When considering current events, the Fatima-minded among us like to keep in mind the fact that the Virgin’s revelations and requests to Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia have not yet been fulfilled. She said that if Russia were not converted, that nation would “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.” Our Lady did not say that all those things would happen all at once. While the good have been martyred for sure (explicitly by the spread of Russia’s errors, including Communism), and while the Holy Father(s) have had much to suffer, it does not appear that nations have yet been annihilated. But now, we read that various European nations are on the brink of collapse. The EU Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, fears the disappearance of democracy in Spain, Portugal, Greece, and other nations. (By democracy, of course, Europeans usually mean liberal socialist republics, but that’s a different matter.) Could this be what Our Lady had in mind? Not that She would especially care about the collapse of “democracy” — something Christian Europe was quite well off without — but the fears thus expressed by the Portuguese EU Commission President could be rooted in a danger so menacing that it could lead to national “annihilation.”
The article I linked to at MailOnline has an image picturing three heads of state. The caption reads, “An end to democracy in Europe could see a return of figures ruling dictatorships. General Franco was dictator of Spain until 1975; Georgios Papadopoulos led a military junta until 1973; and Antonio de Oliveira Salazar ruled as Portugese president until 1968.” Bluntly speaking, if a Franco or a Salazar were to rise to power in Spain or Portugal, we would be much better off. Neither was a “dictator” — a term liberal newspaper stylebooks like to apply to Catholic Statesmen who are both statesmen and Catholics in the real meanings of the words. (I’ll take a pass on Papadopoulos, about whom I know little.)
But a new Franco in Spain or a new Salazar in Portugal would not be the annihilation of nations. The situation in the 1930’s — to which analysts are now comparing the present state of things — saw Europe’s nations becoming either Communist or Nazi in their alliances. Often they became puppets of Hitler or Stalin. This was a dreadful situation avoided by a few (including Spain and Portugal, thanks to their unjustly vilified Catholic leaders). Just how will the “annihilation of nations” happen? Perhaps the EU itself will rise to dictatorial status. Who knows? Maybe those scoundrels who just met in Spain have some ideas.
While I cannot give answers to these questions, I do know that only Mary can help us, because that is the will of God — to glorify Himself, His Church, His Vicar, and His Mother all at the same time by the striking realization of all the Fatima prophesies.
In 1931, Our Lord dictated two prayers to Sister Lucy. The humble visionary had just been praying for the conversion of Spain, Portugal, Europe, Russia, and the world when Jesus appeared to her. He said, “You please Me very much by asking for the conversion of these nations. Ask it also of My Mother.” Then he recited these prayers for Sister Lucy to learn and offer herself:
Sweet Heart of Mary be the salvation of Russia, Spain, Portugal, Europe and the whole world.
By Thy pure and Immaculate Conception, O Mary, obtain for me the conversion of Russia, Spain, Portugal, Europe, and the whole world.
Whatever the power elites have in mind for the Mother Continent, Heaven has other things in mind. “Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid” (Heb. 4:16). The Church’s liturgy applies this verse of St. Paul’s to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Introit for the Feast of August 22). Our Lady’s Heart is the “throne of grace” whence comes the salvation of Russia, Spain, Portugal, Europe, and the whole world.
