When three children saw Mary

Cambridge church keeps alive the compelling story of Our Lady of Fatima

This year marks the 90th anniversary of events in which the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three young shepherds near Fatima, a village in Portugal.

It's a story that has distressed some and comforted others. It contains secrets guarded for decades and provides fodder for conspiracy theorists. It has pitted the leaders of the church against some critics among the flock.

The Roman Catholic Church's feast day for Our Lady of Fatima is May 13.

But Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Cambridge marks it annually, with an outdoor procession, on the second weekend in July when the weather is a bit more favourable, said Rev. Antonio Cunha, the congregation's pastor.

Tonight, the Cambridge congregation venerates her with a candlelight procession. Tomorrow a public celebration of the Holy Spirit -- featuring another procession, a mass, free food, crafts, dancing and music -- runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

THREE CHILDREN

Three youngsters reported seeing six apparitions of the Virgin Mary, between May 13 and Oct. 13 in 1917. She delivered a series of laments, requests and prophecies -- some of which were not revealed until decades later.

At first, the vision didn't tell the children who she was. However, she asked them to perform penance and to pray the rosary for peace and for the souls of sinners.

Word of the apparitions spread.

The children's reports were highly controversial, said Paul Manuel, professor of politics at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.

Some people welcomed the reports of visions. Others scoffed, Manuel said in an interview.

At the time, Portuguese families were suffering because their men were being wiped out by German forces in First World War battles.

Also, an anti-clerical government had taken control of Portugal in 1910 and passed laws legalizing divorce. It was advocating more liberal abortion laws and had also closed monasteries and confiscated church property.

But only about two to three per cent of the population was allowed to vote, Manuel said. So pious Portuguese Roman Catholics "saw this as a broad attack, by a small government, against their way of life."

The children -- Lucia Dos Santos and her two younger cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto -- reported the vision told them if they prayed hard, the soldiers would come home soon from the war.

The vision also said God was deeply offended by the sins of mankind.

People understood those sins to be the war and the increasingly secular legislation, Manuel said.

The children's priest thought Lucia was sincere about the apparitions, Manuel said.

"He was concerned that perhaps . . . this was a trick of the devil."

SUSPICIONS GREW

The liberal secular media in Portugal made fun of the peasants' piety. Eventually, police questioned the families and their priest because the government believed the story of the visions had been created by the church to build anti-government opposition, Manuel said.

The children said the vision asked them to come to the same place on the 13th of each month during the summer. On one such occasion they asked for a miracle so that people would believe.

On Oct. 13, 1917, a large crowd -- estimated at about 70,000 -- gathered in the area where the children reported seeing their visions.

It was pouring rain. Reports indicate that around midday the children became fixated on something. Then the downpour stopped, the clouds dispersed and a dull, silver-coloured sun spun, danced and zig-zagged in the sky.

Some feared the world was ending.

But the sun returned to its place in the sky. And the wet clothes worn by many in the crowd, who had been drenched by the downpour, apparently dried in an instant, Manuel said.

Even the liberal anti-clerical media reported these events, he added.

"Something strange happened that day," he said. "We don't know what it was."

But the Roman Catholic Church is careful to endorse visions which are reported by the faithful frequently, Manuel said.

It wasn't until 1930 that the church declared something worthy of belief happened in Fatima.

WARNING ABOUT RUSSIA

Lucia, the eldest witness, became a nun. In 1941, she wrote that one of the apparitions had shown the children a vision of hell and told them they could help save many souls by praying.

The vision also predicted the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War if people didn't stop offending God.

The vision asked the church to devote Russia to her Immaculate Heart because Russia was about to commit a grave sin against God. If her requests were not heeded, Russia would spread its errors and persecute the church.

However, the vision ultimately said she would triumph, Lucia reported.

Believers argue that later events -- the end of the First World War, onset of the Second World War, the rise and eventual fall of the atheist Soviet Union -- are proof that the visions were real visits from the Virgin Mary.

The two younger shepherds died of illnesses within three years of their visions. They were beatified in 2000, a major step on the road to possible sainthood. Lucia died in 2005.

A large basilica and chapel were built at the spot where the children said they saw their visions. Today about five million pilgrims visit annually and there is still a large following of believers in Our Lady of Fatima around the world.

Cunha, pastor at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Cambridge, said belief in the visions is not dogma, like the Apostles' Creed, that requires fidelity from the faithful.

"It's optional," Cunha said. "It's up to you or me whether to believe."

THE THIRD SECRET

Beliefs surrounding Our Lady of Fatima remain controversial.

In 1944, Sister Lucia wrote about the vision that has become known as the Third Secret.

The vision depicted a bishop dressed in white walking among the bodies of Christian martyrs before being killed himself by bullets and arrows.

The church's official interpretation, released in 2000, is that the vision largely referred to past events -- persecution of Christians by an atheist Soviet Union and the failed assassination of Pope John Paul on Our Lady of Fatima's feast day in 1981. However, the church says the vision continues to call the world to penance and conversion in an effort to save souls.

But some argue that the interpretation is inadequate and that the church still hasn't fulfilled the vision's request for the church to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary.

Both sides have claimed that Sister Lucia, endorsed their divergent positions.