The last of the Fatima children died..debate question

[RUDUing2]

Do you believe in prophecies, etc?
What about mystics and prophets?

Do you think the fatima vision really occured or was it just overactive childrens imagination?

Catholics Mourn Death of Child Visionary
By Peggy Polk

(UNDATED) Pope John Paul II and other Catholics mourned the death of the last of the shepherd children said to have received prophecies from the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopez declared a day of national mourning for Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, who died Sunday (Feb. 13) at the age of 97. Lucia and her two younger cousins became celebrated throughout the Catholic world for reporting that they had seen visions of the Virgin Mary in the Portuguese countryside starting on May 13, 1917, and that she had given them messages for humanity. The Shrine of Fatima built on the site of the visions is one of Catholicism's most visited sanctuaries. It attracted 3.75 million pilgrims from throughout the world last year.
www.religionnews.com/


and for those of you unfamiliar with the Fatima prophecies
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa070300a.htm
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.

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."......

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 . 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........

(3rd prophecy)
On May 13, 2000 (the anniversary of the assassination attempt on him), the Pope visited the shrine at Fatima and made a surprise announcement that the secret would finally be revealed. The Vatican then told the world that the secret was a foretelling of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. The referred-to passage states: "...the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him..."