Since this topic came up recently in discussions, I'd like to discuss Our Lady of Fatima - the event when Our Mother Mary appeared to people in Fatima.
Before I was Catholic, this story seemed incredulous to me. How could they claim that the Virgin Mary really showed up in Fatima? If you aren't familiar with the story, I highly recommend you go read about it.
I set out to quickly prove that this could never have happened. I mean, it didn't sync with anything in my faith at the time. Of course, the best option for me was to turn to scientific skeptics - the same people who refute things like the resurrection of Christ. I knew, doctrinally, that Mary could never have appeared to these people nor could they have seen what they supposedly did. 70,000 people witnessed something incredible there, not an easy thing to explain.
Unfortunately, I could not come to a good conclusion. I finally concluded that the best explanation for Fatima was "mass hallucination'. I publicly told people that's what I believed happened at Fatima. People were so in tune to wanting to see it that they actually did. The prophecies that were fulfilled (such as one sister dying after all the rest) were merely coincidental.
Now I look back on this and wonder why I could come to this conclusion. I so desperately wanted to believe that it was all fake, but couldn't do it in a logical fashion. Maybe you can, but I will forever be a true believer in Fatima.
“We do not want to separate ourselves from Rome, we belong to the Church” -
Interview with Fr Pfluger SSPX on new episcopal consecrations
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The following excerpt is translated from InfoCatolica; the original in
Spanish, published on November 22, 2024, may be found here.Fr Stefan
Pfluger, SSPXTh...
13 hours ago
6 comments:
I won't try to convince you that it didn't happen. I personally just don't see undeniable proof that it did happen. Maybe I'm just skeptical about stuff. I'm the kind of person who wants to see a video tape of it. No, I would probably have to see it with my own eyes to believe it or any other miracle, besides the ones recorded in the Bible. I know that's kind of stubborn and narrow-minded, but there's so many alleged "miracles" done today that it is difficult to believe any one of them, much less try to validate specific ones and refute others.
Just one question...why do you believe the ones in the Bible?
Because I believe the Bible to be a miracle itself (from prophesies, teachings, etc.), and I believe it has real authority to declare what's a miracle and what's not.
I know we're going in a circle with this question, but I'll throw it out there and you don't have to answer. How do you know what "the Bible" is? Which books? Which letters? Etc. :) 360 degrees.
Haha...Yeah, the more I discuss on this blog and the forum, the more I realize EVERYTHING comes down to whether or not tradition is divine and infallible. The only way one can prove the Roman Catholic Church, in my mind, is to prove through sheer, cold historical evidence that specifically the Roman Catholic Church's tradition/Apostolic Succession is the one guided by God. That's all that really matters, because everything else hinges around that.
Pretty much..but also it can be proven through Scripture....... ;)
I'd highly suggest the book "Catholicism and Fundamentalism", Bruce Sullivan's "Christ in His Fullness" (he used to be a CoC preacher), or just reading Catholic Answers at catholic.com. On EWTN's website, they have a lot of archives of a show called "The Journey Home". Several of these are CoC converts that are very helpful too - from the scriptural side of things.
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