Ukraine,War and Prophesy: Fatima for Beginners

Update: March 30, 2020

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine began in Istanbul three days after Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine. The consecration was requested by Ukrainian bishops and fulfils instructions attributed to the Virgin Mary at Fatima in1917.

The discussions started Monday March 28,2020 and have led to Russian troops withdrawing from a number of positions, including around Kiev. Ukrainian President Zelensky now says he's willing to consider key Russian demands, including neutrality.

The President of Russia's press spokesman ?says "The Ukrainian side,...has begun to formulate concretely and put down on paper what it proposes. ... This is a positive factor." He added however, " ... there is still a very, very long work to be done."

The Marian apparition at Fatima in 1917 was followed three days later by an end to one of the First World War's bloodiest battles. The first papal consecration in 1942 was followed by the beginning of the Soviet offensive at Stalingrad that marked the turning point against Nazi Germany. (see story below)

Did Pope Francis Just End the War in Ukraine with a Consecration?

In Saint Peter's, Pope Francis has led many of the planet's one billion Catholics "in a consecration of Russia, Ukraine, and humanity." It was broadcast live on Friday March 25, 2022 from the Vatican. The ceremony was far more than a simple global prayer for peace in Ukraine. It was a consecration of Russia and Ukraine.

The consecration was formally requested by the ?the?Episcopal Conference of Ukrainian Catholic Bishops as fighting with Russia continues to rage in their country.

This was the sixth papal consecration since Fatima. It was only the second time the consecration was conducted in communion with all the world's Catholic bishops.

This rare public act of spiritual reparation received little press coverage. And what thin ink it did get, like this article in the Associated Press, managed to scrupulously miss the main points. (The Vatican's press release fills in the gaps.) Counterbalancing the lack of coverage and accuracy, I've written a summary with background and context. It's a brief primer, conveying Fatima's prophecies and instructions. They were made public in the wake of the well documented apparitions and miracles at Fatima. Those events continue to change countless lives, transform hearts and fascinate the imagination.

A reader advisory: the terrain ahead will challenge those unaccustomed to entertaining seemingly inexplicable influences on our natural world and human events.

The Consecration

According to the Catholic Church, Mary herself, the Mother of God, called on Pope Francis to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.?

You can go here for a definition of the Immaculate Heart, and its centrality to Catholic teleology and the Four Last Things.

The Vatican claims the urgent request for the consecration came from Mary herself when she appeared to three peasant children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. Marian apparitions there began on May 13 and ended on October 13.?In our age, Pope Francis adds, Her warnings have a new urgency.

“We need to reject war, a place of death where fathers and mothers bury their children, where men kill their brothers and sisters without even having seen them, where the powerful decide and the poor die,” Pope Francis said..

So what is the warning, and does it still apply to us?

At Fatima, Mary told Lucia Dos Santos, Francisco Marto, and Jacinta Marto, that humankind must pray fervently and turn from violence and egotism, using the tools of penance and sacrifice to do so.?

(Image :Pope Francis Consecrating Russia and Ukraine, March 25, 2022 : Source: Youtube)

Inside the Warning?: Individual Actions = Global and Spiritual Consequences

The Queen of Heaven warned our failure to change would result in unparalleled planetary suffering, especially from devastating wars. "Entire nations will be destroyed," she says. The Vatican has investigated the apparitions and the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith has approved them as genuine.

The portentous dimension of the Fatima message is coupled with one of hope: Human beings can change the course of history and the fate of our planet. We do so by striving to transform our hearts. Our thoughts, words and deeds are not pre-programmed. We are free. And divine aid is awaiting everyone, everywhere, who heeds her call.

?Fatima's Backstory?

1917 was year three of the Industrial Slaughter that saw the trenches of World War One overflow with blood - the lifeblood of a generation, the flower of Europe. Take the month-long battle of Arras, for example. It ended just days after Fatima's first revelation on May 16, 1917. Within weeks, 288,000 British and German men, locked in hellacious combat, lost their lives on the battlefield of Arras.

The Battle of Arras took a greater daily death toll than any other battle fought by the British Empire in the First World War.

(Image: Battle of Arras May 1917 / Wiki Commons)

All together, the First World War saw 40 million civilians and soldiers killed. The "War to End All Wars" didn't. Instead, it laid the foundations for an even greater calamity just two decades later.?

The Second World War claimed 56 million lives. The Nuclear Terror of the Cold War was its malformed progeny.?

After the relative respites of the Cold War and the Collapse of Euro Communism, Ukraine has again become the fulcrum for Europe's Death Wish.

But this iteration threatens us with a new global conflagration that makes its predecessor pale in comparison. If the Ukrainian President is to be believed, World War Three may already have started.

The Alliance for Science, affiliated with Cornell University, cites one study that calculates a NATO-Russia Nuclear War would claim 770 million lives.

Those would be initial losses. All mainly civilians. Environmental destruction would lead to global famine and epidemics which would cost hundred of millions of additional lives.

This apocalyptic threat is no longer hypothetical. As Pope Francis's was preparing for the consecration, news outlets like Politico began warning that "the prospect is growing all to real" of a nuclear war.

Harvey Will Fill You In?

A number of popular movies have wrestled with the unsettling messages and prophecies of Fatima. Mary's apparition immediately became politically charged during the war years in Portugal, and continues to be controversial to this day. Harvey Keitel will take that up after a few more basics.

(Harvey Keitel in "Fatima" 2020 Source: Official Trailer/ Youtube)

So who is Mary? She is known as the "Queen of Heaven."?

Mary lived during the Second Temple Era in Judea under the Roman Occupation. The Catholic Church teaches God chose the Jewish teenager to bear His Son in human form. When She accepted this role, She became the Co-Redemptrix of the Universe, second only to the Holy Trinity. Also a Mediatrix, Mary mediates between heaven and earth, hence her many earthly visitations.

In Portugal, she spoke with three shepherd children.??

She told them our planet must unite in prayer and sacrifice. Global supplication, she promised, would move the people of Russia and Ukraine to love instead of hatred. Forgiveness will replace vengeance. Hope will replace despair. And not just among the combatant nations. For all of us.

Prayer, so the heavenly instructions go, coupled with fasting and penance, can change the human heart. The courage of love replaces fear. When that occurs, a nation moves to a Reign of Peace and freely submits itself to God's law. Eventually, all countries follow. The result is world peace.

For those interested in Piercing the Veil, Harvey Keitel does an excellent job of bringing new audiences closer to the mystical encounter behind Pope Francis's Consecration. He plays a non-believing priest in the latest cinematic representation of the miracles at Fatima. If you're new to the world of Marian apparitions, you'll want to watch the trailer.

"Fatima" (2020, Picturehouse )wrestles with the challenges of juxtaposing the natural and supernatural for the modern mindset.?

(Image: "Fatima" Official Trailer/Youtube)

???????????????????? Fatima: Exploring the Message?

At Fatima, Mary chose three children in an impoverished nation to save us from ourselves. The Path to Peace, She taught, travels through the human heart. Peace reigns when we reject anger and hate. Not mentally. Spiritually. Not in our heads. In our hearts.

Here are Her instructions for traveling that path:

1.) forego food and drink (fast)

2.) make personal sacrifices of comforts you enjoy (do penance)

3.) petition God for His forgiveness for your sins (pray)

It's a call to fasting, penance, and prayer (emphasising the daily rosary) as reparation for our cruelty and violence. This self-abnegation is an alien concept for many in our modern world of Instant Everything. And it undermines cultures and lives that prioritise materialism, egotism, and self-absorption.

As a daughter of Israel, Mary was steeped in the efficacy of fasting and penance. Indeed, communal fasting was often the key to surviving as a nation and a people of God. Moses established and taught fasting after the exodus from Egypt, a tradition followed by Jews and Christians for thousands of years.

Image: Moses by William Blake, Wiki commons

The Mediatrix at Fatima poses questions for us today: How often do we manage to call ourselves to account for our daily shortcomings? Do we take our hearts to task, even in small ways, when we torture, murder, and destroy that which is good, true and beautiful around us? Or inside us??

Do I confess my violence to those I've wronged? Do I offer reparation? Even if it's simply saying, "I'm sorry"?

At Fatima, the Mother of God calls us to atone. In the process, we have the chance to heal ourselves and the world.

Whether or not you are willing to offer Fatima any credence, there is wisdom in this. And taken to heart by enough of us, this seemingly rigorous path would surely change us, our families, and our communities. If all of Russia and Ukraine were to walk this path, might the killing end? Or are we impervious to improvement and condemned to a history dripping in the blood we shed, or beg others to shed for us?

(Image: German Soldiers in Stalingrad / Wiki Commons/Bundesarchiv)

?????????????? The First Consecration: A Conditional Success????????????????

The first of what are now five consecrations came during World War II. Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?through a radio message?on Oct.31, 1942.?

On November 19, 1942, the Red Army, under Marshal Georgy Zhukov, mobilised one million men to surround Stalingrad. Zhukov's victory there came on February 3, 1943. That day is considered the turning point in the war against the Nazis. After Stalingrad, the Third Reich's destruction was a matter of time.

Yes, the connection is not necessarily causality. Similarly, no amount of miracles will convince the skeptic, while no miracles are necessary for the believer.

Still, in the spirit of investigation, let's review the possible 1942 connection in light of the timing of the end of the Battle of Arras in 1917. Perhaps together they can be instructive as to the power of Fatima consecrations?

Fact: Just three days separate the first apparition at Fatima in 1917 from the end of the Battle of Arras during World War One.

Fact: Just three weeks separate Pope Pius XII's consecration of Russia from the start of the offensive that marks the turning point of World War Two. A stretch? Perhaps.

The parallels in timing and a possible connection with both the first apparition and the first consecration to major events in two World Wars are intriguing.

Causality or coincidence.

(Image: Battle of Arras 1917 /Wiki Commons)

???????????? Was the Papal Friday for the Future Successful?

The Theotokos (God-bearer) gave simple instructions at Fatima for ending our unbroken cycle of global warfare. Pope Francis's Consecration was central to fulfilling those instructions. Was the consecration successful? And could it mitigate or end the war in Ukraine and prevent an even worse war??

For the faithful, the answer is: Pray, Fast, Do Penance.?

For skeptics, a response can be: Give it a go.?

All we have to lose is a war.

(Image: "Fatima" 2020 Original Trailer/Youtube)