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Jesus appeared to engage in rioting when he <a href="https://www.catholic.com/qa/did-jesus-sin-in-cleansing-the-temple">made a whip of cords and drove out the moneychangers</a> from the temple in Jerusalem. Does that mean it&#8217;s okay to riot and loot businesses to protest the murder of George Floyd? Trent Horn explains why the two situations are completely different.

Jesus Was Not a Rioter

Karlo Broussard, the author of <a href="https://shop.catholic.com/purgatory-is-for-real/">Purgatory is for Real</a>, addresses an email correspondent who asks: &#8220;Isn&#8217;t eternal punishment unfair for finite sins?&#8221;

Is Hell Unfair?

Thanksgiving is, in many ways, the quintessential American holiday. Its origins—an English non-conformist Protestant sect’s celebration with pagan Indians—hardly seems the stuff of Catholicism. Is the author then going to try to wedge a Catholic angle into Thanksgiving?
No. I’m going to argue that Thanksgiving is the quintessential Catholic celebration.
Why? Because we do it every day (except for <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/no-communion-on-good-friday">Good Friday</a>), when we celebrate the Eucharist. Eucharistia (εὐχαριστία) literally means “thanksgiving.” (No trademark infringement proceedings against Pilgrims anticipated.)
Whenever Catholics celebrate the Eucharist, they celebrate “thanksgiving”—thanksgiving that, in his sacrifice on the cross made present again here on the altar, Jesus Christ rescued us from death and gave us the opportunity for life everlasting. He restored to us what Adam had lost for us. Now the only reason to be lost is that you want to be.
That’s a lot to be thankful for.
And, I’d add, something to be constantly thankful for. It’s a paradox that the Pilgrims and certainly the Puritans—but to a large extent, most Protestants—actually marginalized the Eucharist. Yes, Catholics ideally have celebrated the Eucharist every day. But let’s make one thing perfectly clear: the Eucharist was the focus of what Christians gathering in churches every week for centuries celebrated. Up until the sixteenth century, the celebration of the Eucharist was the Sunday liturgy. It was what Christians East and West gathered for on the Lord’s Day.
It is only after the Protestant Revolution that the Eucharist was displaced by Bible reading and preaching services. That’s not to say that Protestants “recovered” the Bible, because they didn’t: the Christian Sunday liturgy was always composed of “the Liturgy of the Word” and “the Liturgy of the Eucharist.” In the ancient Church, the Liturgy of the Word came first, because catechumens (those preparing for baptism) gathered with Christians to hear it. But they were then dismissed. Only those “initiated in the mysteries”—i.e., baptized and not serious sinners—took part in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. What John Calvin et al. did was amputate the central act of the Church’s weekly liturgy—her liturgy of “thanksgiving”—reducing it to a monthly or quarterly occasional “service.”
Besides being historically ungrounded, the marginalization of the Eucharist arguably undermined what Karol Wojtyła (the future St. John Paul II) called the Christian “attitude of thanksgiving.”
In his pre-papal book, Sources of Renewal, Wojtyła speaks of “consciousness” and “attitudes.” “Consciousness” is an awareness of certain realities (like “creation”) seen explicitly through the Christian lens. “Creation” is a “consciousness,” an awareness of all that we have that didn’t have to be, even if it is; that it did not come about randomly or accidentally, but by the design of a loving intellect and will (however that intellect and will arranged for it to happen); and that it is good. We can see how that “consciousness of creation” is at odds with secular presumptions of random chance, lack of design, and lack of intrinsic value. The man who is conscious of creation has already made an incipient act of faith.
“Attitudes” then define how we look at what we are conscious of. If we regard creation as gift, good, and intended, our attitude should be one of thanksgiving. As everything that exists is created and depends on God—not just for a one-time creation from which he is now on permanent leave (deism), but rather his constant sustaining presence (since contingent being is <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/an-acorn-for-atheists">not self-sufficient</a>)—man can never evade creation. And since he can never evade something that did not have to be, but is, and is good, how can his attitude be anything but a constant act of thanksgiving?
We should not be surprised, therefore, that the Church’s tradition from its earliest days (e.g., Acts 20) was to celebrate the Eucharist (i.e., “break bread”) on “the first day of the week.” (Please spare the tendentious attempts to claim that this was just a farewell supper for Paul.) Neither should we be surprised that, in her best spiritual tradition, the Church sought to celebrate Eucharist as often as she could, even daily. She could not avoid sacramental thanksgiving when thanksgiving is the essential attitude of Christians—not just for the creation that constantly surrounds them, but in consciousness of redemption from sin and death through Jesus’ death and resurrection, a reality made present in the Eucharist.
Familiarity sometimes breeds forgetfulness, and so perhaps we sometime forget thanksgiving for creation and redemption. But circumstances also sometimes make human beings particularly aware of what they have to be thankful for. Those Pilgrims still alive in the fall of 1621—roughly half—had reasons to be thankful. They had not succumbed to disease. They had not landed among hostile Native Americans. They managed to produce an initial harvest. The darkest months seemed arguably behind them. They had reason to be thankful and, in that act, also bequeathed to a nation they would know nothing of a tradition it still keeps four centuries later.
But the Christian origins of thanksgiving go back not to a harvest festival. They go back to a Last Supper.

A Catholic Approach to Thanksgiving

Did the prophet Elisha command a bear to maul a group of boys who mocked him? Jimmy Akin gives the Catholic Answer.

What’s with 2 Kings 2:23-25?

<div>Why did Vatican City end up in Rome, as opposed to another location, like Jerusalem?</div><div>It is not Rome that &#8220;inherited&#8221; the primacy of St. Peter, it is St. Peter&#8217;s successor who inherits the primacy. St. Peter died in Rome, and that is where he was succeeded by Pope St. Linus. At one time in Church history, valid popes were stationed in Avignon, France. The successor of St. Peter is where the primacy subsists, not the location.
Rome is where the successor of St. Peter has traditionally been bishop, because that is where Sts. Peter and Paul died, and it is historically where he has almost always been (except for the Avignon years). Early Church Fathers often referred to Pope St. Linus as succeeding Peter in Rome.
The bishops of Antioch and Jerusalem cannot claim to have succeeded St. Peter, because St. Peter was still active after leaving those cities. The bishops of Rome were seen as the high authority in the early Church, evidenced by Pope Clement&#8217;s letter to Corinth in which he has no doubts that he has the authority to intervene in the local Church dispute. And by the third century, St. Cyprian made no hesitation to refer to Rome as the chair of Peter and the principle Church.
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Why Is the Vatican in Rome?

RuslanKD is a very respected YouTuber in the Evangelical space, and recently he made a video explaining why he wasn&#8217;t Catholic or Orthodox. Joe responds to his video explaining why he SHOULD BE CATHOLIC!
Transcript:
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THIS is Why Ruslan Should BE CATHOLIC…

On the kids-only edition of Catholic Answers Live, Fr. Hugh Barbour explains how God is made, and how &#8220;made&#8221; means something different with God than it does with everything else.

Kids’ Show: How Was God Made?

Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by historian Will Durant as “the most brilliant writer that ever lived,” Voltaire produced novels, plays, and histories. His first love was theater, a passion he cultivated during a stay in England with exposure to Shakespeare’s works, but he is mostly known for his satirical, witty, and critical commentaries on politics and religion. His satirical novel and philosophical fantasy Candide is still read and admired nearly three centuries after its publication in 1758.
Voltaire may have remained just a gifted French writer of the eighteenth century if not for his association with the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment came to the forefront of European life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and comprised numerous philosophes, who contributed to the so-called “Age of Reason.”
Enlightenment intellectuals were not a monolithic group, but they shared a general critical and even inimical attitude toward organized religion. Voltaire, and other philosophes, condemned organized religion generally and the Catholic Church particularly. They believed that society was happier without the influence of the Church, which they argued contained selfish, ruthless clerics who demanded unconditional obedience from the superstitious multitude and enforced societal conformity through violent persecution. Faith enslaved the mind, and it was only reason that could “enlighten” the intellect and free it from the darkness of faith.
Enlightened thinkers examined other topics besides religion and questioned nearly every aspect of society, including humanity in general. Many Enlightenment intellectuals viewed humans in different groups and advocated that some ethnic groups were different species and less human than others, especially the natives of America and Africa. Voltaire delved into these discussions and argued that Africans were a completely different species of humans, destined for slavery.
Enlightenment intellectuals were not content just to discuss their ideas. They desired radical change in society, where “reason” reigned supreme and political, economic, and moral actions were unencumbered by Christian influence. The achievement of that goal depended on controlling the institutions of higher learning in Europe, which required weakening the Catholic Church’s role in society in general and the eradication of the Society of Jesus in particular.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits controlled hundreds of universities and seminaries in Europe. Enlightened philosophes embarked on a campaign to expel the Jesuits from European countries so that royal and secular control of their institutions of higher learning could occur, which would allow the cult of reason to become dominant.
Voltaire led the charge against the Church and the Jesuits by actively campaigning for their suppression. He recognized that if secular rulers could be convinced to expel the Society and confiscate their colleges and universities, it would be an easier task to convince those same rulers to suppress the Church and its influence in society. In 1773, he wrote, “Once we have destroyed the Jesuits, we shall have our own way with the infamous thing [l’infâme — i.e., the Church].” Once the Jesuits were suppressed, Voltaire wrote, “in twenty years there will be nothing left of the Church.” And indeed, Voltaire’s dream was realized twenty years later in his homeland, when the French revolutionary government persecuted Catholics, confiscated the property of the Church, and suppressed it.
The Enlightenment attack against the Jesuits began in Portugal, when King Joseph I (r. 1750-1777) signed a decree ordering their expulsion from Portugal and Brazil in 1755. A few years later, in 1764, King Louis XV (r. 1715-1774) expelled the Jesuits from France and all its dominions. The Spanish king Charles III (r. 1759-1788) followed suit and in 1767 ejected the Society from Spain and its territories.
Pope Clement XIV (r. 1769-1774) was under intense political pressure from the leading monarchs of Europe to enact ecclesiastical penalties against the Jesuits. The pontiff acquiesced on July 21, 1773 in the bull Dominus ac Redemptor, which suppressed the Society of Jesus after 239 years of faithful service to the Church. Although the pope did not pass judgment on the Society in terms of the charges brought against it by secular rulers, his shameful surrendering to political pressure caused the Jesuits to cease existing for a generation, until the Society was re-established by Pope Pius VII (r. 1800-1823) in 1814.
Freed from the “clutches” of the Jesuits, the colleges and universities of Europe were ripe for the influence and control of Enlightenment thinkers to take root. The age of faith had succumbed to the “age of reason,” which produced skepticism, moral relativism, and secular humanism.
Although many Enlightenment thinkers focused their attack mainly on the Church, they also sought the re-interpretation of academic subjects, including history. History, for the philosophes, provided an example of the barbarity and cruelty of humanity influenced by religion. Voltaire utilized historical events and persons as weapons against the Church by re-interpreting them through a lens of negativity and cynicism. He wrote that the Crusades were “marked by every cruelty, every perfidy, every debauchery, and every folly of which human nature is capable.” The Spanish Inquisition was the ultimate expression of religious intolerance; in the 1764 Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire described one inquisitor as the “embodiment of fanaticism.” And perhaps no greater martyr of intellectual freedom existed than the seventeenth-century Italian mathematician Galileo, who, according to Voltaire, “groaned away his days in the dungeons of the Inquisition, because he had demonstrated by irrefutable proofs the motion of the earth.” Apparently, the fact that Galileo’s most strident critics were fellow scientists, and that he did not irrefutably scientifically prove the earth’s motion, did not sway Voltaire from championing Galileo’s cause in his efforts to discredit the Church.
Interestingly, Voltaire’s public vitriol for the Church did not correlate to his private life. He built a chapel on Ferney, his estate; asked the pope to send relics for the altar; and etched the inscription, “Voltaire erected this to God” on the façade. Voltaire allowed his estate workers to attend Mass and provided instruction in the Catholic faith for their children. He expressed deep admiration for the Sisters of Charity and their work.
Toward the end of his life, Voltaire stated his desire for Christian burial upon his death, which was granted. Although he worked for the eradication of the Church’s dominance in political affairs, he appreciated the contribution of individual Christians to society and the necessity of personal faith in a Supreme Being for the general welfare.
Voltaire died a decade before the beginning of the French Revolution, but many contemporaries, along with modern scholars, credit his political and philosophical works for laying the foundation for that cataclysmic event and its catastrophic impact on the Catholic Church. However, those who ascribe credit to Voltaire for the Revolution fail to recognize that he would not have supported the radical elements who overthrew the monarchy and the Church. Voltaire desired an intelligentsia free from the supposed suffocation of the Church, but he certainly did not subscribe to the notions of democracy and rule by the common people.
Nonetheless, the Revolutionary government disinterred his remains from the Abbey of Selliéres in July 1791 and brought them to Paris in a wagon train, where they were interred in the Panthéon for veneration of the masses and the ultimate expression of gratitude from the “democratic” government. It is an ironic end to the story of one of the most indefatigable enemies of the Church.

Kill the Jesuits, Kill the Church

<div>When and why were the popes based in Avignon, France?</div><div>The Popes were in Avignon from 1309 to 1377.
In short, the influence of the French government resulted in the movement of the papal headquarters from Rome to Avignon. A clash between Pope Boniface VIII (r. 1294 -1303) and “Philip the Fair” of France (King Philip IV, r. 1295-1314) set in motion the events that would lead to the relocation, which took place during the pontificate of the French Pope Clement V (r. 1305-14). Clement V acceded to Philip IV’s demand to move the papal residence to Avignon.
St. Catherine of Siena was instrumental in ending the Avignon papacy. For more on this period in the Church, see <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/how-st-catherine-brought-the-pope-back-to-rome">this article by Steve Weidenkopf</a>.
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When and Why Were Popes in Avignon?

It’s that time of year again, when many Christians encounter claims that <a href="https://www.catholic.com/tract/is-catholicism-pagan">pagan</a> deities predating <a href="https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/jesus-christ">Jesus Christ</a> were born on December 25. In popular films, internet videos, and other media, you can find long lists of gods who were supposedly born on the same day.
This idea is not limited to unbelievers. I have heard many Christians claim that the date of Christmas was intended to provide an alternative to pagan celebrations. In some ways, it has become a pious legend. On the other hand, some Fundamentalist denominations refuse to celebrate Christmas for this reason.
Of all the deities of whom people make this claim, only three can be found to come close: Saturn, Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), and <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/exposing-the-mithras-myth">Mithras</a>.
<h2>1. Saturnalia</h2>
Saturnalia was the feast dedicated to the Roman god Saturn. Established around 220 B.C., this feast was originally celebrated on December 17. Eventually, the feast was extended to last an entire week, ending on December 23. The supposed connection to Christmas is based on the proximity of the two festivals to each other.
This can be found repeatedly on the internet. In his article &#8220;<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20120426224842/http://voices.yahoo.com/saturnalia-reason-we-celebrate-christmas-december-11973.html?cat=37" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Saturnalia: The Reason We Celebrate Christmas in December</a>&#8221; (also available <a href="https://www.stepbystep.com/Saturnalia-The-Reason-We-Celebrate-Christmas-in-December-135883/">here</a>), columnist Mark Whittington explains:
<blockquote>It has been suggested that Christians in the fourth century assigned December 25th as Christ&#8217;s birthday (and hence Christmas) because pagans already observed this day as a holiday. In this way the problem of eliminating an already popular holiday would be sidestepped, thus making the Christianizing of the population easier.</blockquote>
If the suggestion were correct, one would expect to find at least a single reference by early Christians to support it. Instead we find scores of quotations from Church Fathers indicating a desire to distance themselves from pagan religions.
<h2>2 (and 3). Sol Invictus and Mithras</h2>
The feast of Sol Invictus was the attempt by the Roman emperor Aurelian to reform the cult of Sol, the Roman sun god, and reintroduce it to his people, inaugurating Sol&#8217;s temple and holding games for the first time in 274. Not only was this festival not annual, but it also cannot be historically documented as having been established on December 25 by Aurelian (see Steven Hijmans, Sol Invictus, The Winter Solstice, and the Origins of Christmas, Mouseion, Series III, vol. 3, 377-398).
According to inscriptions on candle votives and other ancient works of art, there is a link between <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/exposing-the-mithras-myth">Mithras</a> and Sol Invictus. In some cases, it appears the Mithraists believed that Mithras and Sol were two different manifestations of the same god. In others, they appear to be two gods united as one. These connections are difficult to understand, given our limited knowledge of the Mithraic belief system, but they are important because they help to explain why skeptics claim that the birthday of Mithras was celebrated on December 25.
A manuscript known as the <a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_00_eintro.htm">Chronography of 354</a> shows the birth of Sol Invictus being celebrated on December 25. Given the fact that the Mithraists equated their god with Sol in one way or another, it is understandable that they may have appropriated the date as their own. The problem for the skeptic is that no evidence exists to suggest that Aurelian was a Mithraist, or that he even had Mithraism in mind when he instituted the feast of Sol Invictus. The connection of Mithra to December 25 is only coincidental.
The deathblow to both the Mithras and Sol Invictus parallels is that the Chronography of 354 is the earliest mention of any pagan god being celebrated on December 25. The celebration of the birth of Christ by Christians is also mentioned on the calendar as having been celebrated on that day, which diminishes the likelihood that the pagan feast came first. At the very least, it negates the claim that it can be proved from the historical record that any December 25 pagan festival predates the Christian tradition.
Although the date of Christ’s birth is not given to us in Scripture, there is documented evidence that December 25 was already of some significance to Christians prior to 354. One example can be found in the writings of Hippolytus of Rome, who explains in his Commentary on the book of Daniel (c. 204) that the Lord’s birth was believed to have occurred on that day:
<blockquote>For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, was December 25th, Wednesday, while Augustus was in his forty-second year, but from Adam, five thousand and five hundred years. He suffered in the thirty-third year, March 25th, Friday, the eighteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, while Rufus and Roubellion were Consuls.</blockquote>
The reference to Adam can be understood in light of another of Hippolytus’s writings, the <a href="https://tcschmidtblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/schmidt-calculating-december-25-as-the-birth-of-jesus-in-hippolytus1.pdf">Chronicon</a>, where he explains that Jesus was born nine months after the anniversary of Creation. According to his calculations, the world was created on the vernal equinox, March 25, which would mean Jesus was born nine months later, on December 25.
Nineteenth-century liturgical scholar Louis Duchesne explains that “towards the end of the third century the custom of celebrating the birthday of Christ had spread throughout the whole Church, but . . . it was <a href="https://archive.org/details/christianworshi00mcclgoog/page/n4">not observed</a> everywhere on the same day” (Christian Worship, Its Origin and Evolution: A study of the Latin liturgy up to the time of Charlemagne, 260).
In the West, the birth of Christ was celebrated on December 25, and in the East on January 6.
Duchesne writes, “One is inclined to believe that the Roman Church made choice of the 25th of December in order to enter into rivalry with Mithraism. This reason, however, leaves unexplained the choice of the 6th of January” (id., 261). His solution, therefore, was that the date of Christ’s birth was decided by using as a starting point the day on which he was believed to have died. This would explain the discrepancies between the celebrations in the East and West.
Given the great aversion on the part of some Christians to anything pagan, the logical conclusion here is that one celebration has nothing to do with the other. In his book <a href="https://www.ignatius.com/The-Spirit-of-the-Liturgy-P2310.aspx">Spirit of the Liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI</a> explains,
<blockquote>The claim used to be made that December 25 developed in opposition to the Mithras myth, or as a Christian response to the cult of the unconquered sun promoted by Roman emperors in the third century in their efforts to establish a new imperial religion. However, these old theories can no longer be sustained. The decisive factor was the connection of creation and Cross, of creation and Christ’s conception (105-107).</blockquote>
These explanations of how December 25 came to be the date of Christmas are all plausible. But we know one thing for sure: the evidence that this day held a special significance to Christians predates the proof of a supposed celebration of Sol Invictus or other pagan deities on that day.
Nor was the Christians&#8217; choice of a date so close to the winter solstice done to mimic pagan festivals. The various pagan religions all had festivals spanning the calendar. Whatever month the early Christians might have otherwise chosen would still place Christmas near some pagan celebration, and oppositional theorists would still be making the same claims.
The solstice was important to everyone for agricultural reasons in the same way water is important to the survival of human beings, and so we see rituals involving water showing up in various religions. That doesn&#8217;t prove that one borrowed the idea or theme from another.

Why is Christmas on December 25?

During the time of World War I, a controversial series of extraordinary events is reported to have occurred in Portugal. Most Christians today either are unaware of the events or don’t appreciate their significance.
This article is not about the 1917 Fatima apparitions by the Blessed Virgin Mary. The little-known events described here occurred earlier.
According to three young children, supernatural beings were encountered between 1915 and 1916. Lucia dos Santos (age eight) and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto (ages five and seven) claimed to have been visited by an angel prior to 1917 the Fatima apparitions. Although the type of interaction was different for each child, the messages were the same.
An investigative approach commonly used in science and criminology was undertaken to determine the validity of these claims. Evidence based on firsthand testimony was divided into categories: direct and circumstantial. This evidence was assessed by examining the trustworthiness of these children and simple logic, as well as any potential psychological, sociocultural, and environmental influences.
In the backdrop of World War I, hardship and despair plagued Portugal, but a glimmer of hope arose when several shepherd children in the village of Fatima claimed to have been visited by angels. Fatima, a poor, out-of-the-way mountainous community of no sociopolitical consequence, is located on the slopes of the Serra Do Aire mountains, approximately 80 miles north of Lisbon.
During these times, the general political landscape in Europe was one of revolution and war. The assassination of Portugal’s king resulted in the abolishment of the monarchy. The controlling political party, dominated by Freemasons, embraced progress and science. Religion was seen to be outdated. Many religious were arrested and expelled; religious activities were outlawed and seen as a threat; and in 1911, a series of anti-Catholic laws were instituted under the slogan of “Separation of Church and State.” Spreading news of angelic visions would be seen as dangerous and not tolerated.
Most people in Fatima were peasants, who raised animals and farmed to survive. They had a simple and devout faith in God, with a Catholic church being a main building. Beyond religious instruction at the church, there were no schools, so children were instructed at home. Between 1914 and 1918, Portugal reported a 70-percent illiteracy rate, suggesting a higher level in the remote regions, such as Fatima.
Multiple peasant children from the village of Fatima claimed to have been visited by a supernatural being between 1915 and 1916. The visits’ purpose was to prepare the children for the suffering to follow and the need for man to repent of sin.
The most significant aspects of Lucia’s testimony are summarized below.
<h2>1915 Appearance</h2>
Lucia, while tending the family flock with some friends, explains, “Around noon they ate lunch and then invited her companions to say the rosary. We just started and saw a figure, like a statue of snow suspended in the air above the trees.” Lucia told no one, but the other children told their families.
When Lucia’s mother heard of the incident and asked, Lucia’s response was that it looked like a person “wrapped in a bedsheet.” Her mother dismissed the event as “childish foolishness.”
Similar events occurred two additional times. Hearing of the event from other village families, Lucia’s mother became very angry with her.
<h2>1916 Appearances</h2>
Francisco and Jacinta were now allowed to take their families’ herds with Lucia to graze.
<blockquote>We ran through the rosary and began playing. A strong wind shook the trees. Raising our eyes we saw a figure above the olive tree walking toward us. It was a young man fourteen or fifteen years old, white like snow, whom the sun made transparent as crystal and of great beauty.
When he got near to us, he said, “Fear not! I am the Angel of Peace, Pray with me.” Kneeling, he bowed his head all the way to the ground and made us repeat three times, “My God! I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love thee. I ask thee for forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love Thee.”
Rising, he said “Pray like this. The ears of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.”</blockquote>
On another occasion, the children were playing, and the visitor identified himself as the Angel of Portugal and said, “Above all accept and bear with submission the suffering that the Lord send you.”
<h2>Final Appearance</h2>
Lucia states that the children went to their knees and started to pray, “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love thee . . . ”
<blockquote>A light shined upon us. We stood up and saw an angel, in his left hand was a chalice over which was suspended a Host, from which a few drops of blood were dripping into the chalice. The angel left the chalice suspended in the air, knelt next to us, and made us repeat three times:
Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore thee profoundly and offer thee the most precious body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles on earth in reparation for the insults, sacrileges, and indifferences with which he is offended. And through the infinite merits of his most sacred heart and the immaculate heart of Mary, I ask thee for the conversion of poor sinners.”
The angel then stood up and gave me the sacred host and the precious blood to Jacinta and Francisco and said,
Eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ, horribly insulted by the ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.
Prostrating himself again to the ground he repeated with us, “Most Holy Trinity . . .” and disappeared.”</blockquote>
The following direct evidence is based on Lucia’s testimony. Circumstantial evidence is related to the event.
Direct Evidence: Lucia and some unrelated friends in 1915 observed a being like a statue suspended above the trees. Lucia kept this event to herself; however, the other children reported the experience to their parents.
In 1916, Lucia and her cousins encountered visitors identified as the Angel of Peace and later the Angel of Portugal. Only Lucia spoke with the angels. Jacinta heard all the responses, and Francisco had only visual interactions. Yet they all provided the same description of the visits.
Circumstantial Evidence: The sophistication of words and phrases repeated by the children indicate an advanced level of theology—for example, “Eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ, horribly insulted by the ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.”
Although Lucia instructed her cousins to secrecy, Jacinta told her mother. Word spread, reaching Lucia’s mother, who demanded that Lucia stop spreading lies. Animosity in her family grew, and yet, subject to these unpleasant conditions, Lucia’s account never changed. Amid hostility and ridicule, the children were unwavering in their belief and their description of the events.
Trustworthiness of an Eyewitness: Details from their upbringing indicate that Lucia was pious, obedient, and not one to lie. Yet she disobeyed her mother. Francisco was described as passive and quiet, whereas Jacinta, the youngest, was strong-willed. Given their family life, upbringing, and age and the fact that honesty was instilled in them early, there isn’t any indication that they could have fabricated and maintained such a complex story.
Psychology and cognitive science have demonstrated that our memory is malleable. Extraordinary events, especially those surrounded by strong emotional or spiritual significance, are often reconstructed to align with expectations. Since angelic visits were unexpected, isolated events, any influence of expectation is unfounded.
Suggestions that the children’s visions could be related to the religious environment of the country also seem improbable, since they had no interaction with the outside world. Further, the information provided by the visitors was theologically too sophisticated for illiterate children to naturally dream up. Life in these remote hamlets was focused on survival and not on supernatural appearances.
Finally, the people of the town, fearful of potential governmental retaliation, reported nothing of these events to the outside world until after the apparitions of 1917 became public. The possibility of a sociopolitical agenda must therefore be excluded.
In general, people under forty are either unaware or skeptical of these events, and believers tend to focus only on the “wow factor” of the final apparition, the Miracle of the Sun, not fully appreciating what had occurred already in Fatima. The critical message delivered by the angelic visitors clearly emphasized the hurt, insult, and blasphemies toward our God by humanity. However, as a result of God’s infinite mercy and forgiveness, salvation is available those who pray and repent.
This message is even more urgent today, as evidenced by the number of global conflicts over the last hundred years, the lack of respect for the human person, the growth of individualism, and the outright indifference toward God. In light of the ingratitude and blasphemies committed directly against the Lord, the loss of salvation for many is at hand.
The secular fascination with UFOs, aliens, and other paranormal phenomena has missed or neglected the real supernatural phenomenon that has already occurred. I hope this short article will raise awareness of the 1915-16 angelic apparitions in Fatima, highlighting the urgent need to return to prayer and repentance for the salvation of souls.