Pope was defending reason, not attacking Islam

The following was sent to me by Father Thomas Carleton on the anniversary of Our Lady of La Salette:

THE FATIMA VISION

The apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima Portugal are intimately tied to the Islamic world. The two great women of Islam are the Virgin Mary of Nazareth and Mohammed's daughter, named Fatima. After the death of his daughter, Fatima, Mohammed wrote: "Thou shalt be the most blessed of all the women in Paradise, after Mary".

The village itself in Portugal called Fatima was named such by a Christian leader who married a Muslim maiden named after Mohammed's daughter. When Pope John Paul II was almost killed in Saint Peter's Square by an extremist, some interpreted it as the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken by the young seer of Fatima.

It did not actually fulfill the words of the prophecy and so the terrible event of 1981, happening, indeed, as it did on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, could therefore be interpreted only as a foreshadowing or warning, if you will, of the eventual real fulfillment of the prophecy.

The Holy Father, Benedict XVI, in his controversial speech at the Germany University, pointed out an important truth, namely, that much of the Muslim violence cannot be attributed to merely this or that extremist Muslim leader, but rather is traceable to the very texts of the Islamic holy book itself, the Koran. What is to be feared, is that the price of stating this truthful fact, may, in the end, cost the Pope his life, and it seems all the more possible, since the, as yet unfulfilled, prophecy of the seer of Fatima would in fact then, according to the letter, be fulfilled.

We must, as Jacinta so often pleaded: "Pray for the Holy Father".

Father Thomas Carleton
Feast of Our Lady of La Salette
Sept. 19, 2006