By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 5
“Contra factum non valet argumentum,” taught St. Thomas Aquinas. “It is useless to argue against facts.”
When shallow-minded people smile and say that all private apparitions are just the result of self-hypnosis, or auto-suggestion, delirium, or hallucination, it is our time to smile at them. When 70,000 people in Fatima saw the sun dance in the sky, which, by the way, dried up the ground and the people’s clothes that had been soaked up by the torrential rain, it becomes difficult to prove that all of them were hallucinating — unless one is an incorrigible bigot. But thank goodness such people were in short supply in 1917 (today numbers may have grown, but I digress).
The point of the miracle of the sun is to prove that the children were telling the truth, that they saw the Virgin Mary and spoke to her. But as far as we are concerned, a first and very important point to consider is that our Lady gave the Church the means to avoid World War II: the consecration of Russia and the devotion of the first five Saturdays.
It seems so simple, right? God our Lord very often in the Scriptures gives us a simple, easy command to fulfill, and then He performs a great thing. All that the Hebrews had to do in Egypt to avoid the death of their firstborn was to have a meal following a specific recipe available to all households and mark the outside of the house with a certain liquid.
That was all! Those who did so, saved their firstborn. Those who did not do so, either because they preferred chicken to lamb or were vegetarians, lost their firstborn,
To make the Nile River become blood, all that Moses had to do was to touch the water with his staff — bingo! It worked. For Naaman, the King of Syria, to be cured from leprosy, all he had to do was to obey the command of the Prophet Eliseus and bathe seven times in the river. He did it, and was healed. For Peter to pay the Temple tax for Jesus and for himself, all that he had to do was to go fishing — the money was in the fish’s mouth.
But the conditions our Lady gave at Fatima for preventing World War II were not fulfilled.
Our Lady warned Sr. Lucia that the war would break out in the reign of Pius XI, and even foresaw its beginning with a sign for all to see:
“When you shall see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, of hunger, and of persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father.”
Well, on January 25, 1938, a mysterious light covered the sky in the evening and was extended over a large part of the northern hemisphere. It was called an “unusual northern light,” an aurora borealis. But that could not be the cause, and for three reasons: Northern lights are caused by sun spots and at that time there was only a minimum of them recorded; the mysterious illumination of the sky — bright red color with no streaks or movement whatsoever — was entirely different from normal occurrences. More: When the northern lights happen, they occur in the north of Europe, not around the Mediterranean Sea.
Therefore science had no explanation to offer. But Sr. Lucy said: “It was the predicted sign of the Lord that He is about to chastise the world by another war.”
Less than two months later, Adolf Hitler invaded Austria.
Can’t we take a hint?
Lucia realized that the coming of the war was inevitable, and she wrote to the Portuguese bishops asking for a Rosary Crusade to prevent Portugal from entering the war. And, lo and behold, miracles do happen: The bishops believed her! They launched the Rosary Crusade she had asked for. Result: Portugal did not enter the war. . . .
More: At the end of the war, Austria, which had been the first to be taken over by the Nazis, was then under the control of the Russian Communists. Austrians saw their bishops learning from their counterparts in Portugal and launching another Rosary Crusade to prevent their remaining under the Communist boot. Result: Inexplicably, the Russian tanks withdrew from Austria and it became free again.
Conclusion: When all else fails, read the instructions! Catholic bishops today could learn from such good examples and launch massive Rosary Crusades to end abortion, for instance, or to convert liberal politicians to abolish the HHS Mandate or to end same-sex marriage, or to respect the Constitution — there are so many good causes to pray for!
Our Lady foresaw that the “good would be martyred.” It is evident that the many millions of people killed to build socialism in the world constitute an astonishing verification of that prophecy, but there is yet another one: the systematic murder of unborn babies in the so-called “free” countries are the most gruesome example of the good — innocent children — being martyred at the altar of selfishness.
Mary also said that “Russia would spread her errors throughout the world.” I tend to believe that when John Paul II called for a “New Evangelization,” he was responding to the spread of those errors in the world. Since the Bolshevik Revolution, Marxism had penetrated into every sphere of education in the world, including Catholic universities and seminaries.
“Liberation theology” introduced class struggle and a materialistic understanding of “social justice,” which helped enormously the establishment of pro-Communist regimes in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
I personally witnessed a priest praising the bloody murderer Che Guevara from the pulpit in Brazil, and church halls being used by the Communist Marxist Leninist League of Canada in Montreal, to cite but two instances.
Yes, when Paul VI said that “the smoke of Satan had entered the sanctuary of the Church,” he was certainly not joking. . . .
It is impressive how our Lady’s message is historically accurate.
In the next article, let us take a look at the heroes of Jesus Christ: the martyrs!
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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