How the Roman Catholic Church missed the Fatima Opportunity

The M+G+R Foundation

How the Roman Catholic Church Administration

Missed the "Fatima Opportunity" for Peace Between 1925 and 1929

A Time Line of Religious and Secular Events Confirms It

Miguel de Portugal has studied the history of the Fátima apparitions and their aftermath in detail, has identified the dates on which critical events occurred, and has confirmed the time period during which needed responses by the Roman Catholic Church Administration failed to occur. As the following time line of religious (1) and secular (2) events shows, there is a correlation between the Church's failure to respond to Heaven's warnings given at Fátima and the world's post-1929 descent into depression, totalitarianism, and war. By 1938, the world was irreversibly on course toward a catastrophe that would kill tens of millions of people. By 1942, the Second World War and the Holocaust were at their height.

- July 13: The Virgin Mary told Lucia that She would return in the future to request two actions. These requests later became public: the Consecration of Russia, and the spread of devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. On this day, the children were told: (3)

"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war [referring to World War I, which was then in progress] is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. (4) When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father."

"To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she 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. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will be preserved, etc."

- October 13: Supernatural events accompanied the final apparition of Mary at Fátima. Many of these events (including the "dance of the Sun") were observed by 50,000-70,000 people (believers and unbelievers alike), and were covered at the time by secular Portuguese newspapers.

- November 13: At the request of the priest of the Fátima parish, the Archbishop of the Lisbon Patriarchate began an inquiry into the Fátima events, one month after the apparition in October. Under Church law, the Archbishop was the proper authority to conduct this investigation, and to rule on the authenticity of the Fátima events.

- Russia - February 25: start of the 1917 Revolution. March 2: Czar Nicholas II abdicated. April 3: Lenin returned to Russia from Switzerland after being allowed to cross the Kaiser's Germany in a sealed train. October 25: Bolsheviks seized power. December 7: the Cheka (Soviet secret police force) was founded.

- Germany - began unrestricted submarine war on February 1; after several American ships were sunk, the US responded by declaring war on April 6. The US intervention was key to the defeat of Germany and her allies in 1918.

- Britain - with the Balfour Declaration of November 2, the British government supported establishment of a Jewish "national home" in Palestine - the first political breakthrough for modern-day Zionism. On December 11, the British army captured Jerusalem - the first time since after the Crusades that the city had not been under Muslim rule.

- January 17: By a Vatican ruling, the Diocese of Leiria (covering the region around Fátima) was re-established, separately from the Patriarchate of Lisbon. This Vatican action, taken even before the completion of the local investigation, appears to indicate that the Vatican knew of the importance of the Fátima events within a few months of their occurrence.

- Russia - Civil war between the Communists and their opponents began in 1918 (and the war continued until 1921). The Czar, his family, and his servants were massacred on July 17, on orders from Lenin.

- April 28: Completion of the Fátima investigation which had begun in November 1917; the findings were turned over to the Archbishop, the Governor of the Lisbon Patriarchate.

- Russia - Establishment of the Communist International, with the intent of fostering "the creation of an international Soviet republic." This body, which directed Communist party activity worldwide, remained in existence under this name until 1943.

- Germany - The German Worker's Party, which in 1920 became the Nazi Party, was founded on January 5, 1919. Under duress, on June 28, 1919 the Germans signed the Versailles Treaty; they were compelled to pay reparations to the victors, and to accept guilt for starting the World War.

- October: the Bishop of the Diocese of Leiria authorized open air masses for the increasing number of pilgrim visitors to the apparition site; previously, he had already purchased a large plot of land in the Cova de Iria (the apparition site) for the planned Fátima Sanctuary buildings.

- Germany - made a treaty with the Soviet Union in 1922; secret provisions allowed Germany to violate its disarmament obligations under Versailles, building tanks and manufacturing chemical weapons within the Soviet Union. Soviet-German military cooperation continued from 1922 to 1932.

- Germany - The Nazis and their allies attempted to seize power in Bavaria in the November 8-9 "Beer Hall Putsch," but were defeated by the police. Hitler was arrested for treason, and would be in jail until December 1924.

- Spain - On September 13, Miguel Primo de Rivera carried out a military coup against the parliamentary regime, and - with the assent of the King - established a dictatorship.

- The Pious Union of Servites of Our Lady was founded to begin providing priests, physicians, and nurses to assist sick pilgrims to Fátima. This ministry was established under canon law, indicating that Church authorities with jurisdiction over the approval of these events accepted the veracity and understood the significance of the Fátima apparitions.

- December 10: The Virgin Mary told Lucia to make public the request for devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary - a request that had been announced in advance by Our Lady to the visionaries in 1917, eight years previously.

- February 15: In an apparition, Jesus reminded Lucia of Mary's request made on December 10, 1925 to spread the devotion to Her Immaculate Heart, and insisted upon obedience.

- Poland - A military coup (May 12-14) overthrew a parliamentary government and installed an authoritarian regime led by Colonel Jozef Pilsudski. This regime remained in power after Pilsudski's death in 1935, until Poland was occupied by Germany and the USSR in 1939.

- June 13, 1929: The Virgin Mary appeared to Lucia at her convent in Tuy, Spain, and told her that the time had come to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. By this time, the Church authorities had had almost twelve years to respond to the requests that Our Lady had made at Fátima. Our Lady said:

"The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation: sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray." (6)

- By the end of 1929: The Diocesan Bishop, D. José Alves Correia Da Silva, published a solemn pastoral letter declaring that the Apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima from May 13 to October 13, 1917, were worthy of belief. (This letter of approval confirmed his actions since 1921 pertaining to Fátima). (7)

- Russia - In 1929, the Soviets intensified their persecution of religion (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim alike), and began the forced collectivization of agriculture and the "liquidation of the kulaks," (the well-off peasants). These agricultural policies led to famine, mass deportations, and 4-5 million deaths during 1929-1933.

- Italy - in February 1929, the Holy See signed the Lateran Treaty with Italy, gaining sovereignty over Vatican City, the establishment of Catholicism as the state religion in Italy, and payments in compensation for Papal territory taken by Italy in 1871.

- August: In a letter to her bishop, Lucia said that the Virgin Mary informed her that Her requests had not been fulfilled in time, and that the consequences would be dire:

"They did not wish to heed my request. Like the King of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars, and persecutions of the Church; the Holy Father will have much to suffer." (8)

(The "King of France" is an allusion to a message given by the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June of 1689 to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, calling upon Louis XIV to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This was not done in timely fashion - and France began its move toward the Revolution, which began 100 years later.)

In summary, by the end of 1922, the Church authorities in Fátima, Lisbon, and Rome knew of the Fátima events, and had given them their de facto approval; this approval was made formal in 1929 by the Diocesan bishop.

Nevertheless, the Vatican disobeyed Heaven's request, and delayed the consecration of Russia to 1942, with repeat efforts in 1952, 1964, 1982, and 1984. These were too late to avert World War II, the Holocaust, and the global spread of Russia's deadly errors. By August 1931, time had already run out.

- Japan/China - On September 18, Japan attacked Manchuria, its first act of aggression in what became World War II. The Japanese invasion prevented the Chinese government from suppressing the Communist insurgency, which was led by Mao Tse-Tung.

- Spain - Under popular pressure, the regime called for elections on April 13. Left-wing and republican parties won, forcing the King to flee the country. A Republic was established, which would last until Franco won the Civil War in 1939.

- May 13-15: The Vatican's ambassador to Portugal, the Papal Nuncio, presided over the National Pilgrimage to Fátima; two days later, he wrote, "Fátima is a true blessing for Portugal. I am convinced that Mary will always protect this Nation.... and will save it from the great dangers which threaten the whole of society." Again: by mid-1932, the Vatican knew what Fátima meant.

- Germany - On July 31, 1932, the Nazis won 37.4% of the votes cast in national elections, making them the largest party in the Reichstag. However, in elections held on November 6, 1932, the Nazi share of the vote fell to 33.1%, and their Reichstag representation declined from 230 to 196. These were the last national elections held before the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.

- Germany - Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30. On February 27, the Reichstag was burned by an arsonist - and the regime used this to justify assuming dictatorial powers. On March 22, the Nazis opened their first concentration camp, at Dachau. On March 23, the Nazi-dominated Reichstag passed an Enabling Act, giving total power to Hitler; one of Hitler's first actions under this law was to purge Jews from civil service and teaching posts. The Enabling Act had passed over the opposition of the Social Democrats, but with the support of the Center Party, Germany's Catholic political party. On May 10, there was a ceremonial, public book-burning in Berlin. On October 14, Germany left the League of Nations.

- Vatican - On July 20, the Third Reich signed a concordat with the Vatican - and quickly began violating the treaty provisions that had guaranteed freedom for the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the Vatican ratified this pact on September 10, 1933.

"Hitler himself had laid great store on a Concordat from the beginning of his Chancellorship, primarily with a view to eliminating any role for 'political Catholicism' in Germany. As we have already seen, this aim was achieved with the dissolution of the Zentrum and BVP in early July." [The Zentrum was the Catholic Center Party; it dissolved itself on July 5, 1933 as a condition for the Concordat; the BVP was the Center Party's Bavarian counterpart. The disbanding of these parties paved the way for the Nazis to declare their party to be the only legal party in Germany.]

"The German episcopate ... now poured out effusive statements of thanks and congratulations to Hitler. Cardinal Faulhaber, the Catholic leader of Bavaria and long a thorn in the side of the National Socialists in Munich, congratulated Hitler in a handwritten letter: 'What the old parliament and parties did not accomplish in sixty years, your statesmanlike foresight has achieved in six months.' He ended his letter: 'May God preserve the Reich Chancellor for our people.'"

William Shirer, author of Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, agreed with Kershaw's assessment of the benefit that the Nazis gained from their treaty with the Vatican. He said, "coming as it did at a moment when the first excesses of the new regime in Germany had provoked world-wide revulsion, the concordat undoubtedly lent the Hitler government much badly needed prestige." (11)

- Italy - In October, Italy invaded Ethiopia, the first act of aggression by the European Fascist powers. Italy's victory was secured by use of mustard gas against the Ethiopians. Italy annexed Ethiopia in May, 1936.

- Spain - In July, General Franco led a revolt against the left-wing Republic; this began a civil war that would end in March 1939 with Franco's victory. Germany provided Franco at least 10,000 infantrymen, and carried out bombing raids for him; Italy sent 70,000 soldiers. The Republic received aid from the Soviet Union.

- Germany - on March 7, Germany violated the Versailles Treaty by re-occupying the Rhineland, which had been demilitarized after World War I. There was no response from the Western powers to this first act of German aggression.

- Japan/China - On July 7, 1937, full-scale war between Japan and China began. Niall Ferguson, a prominent historian, described this event as the start of World War II: "When did the Second World War begin? The usual answer is September 1, 1939, when the Germans invaded Poland. But that is a European answer. The real answer is July 7, 1937, when full-blown war broke out between Japan and China." (12)

- Russia - Stalin began a series of wide-ranging purges of the Communist Party, the military, and the government. This would last until the end of 1938, and led to the imprisonment and execution of several million people.

- Spain - On April 26, the German and Italian air force devastated the republican-held town of Guernica, in the first unrestricted use of air power against civilians.

- Vatican - On March 14, 1937, Pius XI released the anti-Nazi encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge; (13) it was brought clandestinely into Germany, and was read from Catholic pulpits on Palm Sunday. (14)

- January - An unprecedented aurora lit the sky over most of Europe and North America on the night of Javuary 25-26. (15) The red glow was so intense that fire crews in some areas were sent out to look for local fires. (16) Sister Lucia saw the sky turn red from 9 pm until 2 am, and knew that this was the "unknown light," the "great sign" from God that it was too late to avert war.

Note well: Present-day agitation to consecrate Russia according to the form given to Sr. Lucia is pointless. The time for that consecration to have occurred, with the full effect desired by God, came and went during the Pontificate of Pius XI. By 1938 - indeed, by late 1931 - it was too late to avert the disasters that Heaven had warned against.

- Germany: On March 12, Austria was annexed by the Third Reich. On October 1, Germany began to occupy the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia, with the acquiescence of France and Britain. On the night of November 9-10, Nazi troopers carried out "Kristallnacht," a national pogrom against the Jews.

- September 13: The Bishop of Leiria, Portugal - who had jurisdiction over the Fátima area - began to promote acts of reparation on the first Saturdays of each month - fourteen years after the Virgin Mary had asked for this to be done.

- Germany - On March 15, Germany occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia. On August 23-24, the USSR and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression treaty which provided for the division of Poland between the two dictatorships. On September 1, Germany invaded Poland; this was the officially recognized beginning of World War II. In response, France and Britain declared war against Germany on September 3.

- Germany - invaded Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France on May 10. On June 22, France accepted defeat, and on July 10 installed a dictatorial, collaborationist government. On July 21, Hitler ordered his generals to begin planning an attack on the Soviet Union in 1941; he made the plans final in December, 1940.

- Japan - signed the Tripartite Pact, reaffirming its alliance with Germany and Italy, on September 27, 1940. The signers avowed their mutual intent to form a "new order" in Europe and in "Greater East Asia," and agreed to assist each other if attacked.

- Russia - On June 22, Germany invaded the USSR. In November and early December, the German army bogged down before it could take Moscow, and a Red Army counterattack began on December 5-6.

- October 31, and again on December 8: Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. [This consecration was done late, and not in accordance with the formula requested by Heaven.]

- Germany - On January 20, the SS led a meeting at Wannsee, near Berlin, to plan the extermination of European Jewry - the "Final Solution." By mid-1942, the Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe were being shipped to extermination camps (at Auschwitz and elsewhere).

- United States - on December 2, Enrico Fermi (a nuclear scientist who had emigrated from Italy to protect his Jewish wife from persecution by the Fascists) achieved a nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago. This was an essential step in the development of the atomic bomb.

During this period, while the Church failed to seek all the aid that it could have obtained for the whole world from God and from the Virgin Mary, the Nazis and their allies were invoking all the aid they could get from below. Click Here for all the details of how God allowed satan a free hand once His Church had ignored His requests.

(1) The principal sources for the Fatima events listed here are: The M+G+R Foundation, "The Marian Apparitions in Fatima and the Roman Catholic Church Administration," http://www.mgr.org/fatima.html, viewed 02/16/09; The M+G+R Foundation, "Our Lady of Fatima: Messages, Response, Consequences," http://www.mgr.org/olof.html, viewed 02/21/09; The M+G+R Foundation, "Detailed Chronology of Key Events - Apparitions of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima," http://www.mgr.org/attach1.html, viewed 03/05/09; The M+G+R Foundation, reprint of p. 195-197 of Sr. Lucia's memoirs, http://www.mgr.org/refs/App-1-2-Engl-q50.gif and http://www.mgr.org/refs/App-1-3-Engl-q50.gif, viewed 02/25/09; The M+G+R Foundation, "'Damage Control' from Heaven," http://www.mgr.org/FatimaSecretModifiedPart2.html, viewed 02/26/09.

(2) The sources for the secular events include: History Central, "1930-1931," http://www.historycentral.com/dates/1930.html, viewed 03/05/09; various Wikipedia entries at http://en.wikipedia.org; Gregory L. Freeze, ed. Russia: A History, 2nd ed., "Chronology," Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 474-475; Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Perennial, 2002, pp. 96-287; A New Illustrated History of the Nazis, F+W Publications, Inc. (UK), 2005, pp. 187-189; National Geographic, Visual History of the World, National Geographic Society, 2005, pp. 431-527; Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1889-1935: Hubris, W. W. Norton and Co., 2000, pp. 164-165.

(3) This text is an English translation of the original Portuguese, as published in Fatima in Lucia's Own Words (Sister Lucia's Memoirs), Postulation Centre, Fatima, Portugal, May 1976 ed., p. 162. This page is reprinted digitally by the M+G+R Foundation, at http://www.mgr.org/refs/Page4.jpg, viewed 02/16/09.

(4) Note that Pius XI was elected in 1922, 5 years after the 1917 apparitions. Sister Lucia wrote her memoirs between 1936 and 1941 (Memoir I, written in 1936; Memoir II, written in 1937; Memoirs III and IV, both written in 1941). These memoirs were originally written at the request of her bishop, and were later published. (William Thomas Walsh, Our Lady of Fatima, Image Books, 1954, pp. 207-209).

(6) This text is an English translation of the original Portuguese, as published in Fatima in Lucia's Own Words (Sister Lucia's Memoirs), Postulation Centre, Fatima, Portugal, May 1976 ed., p. 200. This page is reprinted digitally by the M+G+R Foundation, at http://www.mgr.org/refs/Page5.jpg, viewed 02/16/09.

(8) This text is an English translation of the original Portuguese, as published in Fatima in Lucia's Own Words (Sister Lucia's Memoirs), Postulation Centre, Fatima, Portugal, May 1976 ed., p. 200. This page is reprinted digitally by the M+G+R Foundation, at http://www.mgr.org/refs/Page5.jpg, viewed 02/16/09. The English translation incorrectly attributes this warning to "Our Lord", however, the original Portuguese (shown on the same Web page) attributes this warning to "Nossa Senhora," Our Lady, which is correct.

(15) Charles M. Lennahan, "The Effect of the Magnetic Storm, January 22-26,1938, on Telegraphic Transmission," and Willis E. Hurd, "Auroras of January 21-22 and 25-26, 1938," in "Notes and Reviews," Monthly Weather Review, February 1938, p. 43 (a publication of the U.S. Weather Bureau), on-line at http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/066/mwr-066-02-0039.pdf, viewed 03/05/09. This report, like most contemporary news accounts, places the aurora on the night of January 25-26, 1938. Some early, Church-approved documents dealing with the history of Fatima state that the "unknown light" was seen by Sr. Lucia on January 24.

Published on April 26, 2009 - Honoring Mary, Mother of Good Counsel

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