mobilize the laity in the pursuit of evangelization, instead of just relying on priests and nuns. Because despite appearances, the Legion was and is meant to be an evangelizing organization and that was certainly what Frank Duff intended.
He placed a lot of stress on Christ’s “Ascension commandment,” His words as recorded at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).
The next article will particularly look at the Marian dimension of the New Evangelization in recent years, and also at further aspects of the message of Fatima.
+ + +
(Donal Anthony Foley is the author of a number of books on Marian Apparitions, and maintains a related website at www.theotokos.org.uk.)
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress