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The Blessed Virgin Mary, the
Mother of God, appeared six times to three shepherd children ("The Three Seers") near the town
of Fatima, Portugal between May 13 and October 13, 1917. Appearing to the
children, the Blessed Virgin told them that She had been sent by God with a
message for every man, woman and child living in our century. Coming at a time
when civilization was torn asunder by war and bloody violence, She promised
that Heaven would grant peace to all the world if Her requests for prayer,
reparation and consecration were heard and obeyed.
"If My requests are
granted ... there will be peace"
 Our Lady of Fatima explained to the
children that war is a punishment for sin and warned that God would further
castigate the world for its disobedience to His Will by means of war, hunger
and the persecution of the Church, the Holy Father and the Catholic Faithful.
God's Mother prophesied that Russia would be God's chosen "instrument of
chastisement," spreading the "errors" of atheism and materialism across the
earth, fomenting wars, annihilating nations and persecuting the Faithful
everywhere.
"If My requests
are not granted, Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up
wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martryed, the Holy
Father will suffer much and various nations will be
annihilated."
In all Her appearances at Fatima, the Blessed Mother
repeatedly emphasized the necessity of praying the Rosary daily, of wearing the
Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel and of performing acts of reparation and sacrifice. To prevent
the terrible chastisement at the hands of Russia and to convert "that poor
nation", Our Lady requested the solemn public Consecration of Russia to Her
Immaculate Heart by the Pope and all the Catholic bishops of the world. She
also asked that the Faithful practice a new devotion of reparation on the first
Saturday of five consecutive months ("The Five First Saturdays")
 The heart of Our
Lady's Message to the world is contained in what has come to be called the
"Secret" which She confided to the three child seers in July 1917. The Secret
actually consists of three parts, the first two of which have been publicly
revealed. The first part of the Secret was a horrifying Vision of hell "where the souls
of poor sinners go" and contained an urgent plea from Our Lady for acts of
prayer and sacrifice to save souls. The seco nd part of the Secret
specifically prophesied the outbreak of
World War II and contained the Mother of God's solemn request for the Consecration of Russia as a condition for world peace. It also predicted the
inevitable triumph of Her Immaculate Heart following Russia's consecration and
the conversion "of that poor nation" to the Catholic Faith.
The last part of
the Secret (often called the "Third Secret") has not yet been made public, but was written
down by Lucy Dos Santos, the last living Fatima seer, in 1944 and has been in
the possession of the Holy See since 1957. Most informed sources speculate that
this portion of the Secret concerns chaos in the Catholic Church, predicting
widespread apostasy and a loss of faith beginning in the seventh decade of the
20th Century.
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