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This brings us to our second point: namely, why the Blessed Mother, in the 20th century should have revealed herself in the significant little village of Fatima, so that to all future generations she would be known as "Our Lady of Fatima." Since nothing ever happens out of Heaven except with a finesse of all details, I believe that the Blessed Virgin chose to be known as "Our Lady of Fatima" as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Moslem people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much respect, will one day accept her divine Son too.
Evidence to support these views is found in the historical fact that the Moslems occupied Portugal for centuries. At the time when they were finally driven out, the last Moslem chief had a beautiful daughter by the name of Fatima. A Catholic boy fell in love with her, and for him she not only stayed behind when the Moslems left, but even embraced the Faith. The young husband was so much in love with her that he changed the name of the town where he lived to Fatima. Thus, the very place where our Lady appeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.
The final evidence of the relationship of Fatima to the Moslems is the enthusiastic reception, which the Moslems in Africa and India and elsewhere gave to the Pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima, as mentioned earlier. Moslems attended the church services in honor of Our Lady, they allowed religious processions and even prayers before their mosques; and in Mozambique the Moslems who were unconverted, began to be Christian as soon as the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was erected.
Very interesting that Bishop Sheen should have written this. Check out my 2007 post that reprints a Zenit news story in it's entirety, which reported on an Iranian television program claim that the Lady of Fatima wasn't Jesus' mother, but rather was the Prophet Mohammed's daughter.
It is a foolish effort to believe that muslims will ever accept Jesus as divine or give any credence to His death by crucifixion or His resurrection.
Muslims believe that Mohammed was the last prophet. To “correct” the writings of Mohammed is to try to establish a “false” Islam.
The TRUE reform comes when muslims leave Islam to return to the Old and/or New Testament of the Judeo-Christian Bible as Jews or Christians depending on their acceptance of Jesus Christ.
And it is also foolish to marvel at the number of muslims in this world or to boast of the number of conversions TO Islam when many muslim nations prohibit muslims from being anything BUT a muslim. The religious identity (at least tabulated on a census) is not chosen, it is imposed by Islamic tyranny.
Sort of like how many atheists lived in the USSR.