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Q:My question is to have the 1st and 2nd secret of Fatima explained in simpler terms. Also, what are your thoughts on Our Lady of Fatima? Do you know anything about the 3rd secret? Thanks.
(Daphne)
Dear Daphne:
In May, 2000, Pope John Paul II gave approval for the third part of the Fatima secret to be revealed.
Actually, the first two parts of the secret are not all that difficult to understand. According to Sister Lucy, the last survivor among the three Portuguese children to whom the Virgin Mary appeared, and who died on February 13, 2005, age 97, the Blessed Mother presented them with a brief glimpse of Hell, and then proceeded immediately to reveal God's plan for saving sinners from eternal punishment. This plan urged frequent recitation of the Rosary; encouraged prayer and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners; called for devotion to Mary under the title of her Immaculate Heart; asked that Russia be consecrated to Mary under that title; and finally, requested the establishment of the First Saturday devotion, whereby participants go to confession and receive Communion on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, recite the Rosary, and meditate on the mysteries for fifteen minutes.
The third part of the Fatima secret, being a symbolic revelation, is a little more difficult to interpret. No doubt this is one reason why the Church, desiring to be completely faithful to the true message, delayed publication for so many years. The third part of the secret, then, concerns a vision in which an angel exhorts the world to penance, while a "Bishop dressed in white", thought to be the Holy Father, struggles in pain and sorrow to the top of a steep mountain, at the summit of which there is a large Cross. There he is shot, accompanying many others - bishops, priests, religious and lay people - into martyrdom.
Just as the first two parts of the secret reveal what must be done for souls to be saved - prayer, penance, conversion of heart - so the third part of the secret describes the terrible consequences of sin throughout the 20th century, in particular the sufferings of Christ's faithful in the face of persecution by anti-religious forces. As has been mentioned, many see the "Bishop dressed in white" as representing Pope John Paul II, who indeed was shot and almost died, significantly on the very feast of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13, 1981.
In considering the importance of supernatural apparitions, such as occurred at Fatima, it is worthwhile to remember that everything we need for salvation has already been given to us through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and has been brought to completion in Jesus Christ himself. The message of Fatima is the same call to conversion that has been part of the universal Church throughout the ages, delivered to us once more, in dramatic fashion, by a visitation of Our Blessed Mother to three Portugese children. Although Mary came to warn us of the specific dangers of the 20th century - the rise of Communism, the persecution of the Church, and the calamity of two world wars - her call for repentance is no less urgent for the world in the 21st century.
God bless,
Father Norbert