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Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje Show Modern Attraction of Signs
In today's skeptical world, and on the most secular continent, there is still evidence of man's innate attraction to signs and miracles. Consider three European sites that attract millions of visitors.
Lourdes, a small town in the foothills of the Pyrenees in southern France, attracts some 5 million tourists and pilgrims a year because of the visions seen by a 14-year-old girl nearly 150 years ago. Bernadette Soubirous first saw visions of a woman in white at a remote grotto on Feb. 11, 1858.
Within months, visitors were claiming healing from the waters of the grotto, and of approximately 7,000 who have felt they were healed and sought confirmation, nearly 70 have been declared scientifically inexplicable miracles by the Lourdes Medical Bureau and by the Catholic Church.
In Fatima, Portugal, three shepherd children saw six visions of “Our Lady of Fatima” between May 13 and Oct. 13, 1917. They told of three secrets that were revealed to them, and the second has been seen as predicting World War II and the “immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism” (www.vatican.va ).
Speculation abounded about the third secret, which was not released by the Vatican until Pope John Paul II's visit to Fatima May 13, 2000. There, the third secret's description of a bishop clothed in white making his way among corpses of those who were martyred and being shot himself was explained as being fulfilled in the May 13, 1981, assassination attempt on John Paul II.
Then there is Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where six people began seeing visions 25 years ago on June 24, 1981. Since then, some say more than 30,000 messages have come and more than 30 million people have visited the site, though these pilgrimages are not encouraged by the Vatican.
With such interest in visions and secrets seen by a few, is it any wonder that millions more will be convinced by incontrovertible miracles seen with their own eyes? WNP
Lourdes, a small town in the foothills of the Pyrenees in southern France, attracts some 5 million tourists and pilgrims a year because of the visions seen by a 14-year-old girl nearly 150 years ago. Bernadette Soubirous first saw visions of a woman in white at a remote grotto on Feb. 11, 1858.
Within months, visitors were claiming healing from the waters of the grotto, and of approximately 7,000 who have felt they were healed and sought confirmation, nearly 70 have been declared scientifically inexplicable miracles by the Lourdes Medical Bureau and by the Catholic Church.
In Fatima, Portugal, three shepherd children saw six visions of “Our Lady of Fatima” between May 13 and Oct. 13, 1917. They told of three secrets that were revealed to them, and the second has been seen as predicting World War II and the “immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism” (www.vatican.va ).
Speculation abounded about the third secret, which was not released by the Vatican until Pope John Paul II's visit to Fatima May 13, 2000. There, the third secret's description of a bishop clothed in white making his way among corpses of those who were martyred and being shot himself was explained as being fulfilled in the May 13, 1981, assassination attempt on John Paul II.
Then there is Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where six people began seeing visions 25 years ago on June 24, 1981. Since then, some say more than 30,000 messages have come and more than 30 million people have visited the site, though these pilgrimages are not encouraged by the Vatican.
With such interest in visions and secrets seen by a few, is it any wonder that millions more will be convinced by incontrovertible miracles seen with their own eyes? WNP
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