The Third Secret of Fatima and Corruption in the Church.

Quoting from Don's recent post: there has always been corruption in the Church from the very beginning.
And I do blame the laity for our part in this mess, whether I want to attribute it to a lack of devotion to Fatima, or not. We have discussed this before, often. I'm surprised that you don't remember it. It's partly, and often largely, societal.
I actually heard a priest on a televised Mass today praying that couples would be open to conception in their marriages. I almost fainted.
When have I heard that in all these years? At Mass? I'll stop here.

 

Occasionally I just like to post something short and sweet without getting into a lengthy debate.

 

Agreed HH, First Saturday devotion seems all but forgotten. No one I know speaks of it and I don't know of any churches around me promoting it. I have done First Friday and Saturday devotions in the past, but not together.

Something sparked me last summer in having a strong devotion to the Sacred Heart and I found a church by me that has First Friday devotion. In doing First Fridays, it made me think of First Saturdays, so I figured I should time it with First Fridays and do them together. (I did it on my own, there were no formal First Saturday services around me that I know of.)

Fortunately in March, I hit 9 First Fridays and 5 First Saturdays before churches were closed.
I'm still keeping them whichever way I can with the current situation, I didn't want to say I fulfilled my obligation and just mail it in from there.

 

Under the circumstances, I would say your efforts are heroic!
I have begun a renewal in a similar way to yours, being led by steps.
I pray we continue.

 

I'm in!

 

Me, as well
The thing is, it’s only once a month, but all kinds of roadblocks come up!
The evil one doesn’t want us to do the First Fridays and First Saturdays.
We just have to be “overcomers”

 

I love this, AED, thank you!

Why aren't people facing into their own mortality--it daily threatens-- and adjusting their lives accordingly. More love more patience more sorrow for our lack of charity. This time is a gift. To squander it in evil practices seems unthinkable

This is a worthy grace to ask our Lord daily.

 

At about the 13:20 mark on the video. Having listened to it again, I realise now that what he was referring to was conspiracy theorists who take something factual and use that to present conclusions that they can't know to be true. Pictures were the example he used. I'm not explaining that very well, so I'll quote a little of what he said:

"What is more, they love to show clips of this and that event going on in the world and they draw broad conclusions from them. "Pictures are worth a thousand words" they say. In doing so they fall into all sorts of fallacies, most especially the fallacy of false cause, attributing a cause to something that is not quite accurate - there's other contributing causes. But also, a big one, is the fallacy of making something that is relatively true to be true everywhere and always. This is manipulation of the truth which causes confusion and fear and undue anxiety and thus the reason I'm giving the sermon."​

There's nothing wrong with what he said - quite the contrary, but it would have been better had he not used the term "relatively true". Something is either true or not. For example a famous person could be photographed having an innocent encounter and a conspiracy theorist could use that photo to draw all sorts of conclusions. The encounter would be factual (true) but the conspiracy would be the conclusions of the conspiracy theorist. Some of those conclusions could be true, all of them could be true or all of them could be false. The only truth the conspiracy theorist could be certain of would be that the encounter happened when it happened and it was recorded on camera. That couldn't be relative truth. I suppose I'm nitpicking but hearing "relatively true" doesn't sit well with me.

 

As a convert, especially one who hadn't been informed of Our Lady's request, that's one omission you won't have to account for on judgement day. Spare a thought for those of us who grew up hearing about it and spent a lot more time wondering about the secret than fulfilling Our Lady's request.

I think there are some people, even Catholic priests, who don't believe in Fatima. Some use all sorts of explanations to discredit it. Some people believe in the apparitions but also believe that it's done and dusted. I did until quite recently. I actually thought that I had completed the five Saturdays in my childhood because our children's Sodality was the first Saturday of every month. The nuns told us about the five Saturdays and praying the Rosary but I don't remember them telling us about the 15 minutes' meditation. I've since completed the 5 Saturdays including Confession, Communion, Rosary and meditation but I'm not sure I got the intentions right so I'll start again when the lockdown is over.

We aren't obliged to believe in Fatima because it isn't necessary for our salvation. It isn't a Dogma or Doctrine of the Church.

How do you know that what the Vatican released isn't all we have a right to know?

 

I read william Walsh's book on Our Lady of Fatima at my grsndmothers house when I was 9 or ten. It was sitting on a side table. She had s statue of Our Lady of Fatima on her mantle (it is now mine) that is how I knew. Later the nuns taught us about first Saturday's. I think in the 1950's there was a push to do what Our Lady asked but John XXIII basically pooh-poohed it and Vatican II tried to vaporize it out of existence. The wonder is that they couldnt. I remember Malachi Martin speaking of the outrage he felt that Our Lady was ignored! A mandate of heaven was ignored by Christ's own church. He felt the insult to Our Lady was unspeakable.

 

You're right. Thanks for correcting me. (Think I need an alzheimer's test if there is such a test).

Was it when the Bishop told Lucy to write down the secret in case she died? If so, it seems that the interpretation of the vision may have been for Lucy alone.

 

I don’t believe that there was a imposter at all...but I do believe that the entire third secret has not been revealed. I also think that the consecration was not done as mandated by Our Lady/ heaven.

 

In her private journal, quoted in A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary, Sister wrote down the following words of Our Lady from January, 1944, “Do not be afraid, God wanted to prove your obedience, faith and humility. Be at peace and write what they order you, not however what is given you to understand of its meaning”

 

Thanks Sam. So, whatever the Vatican withheld may not be the interpretation of the vision. I doubt we'll ever know.

A bird hit my car yesterday. It was a big fat pigeon and barely missed the windscreen. I had a lucky escape and a reminder to live every day as though it were my last on this earth. Knowing all that was withheld won't be much use to us at our particular judgement. That's something we all need to be mindful of especially now when Confession is not available to us and we've no guarantee that there would be a priest to give us Last Rites.

 

Amen, Dolours. I’m glad that you are unscathed!

 

Again, I find this incomprehensible - to say that Fatima and its messages/ requests do not require our belief, and yet we will have to account for omitting to fulfil the requests on judgement day.

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I have a different take on it . . .we are not required to acknowledge Fatima for salvation. But Fatima gives us more graces. Just like Divine Mercy gives us more graces. If we do what our mother asks, we will receive the graces. The more grace you have, the closer you draw to God. Maybe that means less time in purgatory? I don't know, I just know that grace is a gift.

 

No, this was immediately after the vision and Our Lady's spoken words.
Lucy, Jacinta and Francisco all saw the vision, Lucy and Jacinta could hear Our Lady speaking but only Lucy could speak to Our Lady.

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If one compares Fatima to the Sacred Heart messages/requests, as Our Lord Himself did to Sr Lucy in Rianjo, Spain in 1929, it is obvious that ignoring the requests is not an option, even for what is a 'private revelation'.

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