Thanks.
Posted on 02/18/2005 10:48:45 AM PST by sinkspur
In most cases, processes for beatification involve some degree of uncertainty, since one never knows quite how it will go. Every now and then, however, there's a slam-dunk candidate for whom it's only a matter of time. Such was the case with Mother Teresa when she died in 1997, and such is the case again this week with Carmelite Sr. Maria Lucia of Jesus and of the Sacred Heart, better known as Lucia dos Santos, the last of the three visionaries of Fatima, who died last Sunday.
Lucia passed away on the 13th of the month, the same day in May 1917 that, according to the Fatima tradition, the Virgin Mary began appearing to three small children in this remote site in Portugal. It's a spot named after the wife of Ali, the cousin of the prophet Muhammed, and hence a reminder of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula. (In some Koranic schools, especially in Shi'ite circles where devotion to Fatima is strong, it's long been believed that Mary, who is also venerated in the Koran, didn't come to Fatima for Christians at all, but for the Muslims).
The other two seers of Fatima, Francisco and Jacinta, died in 1919 and 1920, respectively, and were beatified by John Paul II in 2000. Lucia, however, entered a Carmelite convent in Coimbra, Portugal, in 1948, where she lived ever since. From there, she handed over to Vatican officials the "Third Secret" of Fatima, a vision of a bishop in white and a hail of gunfire which John Paul II interpreted as a reference to the assassination attempt against him on May 13, 1981, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. The pope's delegate for Sr. Lucia's funeral, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa, who had long meetings with Lucia when he was the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has said that there are no more major revelations waiting in her monastic cell to be disclosed.
There's no question that John Paul II feels a special connection with the Fatima devotion, and with Lucia. It was Fatima where Mary referred to "the errors that Russia will spread in the world," taken by most Catholics as a reference to Soviet Communism. In keeping with Mary's request at Fatima that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart, the pope performed a consecration of the whole world at Fatima in 1982, on the anniversary of the assassination attempt. There followed concern that the pope did not do this in concert with the rest of the bishops, as Mary had asked. Hence on March 25, 1984, John Paul repeated the consecration in a ceremony in St. Peter's Square, after having sent letters to all the world's Catholic and Orthodox bishops asking them to join him. The statue of the Virgin from Fatima was brought to Rome for the occasion. Though the pope's text did not specifically mention Russia, at least one observer, the bishop of Leiria-Fatima, Alberto Cosme do Amaral, said the pope paused at one point and quietly added "Russia" under his breath. Afterwards, Sr. Lucia apparently told the apostolic nuncio in Portugal that Mary had accepted the consecration, a fact that, in the pope's mind, is not without significance in explaining subsequent events, including the collapse of the Berlin Wall and eventually the Soviet system.
John Paul also credits the Virgin of Fatima with saving his life on May 13, 1981, believing that the flight path of a bullet launched from Mehmet Ali Agca's gun was altered in order to preserve him in office. Without descending into too much pop psychology, this undoubtedly helps to explain why resignation is essentially unthinkable for John Paul -- he believes that his pontificate is part of a much larger cosmic drama, and God and the Virgin are watching. It's up to them, not him, to decide when the time has come.
Of course, to believe that Mary saved the pope's life on May 13, 1981, logically raises the question of why she allowed him to be shot in the first place. His closest aide, personal secretary Archishop Stanislaw Dsizwsz, in a rare public lecture in Poland in 2002 supplied the answer. The pope's blood had to be spilled, Dsizwsz argued, in order to augment his witness against bloodshed in the world, above all with respect to abortion. It has always impressed John Paul and Dsizwsz that the Italian left had scheduled a major abortion rights rally in Rome the evening of May 13, 1981, which was cancelled out of respect for the fallen pope.
If time and health permit, there's no doubt John Paul would like to be the pope who beatifies Sr. Lucia.
Incidentally, Portugal is presently in the middle of national elections, and the center-right government, which most polls project to lose, has declared a "stop" to campaigning out of respect for her funeral. That has triggered charges of political opportunism not only from the center-left opposition, but also from church spokespersons in Lisbon, who say they doubt the "sincerity" of the gesture.
Kindly look at the fingers of her in the casket, and then compare those to the alleged photo of her having the conversation with Mal Gibson. Those are not the same hands.
Bump that thought!
Welcome to FR Religion Forum.
Thanks.
LAST OF CHILDREN WHO CLAIMED TO SEE VIRGIN MARY DIES AT 97
Last child who claimed to see "Virgin Mary" dies
Virgin Mary Child Dies (Lucia of Fatima)
Mourning for Fatima seer (Portugal declares day of mourning)
Third Secret of Fatima is not fully revealed.
Sister Lucia, last remaining witness of Fatima apparitions, dies at 97
Mystery Fatima: Death of Lucia Accents Famed Secrets & Area's Hidden History
"No More Secrets," Visionary Said in 2001 (Sr. Lucia Confirmed Russia Consecrated to Mary)
Papal praise at Sister Lucia's funeral
Our Lady of Fatima, ‘counterrevolutionary’ and ‘ecumenical’
Questions ... Regarding The Third Secret of Fatima
Telling Secrets on the Vatican (re: "Third Secret" of Fatima)
Our Lady's Suffering Messenger: Sister Lucia of Fatima
Cardinal Bertone Making Contradictions about Fatima, Once Again
A "slam-dunk" beatification for the last of the Fatima visionaries
For heaven's sake!! So, now there's a "body double" for Sister Lucia?
'For heaven's sake!! So, now there's a "body double" for Sister Lucia?"
The two pictures are there for you to see.
And in the first one, Mel Gibson is engaged in conversation with a nonagenerian who has been blind and deaf for some time.....and appears younger, heavier, vivacious, and is wearing regular glasses.
And the other one is a corpse, after a three month illness.
But, you integrists will see a conspiracy where there is none.
Whoa, Debbie! If you don't like your name used in posts, then change it.
What pettiness!!!
So who is in the casket?
If you want to be on a first name basis then tell me yours. This has been a one way privilege for you so far.
Otherwise, you and your Novus Ordo buddies will use my screen name in accordance with forum rules.
I'm sorry. Why are you here?
I'm here for the LUV.
I am sure that like all great nations the US will fade away. I am positive we all make mistakes in the world, but, they are mistakes made, and discussed, and we are free to criticize them. People screw up. They do all the time. No Earthly government can be perfect like our Kingdom in Heaven. I think that is the actual Catholic position.
"Mistakes" Sodom and Gomorrha made mistakes too. God's pencils have erasers on them that I personally don't want to bring down on me.
Having said that, I think I can say you have lost your mind, if you think Freedom is possible without Self-government.
Self-Government is an illusion. You are just as much under the thumb of the government in the form of the IRS, or the Courts than you would be in any Communist or Dictatorial or Monarchic system.
Are you a conservative or did you lose your way to DU? Seriously, we all agree way back, that a man is responsible for his actions, and any license he takes is at his own peril.
LOL! You are thinking only in terms of Conservative and Liberal as defined by the two party system which are in essence both sides of Liberalism. G.K. Chesterton: "the job of Progressives is to continue to make mistakes. The job of Conservatives is to prevent those mistakes from being corrected."
What are you claiming here, we need a big brother to watch over our actions, to ensure our freedom is not "license"?
Not a Big Brother. We need a Holy Father and one who knows what his job is.
No, we need our freedom, and the consequences of our actions form the hand that presses us to live above our fallen nature, and live out God's Holy Law. We know the consequences of Mass murder. We fight against it, and are free to do so; remember in many European nations you are not free to protest abortion, but you can strike for more pay and less work.
I'm sure many of them present themselves as "Democracies". America is just sliding more and more towards that slavery called Democracy where God is thorougly rejected in the name of "tolerance" Any country that denies Christ is intrinsically doing the work of the Devil. Period.
My tag has words I like a lot. We have the freedom, to do as we ought to do, not just act like savages.
It's a weakened version of one of JPII's friends phrases. Fr. Malachi Martin used to say, "Wrong never has a right!"
sinkspur, you DO NOT have permission to use my personal information on public threads.
RM, is that correct according to the forum rules?
The poster asks you respectfully to not use a particular name (and according to forum rules, and you, a "Catholic deacon", dismiss her request in a manner akin to a child. Where is the charity? Where is the good example for all those non-Catholics to see?
Sheesh! Sensitivities, sensitivities. If you're gonna run to momma, howsa about we just avoid each other?
Another church lady dutifully heard from. Thanks for the concern, nsd.
Results of the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe:
From http://www.queenofpeace.ca/The%20Story.htm.
"In the next ten years[after the apparition- Mark], nine million natives converted to Catholicism. The missionaries, once discouraged in their efforts, were swamped with hundreds of baptisms every day. Our Lady more than compensated for the large numbers leaving the Catholic Church in Europe during the Reformation. She came to a conquered and defeated people as a Mother and gently guided them to the Truth."
Results of Bishops of Portugal consecrating their country:
From http://www.catholicintl.com/epologetics/articles/mary/fatima-controversy13.htm
"on May 13, 1931 which served as a heaven-sent sign of what a valid consecration would do. As noted earlier in this essay, on that date, in the presence of 300,000 Catholics who came to Fatima, the bishops of Portugal consecrated their nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They desired to protect Portugal from the threat of communism that was sweeping Europe, having already entered into Spain, their closest neighbor. Nothing short of the miraculous was experienced by the Portugese people as a result of this consecration. Within ten years, the number of religious vocations quadrupled. Catholic radio, a Catholic press, Catholic pilgrimages and spiritual retreats dotted the landscape as never before. The country was totally transformed, to say the least. Antonia Salazar ascended to power in 1933 and inaugurated a Catholic social movement unprecedented in recent history, wherein government and Catholic ideals were integrated at the highest levels, along with a total restoring of family values. Divorce was outlawed. By 1960, over 90% of all Portugal's marriages were canonical. Salazar's efforts were so extraordinary that he received the personal congratulations from Pius XII. Miraculously, Portugal was spared the effects both of the Spanish Civil War and any involvement in World War II. On February 6, 1939, Sister Lucia wrote to her bishop in Portugal, Monsignor da Silva stating: "...in this horrible war [World War II], Portugal would be spared because of the national consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary made by the bishops" At about the same time, Sister Lucia wrote to Pius XII and told him that, had the other nations done likewise, they would have enjoyed the same blessings as Portugal."
Results of Fatima requested consecration of Russia- change from aetheistic communism to aetheistic captialism. Whata jip!
Huh? Your name is not Canticle of Deborah? What name are we supposed to use?
As to the absurd notion that the Sr. Lucia in the coffin is not the same one in the photograph with Mel Gibson, take another look. The camera angle is straight on which creates an optical distortion.
Please post a reputable news source for your allegation that Sr. Lucia was deaf and blind for the past 3 years.
Agence France Presse reported .....
"Named Lucia de Jesus dos Santos when she was born on March 22, 1907, in recent years she suffered from blindness and deafness. "
One of my coworkers suffers from 'deafness'. She refuses to wear a hearing aid so she asks people to repeat what they say. Deafness is not the same as deaf; blindness is not the same as blind.
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.