Fatima's Sister Lucy Dies at 97
Seer whose "three secrets" predicted World War II and the rise of communism, and who was visited by Mel Gibson in 2004, dies Sunday, February 13, in Portugal
ROME, February 14, 2004 -- Sister Lucy of Fatima, a shepherd girl whose mystic visions have sparked the devotion of millions of Catholics, including Mel Gibson -- and drawn scrutiny from the world's intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the KGB -- has died four weeks short of her 98th birthday in Portugal.
Lucy, 97, was the eldest of three shepherd children who in 1917 -- the same year as the Russian revolution -- saw the Virgin Mary appear in Fatima, Portugal on six occasions: May 13, June 13, July 13, August 19 (because the children were imprisoned by communist authorities on August 13), September 13 and October 13.
The Virgin revealed three "secrets" to the children. The secrets spoke of the great events of the 20th century, and of what God asked men to do in order to avoid terrible chastisements for sin (including, according to some accounts, enormous tsunamis which would takes hundreds of thousands of lives).
The Virgin also performed an astonishing miracle before 70,000 witnesses, many of them atheists and secular journalists, on October 13, 1917, when the sun "danced", spun off multi-colored light, and moved toward the earth.
Lucy died at her Carmelite convent at Coimbra in central Portugal.
"She had been weak for several weeks and had not left her cell," Coimbra Bishop Albino Cleto told the Church's Radio Renascenca. Her funeral will be Tuesday, February 15.
Her death saddens many who had hoped she would live still longer, in order to clarify confusions and controversies regarding the messages she received.
"Fatima is undoubtedly the most prophetic of modern apparitions," Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone wrote in an official Vatican statement on the visions in 2000. "The first and second parts of the 'secret' refer especially to the frightening vision of hell, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Second World War, and finally the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism," he said.
In a May 12 letter to Pope John Paul in 1982, Sister Lucy wrote: "The third part of the secret refers to Our Lady's words: 'If not she (Russia) will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated' (July 13, 1917)... And let us not say that it is God who is punishing us in this way; on the contrary it is people themselves who are preparing their own punishment. In his kindness God warns us and calls us to the right path, while respecting the freedom he has given us; hence people are responsible."
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Lucia Dos Santos was born the youngest of seven children into a peasant family in Aljustrel, a village in central Portugal.
The events at Fatima unfolded against a backdrop of religious persecution under anti-clerical factions that ruled Portugal after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1910.
In 1916 she experienced her first vision, when an angel appeared to the children, she wrote in her memoirs.
On May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to her and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marta on an oak tree. On her last appearance before an estimated 70,000 onlookers, witnesses claim to have experienced a 15-minute spectacle of bright lights and rainbow colors.
Jacinta and Francisco died in the influenza pandemic in 1919 and 1920. The two were beatified, the last step to sainthood, by Pope John Paul during his Fatima visit in 2000, confirming the Vatican's judgement that the visions are worthy of belief by Catholics.
Pope John Paul II has publicly stated that he believes the Madonna of Fatima saved his life on May 13, 1981, when Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot him in St Peter's Square -- the anniversary of the first of the 1917 apparitions.
In a sign of gratitude a year after the assassination attempt, the Pope visited Fatima and personally placed one of the 9mm bullets which Agca fired at him in the crown of the statue at Fatima.
"One hand fired the bullet and another guided it," the Pope once said of Agca's attempt to kill him.
The first two parts of the prophecies were known for decades. The first saw a vision of hell, the second predicted the outbreak of World War II.
But it was the third part, the so-called third secret of Fatima, which kept the world intrigued for more than 80 years.
The Vatican revealed its interpretation of the vision during the Pope's visit to Fatima on May 13, 2000, on the anniversary of the assassination attempt.
In the text the Vatican published, said to have been written by Lucy in 1944, she saw "a bishop dressed in white (and) we had the impression that it was the Holy Father."
As the vision continued, the bishop reached the top of a mountain where "he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him."
Before the Vatican unveiled the vision, papal envoys visited Lucy in her cloistered convent to seek her opinion of the Vatican's interpretation and her permission to reveal it.
"She repeated her conviction that the vision of Fatima concerns above all the struggle of atheistic communism against the Church and against Christians, and describes the terrible sufferings of the victims of the faith in 20th century," the Vatican said in 2000.
The document went on to say: "When asked: 'Is the principal figure in the vision the Pope?' Sister Lucia replied at once that it was.
Thus, the Vatican itself has given credit to the idea that Lucy's vision was an accurate prediction of the attempt to assassinate John Paul II in 1981.
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Also, here's an earlier discussion, now locked:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1235047
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