Fatima, the Lourdes of Portugal

I ended up walking around the whole town looking for a gas cannister and was able to get a good overview. The whole town revolves around the "legend of Fatima". There is not a shop that is not selling "objects of the Catholic faith". It is incredible!
This made me want to understand the legend.
On 13th May 1917, three shepherd children, cousins, led by the 13 year old Lucia Santos, reported that Maria had appeared to them (and continued to do this each month for 6 months), revealing 3 "secrets" to them. In short:
1) The children should do penance every day to save sinners in the world and regularly say their rosary, (all children had relatives fighting in WW1 at the time, and this was the time where communism was growing in Portugal and Spain).
2) Then Maria explained that war is punishment for sin and a lack of pious life, and that the rising atheist communist movement in Europe and in particular Russia would cause unrest in the world until the communists were brought back into the faith.
3) the third "secret" was written down by the then nearly 50 year old Lucia as late as 1944 in a letter only to be opened in 1960 and talks about the risk of the church falling appart.
Based on all this a whole city with gigantic monuments has been built, and thousands of pilgrims flock to Fatima each year.
I am very critical of all this, as I was during my last Camino through Spain and look upon it as a study of how to influence masses which the Catholic has done incredibly well over the centuries. Whether it was the creation of the Image of St James whose body was transported from Jerusalem to Santiago, to later be discovered by a shepherd in a field and led to the creation of Santiago di Compostella itself, or later, the image of St James entering the battle of Oviedo, where King Alfonso 2 was just loosing against the islamic moors, and galloped through Moor ranks cutting off their heads. "St James the moor slayer" was then carried throughout the whole Christian world motivating people to join the army of King alfonso.
The delicate part is however that modern age historians discovered that there was never a "battle of Oviedo"!!!!!!
In a book I am reading "psychology of the masses" by "Gustav le bon" written at the end of the 18th century, he says: to influence the masses you need above all "strong images/ pictures" that carry the emotion. Then you need strong forceful statements. These statements are never explained or proven and any criticism of these is thrown back and side-lined.
Now, doesn't this remind me of the whole covid discussion? The pictures from Bergamo were used again and again around the world. Statements are made and never proven. And alter opinions are viciously side-lined.
Finally, look at this poster which I photographed on a bus stop yesterday:
It shows a man with the "symbol" of covid (breathing apparatus) in hospital.
The caption reads:
"Two meters of distance could have prevented this"
"Don't let the VIRUS" enter!"
No proof! Just tough statement and a shocking picture.
That is pure manipulation!Read more