Fr. Longenecker on the Messages of Fatima and Pope Francis

“As pastor of a church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, I found [the recent] Marian celebration in Rome very moving. . . .

“In our parish we moved our image of OL Fatima into the church for today’s Mass and the rest of the month of October and somehow the church’s teachings on Mary hit home to my heart today in a deeper way than ever before. As Rocco Palma observes, ‘If you don’t understand it can’t be explained.’ In his [recent post] Rocco explains how close the Blessed Mother is to the heart of Pope Francis’ life and ministry, and how close she is to the spirituality of the people.

After Mass I said to a parishioner, ‘This is what the message of the Blessed Mother is all about. It is about the end of the world. It is about the end of humanity – not so much in an apocalyptic way (although I wouldn’t rule that out) but the end of the world and the end of humanity because we are destroying ourselves. We are destroying families through contraception, sterilization, abortion and divorce. We are destroying our purity and power through pornography, homosexuality, promiscuity, lust and rage. We are destroying our society through greed, materialism, disregard for the poor, trampling the widows, orphans, homeless and hungry. We are destroying ourselves and the Blessed Mother looks on with a mother’s broken heart.”

In a recent commentary, Father Dwight Longenecker (parish priest at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Greenville, SC) reflected on the message of our Blessed Mother and the message of Pope Francis and on what these messages mean for the world.

To access Fr. Longenecker’s complete post, please visit:

Standing on My Head: The Pope, Fatima and the End of the World (13 OCT 13)