Today is an amazing anniversary of the Church. One hundred years ago, Our Blessed Mother appeared to three children in Fatima and changed the world. Like any major, inexplicable event, controversies follow it as so many people have lost the gift of faith in their modern-age longing for a quick knowledge to explain everything now.

Everyone likes a secret. Secrets are tantalizing, possibly interesting, and something great to know when others might not be aware. Many people think it is a sign of power to be privy to a secret knowing it is in their hands to either share it or taunt others who have no idea about the content of the secret. I think St. John Paul II’s remarks on this secret make the most sense in dealing with secrets and human behavior. We will never understand God’s reasoning but should take enough of what we are told to do as St. John Paul proclaimed: Pray and keep ourselves armed with the strength of the Rosary.

In 1980, St John Paul II was asked about the Third Secret of Fatima.

“Given the seriousness of the contents, my predecessors in the Petrine office diplomatically preferred to postpone publication so as not to encourage the world power of Communism to make certain moves,” he replied,“On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired. Many wish to know simply from curiosity and a taste for the sensational, but they forget that knowledge also implies responsibility. They only seek the satisfaction of their curiosity, and that is dangerous if at the same time they are not disposed to do something, and if they are convinced that it is impossible to do anything against evil.”

At this point the Pope held up his Rosary and said, “Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray, and ask for nothing more. Leave everything else to the Mother of God.”

What is going to happen to the Church?

“We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ … With your and my prayer it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary.”