Three centuries before Our Lady appeared to three little shepherds at Fatima, she visited a humble cloistered nun in Quito, Ecuador, Sr. Mariana de Jesus Torres. She warned Sr. Mariana of many evils that would arise in our time and asked for prayers to her as Our Lady of Good Success. These apparitions and those of Fatima give us the prescription for joining Jesus and Mary to save and restore our Christian culture. Live the Fatima message and listen to Mary’s warnings at Quito.
Mary warned of the terrible situation we would face in our times: “At the end of the nineteenth century and throughout a great part of the twentieth, many heresies will be propagated.… The small number of souls who will secretly safeguard the treasure of Faith and virtues will suffer a cruel, unspeakable, and long martyrdom. [Think of all the Christians killed in Spain, Russia, China, throughout Europe, Mexico, etc. More Christians suffered martyrdom in the 20th century than all other centuries combined. And the carnage continues in the 21st.] Many will descend to their graves through the violence of suffering and will be counted among the martyrs who sacrificed themselves for the country and the Church…. In those times the atmosphere will be saturated with the spirit of impurity which, like a filthy sea, will engulf the streets and public places with incredible license.… Innocence will scarcely be found in children, or modesty in women.”
Mary warned of the corruption of the sacraments: “Unhappy, the children of those times! Seldom will they receive the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. As for the sacrament of Penance, they will confess only while attending Catholic schools, which the devil will do his utmost to destroy by means of persons in authority….The same will occur with Holy Communion. Oh, how it hurts me to tell you that there will be many and enormous public and hidden sacrileges!... In those times, the sacrament of Extreme Unction will be largely ignored.… Many will die without receiving it, being thereby deprived of innumerable graces, consolation, and strength in the great leap from time to eternity….
Mary warned of the attempt to destroy marriage, so obvious in the decisions of our own Supreme Court: “The sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with the Church, will be thoroughly attacked and profaned. Masonry, then reigning, will implement iniquitous laws aimed at extinguishing this sacrament. They will make it easy for all to live in sin, thus multiplying the birth of illegitimate children without the Church’s blessing….”
Mary warned of the attack on the priesthood which we see so graphically illustrated in so many false shepherds: “The devil will work to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every way, working with baneful cunning to destroy the spirit of their vocation and corrupting many. Those who will thus scandalize the Christian flock will bring upon all priests the hatred of bad Christians and the enemies of the One, Holy, Roman Catholic, and Apostolic Church. This apparent triumph of Satan will cause enormous suffering to the good pastors of the Church...and to the Supreme Pastor and Vicar of Christ on earth who, a prisoner in the Vatican, will shed secret and bitter tears in the presence of God Our Lord, asking for light, sanctity, and perfection for all the clergy of the world, to whom he is King and Father.”
Mary warned of the betrayal of those in authority which we saw so evident in the recent Synod on the Family: “Unhappy times will come wherein those who should fearlessly defend the rights of the Church will instead, blinded despite the light, give their hand to the Church’s enemies and do their bidding. But when [evil] seems triumphant and when authority abuses its power, committing all manner of injustice and oppressing the weak, their ruin shall be near. They will fall and crash to the ground.”
Despite these fearful prophecies, Mary offers hope and gives us the prescription for a revival of faith: “Pray constantly, implore tirelessly, and weep bitter tears in the seclusion of your heart, beseeching the Eucharistic Heart of my most holy Son to take pity on His ministers and to end as soon as possible these unhappy times by sending to His Church the Prelate who shall restore the spirit of her priests….Then will the Church, joyful and triumphant like a young girl, reawaken and be comfortably cradled in the arms of my most dear and elect son of those times. If he lends an ear to the inspirations of grace–one of which will be the reading of these great mercies that my Son and I have had toward you–we shall fill him with graces and very special gifts and will make him great on earth and much greater in Heaven. There we have reserved a precious seat for him because, heedless of men, he will have fought for truth and ceaselessly defended the rights of the Church, deserving to be called ‘martyr.’”
At Fatima, Mary confirmed her prescription of peace for the world: "See my daughter, how my Heart is encircled by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Do you, at least, strive to console Me; and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death with graces necessary for salvation all those who, in order to make reparation to Me, on the first Saturday of five successive months, go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary."