As we know, Our Lady of Fatima told us that the future of the world depended on its attitude. If it was faithful to God, its fortunes would take a favorable turn; if it rejected God, it could expect wars, famines, cataclysms, and persecution. Our Blessed Mother said: The [First World] war is going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI.

Unfortunately, most people ignored the Fatima message. The crisis of morality and rejection of Christian values deepened in Europe, causing people to fall into doubt and practical atheism. In Russia, in 1917, men advocating the godless ideology of Communism seized power. Their rule, based on deceit, hatred, and crimes, led to the creation of one of the world’s most evil dictatorships. In 1932, Christian Germany threw in its lot with the anti-Christian, atheistic ideology of National Socialism, voting into power Adolf Hitler, a demagogic genius possessed by the powers of darkness. In its rejection of God and the Fatima message, mankind sank into a moral abyss, which led to the outbreak of WWII. Thus, Our Lady’s words spoken in 1917 in Fatima were fulfilled: When you see a night illumined by a strange light [an extraordinary aurora borealis was seen throughout all of Europe on the nights of January 25 and 26, 1938], know that this is the great sign given 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 the Holy Father.

Tragically, the Fatima call to conversion was once again ignored. The Second World War was the natural consequence of years of evil that had been building up in Germany and Europe. It was a divine punishment in the sense that God permitted the human family to gorge on the fruit of the evil it had cultivated of its own free will. On the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of WWII, John Paul II observed that the event had been one of the most inhuman tragedies in our history allowing us to experience palpably the power of the prince of this world (Jn. 14:30), who is capable of seducing consciences through lies, contempt for man and his rights, and the cult of power and brute force.

In her Fatima message, Our Lady begged the world to avail itself of Holy Communion on first Saturdays of the month, and to consecrate itself and Russia to her Immaculate Heart. This Pope Pius XII carried out for the first time on December 8, 1942.

It is a striking fact that from this moment on Hitler’s armies began suffering a series of crushing defeats on all war fronts. Is it not amazing that every significant victory over the German army took place on a liturgical feast of Our Blessed Mother?

And so the victory at Stalingrad occurs on February 2, 1943. Sicily is taken on August 15, 1943. Italy goes over to the Allied side on September 8, 1943. The Allies land at Toulon on

August 15, 1944. The remnants of the German forces capitulate on May 8, 1945, the feast of Michael the Archangel, patron saint of Germany. Japan finally capitulates on August 15, 1945, thus bringing WWII to a close. The fate of the war was thus largely decided between two principal Marian feast days: December 8, 1942 and August 15, 1945.

As for more recent historical events, we need to recall that the attempt on the life of John Paul II (an action organized by atheistic powers hostile to God and His Church) took place on May 13, 1981, i.e. on the anniversary of the first Marian apparition in Fatima. The Pope’s miraculous healing is a further confirmation of the reality and authenticity of the Fatima message.

Neither can we forget March 25, 1984. This was the date when John Paul II and the bishops of the world, in the presence of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima brought specially over for the occasion, carried out the formal act of consecrating Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. According to Sister Lucia, it was only then that the conditions of her request were fully met. Sister Lucia predicted that a miracle would follow this act of consecration. And, indeed, it was not long before the world witnessed the collapse of Communist Bloc. The dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party followed on the heels of the failed coup attempt of August 22, 1991, i.e. on the Church’s old feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Thus, an extraordinary chain of events unfolded between March 25, 1984 and August 22, 1991, thereby confirming the reality and authenticity of the Fatima message.