The Fatima Prophecies

In May, 2000, the long-awaited "third prophecy" of Fatima was finally revealed by the Vatican. For some, it was a relief and for others an anticlimactic disappointment

The "miracle at Fatima" is arguably the most well-known apparition of the Blessed Mother. Her appearance to three shepherd children in Portugal in 1917 was, according to many witnesses, accompanied by several unexplained events, including a shared vision of the sun dancing and moving about erratically in the sky.

During her many appearances to the children, "Our Lady" bestowed upon them three prophecies. The first two were disclosed by Lucia dos Santos, the eldest of the three children, after she wrote them down in the early 1940s, but the third and final prophecy was not to be revealed until 1960. Well, 1960 came and went, and the third prophecy was not revealed because the Vatican said the world was not quite ready for it. This reluctance to disclose the secret lead to speculation among the faithful that it contained information about our future that was so horrific that the Pope dared not reveal it. Perhaps it foretold a nuclear war... or the end of the world.

THE FIRST PROPHECY

In the first prophecy, the children were shown a terrifying vision of Hell and were told that's "where the souls of poor sinners go." Then they were told that the world war then taking place - what we now call World War I - would soon end. "The war is going to end," Lucia quoted the Blessed Mother as saying, "but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given to you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father."

Did this prophecy come true? World War I did indeed end and was followed by a worse war, World War II. But remember that Lucia revealed this prophecy in writing during 1940 - after the Second World War had already begun. Also, it's interesting that Pius XI is actually named in the prophecy. When the apparition of Our Lady allegedly made the prophecy in 1917, Benedict XV was Pope. Pius XI became Pope in 1922. So either Our Lady also predicted the name of the future Pope, who reigned until 1939, or Lucia did some prophecy fulfilling of her own.

What about the sign of "a night illuminated by an unknown light" before the outbreak of war? According to Fatima Prophecies, "on January 25, 1938, a remarkable display of aurora borealis was visible across Europe, the year before World War II began." The Secrets of Fatima elaborates: "This aurora appeared as far south as Galicia, Spain, where Sister Lucy was then cloistered, and she, the only survivor of the three Fatima shepherds, recognized it immediately as the sign. Visible even to Pius XI in Rome, the unprecedented aurora was accompanied by a 'crackling' sound, possibly attributable to discharges of atmospheric energy. Indeed, in many areas of Europe, panic broke out, as the populace concluded that the world was on fire and that the End had come." This display of northern lights might have illuminated the night in some spectacular fashion, but even in 1917 the aurora borealis was hardly an "unknown light." Also, again, Lucia revealed this prophecy after the fact.

THE SECOND PROPHECY

"When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays [of each month]. If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated."

Many believers assert that this prophecy foresees the spreading of Communism by Russia, which had become the Soviet Union. Wars were, of course, fought to halt the spread of Communism. Then in 1984, Pope John Paul II consecrated the Soviet Union. Subsequently, in 1991, the Soviet Union disintegrated into 15 separate countries, but it can hardly be said that Russia has undergone a religious conversion. Has there been peace as predicted? While there haven't been any worldwide wars, there have been many minor ones (if any war can be considered minor) and the world still is not a peaceful place.

When it comes down to it, the accuracy of the first two Fatima prophecies rests on faith. Skeptics can poke large holes into them while believers hold them up as proof that Heaven has a vested interest in life on the Earth. So what of the third prophecy?

Next page: The Third Secret Revealed

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"The Mothman Prophecies"

A psychological thriller that asks important questions about a real, extremely bizarre series of events that frightened a West Virginia town in 1966

WHAT IN THE NAME of all that's rational took place in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966-67?

The many bizarre events that occurred in that quiet town on the banks of the Ohio river beginning in November, 1966 have puzzled and intrigued paranormal researchers for decades. And despite all the hype, publicity and scrutiny the events have received in concert with the release of the film The Mothman Prophecies, we are no closer to explaining what really happened.

Much of what we know of the phenomena comes from the research of the late paranormal investigator and author John A. Keel, who was in Point Pleasant when many of the strange events were going on. His findings and his experiences - Keel was directly affected by the phenomena - were chronicled in his classic non-fiction book, The Mothman Prophesies, published in 1975. The motion picture is loosely based -- or "inspired," as they say -- on Keel's book.

The Mothman event stands as one of the most peculiar and multi-layered episodes in the annals of paranormal phenomena. So many odd things were taking place that a list of them looks like entire seasons of The X-Files or Fringe:

• Sightings of the Mothman creature itself
• UFO sightings
• Men-in-black appearances
• Phantom phone calls
• Electrical disturbances to such devices as TVs, telephones and a police radio
• Eerie predictions and spontaneous prophecies
• Missing time
• Animal mutilations
• Mental telepathy
• Strange coincidences and repeating numbers
• A missing, possibly dead dog
• Encounters with the enigmatic Indrid Cold

The movie version of The Mothman Prophecies understandably relies on certain cinematic conventions in its translation from book to film. It moves the time from the 1960s to present day, creates composite characters, adds phenomena that never took place, omits phenomena that reportedly did take place, and fictionalizes the life and background of the story's protagonist, John Klein (Richard Gere) -- the character based on John A. Keel. But the film remains true to the spirit of the book and, indeed, to the nature of the true life events.

John Klein, a successful reporter for the Washington Post, is inexplicably drawn into the Point Pleasant phenomena two years after the death of his wife. She is killed in a car accident resulting from a sighting of Mothman. In reality, John Keel, a researcher of Fortean anomalies and a UFO investigator, traveled to Point Pleasant in the Ohio River Valley specifically to inquire about the Mothman sightings, which began on November 15, 1966 and were reported in the local newspaper.

By Keel's account, 100 or more people actually saw the Mothman creature. It was described as being between five and seven feet tall; apparently headless, but with two large, hypnotic, glowing red eyes in the shoulder area; a shuffling walk on human-like legs; large bat-like wings that spread but did not flap as the Mothman ascended into the air. Yes, the Mothman was reported to fly, some say with a mechanical humming noise.

As strange as this creature sounds, it was often background to the other weird events affecting dozens of people in the area. The film handles this aspect quite well. Screenwriter Richard Hatem and director Mark Pellington are to be credited for keeping the movie from becoming a run-of-the-mill monster flick in which a slime-drooling Mothman leaps onto the screen every 20 minutes to terrorize people or tear them to shreds. Instead, the creature is barely seen in this film and is a stepping-off point for deeper, more unsettling disturbances that culminate in what was to become one of the worst disasters in the state's history.

Next page: An enigmatic reality: Making Mothman work

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