Some passages from the chapter, "Fatima, 1917", in Fr. Paul Glynn's book, Healing Fire of Christ: Reflections on Modern Miracles—Lourdes, Knock, Fatima (Ignatius, 2003):
The Fatima events were now being discussed all over Portugal. The nation's biggest daily newspaper, the Rationalist leaning O Seculo, ran an article attacking the "psychosis, epilepsy and collective suggestion" at the root of the "medieval reactionism". Jose do Vale, editor of another Rationalist newspaper, O Mundo, went to the expense of printing pamphlets denouncing this "Jesuits and priests" ploy, calling on "friends of progress and enlightenment" to put a stop to it. In point of fact most priests, barely tolerated by the government in what had now become a cold war, were fearful the Fatima events could worsen the fragile situation. They told parishioners who asked them that in all probability it was yet another case of hallucination and to put no credence in the whole affair. One Lisbon priest, Father Cruz, decided to go to Fatima to interview the children. He remembered Lucia very well from having given her First Communion some years before. The pastor had refused her, saying that at age seven she was too young. She had come tearfully to Father Cruz, who was giving a mission to the Fatima parish. She told him she knew all her catechism, and he found this was very true when he examined her. Impressed by her mature answers, he persuaded the parish priest to allow her to receive Communion. Though quite unwell, he now made the difficult trip to Fatima and questioned her and the two other seers at length. He returned to Lisbon, where he was highly regarded as a saintly spiritual director, and told people he believed the apparitions were genuine. ….
The miracle [at Fatima] was obviously worked in the senses of the people who watched the phenomenon. Had the sun really performed like that for ten or twelve minutes, the solar system would have been thrown into chaos! Worldwide observations would have recorded it. Furthermore, had the phenomenon occurred because of some strange play of light, all would have seen the same things, but they didn’t. Some did not see all the colored lights, for instance. The Jesuit scientist Pio Sciatizzi worked at unearthing some possible natural explanation. There was none, he said. He concluded that the solar phenomenon foretold on a number of occasions from three months beforehand, with the date and the noontime hour specified, was “the most obvious and colossal miracle in history”. He meant observed miracles, of course. Scripture’s miracles, such as the Ressurrection, were not observed while happening. …
For me and for millions, including John Paul II, the Fatima apparitions are facts. They mean this: God is real; he loves us and is deeply concerned about our salvation. Through Mary he repeats his Son’s message: Death will usher us into heavenly life with him if we have lived lovingly and tried hard to avoid evil. Fatima says life is “for keeps”—as boys playing marbles used to put it. When life is almost over, we cannot grab our marbles from the ring and go home. We never really had a home that was ours, or marbles!
Fr. Glynn's book is also available in electronic book format and as an audio book on CD, read by William Fike.
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