Editor’s Note: As promised in May, here is a summary of the second appearance of Our Blessed Lady to the three children in Fatima 100 years ago. For more details, see Fr. Andrew Apostoli’s book Fatima for Today.
June 13, 1917
Fifty people had accompanied the three visionaries to the Cova da Iria on the 13th of June. They joined the children in praying the rosary, but did not see our Lady when she suddenly appeared above the holm oak tree. “What do you want of me?” Lucia asked, and the Virgin said to return there on July 13, to pray the rosary every day, and to learn to read and write. Lucia not only learned to read and write, but later in life she mastered the computer.
The oldest of the trio then asked our Lady if they would go to Heaven. “Yes,” she replied. “I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon. But you are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”
Francisco died of the flu in 1919, and Jacinta died in 1920, but Lucia lived until 2005 and did indeed help to spread the message of Fatima throughout the world. When Francisco was dying, the Blessed Mother asked Jacinta if she would like to go to Heaven with her brother, but she replied that she wanted to stay on Earth longer to suffer for the conversion of sinners. Pope Francis raised both of them to sainthood during a visit to Fatima on May 13, 2017.
When Lucia asked if she would be alone after her cousins went to Heaven, our Lady told her: “No, my daughter. Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” As soon as our Lady finished speaking, she opened her hands and an immense light bathed the children. They saw the heart of the Blessed Virgin encircled with piercing thorns, representing the many offenses committed against her, and they were willing to offer up their sufferings in reparation for those sins.
Q. In a recent issue of The Wanderer, the local bishop in Medjugorje said that the reported apparitions there were not authentic, but now a commission at the Vatican has said that they were. What are we to believe? — M.W., via e-mail.
A. We are aware of the statement of Bishop Ratko Peric in February of this year, that “these are not true apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” but not of any report by a Vatican commission declaring the reported apparitions to be authentic.
We know that on October 21, 2013, Apostolic Nuncio Carlo Viganò sent a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, declaring that the Church’s official position on Medjugorje remains the 1991 declaration of 19 bishops of the former Republic of Yugoslavia, who said that “on the basis of the research that has been done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations” in Medjugorje.
The nuncio said that “it follows, therefore, that clerics and the faithful are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences, or public celebrations during which the credibility of such ‘apparitions’ would be taken for granted.”
The purpose of his letter, said Viganò, was to inform the American bishops that “one of the so-called visionaries of Medjugorje, Mr. Ivan Dragicevic, is scheduled to appear at certain parishes around the country, during which time he will make presentations regarding the phenomenon of Medjugorje. It is anticipated, moreover, that Mr. Dragicevic will be receiving ‘apparitions’ during these scheduled appearances. . . .
“In order, therefore, to avoid scandal and confusion, Archbishop [Gerhard] Mueller [of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] asks that the Bishops be informed of this matter as soon as possible.”
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith set up a commission in 2010 to investigate reports that the Blessed Virgin had been appearing to six persons from the Bosnian village since 1981.
Following a trip to Bosnia in 2015, which did not include a stop in Medjugorje, Pope Francis said that a decision on the reported visions would be issued soon. He cautioned against basing one’s faith on alleged visions rather than on Christ Himself, saying that there are those “who always need novelty of Christian identity” and who promote “these Christian spiritualities that are a little ethereal.” He said that those who talk about “the letter that the Madonna will send us at four in the afternoon” have lost their sense of “Christian identity” since “the ultimate word of God is named ‘Jesus,’ nothing more.”
In November 2016, the Holy Father said that the real Virgin Mary is not the one who sends a different message every day and that “the real Madonna is the one who generates Jesus in our hearts, a mother. The superstar Virgin Mary, who seeks the limelight, is not Catholic.”
In February of this year, he appointed Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Poland as the Holy See’s special envoy to Medjugorje with the task of acquiring a “deeper knowledge” of what is happening there and of providing for the needs of pilgrims visiting the place. While celebrating Mass there on April 1, the archbishop said:
“This devotion, which is so intense here, is extremely important and necessary for the whole world….Let us pray for peace because today the forces of destruction are considerable….We need an intervention from Heaven, and the presence of the Blessed Virgin is an intervention; it is an initiative of God. Therefore, I would like to encourage and comfort you as the Pope’s special envoy.”
Q. Mother Teresa supposedly said that Communion in the hand is the greatest sin. If so, when and where did she say this? — M.A.W., Illinois.
A. Mother Teresa never made such a statement. The source was allegedly a homily by Fr. George Rutler, but Fr. Rutler said that he was misquoted. He explained that “Mother Teresa said it made her sad to see people receive Communion irreverently, and she herself receives on the tongue, but she does not question the Church’s permission for receiving in the hand. Whether on the tongue or in the hand is not the issue; the matter concerns the disposition of the heart.”
Q. On Good Friday, the Cross to be venerated was one that did not have the Corpus of Jesus on it. Isn’t this a Protestant Cross and not a Catholic Cross? — W.J.B., via e-mail.
A. While the Cross you saw at a Catholic service on Good Friday did not contain the Corpus, it was not “a Protestant Cross.” Back in the days before Vatican II, the Cross to be venerated had the figure of Jesus on it. The rubrics for Good Friday at that time said that “the Celebrant, Ministers, Clergy, and servers adore the Cross; then it is taken to the Altar railing by two Acolytes (or servers), and held in an upright position, so that the faithful may devoutly kiss the feet of the Crucified after making a simple genuflection.”
In today’s rubrics, there are two forms. In the first form, the priest carries the Cross, covered with a violet veil, through the church to the sanctuary. Standing in front of the altar and facing the people, the priest uncovers a little of the upper part of the Cross and sings, “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world,” and the people respond, “Come, let us adore.” He then uncovers the right arm of the Cross and again sings, “Behold the wood of the Cross. . . .” Finally, he uncovers the entire Cross, raises it up, and intones the invitation to “Behold the wood of the Cross. . . .”
In the second form, the priest or deacon receives the unveiled Cross at the door of the church and processes down the aisles, stopping three times and elevating the Cross while singing “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world,” and the people respond, “Come, let us adore.”
After each response, all kneel and for a brief moment adore in silence. The Cross is then placed at the head of the aisle so that all may come forward and show reverence by a simple genuflection or by kissing the Cross.
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