On May 13, 1917, Mary appeared to three shepherd children in the hills of Fatima, Portugal.
I had the chance to be in Fatima for the 75th anniversary of the apparitions, in 1992. (It was also the 11th anniversary of the assassination attempt on the life of Pope Saint John Paul II).
It was an amazing week. I was digging through my photo albums a while ago, and it gave me the idea of blogging about my overseas travel adventures: the semester I spent in Austria back in 1992, the summer I spent in England in 1993, and the travels in Europe and Israel during my seminary studies in the fall of 1996.
Today I’m posting a link to the document about Fatima published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the year 2000. It includes several elements about the secrets of Fatima and their interpretation. The theological commentary – which has a great discussion of the proper understanding of private versus public revelation – was written by then-Cardinal Ratzinger. Here’s a teaser from the end of his analysis:
What is the meaning of the “secret” of Fatima as a whole (in its three parts)? What does it say to us? First of all we must affirm with Cardinal Sodano: “… the events to which the third part of the ‘secret’ of Fatima refers now seem part of the past”. Insofar as individual events are described, they belong to the past. Those who expected exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or the future course of history are bound to be disappointed. Fatima does not satisfy our curiosity in this way, just as Christian faith in general cannot be reduced to an object of mere curiosity. What remains was already evident when we began our reflections on the text of the “secret”: the exhortation to prayer as the path of “salvation for souls” and, likewise, the summons to penance and conversion.
The Messsage of Fatima, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, April 19, 2000. Theological Commentary by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.
I would like finally to mention another key expression of the “secret” which has become justly famous: “my Immaculate Heart will triumph”. What does this mean? The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Saviour into the world—because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this: “In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.
Also, a 2020 film about Fatima returns to AMC theaters this week. It’s also available via a number of streaming services. My friend and screenwriting mentor Barbara Nicolosi wrote the original script. There’s a nice article about the film on the website for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis:
Screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi says that redemptive suffering “was absolutely one of the themes” in her original script. She adds that, “the sacrifices of the children were actually as much a miracle and proof of the reality of Fatima as the Miracle of the Sun. After the July apparition [the seers] began to take on extraordinary penances and they would say, ‘For sinners.’ ” It was for this reason Nicolosi first titled the original draft of her script “For Sinners.”
For showtimes and to see which online platforms are making it available to stream, visit the website for the film.
