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The Real Secret of Fatima

© Kathy Shaidle

Last week, the Third Secret of Fatima was finally revealed, after decades of speculation.

Long rumored to foreshadow the end of the world, Mary's final revelation to the Fatima children actually concerned an attempted Papal assassination.

Now the Pope's well-known devotion to the Virgin is cast into high relief. After all, he has always credited her with thwarting the attempt on his life made back in the 1980s.

As evidenced by all the subsequent stories, the mainstream media enjoys covering the Church's "sensational" side: controversial subjects like exorcisms, stigmata, miraculous visions and prophecies.

For some Catholics, the third secret is somewhat disappointing, not quite the apocalyptic prophecy they'd long anticipated. For others, the whole story is a curio, left over from the Church's "olden days," which are now just a faint memory.

Overlooked in most of this coverage and debate is the rosary. In his book Praying by Hand, Fr. Basil Pennington discusses the link between the rosary and the Fatima apparitions:

"At Fatima in 1917 the rosary attains a special importance. Mary herself taught Jacinta how to pray the rosary properly. It was already a daily practice of the children to whom she chose to appear. An angel taught them to add to each decade of the rosary a particular prayer: 'O Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of your mercy.'

"Mary called upon everyone to pray the rosary daily for peace on earth, and in particular for the conversion of Russia, which had at that time just embraced an atheistic communism. At the last apparition, just before the great miracle of the dancing sun, Mary declared, 'I am the Lady of the Rosary. Let them continue to say the rosary every day.'

"In an earlier appearance she had said, 'Continue to say the five decades of the rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary to obtain the peace of the world and the end of war.'"

Following the reforms of Vatican II, the rosary and many other traditional devotions fell into disfavor. Faithful proponents continued to promote the rosary, however. When the Berlin Wall fell, many of them pointed to that event as proof their decades of prayer had "worked."

One fascinating use of the rosary is as a way into contemplative prayer and meditation. Robert Llewelyn writes of this in his excellent (if hard to find) book, A Doorway to Silence: The Contemplative Use of the Rosary.

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