Pope to canonize 2 Fatima children a century after visions

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Pope to canonize 2 Fatima children a century after visions

By BARRY HATTON, ASSOCIATED PRESS FATIMA, Portugal — May 10, 2017, 6:27 AM ET

Three shepherd children in Portugal were jailed and threatened with being boiled alive in olive oil when they claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to them 100 years ago. The Catholic Church doubted their story too.

From that unpromising start, the children's reported visions would go on to strengthen the faith of Portugal's persecuted Catholics and make the small farming town of Fatima one of the world's foremost pilgrimage sites, with around 6 million visitors a year.

Now, the Portuguese youngsters' long-ago testimony is giving the Catholic Church its youngest saints who did not die as martyrs. Pope Francis plans to observe the centenary of their visions by canonizing Francisco and Jacinta Marto this weekend when he makes his first pilgrimage to Fatima.

During the Friday-Saturday visit, Francis will also likely seek to make Fatima's message of peace and prayer resonate today, church officials say. According to church lore, the Virgin Mary urged penance, sacrifice, and turning away from sin during her appearances to the children.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pope-canonize-fatima-children-century-visions-47319122

[Voltaire2]

1. About as credible as the kids at the Salem Witch Trials.

[katmondoo]

2. I am a believer through experience with the Virgin Mary

[trotsky]

3. You mean a believer through a perceived experience, right? n/t

[hrmjustin]

8. I am glad for you.

Sometimes having faith can be very frustrating.

[rug]

9. Ignore the haters.

Lots of people enjoy disruption of any positive talk about religion.

[Act_of_Reparation]

4. Francisco Marto died in 1919, Jacinta in 1920.

The 1918 influenza got them both.

The virus kills you by triggering a cytokine storm, an extreme immune response in the lungs. They fill up with fluid and you drown. Jacinta's lungs were so badly swollen she needed to have two ribs removed. Because the disease had also damaged her heart, this operation was conducted under local anesthetic.

Francisco was 10. Jacinta was 9.

This, apparently, is how God calls his children home.

[trotsky]

7. A miracle! n/t

[rug]

10. How repellent that you find this the stuff of a cheap joke.

[Act_of_Reparation]

11. Like most feel-good stories, the happy veneer hides something sinister.

Francisco refused medical treatment. Jacinta is said to have reasoned the exquisite pain she no doubt suffered during her operation and eventual death would inspire the faithful. Both are reported to have practiced mortification of the flesh.

Some people read this story and find inspiration. I see abused and neglected children.

[trotsky]

12. And don't forget the Catholic Church profiting from their corpses.

Just lovely.

[Act_of_Reparation]

13. And using their pain and deaths to promote the absurd notion that suffering...

...brings you closer to salvation.

It's fucking sick.

[Bretton Garcia]

6. Even the Bible condemns a nation lead by a child