THE THREE LITTLE SHEPHERDS OF FATIMA
Note. More than a year ago I edited this article in this blog in order to raise awareness of the serious need that Catholics in general have to respond at least to the demands of the Blessed Virgin Mary requested in 1917 in Fatima Portugal. I know well that the current ecclesiastical authorities, contrary to these requests, have not complied and will not comply, which is already very serious, with what she had sent in Fatima.
On the other hand, the danger of a third world war is increasingly imminent, everything is in the recklessness of one of the world powers involved in this global conflict, are we prepared?
According to the psychic children of Fatima, in the third apparition of the Virgin, on July 13, 1917, the Lady told them that later she would return to ask for the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. And he added: 'If they heed my requests, Russia will convert and there will be peace; if not, it will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have to suffer much, various nations will be annihilated. At last, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, which will be converted, and a time of peace will be granted to the world. ' When the Virgin explained this, it was 4 months since the Tsar had abdicated, but Russia was not yet a communist and atheist regime. Kerénsky and a provisional government ruled and Russian troops were losing ground in World War I against Germans and Austrians. But a couple of months after the appearance, on September 26, the Bolshevik Revolution triumphed and Lenin was the president of what was to be the Soviet Union. The USSR "spread its errors throughout the world": a third of the earth's surface would assume a communist regime, and abortion, which the USSR was the first country to legalize, is today hegemonic. For 70 years in Russia and 40 in Eastern Europe , the Catholic Church and other Christian churches were persecuted, harassed and martyred, with hundreds of thousands of people killed by the state for their faith. There is still persecution and harassment in communist countries such as China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea and - somewhat reduced - in Cuba. On March 25, 1984 in St. Peter's Square in Rome, before an image of the Virgin of Fatima, John Paul II consecrated "the world and Russia" to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. in union with all the bishops of the world, but this consecration did not meet the requirements requested by Our Lady at Fatima. (But the Virgin asked that only Russia be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart, but not united to the world) Five years later, the Eastern bloc collapsed. But did Russia convert? Sickles, hammers ... and the minister crosses himself On May 9, 2015, Moscow's Red Square hosted a huge military parade to celebrate 70 years of victory against the German Third Reich.
Lenin's mausoleum was modestly covered by screens of ephemeral architecture. There were flags and ensigns of the regiments from the 1940s, with huge hammers and sickles. The Cuban Raúl Castro and the Chinese president, two communist dictators in the XXI century, next to Putin in the tribune of honor, saw the Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoygu arrive by car, solemnly passing under the Spasskaya door (of El Salvador ). .. with his head uncovered and crossing himself, as a sign of respect under the icon of Christ ... something that Russian television pointed out in detail and parsimony (can be seen here at minute 8 seconds 8 , with sickles and hammers at minute previous). The Russian defense minister crosses himself as he passes under the icon of the Savior at the entrance to Red Square to begin the victory parade on May 9, 20. That may have just encouraged Castro to be spiritual the next day. during his visit to Pope Francis and talk about how he might go back to praying and being a Catholic. But political and television gestures are of little use to tell whether Russia "has converted." Statistics (which consists of asking people) gives more data. The most serious source in this regard is usually the independent polling center Levada Center ( www.levada.ru ). In 2012, an article from Sreda.org (a website specialized in religious sociology) pointed out that although almost all citizens who declare themselves ethnically Russian also declare themselves orthodox, when specifying, few are religious. For example, only 11% of those who call themselves Orthodox admitted to observing the Lenten fasts, which in Orthodox Russian culture is an important indicator.
According to a more modern survey by the Russian foundation "Public Opinion" (at http://fom.ru ) the number of those who position themselves as Orthodox reaches 72% of the Russian population (it must be taken into account that there are significant minorities Muslim and, in areas such as Tuba, Buddhist, these two religions being recognized as official and historical in the country). However, the same survey finds that only 4% of Russians say they go to churches with some regularity.
On Orthodox Christmas Day, an important and very popular holiday, the police tend to give attendance data to temples in the country: they assure that only 2.4% of the population attends. That would be 2.5 million people (it is never very clear how it is counted: Moscow is not the same as country villages ... it is not easy to move in the middle of winter in the country looking for a church ). The Orthodox who believe that God does not exist! Another data from 2012 from the Levada Center that is usually given is that 60% of those who declare themselves "orthodox" do not consider themselves "religious people", and in fact only 40% of those who declare themselves Orthodox say they are "sure" that God exists. There are even 30% of Orthodox who believe that God does not exist. So what does "being orthodox" mean to them? Basically that one is not a Muslim Tatar, nor an atheistic communist, nor a Jew, that one is a "Russian" ... and that is why he defines himself as orthodox. The sociologist Natalia Zorkaya from the Levada Center stated in April 2015 that even those who go to the Easter Vigil do not really follow the liturgy (as majestic as it is long and incomprehensible for those who have not been trained,celebrated in Church Slavonic). The assistants there They light candles in front of icons, pray, bless ritual breads, commission masses for someone and, as a rule, imagine the significance of the theology being celebrated far above. “Everyone has their icons on their cars, all hospitals have their icons on the walls, they are everywhere . It is a mass phenomenon, it is not a testimony of faith . In the heads of our believers there is a total mix, ”explains Zorkaya.
This expert believes that the Orthodox Church pays little attention to the formation of its faithful . “The Russian Orthodox Church is very archaized, it speaks to believers in a language they do not understand . Yes, society really asks for high values, but people cannot meet those demands through the Orthodox Church, "says Zorkaya. Two waves: the fall and the Putin era In 2012 Boris Dubin, another Levada researcher, established the two waves in that post-Soviet Russians assumed their rediscovered but not studied orthodoxy
- In 1989, when the wall fell, only 30% of Russians said they were Orthodox; just 5 years later, 56% said they were Orthodox.
- In a second wave, of From 2000 to 2008, assuming the patriotism proposed by Putin, the percentage rose to 75%. To be a good Russian, a patriot, was to declare oneself orthodox. No need to go through the church. More information: 80% of the Russian Orthodox never or almost never take Communion, 55% do not attend any liturgy , 90% admit that they have no responsibilities or any parish participation.
There are two "typical" portraits of the Orthodox Christian in Russia today. The majority are women and the elderly, without higher education, who live in towns or small cities, and declare themselves Christians. The second "portrait", a very minority, is that of the converts, young city intellectuals with higher education. And Internet.
Dubin points out that these Christians view the Orthodox Church as an extension of public power. Just as they do not demand much of political power, they do not demand it of the Orthodox Church: they do not ask for training, evangelization, mission or shepherding ... Blessing of eggs and cakes on Orthodox Easter, a custom that leads to many to church that day
"Go and make disciples" is not "go and baptize" But Jesus is demanding. He not only asked his apostles to "go and baptize" (which, more or less, is done in Russia). He also asked them to "make disciples", that is, to turn people into students and followers of a Master . And that is not done in Russia. In any case, the Virgin at Fatima did not promise "Russia will be christened "but" Russia will be converted. "You could see the effort that Christians (including Catholics) are making to convert Russia. Catholic missionaries in Russia always give an example: how is it possible that religious orders with schools all over the world, such as Piarists, Salesians, Jesuits, etc ... that open schools in Muslim, Buddhist, Communist or Hindu countries, don't have a single Catholic school in Russia? Here is an anomaly. Much work remains, it seems, for the "Russia to convert".
But how this will happen you do not have the slightest idea at least on the human plane, not so on the supernatural plane since it depends on God.
Can anything be done humanly speaking for this conversion of Russia? Actually yes; "That we stop offending God, that the first Saturdays of the month be observed in honor of the Immaculate of Mary and that the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary be spread as Our Lady commanded in Fatima.
It is sad to see that these three requests, as you can see today, have not been fulfilled as Our Lady requested and, in a way, put mildly, we Catholics have a certain guilt in not seeing that conversion of Russia to Catholicism. If to it we add a direct attack by the current modernist authorities to the wishes of the Virgin in Fatima since the Second Vatican Council? Conversion is certainly far from done.
From 1917 until the Pontificate of SS Pius XII, the first Saturdays and the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary had a very great boom, but these two actions during the pontificates of John XXIII to the current pontiff, the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary has come to a less resounding loss and tends to “disappear” if those last words of Our Mother in heaven were not involved: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph”.
Can the few Catholic priests and also the Catholic parishioners help fulfill the request of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Perhaps this contributes not to the conversion of Russia, but to lessen the punishment that looms over humanity like the sword of Damocles.
Today Russia has become the second military power thanks to its modern weapons capable of "destroying the earth five times" and if it continues like this it may soon be the first military power. On the other hand, the current president of that nation intends to return to Soviet Russia with the global dangers that this entails.
His union or alliance with China and Iran complete the apocalyptic panorama described by Saint John in Revelation ch. 13 vers. 1 onwards. If to this we add the erroneous and aggressive policies of the West with the United States at the head, whose harassment of the Russian borders is increasingly violent and blatant, with a single recklessness, either on one side or the other, the so-called "Armageddon" will be unleashed. and the famous "mutual assured destruction" or nuclear exchange between Russia against the United States and the West will come.
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