Those of us of “an age” and who went to Catholic School may remember the nuns terrorizing us children with this “third secret” stuff; that the Pope read it but that he wouldn’t make it public because “the world couldn’t take it.” In an era of “duck and cover” drills, the conclusion of elementary school kids was quite obvious. My sister and I had nightmares for weeks after hearing that stuff. It was an awful thing to do to children.
I agree that kids shouldn’t have to be terrorized with things they aren’t capable of understanding or correcting.
I agree that nuns often did, said and taught foolish things.
Having acknowledged that, I also don’t believe that the events of Fatima were fake or false. Nor were the events at Lourdes. Nor were the events at Guadalupe.
As for children being terrified, they have just as many things, people and events to terrify them today and the present day terrors are very real nor do they hold out the same hope as the events at Fatima, Lourdes and Guadalupe.
I am not ashamed of those events and only regret that they weren’t (and still aren’t) presented in a correctly prophetic and hope-filled way.
Our Lady showed those children a vision of hell. They said that if she had not assured them they would go to heaven before hand they would have dropped dead on the spot it was so terrifying. However, it did make them lead very holy lives and do penance so that poor sinners might not suffer that fate. Of course, Our Lady would probably be brought up on child abuse charges today...