“But those who think that the prophecy of Fatima has exhausted its task are very wrong. Fatima speaks to us today more than ever and Our Lady is continuing, without pause, her plan of Salvation.”+
“We asked Diego Manetti, an internationally renowned mariologist and author of the book of the Compass Why Does Our Lady Appear to help us understand how these supernatural facts, happened over a century ago, call each of us by name today.+
We are at 13 May 2019, we have even passed the fateful centenary (2017) of the apparitions of the Madonna at the Cova da Iria. Well, do you still have something to tell us about Fatima today? +
I believe that today the anniversary of Fatima is even more important than two years ago, the year in which the centenary was celebrated.+
What do you mean?
In the sense that the more we go on in time, the more Fatima becomes current.
Why, Manetti? +
The answer lies in the very close thread that links Fatima to Medjugorje. I think that the words that Pope Benedict XVI spoke on May 13, 2010, when he went on a pilgrimage to Fatima, are showing themselves more and more true, the closer we get to the completion of Medjugorje, and therefore also of Fatima.+
Let us take a step back and briefly recall what the Holy Father said on that occasion …
After commenting on the third secret at the time it was revealed (2000), Benedict XVI revised his position in a more apocalyptic sense, pronouncing words that later became very famous : ‘Anyone who thought that the prophetic mission of Fatima is concluded would be deceived’ … May these seven years that separate us from the centenary of the apparitions hasten the foretold triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the Glory of the Most Holy Trinity.+
Are you telling us that the prophecies of Fatima are not yet fulfilled? +
Exactly, one must realize that the perspective with which one must look at Fatima is open and is not simply the memory of a past. There is a promise that surely has begun to be realized, but which, even today, awaits its final fulfillment.+
Let’s go back to Medjugorje: what links these last and alleged apparitions of today to Fatima? +
When Our Lady says in Medjugorje: ‘I came for the last time to call the world to conversion. Then I will not appear again.’ And when she adds: ‘My children, be ready because this time is a turning point,’ she is just saying that between Fatima and Medjugorje there is an open project …+
Which?+ +
We often focus on the third part of the secret revealed on July 13th 1917, but to really understand it we must first look at the second part, when Our Lady promises: “My Immaculate Heart will triumph!” This identical promise returns insistently to Medjugorje. It is October 2, 2010 when the Queen of Peace says: “Pray for your pastors, I will triumph with them”. And again: “Help My Immaculate Heart to triumph in a world of sin”. It must also be said that the prospect of “triumph” always follows decisive messages that make us understand how there is an unleashing of Evil going on. I refer, for example, to the message of January 1, 2001 when Our Lady says: “Now that Satan is released from the chains,
Manetti, you say that everything is still open, yet the Madonna had promised Lucia dos Santos of Fatima, that she would not die without seeing the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart. Lucia left us in 2005: how can we explain this? +
Our Lady always keeps her promises, and in fact, in Fatima, a first fulfillment of the prophecy is indicated: ‘Russia will convert.’ This happens regularly: Communism dissolves and the Immaculate Heart of Mary triumphs over the empire of evil, or rather that atheistic and materialistic ideology that for seventy years had subdued the ‘Soviet Union, spreading apostasy throughout the world. What I mean, though this was just the beginning, Lucia saw the principle of fulfillment …+
According to her: when and how will the prophecy of Fatima be fulfilled?++
The fulfillment will take place precisely with the secrets of Medjugorje and with their full realization, it is in Medjugorje that Our Lady herself says: ‘Here I will exhaust my role.’ This is a really important point to clarify because, if I don’t look at Fatima as an open prophecy, I don’t even understand our time. That is, I do not understand that between Fatima and Medjugorje there is in the middle a century of trial that will enter us in recent times. But be careful though: those who say we are at the ‘end of time’ are wrong, because the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is not the end of the world, but it is the victory of the first of the two eschatological battles described in the Apocalypse. Therefore, if anything, the opposite is true: we are not at the end of time, but we are on the eve of a long time of Peace that many of us will surely be able to see and enjoy. It is that time that elapses between the first fight, when the Woman dressed in the Sun (Our Lady) wins and binds the devil, and the final fight. But before the Peace, the ten secrets must be fulfilled …”
[resources: Where the Cross Stands]
[Michael Brown podcast with Zach Martin: Signs of the Times]