Fatima Centennial: The Miracle of the Sun turns 100

October 13, 1917 – 2017

Fatima Centennial:
The Miracle of the Sun turns 100

Image © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro / CC BY-SA 3.0

The big day has finally arrived: Today, October 13, marks the 100th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. It was witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people because it had been announced ahead of time by Our Lady herself, the “woman clothed with the sun” (Apoc 12:1). With this great of a miracle, the message is pretty clear: Pay attention! Although no Catholic is obliged to believe in the Fatima apparitions, the Church judged them worthy of belief in 1930, and Popes Benedict XV, Pius XI, and Pius XII all gave their approval in some form or another.

The purpose of this post is to re-acquaint people with the story of Fatima, its message, and its dire predictions for the future should the warnings from Heaven go unheeded — as well as recalling the controversies that have surrounded the Vatican II Sect’s attempt to distort and neutralize Fatima, turning it into a promo for the apostate “Saint” John Paul II.

Resources on Fatima

The Vatican II Sect’s Trashing of Fatima

Third Secret & Other Fatima Controversies

Let us never forget that no matter how bleak things are looking, God has not forgotten us. We are living through very historic moments — we are witnessing the Mystical Passion of the Church. Let us take to heart our Lord’s holy and reassuring Words: “Fear not, only believe” (Mk 5:36).

We will end this post by sharing some images relating to the Fatima apparitions.

70,000 People witness the Miracle of the Sun

Image: Wikimedia Commons / public domain

A close-up of some of the many people witnessing the miracle

Image: Wikimedia Commons / public domain

An account of the Miracle of the Sun
(click to enlarge)

Image: Wikimedia Commons / public domain

The Oct. 29, 1951 issue of the Italian paper La Domenica del Corriere printed Cardinal Federico Tedeschini’s sermon revealing that Pope Pius XII himself had witnessed a repeat of the Miracle of the Sun in the Vatican Gardens on several occasions in late October and early November 1950. The cover image of the paper can be viewed here.

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8 Responses to “Fatima Centennial: The Miracle of the Sun turns 100”

  2. Novus Ordo Watch

    The Fatima apparitions fall into the category of ‘private revelation’, and the Church teaches that there is no obligation for a Catholic to believe in private revelations. That’s all I can tell you.

    • Timotheos

      The obligation to believe in a private revelation is incontestably of a different order from that required for public revelation. There may indeed be no obligation at all if the message was directed to a single individual alone and supernatural proofs of its authenticity are lacking. But to the extent that such revelations are directed to a wider audience and supernatural proofs of their authenticity are so abundant that the Church herself has formally confirmed her belief in them, the obligation must scale up appreciably.

      If any theologian has taught in the past that ALL so-called ‘private revelations’, irrespective of their nature, can be disregarded without sin, I would suggest that he should not be trusted for a moment on this point.

      • Eric H

        Catholic Encyclopedia on Private Revelations (link):

        There are two kinds of revelations: (1) universal revelations, which are contained in the Bible or in the depositum of Apostolic tradition transmitted by the Church. These ended with the preaching of the Apostles and must be believed by all; (2) particular or private revelations which are constantly occurring among Christians (see CONTEMPLATION). When the Church approves private revelations, she declares only that there is nothing in them contrary to faith or good morals, and that they may be read without danger or even with profit; no obligation is thereby imposed on the faithful to believe them. Speaking of such revelations as (e.g.) those of St. Hildegard (approved in part by Eugenius III), St. Bridget (by Boniface IX), and St. Catherine of Siena (by Gregory XI) Benedict XIV says: “It is not obligatory, nor even possible to give them the assent of Catholic faith, but only of human faith, in conformity with the dictates of prudence, which presents them to us as probable and worthy of pious belief” (De canon., III, liii, 15; II, xxii, II).

        The rest of the article is worth reading too.

  3. Eric H

    I think the idea was that chastisements were coming unless people repented of their sins and amended their lives. We are all obligated to correspond with God’s grace and to become good Catholics; the Fatima apparitions didn’t make any difference to that. People don’t need to know about or to believe in the apparitions in order to do their religious duties.

  4. Eric H

    I agree with you, except I think the obligation to believe a credible private revelation is based on the natural law, which obliges us to be prudent and reasonable. It would be circular to say that the divine communication imposes the obligation to believe it; that would require you to believe it before deciding to believe it.

    Of course the natural law is part of the divine law, so perhaps we are already saying the same thing.

  5. Eric H

    It makes sense that the pope and bishops were not free to disregard the request for the consecration of Russia, but this implies that the authenticity of Our Lady’s request had to be made sufficiently clear to them. The miracle of the sun witnessed by Pius XII apparently made it clear to him at least.

    I had in mind the rank and file when I said people don’t need to know about or to believe in Fatima. Not that they shouldn’t, just that it’s not a strict obligation.

    With regard to revelation, public and private have special meanings. What the Cath. Encyc. article calls universal revelation is often called public revelation. Everything else is called private revelation, even if it’s witnessed by and intended for a large group of people.

  6. Eric H

    I don’t know a good source on what “worthy of belief” means. I agree that it’s rash and presumptuous to say that a church-approved private revelation is bad.

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