Fatima’s message

We are happy and privileged to have the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of our Lady of Fatima visit our province on January 15-17. Even though she visited only Silay, Talisay and Bácolod, still the blessing is for all believers in this island who, in a way, have welcomed her.

The image is known for many miracles. Its custodian Carl R. Malburg who accompanies the image anywhere it goes and the only who can touch or carry her, told me of numerous miracles attributed to Our Lady of Fatima. He said  that of cancer and other diseases, they have plenty reported, but the greatest miracles are invisible and known only to the person or his confessor.

I asked and he said that these are the countless conversions, acts of reparation and returns to the faith,  as well as contrition. For these are the messages of Fatima.

He said only the miracles of Fatima are predicted before they happen. Most miracles take place without notice but not those of Fatima. The well-known are documented.

When she appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, she told them that World War I which had raged since 1914 would end soon. Nobody could have predicted that because the war was at a stalemate but the following year the war ended with an armistice.

She also told the children that atheism will rise in Russia and spread into the world. When she said that, Russia was Catholic but that October in 1917, the Russian Empire collapsed with the Bolshevik revolution and atheistic communism was imposed. The communists exported their atheistic ideology and today, though Russian communism ended in 1991 a year before, it was to celebrate its 75th year in 1992, its atheism and converts are active in taking out God from our lives.

There are many other predictions at Fatima that are too many for this space but one that is more insidious is the rise of secularism that rejects God. This is atheism, an ideology that eschews God, the belief that we can do without God.

In fact there are groups that call themselves charismatic that try their best to take away God from schools, government, offices, entertainment, etc. and convert Catholics especially to renounce devotion to the Blessed Mother by declaring that the events in Fatima are hoaxes, like that well-documented Miracle of the Sun, seen and experienced by an estimated crowd of 60,000.

A religious group that also encourages Catholics to throw away or burn the images of the Blessed Mother and the picture of the Divine Mercy as idolatry claims that the Miracle of the Sun is a cosmic phenomenon that occurs every 11 years but cannot say when was the last one and when is the next.

On the contrary,  the three children, unschooled in astronomy or cosmology or never heard of the word predicted the exact date when the Blessed Mother would show a proof of the authenticity of the apparitions. This anti-Catholic sects cannot explain how 60,000 people, some of them scientist could be victims of wholesale delusion except to say that the whole thing, like praying as asked by Our Lady of Fatima is a work of the devil.

Why the devil should create a miracle so people will pray and return to God and make reparation for their sins is beyond mental capacity to understand. Funny though that some people buy that idiocy!

The visit here of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima is a renewal, a re-awakening of her messages that are as relevant today as it was in 1917 when she revealed them. I am not referring to the end of the war and the prediction of another war and a series of more wars because we read them in the newspapers and hear them on radio and television.

Her message is for conversion, for reparation and for peace. Man’s sins offend God and the wars and the suffering we undergo are part of the punishment for sins. We can have peace but peace must come from us with our prayers and conversion away from sinful ways. The visit of Our Lady is thus not merely a reminder of her messages but also a sign of hope that in the midst of all that we see and hear there is hope for God’s mercy.

When her statue arrived at the Shrine of the Virgen sang Barangay, in San Diego church and in Bacolod there was great outpouring of devotion. Many cried because of joy and not of pain especially at the San Diego church where she came down and was placed at the altar. The Silaynons braved the rain to welcome her and then just before she was to leave the church, the rain stopped as suddenly,  and the sun shone.

To a believer no proof is necessary; to the unbeliever no proof is sufficient.*

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