She
appeared, “brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and
stronger than a crystal glass filled with the most sparkling water and
pierced by the burning rays of the sun,” according to Lucia Santos, the
oldest of the trio.
During her appearances, the children said, Mary made numerous
revelations to them. She called on them to do penance and make
sacrifices. Most importantly, said Andre Marie, she told the children
to say the Rosary every day.
According to Marie, Mary told the children, “War is a punishment for sin.”
“She told them the rosary was the key to peace,” he said.
As Mary continued to appear, the children told others of the
apparitions. Crowds began to gather. By Oct. 13, 1917, about 70,000
people had gathered to view a promised miracle.
According to Marie, witnesses reported the sun became a silver disk
spinning in the sky, radiating colors of light. The light caused bushes
and shrubs to glow various colors. The sun then seemed to detach itself
from the sky, zigzagged, and plunged toward earth. People were
screaming for their life and falling to their knees.
The event is reported to have lasted 10 minutes, said Marie.
In her final appearance to the children, Mary said, “I am the Lady of Our Rosary.”
“She didn’t say ‘I am the mother of Jesus,’ or ‘the mother of God’,
or ‘the blessed virgin.’ She wanted to be identified with the rosary,”
Marie said.
In all of her appearances she had a rosary in her hand, he added.
For this reason praying the rosary for peace will be the primary focus of the Rosary Rally.
The Roman Catholic Church officially accepted the events at Fatima as the “Miracle of the Sun” on Oct. 13, 1930.
The controversies
Many
controversies surround the events at Fatima. For example, no scientist
anywhere in the world registered the described movement of the sun that
day.
Some scientists say the event could have been a naturally occurring meteorological phenomenon.
Stuart Campbell, in the Journal of Meteorology in 1989, postulated a
cloud of stratospheric dust changed the appearance of the sun, making
it easy to look at, and causing it to change colors. Others claim a
“sun dog” — an atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with the
reflection of sunlight in numerous small ice crystals in clouds — or a
cloud of dust blowing off the Sahara desert could have caused the event.
Some people claim mass hysteria, fatigue, fear, religious fervor, or
a combination of factors could have caused sightings such as were
reported at Fatima.
Marie remains a believer. The fact that no scientists registered the
event, to him, is further proof of the supernatural nature of the
phenomenon.
“Only those gathered at Fatima saw the entire miracle,” he said.
Further, “A sun-dog is a stationary event, so that would not explain the sun’s movement (zigzagging) in the sky,” he said.
Even if the event could have occurred naturally, the fact that Mary predicted it ahead of time makes it a miracle, Marie said.
Santos, the oldest of the children to whom the visions occurred,
became a Carmelite Sister. She gave no interviews or statements to the
public without permission from her order. She died Feb. 13, 2005.
Marie said the rally in Keene is a time to promote Mary’s message of prayer, penance, conversion and consecration.
“The message of Fatima is the secret to how to end wars. That’s a cause everyone can be interested in,” he said.
The Rosary Rally will be held Oct. 13, noon to 2 p.m. on Central Square in Keene.
