The thing that has fascinated me most about the Virgin’s appearances at Fatima is that it was to children, unsophisticated children. Whatever heaven communicated, it had to go first through the mind of a child. And there was evidently no collusion with parents or clergy. As a matter of fact, the clergy were strongly suspicious of it.
The fact that the appearances were evenly spaced, by the month, and on the same day of each month, the 13th, which had some significance with the Russian Revolution, the motivation for the appearances. Some of the things the Virgin told the children were surely beyond their ken.
The quote that shocked me the most, and appalled me, was this: “The sins for which the most people go to hell are the sins of the flesh.” Now what do nine-year-olds know about sins of the flesh? If Bernadette Soubirous had said that, in speaking of the Virgin, I’d understand. But if the three shepherd children said it, I believe.
Civilization 