The film, Fatima (2020),
tells the story of the three Roman Catholic children in Fatima, Portugal, who
in 2017 claimed to see and hear the Virgin Mary periodically over a period of 6
months. The film centers around Lucia, the oldest of the three children, and,
moreover, the question of whether the children really encounter the Virgin, or are
lying, hypnotic, or even psychotic. In the film, as well as in “real life,” a
miracle is associated with the last visitation. In the story world of the film,
the visitation really happens, and the multitudes watching the children come to
believe this when the Virgin delivers on a miracle as promised. Historically,
believers as well as nonbelievers who were present at the event have testified
that the Sun moved around in the sky and even came closer. If this really
happened as witnesses have described, then the empirical “proof” in the story
world of the film is not the whole story, and the religious truth therein is
not limited to the faith narrative, but holds in an empirical, supernatural
sense. An implication is that Jesus not only resurrects in the Gospel stories,
but also as an empirical event in history. But, then, why have such
supernatural events been so rare since the “time” of Jesus? And, yet, witnesses as far as 40 km away from
the visitation of the Virgin reported seeing the miracle of the Sun.
The full essay is at: "Fatima"
