‘Fatima’ recounts true story of WWI-era Portuguese visionaries

Staff Report

Dropped off faithfully by a loyal parishioner of Holy Family, the Palm Sunday bulletin for All Saints parish recounts a special movie offering this week at the Stanley Theater, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and set to show on Maundy Thursday ,April 1st, at 6:00 p.m.

As a quick side note, drop-off bulletins from all area churches are welcome at the newspaper offices at 200 South Broadway, should others wish to come and do likewise.

That little note aside, Maundy or Holy Thursday will see the movie ‘Fatima’ playing at the Stanley Theater.

Based on a true story that took place at the start of the 20th century and chronicling the story of three Portuguese shepherd children in 1917, ‘Fatima’ takes viewers on a journey of faith as the three reputed visionaries endure unbelief and ridicule of those around them, followed by vindication for their reports of seeing the Virgin Mary in the spring of 1917.

At the time of the reported visions of Mary, Lenin is being smuggled from Western Europe back to Russia in preparation for a second act to the failed 1905 Soviet revolution, destined to result in Russian civil war and the toppling of the nearly 1,000 year-old Orthodox Christian monarchy of Tsar Nicholas by the world’s first officially atheist state, called the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile in Portugal, the reported visions and their aftermath will have far-reaching effects at home and around the globe, well into the 20th Century.

Initially disbelieved by even their parents, the three pre-teen visionaries and poor shepherd children–Lucia dos Santos, Jacinta, and Francesco, report that the Virgin Mary has appeared to them and asked to meet with her at a pre-arranged place. Only Lucia sees the Lady, and it is she who will outlive the other two to carry the vision on, becoming a nun and a Carmelite.

As the visions upset Portugal and the countryside with peasants flocking to the site, those who are opposed to what they deem simple superstition–as well as some Church authorities–work to oppose what they see as a dangerous delusion which is quickly growing out of hand, risking widespread deception of the masses and resulting ultimately leading in the kidnapping of the three children by one who ooposes the faith and considers what they have to be dangerous.

Undergoing this test and coming out undetered on the other side, two of the three children will later die of the Spanish Influenza, but not before undergoing a harrowing vision of hell which frightens them out of their wits, while an event remembered as the ‘Miracle of the Sun’ in October of the same year appears to lend credibility to the message of pendance that they have been given by the Lady clothed in purest white. A story of faith for a modern and skeptical age, ‘Fatima’ is sure to satisfy, or at least lead to qeustions.

A goodwill offering is being asked as the price of admission as way to benefit Special Olympics Wisconsin, with ‘Fatima showing once again Thursday April 1 at 6:00 p.m., at the Stanley Theater.