Section 13: The Lady's "Weapons Of Atonement"
The Word Of God Vs. The Lady Of Fatima's Words

The Lady of Fatima furthered the angel's proclamations and requests in the matter of atonement for sins. In her first appearance, the Lady asked,

"Will you offer yourselves to God, and bear all the suffering He sends you in atonement for all the sins that offend Him and for the conversion of sinners?"(1)

But God, for whom the Lady presumed to speak, had already given a complete message concerning the infinite worth of Jesus' sacrifice for sins:

"Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22, NAB).

"This is My blood of the new covenant, which [ratifies the agreement and] is being poured out for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:28, NAB).

"This is the agreement (testament, covenant) that I will set up and conclude with them after those days, says the Lord: . . . And their sins and their lawbreakings I will remember no more. Now where there is absolute remission . . . there is no longer any offering made to atone for sin" (Hebrews 10:16-18, AMP).

"[The] blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin. . . . But if we acknowledge our sins, he who is just can be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrong" (1 John 1:7,9, NAB).

But again, in July 1917, the Lady told the children:

"Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation [atonement] for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary"(2)

The little seers agreed to sacrifice. They gave away their lunches and ate instead

The children often went without water, sometimes giving it to the sheep to drink, in order to "suffer for the conversion of sinners."(4) They hit their own legs with nettles, "so as to offer to God yet another sacrifice"(5). In August, Lucia found a piece of rope on the road. She wrote:

". . . . I picked it up and, just for fun, I tied it around my arm. Before long, I noticed that the rope was hurting me.

"'Look, this hurts!' I said to my cousins. 'We could tie it around our waists and offer this sacrifice to God.'

"The poor children promptly fell in with my suggestion. We then set about dividing it between the three of us, by placing it across a stone and striking it with the sharp edge of another one that served as a knife. Either because of the thickness or roughness of the rope, or because we sometimes tied it too tightly, this instrument of penance often caused us terrible suffering. Now and them Jacinta could not keep back her tears, so great was the discomfort this caused her. Whenever I urged her to remove it, she replied: 'No! I want to offer this sacrifice to Our Lord in reparation, and for the conversion of sinners'"(6).

Shortly before Jacinta's death, she gave the rope she'd been wearing to Lucia, with this request:

"'Keep it for me; I'm afraid my mother may see it. If I get better, I want it back again.'

[Lucia wrote:] "This cord had three knots, and was somewhat stained with blood. I kept it hidden until I finally left my mother's house. Then, not knowing what to do with it, I burned it, and Francisco's as well"(7).

Finally, in October, the Lady assured the children,

"God is content with your sacrifices, but does not wish you to sleep with the rope - wear it only during the day"(8).

To digress for a moment from the comparison of the Lady's words with Scripture, we can't help but point out the character of this "God" who contentedly watched little children bleed for "His" intentions. Compare Jesus' loving, healing, merciful treatment of children. As for the Lady's assurance that God was now content, Scripture says that God was content with His Son's atonement, made nineteen hundred years earlier:

"Yahweh burdened him with the sins of all of us. . . . If [When] he offers his life in atonement. . . . he shall . . . be content" (Isaiah 53:6,10-11, JB).

The "Christ" Child Suggests Another Atonement

In December of 1925, Lucia was visited again by the Lady of Fatima, this time accompanied by "the Child Jesus." The "Child" seemed to have little grasp of the efficacy of Jesus' blood sacrifice. He told Lucia,

"Have compassion on the Heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation [atonement] to remove them"(9).

What is even more disturbing about this proclamation of atonement resting outside of the finished work of Christ is that it was accepted by so many in the Catholic Church, and is being taught today as religious duty. For example, the late Cardinal Tisserant is quoted as urging this type of atonement:

"From the first moment of Her meeting with the little shepherds, the Virgin of Fatima spoke directly to them of this serious duty of every Christian.

"Today, my dearest brothers, She puts this same question to each of us: 'Will you offer yourselves to God to bear all the sufferings He sends you in atonement for all the sins that offend Him and for the conversion of sinners?"(10).

Christ Jesus Offered Himself As Our Atonement "Once For All"

Rather than calling men to suffer at God's hand in atonement for others' sins, Christians should be sharing with these others the good news that God sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for sin (John 3:11-19). This is what Peter said:

"For Christ . . . suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18, KJV).

And with the author of Hebrews, we should be proclaiming that Jesus

"has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins [as did the priests of Israel] and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself (Hebrews 7:27, NAB).

The clarity of God's word cannot be denied: Christ is the Sacrificial Lamb, freely given to us to atone for our lives and sins. Yet, according to a magazine devoted to spreading the message of the Lady of Fatima, six hundred million people have prayed to this Lady through her images, even though her words deny God's evaluation of the shed "blood of a spotless, unblemished lamb [Christ] chosen before the world's foundation and revealed for your sake in these last days" (1 Peter 1:19-20, NAB). Of this six hundred million, twenty million have signed a pledge to live lives of daily sacrifice, in an attempt to satisfy the already-satisfied righteousness of Almighty God. But the eating of pine cones, the wearing of tight ropes in order to draw blood, the daily sacrifice and prayers of millions, can never atone for even one sin in the plan of God, just as the blood of the two million Old Testament animals couldn't take away sin.

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Section 13 Footnotes

(1) Soul, Special Issue, p. 5.

(2) Kondor, p. 165.

(3) Walsh, p. 58).

(4) Ibid., p. 59.

(5) Kondor, p. 78.

(6) Ibid., p. 77.

(7) Ibid., p. 96.

(8) Walsh, p. 127.

(9) Kondor, Appendix 1, p. 191.

(10) Blue Army Apostolate, "There is Nothing More': Our Lady's Last Words At Fatima (Washington, N.J.: AMI PRESS, [N.D.]), P. 146.