Half a million Roman Catholics flock to Fatima
LAST month, half a million people gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, at Fatima in Portugal. It was there, 80 years ago, that three shepherd children claimed they saw the Virgin Mary on the same day of several months, until October 13, 1917, and heard three prophecies from her.
A local man said, “The pilgrims have been coming since last week, some crawling to the shrine on their hands and knees. I think it is faith, just faith in our Lady that brings the pilgrims. Many, of course, hope to be cured of their diseases.” About 30,000 people travelled from Ireland alone. The high point was a mass held on 13 May and celebrated by the Pope’s special representative, Cardinal Meissener, Archbishop of Cologne.
Here is one principal example of devotion to and worship of Mary, which pervades the Church of Rome from the Pope downwards. It shows too the strong delusion they are under, in looking to Mary as a co-redemptrix, and “a mediatrix of peace between sinners and God” (as Roman Bishop Liguouri put it in his book, The Glories of Mary). We see also the sad superstition which is evident when so many of them hope for cures at such Marian shrines, where poor sinners are duped by “lying wonders”.
Although the Church of Rome claims that she does not really worship Mary, the fact is, as Loraine Boettner demonstrates, that “the average Roman Catholic acts on the assumption that Mary has the powers of deity”, an assumption to which they have been led and in which they are entrenched by the teaching of Rome. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) states that she, “by her manifold intercession continues to bring to us the gifts of eternal salvation… Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”
The day is coming when this grave dishonour being done to Jesus Christ, the “one Mediator between God and men”, will cease by the fall of the Papacy. The fate of Rome is writ large in Holy Scripture. 2 Thessalonians 2 predicts that “that man of sin [shall] be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God… For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” Then multitudes of souls will be delivered from its deluding, soul-destroying doctrines. □
The Prime Minister and his relationship to the Church of Rome
WE have been recently maligned by sections of the press for saying that “the possibility of having a Roman Catholic prime minister, who would be involved in appointments within the Church of England, is not too remote when we consider that… that Tony Blair is personally too close to Rome. Mr Blair has not only been attending mass with his Roman Catholic wife but also has participated in the mass on one occasion, although prohibited since then by the Roman hierarchy.” Mr Blair’s office has assured journalists who followed this up that he is an Anglican and has never participated in the Roman Catholic mass.
What then are we to make of reports last summer that he partook of communion in a Roman Catholic church and that the priest involved was taken to task by his bishop for having allowed it? And are we to believe a report in July, 1996, that a spokesperson for Mr Blair “stated that he has taken Catholic communion from time to time”? Indeed, a recent report says that a Downing Street spokesman said that “although Mr Blair might have taken Communion during the Catholic Mass, he had stopped doing so since last July’s row over the matter.” We hope that this is indeed an end of the matter.
Leading columnist, Roman Catholic Paul Johnson, has engaged in what seems to be a kite-flying exercise in The Daily Telegraph of May 9. His article, Why Mr Blair will become a Catholic, “explains his reasons for believing that the Prime Minister will become the first Roman Catholic to hold the office.” Of course, it is speculation on his part, and no doubt there is in it an element of the wish being the father of the thought, but we have reason still to be praying that we be kept, as a nation, from ever having a Roman Catholic Prime Minister. □