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THE LAST CENTURY was one of war and violence unequalled in the
annals of human history. Ideals and values and institutions that had shaped and
nurtured our civilisation for many centuries were overthrown and trampled upon.
And innocent people fared no better. The statistics of victimisation, terror
and mass-killing almost defy analysis by the sheer enormity of the figures
concerned. Two World Wars have been followed by scores of regional and civil
wars that have added to the dreadful toll of death and destruction. At the same
time, our society has been plagued since the decade of the sixties with the
scourge of legal abortion. The ending of innocent human life, sanctioned by
governments. The scale of this genocide is rapidly overtaking even the
horrendous total of those killed in wars. Its baleful influence reaches into
the very sanctuary of maternity and domestic and family life. Its fruits are
all too obvious. Callous indifference to respect for age, decency and morality
now afflict vast areas of the world, as we stand on the threshold of a third
Christian Millenium.
We may often be tempted to raise our hands
heavenwards and ask Almighty God why He appears to look on and permit these
evils to continue unabated. Why is there no message, no sign to tell us what we
must do in this situation, to warn us of the evil consequences of the
abandonment of religion and the headlong pursuit of material convenience,
commodity and baser instincts. We find in the apparitions of Our Blessed Lady
at Fatima an answer to these anxious entreaties. God has heard and continues to
hear the cries of His People – as well as those who sincerely long for justice,
peace and true values of love and respect – who beseech that the good triumph
over wickedness and false ideology. The sky may be dark at times, but the Light
of the World can never be extinguished. This is the hope of all true
Christians. This is the substance of Our Lady's message to the world.
The sharp arrows of human distress and faithful
pleading that have pierced the skies to reach the throne of God have had as
their response from His infinite Majesty a beam of light so powerful and so
penetrating that its effects still radiate, ninety years on. For God, through
the prayerful innocence and piety of three young Portuguese children, has
provided in 1917 a vision of what has been and what is still to come. The
Immaculate Virgin has in Fatima – as in other places and at other times –
brought words of comfort, counsel, witness and warning to lead us out of the
abyss and upward to the light which is Her Son.
From the very first, the story of Fatima and its
timely message for mankind was relevant to the imminent catastrophic collapse
of the institutions of government, justice, religion and morality which began in
the early decades of the twentieth century and has continued in various forms
to affect us ever since. It was not to be an overthrowing of just one system of
government, but the gradual and systematic elimination of every trace of the
Christian culture that was at the heart of society and its civic and social
institutions in so many parts of the globe. Godless ideologies of race, social
progress, economic expansion, military might and perfectibility through social
engineering were propagated in place of the age-old philosophies of
benevolence, compassion, responsibility, philanthropy and eschatological
accountability which had influenced the processes of human development for two
thousand years. The message of Fatima was a simple yet powerful antidote to this
pervasive poison. It is still so today as it has been since 1917.
The evil powers that sought the destruction of
civilisation then are still at work. The motives, names and the faces may
change, or rather be more occult, but the programme continues unabated. With
sophisticated and subtle weapons the warfare continues, perverting, distorting
and eroding the true and the good. But their days, however long they may be,
are numbered. And we must realise that our conflict with these dark forces is
fought not with material weapons but with those of the spirit. The mighty host
of those, in heaven, on earth, and as yet unborn who are to be numbered among
the children of Mary, must take their stand with her and, following behind her
banner, know that they are invincible.
But first, for this great enterprise, it is
essential to provide ourselves with the armour of a clear and renewed vision
and a rallying call that is unambiguous and forthright. This new edition of the
Fatima prophecies is therefore a means that is both timely and invaluable. Not
only to those who are already courageously engaged in the fight, but to those
fearful of the times that are and of what is to come, and to those who are
seeking an answer to the question, why? We should all read and inwardly digest
the message on these pages and thereby discover not only the "why" of
all our global afflictions, but also the "wherefore" by which they
may be remedied.
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