Interview with Padre Livio, founder and president of Radio Maria, Italy(from Italy's prime-time TV program "Top Secret", which aired January 16th, 2008 on "Channel 4" - "Rete 4")
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Padre Livio: "If we connect the points of the most important apparitions of the Madonna [in Europe], a big "M" forms, a sign that is like Mary's signature written across Europe – it gives a sense of Her protection over this continent".
Moderator: For over 20 years Padre Livio Fanzaga has been the director of Radio Maria, the Catholic radio most listened to in the whole world and which grew on the wave of fervor that came out of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at Medjugorje to which Padre Livio is profoundly tied. He recounts his story in his latest book, Why I Am a Christian. But that which he discusses with us during our meeting goes well beyond Medjugorje. According to this very great expert on Marian apparitions, the Madonna has appeared in Europe over the last two centuries following a very precise plan. In order to get some idea of it, it is enough to have a chronological look at the places of the various apparitions which form the virtual "M" of Mary on our continent. We begin in Paris. In 1830 in a convent in Rue du Bac, Mary manifests Herself to Sister Catherine Labouré in order to announce that a very great danger is eminent,"But I shall be with you" assures the Blessed Virgin. 16 years later in 1846 it is the turn of La Salette, a small town in the French Alps. The Madonna appears to two little shepherd childen and announces that if her people will not submit themselves [to the commandments of God], She will be forced to let fall the heavy arm of God. Mary returns in 1858 at Lourdes. To little Bernadette, the Virgin, who appears to her in a grotto, asks that penance be done for the [sins of the] world. The encounters proceed. In 1871 at Pointmain in Brittany, during the peak of the war with Prussia, the Virgin entrusts to a group of children the formula for obtaining peace, "pray" [She exhorts them]. Five years later in a small town in the middle of France, Pellevoisin, the Blessed Virgin heals and converts Estelle Faguette and says, "I have come for the conversion of sinners". And in 1917 at Fatima in Portugal the Blessed Vergin returns to speak once again to mankind. To the shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco She reveals three secrets and asks that penance be done in order to avert a divine punishment. And again, the Madonna appears to five children 1932 in a small town in Belgium at Beauraing, and in the following year to Mariette, a girl from a poor family from a village in the Ardenne. In 1947 at Rome, the Virgin appears to Bruno Cornacchiola and his three children, inside a cave in a locale known as "Tre Fontane". From being a Seventh Day Adventist he converts to Catholicism. And then in Syracuse in 1953, the Madonna doesn't speak but cries tears from a statue. And then, the latest apparition of Mary in Europe, still not officially recognized, at Medjugorje in 1981 where She reveals 10 secrets and asks for prayer and fasting; and finally in Civitavecchia in 1994 where a statue of the Madonna of Medjugorje cries tears of blood. A long journey that has lasted almost two centuries in order to bring one message:
Padre Livio: "In all Her apparitons, in the modern ones, the ones that can be dated from Rue du Bac, in 1830 – the Miraculous Medal – up to today, the basic message, the themes of the messages are basically identical – that is: faith, conversion, prayer. There is a thread that ties all these apparitions together, this is the era of Mary, the era of the apostles of Mary, the era of Her battle against the beast.
Moderator: Why is Mary's "signature" on Europe?
Padre Livio: It's on Europe for many reasons. Foremost because as I said Europe is the Christian continent, it is the continent that gave birth to Christian civilization, and at the very same time Europe has witnessed a growing apostasy from the time of the French Revolution up to the present – it has seen a growing apostasy away from Christianity which started first among the intellectual groups or political groups and then progressed to the point of infecting a large portion of the masses of simple believers for which reason we find ourselves facing today the mass phenomenon of de-Christianization. As John Paul II said: "mankind is at a fork in the road", we have truly come to a fork in the road between life and death. The Madonna is here in order to help us win this battle and in order to secure peace for the future of mankind.
Moderator: In all the apparitions, the message of the Virgin seems clear: mankind is in danger and the only way to save it is through prayer, penance and fasting.
Padre Livio: I believe that one day – and in Heaven we will know – what we escaped, what we left at our backs, what we were spared on account of the fasting of the followers of Mary.
Moderator: Another recurring element in all the manifestations of the Mother of God is that Her messages, of such urgent importance and revelence for all humanity, are entrusted to simple, humble people, almost always children or adolescents. At Fatima, as also at La Salette and at Medjugorje the Madonna asks, at least for a period of time, that Her message remain a secret. Why?
Padre Livio: Yes, there is without a doubt a strategy behind the use of the secret. Why the Madonna uses this strategy is surely for pedagogical reasons. However, I would like to underline the fundamental difference there is between the secrets of Medjugorje and the secrets of Fatima; that is, in brief, that secrets of Fatima were revealed long after [the apparitions]. The secrets of Medjugorje instead will be revealed only one at a time and three days before each one is set to occur. So, what does this mean? First of all this means that they are particularly important because in this way it can be immediatley verified if the secret has been realized. They are, how can I say, they give one the assurance that the world is not in the hands of who knows what kind of evil and destructive force but rather, something is in the works that God has preordained, something in any event which will save us.
Moderator: But this danger – what is it going to be?
Padre Livio: Well, I did a two-hour long interview with the seer Mirjiana who is the principal one [with regard to the secrets] but she didn't..She says that the secrets regard the world and the Church. Anyway, in my opinion, they won't have anything to do with strange phenomenon. In my opinion the danger is a nuclear holocaust. This, in my opinion, is the greatest danger.
Moderator: But the message of Medjugorje, can it be considered the final one?
Padre Livio: The Madonna said very clearly at Medjugorje that these are Her last apparitions on the earth and that She has come for the last time to invite mankind to convert. This time it's not like at Fatima where the Madonna had been able to say, "If you don't convert there will be another war [WWII] worse than this one [WWI]" but back then there was not the potential for nuclear destruction that there is now. A war now would mean the end of the world, the world in flames. This time, either the Blessed Virgin is going to win or if the devil wins he'll destroy the world.
(Note: "convert" means a conversion of heart, a return to God, to prayer and to penance)
