Pope Francis has decided to grant a plenary indulgence opportunity throughout the 100th anniversary year of the so-called apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. The indulgence year began November 27, 2016. 

There are three ways to obtain the indulgence: 1) visit the shrine in Portugal, 2) pray before any statue of Our Lady of Fatima, or (for the sick and infirmed) 3) pray in front of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and “spiritually unite themselves” to the jubilee celebrations on the 13th of each month between May and October. 

The veneration of Our Lady of Fatima, a title given to the virgin Mary arose because of the visions given to three shepherd teenagers 100 years ago in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal. A basilica was built on the site and a statue of the virgin was installed there. 

The Ten Commandments expressly forbid the worship of images, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” Exodus 20:4, 5 

But Rome goes beyond the creation and the worship of images in her abuse of the gospel by promoting Mariology and Mariolatry, through Our Lady of Fatima. Mary is in her grave. She cannot be invoked unless one is invoking an imposter, such as a demon who impersonates her. 

The Catholic Church is more interested in elevating Mary than in Christ. There is no reference to Jesus in this opportunity for indulgence, only Mary.

The sale of indulgences was the trigger for the Lutheran Reformation. Luther would be horrified that his church, his successors, are in an ecumenical alliance with what he called the Antichrist and are about to end the Protestant Reformation. This Marian mummery makes it clear that the Catholic Church has not changed since the days of Martin Luther. It is the Lutherans and other Protestants/Evangelicals that have changed and drawn closer to Catholicism and its heresy. 

“The church that holds to the word of God is irreconcilably separated from Rome. Protestants were once thus apart from this great church of apostasy, but they have approached more nearly to her, and are still in the path of reconciliation to the Church of Rome. Rome never changes. Her principles have not altered in the least. She has not lessened the breach between herself and Protestants; they have done all the advancing. But what does this argue for the Protestantism of this day? It is the rejection of Bible truth which makes men approach to infidelity. It is a backsliding church that lessens the distance between itself and the Papacy.” Signs of the Times, February 19, 1894