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THE VATICAN AND THE SECRET LIES OF FATIMA THE 'ATICAN AND THE SECRET LIES FATIMA Since the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared to three children at Fatima in 1917, the Catholic world has been fascinated with the three secrets that she imparted, but the Vatican may have fabricated them for its own political and religious purposes. n the last two centuries, the Catholic Church has made apparitions of the Virgin Mary an ever more important part of the Christian religious experience and doctrine. Some critics argue that the popularity of the Catholic faith is largely maintained by the popularity of the Virgin Mary. The so-called Marian era—the period when the Virgin Mary appeared and offered messages to those who saw her—began in the early 19th century with a series of apparitions, those at Lourdes no doubt being the most famous. But the most intriguing apparition occurred in the early 20th century, in the Portuguese hamlet of Fatima. The Virgin Mary is said to have appeared at Fatima six times, starting on 13 May 1917, with a final apparition on 13 October 1917 when she performed a great Sun miracle "which all shall see so that they may believe"! During the second or third apparition, the three young witnesses—Licia Santos and two of her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto—were allegedly given three secrets by the Virgin Mary. Two secrets were revealed in subsequent years, but the so-called Third Secret of Fatima was kept hidden by the Vatican for almost six decades. As a result, there was endless speculation about its nature and importance—rightfully so, as the Second Secret was linked with major political events of the 20th century. But what if all of these "secrets" were fabricated by the Vatican for political and religious reasons? Since the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared to three children at Fatima in 1917, the Catholic world has been fascinated with the three secrets that she imparted, but the Vatican may have fabricated them for its own political and religious purposes. Messages from the Virgin Mary According to the standard accounts, the First Secret was a vision of Hell and a prediction of the imminent deaths of Lticia’s cousins Francisco and Jacinta. They died in 1919 and 1920, respectively, as a result of the influenza pandemic. Lticia did not reveal the contents of the Second and Third Secrets and informed the Vatican of the Second Secret only in July 1941, following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union which began on 22 June 1941. The Virgin, Lucia said, had proclaimed that if Russia were converted back to Christianity, many years of war and persecution could be avoided—but, since 1917, communism had only expanded its reach. It seemed that Lucia was advocating that the invasion of the Soviet Union was a good thing, as per the Virgin Mary herself. Nazi Germany, of course, lost the Second World War and, with its demise, communism spread across Eastern Europe. The Cold War came to be seen as many years of "wars and persecution of the Church"? and so, it seemed, the Second Secret was true. It also meant that there were great expectations to know the Third Secret, which was assumed to be as accurate as the Second and no doubt of even greater importance. Indeed, the Third Secret of Fatima became the subject of extraordinary conspiracy theories, with suggestions ranging from the Virgin's announcement that extraterrestrial life exists elsewhere in the universe to a portent of the end of the world. by Philip Coppens © 2012 PO Box 13722 North Berwick EH39 4WB United Kingdom Email: info@philipcoppens.com Website: http://www. philipcoppens.com PO Box 13722 United Kingdom Email: info@philipcoppens.com Website: APRIL - MAY 2012 NEXUS ¢ 59 by Philip Coppens © 2012 North Berwick EH39 4WB http://www. philipcoppens.com www.nexusmagazine.com