I would venture to guess that most Catholics and perhaps even Lutherans know about "Fatima" and what all that is about. I declare I didn't know much. When I recently heard what the pope had said that involved Russia, I became intrigued, so I started doing a bit of research and exploring. Below I will try and explain the phenomena that is taking place as it has to do with "the spiritual manifesting into the physical" according to the pope.

Above you see a picture of the Catholic sculpture and interpretation of Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus, in front is pope Francis. This is part of the the Basilica in Rome.

Just recently, pope Francis made a date for a special celebration day in March of 2022. Here is the excerpt from the Vatican announcement: "The consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by Pope Francis will take place during the Celebration of Penance on 25 March in St Peter's Basilica."

(Vatican News March 15, 2022)

Below, for those of us who don't know anything about what this means or what happens, I will try and explain below.

Who is Fatima?

Our Lady of Fátima formally known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Fátima, is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus based on the Marian apparitions reported in 1917 by three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria, in Fátima, Portugal. The three children were Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto. The bishop of Leiria, José Alves Correia da Silva declared the events worthy of belief on 13 October 1930.

The published memoirs of Sister Lúcia in the 1930s revealed two secrets that she claimed came from the Virgin Mary while the third secret was to be revealed by the Catholic Church in 1960. The controversial events at Fátima gained fame due partly to elements of the secrets, prophecy and eschatological revelations allegedly related to the Second World War and possibly more global wars in the future, particularly the Virgin's request for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

What is a Marian apparition?

A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance by Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a series of related such appearances over a period of time.

In order to be classified as a Marian apparition, the person or persons who claim to see Mary (the "seers") must claim that they see her visually located in their environment.

If the person claims to hear Mary but not see her, this is known as an interior locution, not an apparition. Also excluded from the category of apparitions are dreams, visions experienced in the imagination, the claimed perception of Mary in ordinarily-explainable natural phenomena, and miracles associated with Marian artwork, such as weeping statues.

Believers consider such apparitions to be real and objective interventions of divine power, rather than subjective experiences generated by the perceiving individuals, even in cases where the apparition is reportedly seen by only some, not all, of the people present at the event's location.

Marian apparitions are considered expressions of Mary's ongoing motherly care for the church. The understood purpose of each apparition is to draw attention to some aspect of the Christian message, given the needs of a particular time and place. Apparitions are often accompanied by other alleged supernatural phenomena, such as medical cures. However, such miraculous events are not considered the purpose of Marian apparitions, but exist primarily to validate and draw attention to the message. In the case of Our Lady of Fatima, there were only three seers of the apparition itself, but miraculous phenomena was reported by a crowd of approximately 70,000 people, and even by others located miles away.

Physical contact is hardly ever reported as part of Marian apparitions. In rare cases, a physical artifact is reportedly left behind, such as the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is said to have been miraculously imprinted on the cloak of Juan Diego.

In the Catholic Church, approval of a Marian apparition is relatively rare. The majority of investigated apparitions are rejected as fraudulent or otherwise false.

This particular pilgrimage site of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal brings 6–8 million people to the site per year.Occasionally, apparitions will introduce prayers that become incorporated into widespread Catholic practice, as in the case of the Fátima prayers, or the legendary revelation of the Rosary to Saint Dominic. Below is a picture of the Sanctuary in Portugal of lady of Fatima:

information about the Lady of Fatima was copied in part from wiki pedia. It also states that in some instances of the appearances the apparition requests the person seeing it, to place a marking or an alter or "statue" in the very place it was apparent. The Catholics have many apparitions of Mary throughout the centuries in different places across the world. All of them seem to be named: Our Lady of........(those who had seen it or of such and such place.)

There have been so many apparitions reported by people of different saints and supernatural visions that the Catholic Church formed a committee to review the reports. The committees would pronounce them as authentic or fake/false. Also, the Catholic church has given Bishops the role of placing their approval or disapproval upon the verification of a supernatural vision. In the case above, as Lady of Fatima (Russia secret), The Pope is declaring it to be true and is claiming it to be divinely inspired and placing his mark of approval on it. He is going to declare this on March 25th as will another Bishop at a different location as above indicated.

It is not for me to comment on whether this is true or not; I am only reporting on this event, because of the timing of it with the "warlike" situation between Russia, Ukraine, and the world players taking sides right now. What do you think the significance of all of this is? Is it a coincidence?

Here is what the apparition of "Our Lady of Fatima" added as she appeared, as reported by the Vatican news:

Martyrdom of the good

In the apparition of 13 July 1917, in Fatima, Our Lady had asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, stating that if this request were not granted, Russia would spread "its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecution of the Church.”

“The good," she added, "will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be destroyed."