The Lady of Fatima

I am really disappointed. And how !

I was beginning to respect Pope Franciscus. Many of the things he said and did made some sense and I honestly believed that they had a Pope, clever, honest and respectable.

And then he goes and does something like this:

He bestows Sainthood on two children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto. Two of the three Portuguese children, ( the third was one Lucia Santos ) who, in 1917, claimed to have seen Maria, the mother of Jesus, while they were in the vicinity of their home town of Fatima caring for their families' sheep.

They described the apparition in words which sound to me not at all like words 9 and 10 year old children would use, but rather like words taught to them by an adult, possibly a priest:

“the angel ( who only later became Maria, the mother of God ) was brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light, clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun.”

Do relatively uneducated children of about 10 years of age really talk like that? Or does this sound more like the language of a Priest who told the kids what to say?

Mary, the mother of Jesus, the story continues, gave the children three secrets.

The First, so-called Secret, is a vision of Hell. Of a mighty fire seemingly under the earth, in which there were “demons and souls in human form”. There were, throughout, shrieks and groans of pain and despair.

Goodness Gracious Sake... Imagine: what a big secret … a vision of Hell ! As if Hell had not been described in the Bible, and in innumerable books and paintings before, ad nauseam.

The kids saw those pictures many times before this vision of theirs revealed the “Big Secret”.

The Second so-called Secret predicted the end of World War I and the beginning of a new, more devastating war, should mankind continue offending God and should Russia not convert.

This “Secret” was revealed in 1941, when WWI had long since come to an end (1918) and WWII was well under way. (1939 - 1945)

One wonders why this secret was not revealed earlier, so that somehow mankind could prepare itself and maybe even avoid WWII?

I suggest that nothing is easier than to reveal a Big Secret after the issues it contains have happened and, in fact have been concluded.

I, Bertstravels, can be the greatest of all Soothsayers, all Prognosticators about the past.

Throughout all of it the need for prayer for peace is emphasized: And we all know, of course, how much good all the praying for peace has done. The contrary result is the more likely:

The more people pray, the worse the killing in warfare gets.

And now we come to Secret # 3.

It, along with Secrets # 1 and #2, was given to the children in 1917, but was not revealed by the Vatican until June of 2000.

Lucia Santos, the surviving member of the three children, insisted that Mary, the Mother of God, firmly instructed her not to reveal this secret until 1960.

Elsewhere, however, she allows that this specific year 1960 was not given to her by Mary, but was her own idea, because, she said, it was only after this year that the meaning of the Secret would be understood by people.

The wording of this 3^rd Secret is a bit convoluted and speaks of people, among them Bishops, Priests and other religious people, ascending a steep mountain, while trudging through a destroyed city.

It allows many different interpretation until finally, Pope Ratzinger, came up with a wonderful explanation:

The third secret, he said, “has a permanent and ongoing significance” and that “its significance could even be extended to the suffering the Church is going through today as a result of the recent reports of sexual abuse involving the clergy.”

He, of course, makes no mention of the suffering the abused children have gone and still are going through as a result of this abuse by members of the clergy.

It is most interesting to note that this same Mr. Ratzinger, when he still was Pope Benedict the 16^th, suggested in an internal letter, that such abuse, when discovered, must not be reported to the authorities, but must be dealt with within the Church.

Now he suggests, that the 3^rd Secret of Fatima may deal with the suffering of the Church, not of the victimized children.

What a scoundrel he is, what scoundrels they all are.

Poor, hallucinating Lucia Santos told how the three children would tie tight ropes around their waists and flagellate themselves, inflicting pain upon their bodies to pay for their own and the world's sins.

She added that about this, the apparition Mary told her “God was pleased”.

Can you imagine this? Three children whip themselves with burning nettles and inflict pain upon their bodies and “God” does not send them to a Psychiatrist, but tells them that “He is pleased”.

And now, to top it all off, Pope Franciscus declares two of the children, Jacinta and Francisco as Saints.

The more you read about “The Lady of Fatima” the greater must be your revulsion about this entire swindle, likely created by, and now certainly supported by the Catholic Church.

Bertstravels

does not dare even think about

the even greater nonsense of Lourdes.