Posted on 02/14/2005 2:03:24 PM PST by missyme
Actually the Church requires a substantial amount of evidence before it will bother declaring an event like this as "worthy of belief" (catholics are not required to believe in it though - as it is in the realm of private revelation and is not a part of the deposit of faith)
There are many similar events throughout history that the Church never ruled on because of lack of evidence.
There was a heckuva lot of supportive evidence to rule positively for Fatima.
While the children were the only ones to see Mary - the crowds witnessed other phenomena (a globe of light, the tree branch bending, flashes of light, rose petals which fell from a beam of light, scent of roses, sound of thunder...)
Then of course there was the miracle of the sun. Estimated crowd of 70,000 people present. That's alot of witnesses.
Furthermore - the church waited to see if the prophecies would pan out before they issued approval.
They did.
Even more interesting is the she died on the 13th.
I didn't even think about that aspect of the story.
Interesting.
-good times, G.J.P.(Jr.)
I believe in faith, but should one believe everything one is told.
The vision of the so called "apparitions" is being treated as a prophecy, and the bible tells us that if a prophet speaks not according to the Word of God, he or she is not a true prophet. I have not seen or heard a thing that has made me even think that this vision is according to the Word of God, so I have never taken it seriously.
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