Also known as the Miracle of Fátima, is a series of events reported to have occurred miraculously on 13 October 1917, attended by a large crowd who had gathered in Fátima, Portugal, in response to a prophecy made by three shepherd children, Lúcia Santos and Francisco and Jacinta Marto. The prophecy was that the Virgin Mary
(Referred to as Our Lady of Fátima), would appear and perform miracles on that date. Newspapers published testimony from witnesses who said that they had seen extraordinary solar activity, such as the Sun appearing to “dance” or zig-zag in the sky, careen towards the Earth, or emit multicolored light and radiant colors.
According to these reports, the event lasted approximately ten minutes.
The local bishop opened a canonical investigation of the event in November 1917,
to review witness accounts and assess whether the alleged private revelations from Mary were compatible with Catholic theology. The local priest conducting the investigation was particularly convinced by the concurring testimony of extraordinary solar phenomena from secular reporters, government officials, and other skeptics in attendance.[1] Bishop José da Silva declared the miracle “worthy of belief” on 13 October 1930, permitting “officially the cult of Our Lady of Fatima” within the Catholic Church.[2]
At a gathering on 13 October 1951 at Fátima, the papal legate, Cardinal Federico Tedeschini, told the million people attending that on 30 October, 31 October, 1 November, and 8 November 1950, Pope Pius XII himself witnessed the miracle of the Sun from the Vatican gardens.[3][4] The early and enduring interest in the miracle and related prophecies has had a significant impact on the devotional practices of many Catholics.[5]
There has been much analysis of the event from critical sociological and scientific perspectives. According to critics, the eyewitness testimony was actually a collection
of inconsistent and contradictory accounts. Proposed alternative explanations include witnesses being deceived by their senses due to prolonged staring at the Sun and then seeing something unusual as expected.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
A parhelion in rainbow colors,
photographed in 2005
Theologians, scientists, and skeptics have responded to claims that conflict
with established scientific knowledge regarding the behavior of the Sun. Science writer Benjamin Radford points out that “The sun did not really dance in the sky.
We know this because, of course, everyone on Earth is under the same sun, and if the closest dying star to us suddenly began doing celestial gymnastics a few billion other people would surely have reported it”. Radford wrote that psychological factors such as the power of suggestion and pareidolia can better explain the reported events.
According to Radford, “No one suggests that those who reported seeing the Miracle of the Sun—or any other miracles at Fátima or elsewhere—are lying or hoaxing. Instead, they very likely experienced what they claimed to, though that experience took place mostly in their minds.”[8] Regarding claims of miraculous drying up of rain water, Radford wrote “it’s not clear precisely what the weather was at the time of the miracle”, and photography from the time of the event does not show that it had been raining as much or as long as was reported.[44]
In The Evidence for Visions of the Virgin Mary (1983), former editor of the ASSAP‘s journal, Kevin McClure, wrote that the crowd at Cova da Iria may have been expecting
to see signs in the Sun, since similar phenomena had been reported in the weeks leading up to the miracle. On this basis, he believes that the crowd saw what it wanted to see.
McClure also stated that he had never seen such a collection of contradictory accounts
of a case in any of the research that he had done in the previous ten years.[10]
According to theologian Lisa J. Schwebel, claims of the miracle present a number of difficulties. Schwebel states, “not only did all those present not see the phenomenon, but also there are considerable inconsistencies among witnesses as to what they did see”. Schwebel also observes that there is no authentic photo of the solar phenomena claimed, “despite the presence of hundreds of reporters and photographers at the field”, and one photo often presented as authentic is actually “a solar eclipse in another part of the world taken sometime before 1917”.[45]
There is some evidence to the effect that the miracle was expected by witnesses.
The witness Joaquim Gregorio Tavares, who was present at Fátima on October 13, states, “We must declare that, although we admit the possibility of some miraculous fact, we were there while having in mind conversations we had earlier with cool-headed persons who were anticipating some changes of color in the Sun”[46] The villagers in Alburitel were preparing for a Sun miracle too.
According to Maria do Carmo, “It was anticipated that the miracle would involve the stars”.[47] This is likely due to the fact that in the months of July, August and September people at Fátima claimed the Sun’s light dimmed and the sky became dark enough for stars to become visible. This was denied too by many witnesses from the previous months. She also states on the morning of October 13th, “the people of Alburitel were darkening bits of glass by exposing them to candle-smoke so that they might watch the Sun, with no harm to their eyes.”[48]
Supernatural explanations, such as those by Father Pio Scatizzi, who argues that
observers in Fátima could not be collectively deceived, or that the effect was not seen by observatories in distant places because of divine intervention[49] have been dismissed by critics who say those taking part in the event could certainly be deceived by their senses,
or they could have experienced a localized, natural phenomenon. According to Benjamin Radford, “It is of course dangerous to stare directly at the sun, and to avoid permanently damaging their eyesight, those at Fátima that day were looking up in the sky around the sun, which, if you do it long enough, can give the illusion of the sun moving as the eye muscles tire.”[8]
Others, such as professor of physics Auguste Meessen, suggest that optical effects
created by the human eye can account for the reported phenomenon. Meessen presented his analysis of apparitions and “Miracles of the Sun” at the International Symposium “Science, Religion and Conscience” in 2003.[50][51] While Meessen felt those who claim to have experienced miracles were “honestly experiencing what they report”, he stated Sun miracles cannot be taken at face value and that the reported observations were optical effects caused by prolonged staring at the Sun.[7] Meessen contends that retinal after-images produced after brief periods of Sun gazing are a likely cause of the observed dancing effects.
Similarly, Meessen concluded that the color changes witnessed were most likely
caused by the bleaching of photosensitive retinal cells.[7] Shortly after the miracle,
the Catholic lawyer named Coelho said in his article that a few days later, he saw the exact same motions and color changes in the Sun as he did on October 13th. He says, “One doubt remained with us however. Was what we saw in the Sun an exceptional thing? Or could it be reproduced in analogous circumstances? Now it was precisely this analogy of circumstances that presented itself to us yesterday. We could see the Sun half overcast as on Saturday. And sincerely, we saw on that day the same succession of colors, the same rotary movement, etc.”[52]
Meessen observes that Sun Miracles have been witnessed in many places where religiously charged pilgrims have been encouraged to stare at the Sun. He cites the apparitions at Heroldsbach, Germany (1949) as an example, where many people within a crowd of over 10,000 testified to witnessing similar observations as at Fátima.[7] Meessen also cites a British Journal of Ophthalmology article that discusses some modern examples of Sun Miracles.[53] Prof. Dr. Stöckl, a meteorologist from Regensburg, also proposed a similar theory and made similar observations.[54]
Critics also suggest that a combination of clouds, atmospheric effects and natural
sunlight could have created the reported visual phenomena.
Steuart Campbell, writing for the edition of Journal of Meteorology in 1989, postulated that a cloud of stratospheric dust changed the appearance of the Sun on 13 October, making it easy to look at, and causing it to appear to be yellow, blue, and violet, and to spin. In support of his hypothesis, Campbell reported that a blue and reddened Sun was reported in China as documented in 1983.[11] Paul Simons, in an article entitled “Weather Secrets of Miracle at Fátima”, stated that it is possible that some of the optical effects at Fátima may have been caused by a cloud of dust from the Sahara.[55]
Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell wrote that the “dancing sun” effects reported at Fátima were “a combination of factors, including optical effects and meteorological phenomena, such as the sun being seen through thin clouds, causing it to appear as a silver disc. Other possibilities include an alteration in the density of the passing clouds, causing the sun’s image to alternately brighten and dim and so seem to advance and recede, and dust or moisture droplets in the atmosphere refracting the sunlight and thus imparting a variety of colors”.
Nickell also suggests that unusual visual effects could have resulted from temporary retinal distortion caused by staring at the intense light of the Sun,[6] or have been caused by a sundog, a relatively common atmospheric optical phenomenon.[56][12] Nickell also highlights the psychological suggestibility of the witnesses, noting that devout spectators often come to locations where Marian apparitions have been reported “fully expecting some miraculous event”, such as the 1988 Lubbock apparition of Mary in also Texas, the Mother Cabrini Shrine near Denver, Colorado, in 1992, and Conyers, Georgia, in the early to mid-1990s.[6]
As America and the world grapple with the repercussions of an international pandemic and the economic and cultural ripple effects thereof, many are understandably searching for a glimmer of hope, a star by which to chart their course ahead. On October 16, 2021, at 12:00 noon in public squares across the country, many Americans did not have to look far. They caught a radiant glimpse of this hope in the faces of those participating in one of 17,000 Public Square Rosary Rallies. Whether the “rally” was attended by five people or two hundred, it became a channel of grace for those passersby whose hearts were open to Our Lady. This annual prayer effort is coordinated by the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) and its America Needs Fatima campaign. At each and every rally, hymns were sung in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary and prayers were recited for the conversion of sinners and the unity and exaltation of Holy Mother, the Church.
Some of the other intentions prayed for were:
— To show God and His Blessed Mother our love and veneration.
— For the conversion of America.
— To stop sacrilege and blasphemy in society.
— That our national leaders would seek to honor God’s Law and pray for
the wisdom and knowledge necessary to solve America’s complex problems.
— For the urgent triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in America and the world.
— In reparation for the countless sins committed daily against the most Sacred Heart
of Jesus and the most Immaculate Heart of Mary, including abortion and same-sex “marriage.”
105th Anniversary of First Fatima Apparition – Catholic Truth.
It seems like only two minutes ago we were marking the centenary of the Fatima apparitions at our Conference in the Eagle Lodge in Bishopbriggs, Glasgow, on 13th
May, 2017. That was a wonderful day. The attendees signed an Open Letter to Pope Francis, asking him to do two things: (1) to release the full text of the Third Secret and
(2) to consecrate Russia to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, in union with all the bishops of the world, as she requested.
Now, five years later we must acknowledge that neither of these requests has been met. The deterioration of Catholic life across the globe confirms what we already do know about the Third Secret – that, as revealed by Cardinal Ciappi: “In the Third Secret it is revealed that the crisis in the Church begins at the top.”
Further, as is very clear now, the consecration of Ukraine, Russia, and the whole of humanity prayed by Pope Francis on 25 March, evidently did not “work” – there has been no change in the tumultuous state of the world, except for the worse, and Russia has, manifestly, not converted to the Catholic Faith.
To refresh your memory about the events at Fatima, or, if you are new to the blog, click here to read the basic information. Share your thoughts about the fact that successive popes and bishops, who hold the power, under God, to bring about world peace, have consistently failed to obey this simple request from Heaven.
Did Pope Francis feel pressured into conducting the Ukraine-Russia consecration
because the Bishops of Ukraine asked him to do that, and did he then “make the best of it” by turning it into a humanitarian act of “compassion”?
It obviously wasn’t the religious act required by God, so we continue to pray for that to come about sooner rather than later; the proponents of the New World Order are busy setting up the mechanisms for their long-awaited one-world government so time is
of the essence.
Please consider becoming a rosary rally captain in your area.
It’s simple.
Just click here to get started: America Needs Fatima #Fatima #Rosary #Crusade
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