With the 100th anniversary of Fatima less than two years away, I'm reading every book I can get my hands on about Our Lady's messages to the three little shepherds from the "beautiful lady." This morning, reading Sister Lucia: Apostle of Mary's Immaculate Heart, written by Mark Fellows and published during the 90th anniversary year (2007), I came across an interesting item. In 1946, Lucia, the only surviving seer of Fatima, was interviewed by American historian Professor William Thomas Walsh. During the questioning, she told him several times:What Our Lady wants is that the Pope and all the bishops in the world shall consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart on one special day. If this is done, She will convert Russia, and there will be peace. If it is not done, the errors of Russia will spread through every country in the world.Professor Walsh asked her if she believed that all the countries throughout the world, without exception, would succumb to Communism.
Her answer: "Yes." To be completely clear, Walsh asked "and does this mean the United States of America too?" Lucia's answer: "Yes."
This is how Mark Fellows described what came next:I have a strong sense that Fatima is key in what is happening today. Clearly, we are not in the period of peace promised by Our Lady. Every book I've read indicates that only a part of the Third Secret has been revealed: the vision. Our Lady's words have only partly been revealed. "In Portugal, the dogma of the faith will always be preserved, etc. ..." What our those words that Lucia indicated with "etc.?"
So, had Our Lady spoken to Sister Lucia about the United States? "She gave me a rather startled glance," Walsh reported, "and then smiled in faith amusement, as if to suggest that perhaps the United States was not so important in the general scheme of things as I imagined. "No," she said gently. "She never did. But I wish you would have Masses said for me in the United States." Walsh promised to do so.
I don't know and I'm certainly not going to speculate. But what I will do and I hope you will join me, readers, is do everything I can to fulfill Mary's wishes. Tomorrow is First Friday which has its own promises revealed to St. Margaret Mary. The next day is the First Saturday of reparation. Will you join me in hearing Mass, receiving Communion, going to Confession within the week, saying the rosary, and spending fifteen minutes in meditation? None of us has control over what the pope and magisterium do. We cannot force them to fulfill the request of Our Lady to consecrate Russia. We can, however, fulfill her request to all the people of the world: do penance, pray the rosary, and make the Five Dirst Saturdays of atonement.
