The timeliness of the Fatima message
Fr. IRENEUSZ SKUBIŚ
For the first time the Mother of God appeared to three little shepherds in Fatima on 13 May 1917. Her apparitions continued for several months and were of special character. They were not only calls of Our Lady to repent directed to the world but they had as if a political dimension. Among other things Mary asked the children to pray for Russia’s conversion. Here we must notice that those poor children did not even know that such country existed! Then Mary asked for consecration of the world to her Immaculate Heart. She wanted to involve the Pope himself. The next Popes got to know the Fatima message and it seems that they took into consideration what Mary had said. It was John Paul II who took the message most seriously. In fact, the will of Our Lady concerned him in a special way since the prophecy of the Pope’s suffering was fulfilled in his person.
All the time we are impressed by what Mary spoke about the history of mankind when she foretold wars and terrible sufferings and warned the world against the punishment of hell fire for the sins that insulted God. In my opinion the events that took place at Smolensk on 10 April 2010 are connected with the Fatima secrets. One should notice that the trial of the Nazi criminals was held in Nurnberg but there has been no trial of the communist criminals who harmed mankind immensely, causing death of millions. The Katyn massacre grows to a certain symbol. It is a massacre that was undoubtedly a genocide for which nobody was judged and sentenced, and Russia wants to waive it aside, not even uttering ‘we are sorry’. In the light of this fact the horrible plane crash at Smolensk, in which Poland’s President, generals and other important personalities of the political and public life lost their lives, is some big sign. It seems that people in Russia, surely being under the influence of the former Soviet Union, are learning the truth about Stalin’s crimes, and calling things as they are is the first condition of penance and conversion. Therefore, it seems that Russia needs an examination of conscience. Although today’s Russia is not the Soviet Union, in some way it is still a continuation of that Russia, that was called the Soviet Union.
That’s why we can speak about the issue of Russia’s conversion in this context and we would like very much to see the first signs of this conversion. Our positive interpretation of all the gestures of the Russian people, made just after the catastrophe at Smolensk, must be noticed. However, the Russian oppositionist Wlodzimierz Bukowski noticed that every country, which would experience such a tragedy, would have expressed compassion and offered rapid and concrete help. Unfortunately, we must state that today we have more and more doubts about the causes of this crash. There are lots of questions. And we should notice some big unskilfulness of the Polish government that seems to be inert and careless and the Polish authorities are behaving as if they were still dependent on Moscow as they were during the communist times, as if in 2010 they were afraid of the Kremlin’s power.
After the death of the dynamic elite of our nation the following questions are naturally pushed: What will Poland be like now? Where are the people responsible for this country? Why can one still find the victims’ belongings at the site of the crash near Smolensk? A Polish passport, pictures, many personal things have been found and other things are lying about at the site...
We feel sorry for what happened. We feel sincere compassion for the families and friends of the victims and we would like very much to see all these difficult matters ordered as soon as possible and to see the Polish authorities react properly and responsibly and demand the truth about the event. Perhaps the problem is the big negligence in Russia or perhaps we deal with the negligence of the Polish services. We should get to know it and try to improve it.
A month has passed since the plane accident and we have May with its Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Today we all should turn to Our Lady and ask her to help Russia open its eyes to what happened under the communist rules and to what is happening there nowadays so that Russia could name these things and change its attitude towards Poland. Our Lady who appeared in Fatima wants to help people very much and she calls for fervent prayer for Russia’s conversion. If this conversion occurs then the history of the world will change. Therefore, Russia’s conversion is very important and Our Lady told the little shepherds about it in 1917.
"Niedziela" 21/2010