Alien Confidential Multimedia/Alien Confidential Multimedia (Disk 4 of 9).adf/CIV/030

Text File | 1995-04-22 | 4KB | 65 lines

Subject: Fatima/"Mary"/UFOs
Date: 29 Jan 1995 22:30:08 GMT
Organization: CS Outreach Services, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
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   Fatima was not a Marian apparition if by that phrase is meant a mass
sighting of Mary.  Like Lourdes, the only persons to have "seen Mary"
were the principle players in the drama, not the crowds.
   Fatima's public aspect, however, while not classically Marian, was
classically ufological.
   The prime event, the "dancing sun", exhibited well-known ufological
traits and features.
   The "sun" as reported was a pale silver disk which spun on its own
axis, threw off colors of the spectrum, detached itself from its normal
celestial position and made erratic gyrations through the sky.  Finally,
it plunged toward the earth with swaying motions.  At its closest
approach, enough heat was generated to dry muddy soil as well as the
rain-soaked clothing of witnesses.
   The anomalous kinetics of Fatima's "sun" are well-attested in the ufo
literature.  Its spinning and "dancing" movements are applicable to many
reported ufo's.  Its fall toward the earth was in the typical "falling
leaf" pattern associated with ufo flight.  The heat phenomena, too, fall
well within reported parameters of ufo behavior.
   There is some evidence that Fatima's "sun" was a disk interposed
between the observers and the apparent position of the actual sun:
reports relate that cloud banks were visible *behind* the flying disk.
   Moreover, in the months preceding the "solar" event, witnesses
reported balls of light passing through the clouds, as well as the fall
of "petals of light" which dissolved before touching the ground. The
resemblance to reports of "angel hair" are striking.  One fall of such
luminescent petals was reported years later at an anniversary Mass
celebrating the original event.
   From a certain perspective, Fatima is the best-attested ufo event of
this century.  An estimated 75,000 persons witnessed the "dancing sun".
Many of these witnesses were openly hostile to the miraculous; many of
them saw the gyrating disk as much as 25 miles distant from the principle
site at the Cova da Iria.
   The awesome sight of the sun detaching itself from the sky and
plummeting toward the earth had both believers and skeptics cringing in
terror.  One is compelled to ask just what the motivation for such a
"miracle" could have been.
   On the one hand, there was a stereotypical Marian message which
reflected the status quo religiosity of extant mariological beliefs ("be
good: fast and pray for siners").
   On the other hand, there was the utterly bizarre prophecy issued from
the midst of the banal Marian message that there was going to be a "Sign"
on October 13th; there was the utterly grotesque fulfillment of the
prophecy via the "dancing sun"; and there was the reaction of stark
terror on the part of believers and unbelievers alike.
   In Fatima, we have a commonplace religious message presented in a
terrifying ufological context.  Believers were shaken and went on
believing; skeptics were shaken and went on with their skepticism.  No
mass conversions were reported; neither was a new Marian cultus
launched.  Rather, except for the doctrinal incorporation of the "solar"
event, Fatima's Marian devotion can be interchanged with that of any
other Marian shrine.
   One can only agree with Michael Grosso's assessment that Fatima
presents a "grossly incoherent" picture: while it suggests a genuine
ufological event, the event itself reinforced standard Catholic dogma,
and we are left in the face of mystery.