Posted on 02/14/2005 12:42:05 PM PST by nickcarraway
LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal has declared Tuesday a day of mourning and politicians have cut back election campaigning to mark the death of Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, the last of three children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary at Fatima.
Dos Santos, who as a child in 1917 described visions which, decades later, the Catholic Church said foretold the attempt to kill Pope John Paul in 1981, died aged 97 on Sunday at her Carmelite convent in Coimbra, 150 km (95 miles) north of Lisbon.
She is to be buried at the convent on Tuesday and her remains will be transferred in a year to nearby Fatima, one of Catholicism's major pilgrimage sites.
Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes late on Sunday declared Tuesday a day of national mourning.
"I believe that Sister Lucia is a great figure in the recent history of Portugal," Santana Lopes said in remarks carried on TSF radio. A spokesman said he might attend the funeral.
Portugal holds snap elections on Sunday but Santana Lopes' centre-right Social Democrats and their coalition partner the rightist Popular Party suspended their campaigns on Monday and Tuesday because of the death.
The opposition Socialists, who are well ahead in opinion polls, said they would scale back their campaign activities.
Dos Santos was said by believers to be the main recipient of prophecies from the Virgin about key 20th century events. The first part of the prophecies saw a vision of hell, the second predicted the outbreak of World War Two.
The Vatican interpreted a third part of the visions as foretelling the attempt to kill the Pope and Communism's persecution of Christianity.
The Church kept the details secret for decades until they was revealed during the Pope's visit to Fatima in 2000.
The other two children, dos Santos' cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, died in 1919 and 1920. The two were beatified, the last step to sainthood, in 2000.
You know, I've read this about 5 times and what I get from it is: "We'll tell you only what we think you should know. And if in that message from Heaven we've been told that millions will die and it cannot be prevented, then there's no point in warning you. So shut up."
The disturbing part is that doing so directly defies the Blessed Mother's wishes. It doesn't matter what mortal men think. When Heaven gives you a request, you do it. There should be no second guessing.
sw
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.