SISTER LUCY TRUTHPROBLEMS WITH CALLS FROM THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA
SISTER LUCY TRUTHPROBLEMS WITH CALLS FROM THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA
Commentary by Dr. Peter ChojnowskiIntroduction to the Work and Its Importance for Sister Lucy TruthCalls from the Message of Fatima is a book written by “Sister Lucia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart,” translated by the Sisters of the Monastery of Sancta Maria and the Convent of Our Lady of Good Success, and published in Lisbon by Secretariado dos Pastorinhos in 2000.It is advertised as being “Authorized by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Rome.” It is copyrighted by the Carmel of Coimbra and by the Fatima Shrine. The first two paragraphs of the preliminary note of the book, written by Bishop Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva of Leiria-Fatima, contain the following:The author of this work is Sister Lucia (Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart to give her full religious name).... I wish to assure readers of this book that it was her idea and was written by her.... Finding herself inundated with constantly repeated questions concerning the apparitions and the visionaries, the message they received and the reason for some of the requests contained in that message, and feeling that it was beyond her to reply individually to each questioner, Sister Lucia asked the Holy See for permission to write a text in which she could reply in general to the many questions that have been put to her. This permission was granted, hence the present work entitled in English: Calls from the Message of Fatima. The work is, in effect, a long letter, written entirely by Sister Lucia and addressed by her to all those who have written to her concerning their doubts, questions, and difficulties, and their desire for greater fidelity in living up to what was asked for from Heaven in the Cova da Iria. (p. 3) [emphasis ours]The preliminary note continues:On May 13, 1982, a year after the attempt on his life in St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II came as a pilgrim to Fatima.... These words of the pilgrim Pope who has spread the message of the Virgin Mary in Fatima throughout the world with such energy and authority, are the key to interpreting the book which Lucia has given to us.... In it we find the mature and full synthesis of the message Sister Lucia received from the Mother of God.... the publication of Lucia’s book, the fruit of prolonged meditation, and bearing the date of March 25, 1997, provides what we might call her authorized explanation of the whole of the Fatima message.... Lucia’s book is, in a sense, the seer’s spiritual testament, and was written especially for all who asked her for an authoritative interpretation of the message of Fatima.[Sister Lucia] refers back with conviction to the Magisterium of the Church in our own day; to which she has always been faithful in her religious life and in her serene and trusting obedience to the Pope and to the Holy See, even in all that she says concerning the phenomenon and message of Fatima.
