Pope tells priests to live holy lives

In this video from www.romereports.com, the report says, on his second day in Portugal, Pope Benedict XVI knelt at the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima. The pope prayed before a statue of the Virgin Mary, thanked her for saving the life of his predecessor and as a tribute, left behind a golden rose. Most importantly his message tells the priests to live holy lives.

The children of Fatima

Lucia Santos (left) with her cousins Francisco and Jacinta in 1917

Our Lady of Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary, gave reported apparitions of her to three shepherd children at Fatima in Portugal on the 13th day of six consecutive months, starting from May 13, 1917. The three children were Lucia Santos and her younger cousins Jacinta Marto and Francisco Marto.

On Sunday, 13 May 1917, ten-year-old Lucia Santos, along with Jacinta and Francisco, was tending sheep at the Cova da Iria near their home village of Fatima in Portugal. Lucia reported seeing a woman ‘brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal ball filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun.’ Further visions were reported to have taken place on the 13th day of the month in June and July. In these, the woman exhorted the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners. According to Lucia’s account, in the course of her appearances, the woman confided to the children three secrets, later known as the Three Secrets of Fatima.

Thousands of people flocked to Fatima and Aljustrel in the next months, drawn by reports of visions and miracles. On 13 August 1917, the provincial administrator, a self-professed atheist, Artur Santos, believing that the events were politically disruptive, intercepted and jailed the children. The administrator interrogated the children and attempted to get them to divulge the secrets, by telling them that he would boil them one by one in a pot of oil unless they revealed the secrets. But the children refused. That month, instead of the usual apparition in the Cova da Iria on the 13th, the children reported that they saw the Virgin Mary on 19 August at nearby Valinhos.

Later, Lucia who became a nun reportedly saw Mary in private visions periodically throughout her life. Most significant was the apparition in Rianxo, Galicia, in 1931, in which she said that Jesus visited her, taught her two prayers and delivered a message to give to the church's hierarchy. In 1947, Sister Lucia left the Dorothean order and joined the Discalced Carmelite order.

Lucia’s cousins Francisco (1908-1919) and Jacinta Marto (1910-1920) became victims of the Great Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918-20. Francisco and Jacinta were declared venerable by Pope John Paul II in a public ceremony at Fatima on 13 May 1989. Pope John Paul II returned there on 13 May 2000 to declare them 'blessed'. Jacinta is the youngest non-martyred child ever to be beatified.

In 1941, Lucia claimed that the Virgin Mary had predicted the deaths of two of the children during the second apparition on 13 June 1917. Some accounts, including the testimony of Olímpia Marto, mother of Francisco and Jacinta, stated that her children did not keep the secrets and ecstatically predicted their own deaths many times to her and to the curious pilgrims. According to a 1941 account, on 13 June, Lucia asked Virgin Mary if the three children would go to heaven when they died. She said that she heard Mary reply, "Yes, I shall take Francisco and Jacinta soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart." Lucia died on 13 February 2005 at the age of 97.

On Tuesday, 13th May 2010, Pope Benedict XVI, who is marking the 93rd anniversary of the Virgin Mary's reported apparitions, visited Fatima, now one of the most popular Christian shrines in Europe. The chapel there is built on the site where Lucia Santos, Jacinta and Francisco claimed to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary in 1917.

The site was also popularized by the late Pope John Paul II, who visited three times, believing it was Our Lady of Fatima who helped save him from an attempted assassination in 1981. On Wednesday, Pope Benedict prayed in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary, who wears a gold and silver crown in which his predecessor placed the bullet which nearly killed him.

Off-the-track: note the number of times the number 13 repeats in this historical story. Does number 13 have any significance? Do you believe in miracles?

Pope to investigate apparition of Virgin Mary in Bosnia

Our Lady of Međugorje, aka Queen of Peace, is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who appeared to six Croat children in Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 24, 1981. On that day young Mirjana Dragicevic and Ivanka Ivankovic saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a village in Bosnia-Hercegovina in Europe. The next day four more children, Marija Pavlovic, Jakov Colo, Vicka Ivankovic and Ivan Dragicevic had the vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, according to reports.

Reports say, since then she has purportedly been appearing to the six visionaries, and many miracles have been reported, such as, ‘the sun spinning, dancing in the sky, turning colors, or being surrounded by objects such as hearts or crosses.” Many people claim that they could look at the sun without any damage to their eyes, and the tall cement cross erected on Mount Podbrdo has disappeared and reappeared, or glowed as if lit with lights, although there is no electricity there. Miracle healing has also been reported.

It may be noted that Vatican has not endorsed these claims. However, the Roman Catholic Church has declared that it cannot be affirmed that the reported apparitions are supernatural in character.

On 4th June 2008 Pope Benedict XVI blessed the statue of Our Lady of Međugorje in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City. On 28 July 2009, the Pope granted a request for laicisation from Father Tomislav Vlašić, who had been under investigation for ‘dubious doctrine, the manipulation of consciences, suspect mysticism and disobedience towards legitimately issued orders.’ He was also accused of sexual immorality with a nun which case he had covered up.

"We are now awaiting a new directive on this issue", Cardinal Vinko Puljic, who is the head of the Bosnian Bishops' conference told the press. "I don't think we must wait for a long time, I think it will be this year, but that is not clear… I am going to Rome in November and we must discuss this…It is not a sin to pray, it's not a sin to hear confessions, it is not a sin to give penance, this is a good climate. But this phenomenon, apparitions or visions, falls to the (Vatican) commission... It is a very delicate question."

Currently Međugorje has become one of the most popular pilgrimage sites, with over30 million pilgrims having visited since the first sighting of ‘Our Lady, as the local people call her. Many people have claimed to have witnessed strange phenomena including ‘the sun spinning in the sky or changing colors and figures such as hearts and crosses around the sun’.

On Wednesday, 17 March 2010, Vatican announced a commission to investigate the claims, and that Pope Benedict XVI had formed an investigative commission composed of cardinals, bishops, and other experts that will report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the top doctrinal body.