By Fr Ladis J. Cizik, Blue Army National Executive Director
Islam
Islam is an Arabic word that can be defined as “to make peace.” Islam is the religion founded by Mohammed, which considers the Koran as its holy book. In addition, Islam accepts the New Testament of the Christians and the Old Testament of the Jews as Divinely inspired works. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims (also: Moors, Turks, and Moslems) and, just as Jews and Christians, believe in only one God. Yet, over the centuries, Muslims have engaged in tremendous wars with Christians and Jews. It would seem that there is little hope for peace. However, Heaven’s Peace Plan, involving Our Lady, is evidenced at Fatima, Portugal as well as other places around the world.
Fatima
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima
The Moors once occupied Portugal. The village of Fatima was given the Islamic name of thewell-loved Princess of the nearby Castle of Ourem. She died at an early age after marrying the Count of Ourem and converting to Catholicism. Baptized with the Christian name of Oureana, she was named at birth “Fatima,” like many other Moslem girls, in honor of the daughter of Mohammed. Of his daughter, Fatima, the founder of Islam, Mohammed, said: “She has the highest place in heaven after the Virgin Mary.”
It is a fact that Moslems from various nations, especially from the Middle East, make so many pilgrimages to Our Lady of Fatima’s Shrine in Portugal that Portuguese officials have expressed concern. The combination of an Islamic name and Islamic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is a great attraction to Moslems. God is writing straight with crooked lines, as we will see. Fatima is a part of Heaven’s Peace Plan. It is hope for the world.
The Koran
In the Koran, the holy name of the Blessed Virgin Mary is mentioned no less than thirty times. No other woman’s name is even mentioned, not even that of Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima. Among men, only Abraham, Moses, and Noah are mentioned more times than Our Lady. In the Koran, Our Blessed Mother is described as “Virgin, ever Virgin.” The Islamic belief in the virginity of Mary puts to shame the heretical beliefs of those who call themselves Christian, while denying the perpetual virginity of Mary. Make no mistake about it, there is a very special relationship between the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Moslems!
The Holy Land
The Holy Land has been a real battleground between the Islamic peoples and Christianity over the centuries. Evidence of this are the numerous churches and basilicas that have been built by the Church, destroyed by, the Moslems, rebuilt by Catholic Crusaders, leveled again by the followers of Islam, and so on over the course of history. However, there is one remarkable exception: the Basilica of Saint Anne in Jerusalem.
The Crusaders built this church and named it in honor of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the Crypt of St. Anne’s Basilica, a statue of the Infant Mary is venerated on what is believed to be the exact spot where Our Lady was born. Their great reverence for Our Lady precluded the Moslems from destroying her birthplace. The foundation for Heaven’s Peace Plan at Fatima, Portugal, can be found in the Land of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Spain
As the Moslems swept through Spain in the 8th century, a great religious treasure was buried for safe-keeping in the earth, high in the Estremadura Mountains. It was a much venerated statue of Our Lady holding the Divine Child Jesus that was a gift of Pope Gregory the Great to Bishop Leander of Seville. After the overthrow of Moorish occupation, the image was uncovered in the year 1326, subsequent to a vision of Our Lady to a humble shepherd by the name of Gil. Our Lady’s very special statue was enshrined in a nearby Franciscan Monastery next to the “Wolf River.”
The Moslems, during their Spanish occupation, had actually named the river. The Islamic term for Wolf River is “Guadalupe” (Guada = River; Lupe = Wolf). Hence, the famous Catholic image in Spain has been known, since the 14th century, by the Islamic name of “Our Lady of Guadalupe.”
Mexico
In the fullness of time, we can be sure that Almighty God knew that the Islamic religion would pose a serious threat to Christianity. God also knew that the Spanish missionaries would face grave resistance in the “new world” from the mighty Aztec Indians. The Aztecs worshipped an evil stone “serpent god” that demanded human sacrifice. It was extremely difficult to win souls for Christ from these bloodthirsty savages. However, with God all things are possible. Our Lady appeared to a humble Aztec Indian convert by the name of Juan Diego in 1531. When asked her name by Juan Diego, at the request of the local bishop, Our Lady’s response, in the Aztec language, included the words “te coatlaxopeuh” (pronounced: “te quatlasupe”) and meant “one who crushes the head of the stone serpent.”
To Juan Diego and his fellow Aztecs, this revelation had great meaning, coupled with the miraculous image of Our Lady standing on top of a “crescent,” the symbol of this evil serpent god. A tidal wave of conversions to Catholicism ensued. However, Bishop Zumarraga, who was from Spain, made what was no doubt a “heavenly mistake” that one day may lead to the mass conversion of Moslems. To the Bishop’s Spanish ears, Our Lady’s Aztec name of “Te Quatlasupe” sounded just like the name of the revered Madonna from Spain with the Islamic name, “Guadalupe.” Hence, the bishop named the Mexican Madonna “Our Lady of Guadalupe”. It is interesting that the “crescent” is also the symbol for Islam and that America’s Shrine to Our Lady has an Islamic name.
Battle of Lepanto
On October 7, 1571, a great victory over the mighty Turkish fleet was won by Catholic naval forces primarily from Spain, Venice, and Genoa under the command of Don Juan of Austria. It was the last battle at sea between “oared” ships, which featured the most powerful navy in the world, a Moslem force with between 12,000 to 15,000 Christian slaves as rowers. The patchwork team of Catholic ships was powered by the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct material disadvantage, the holy pontiff, St. Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory. We know today that the victory was decisive, prevented the Islamic invasion of Europe, and evidenced the Hand of God working through Our Lady. At the hour of victory, St. Pope Pius V, who was hundreds of miles away at the Vatican, is said to have gotten up from a meeting, went over to a window, and exclaimed with supernatural radiance: “The Christian fleet is victorious!” and shed tears of thanksgiving to God.
What you may not know is that one of three admirals commanding the Catholic forces at Lepanto was Andrea Doria. He carried a small copy of Mexico’s Our Lady of Guadalupe into battle. This image is now enshrined in the Church of San Stefano in Aveto, Italy. Not many know that at the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spain, one can view a huge warship lantern that was captured from the Moslems in the Battle of Lepanto. In Rome, look up to the ceiling of S. Maria in Aracoeli and behold decorations in gold taken from the Turkish galleys. In the Doges’ Palace in Venice, Italy, one can witness a giant Islamic flag that is now a trophy from a vanquished Turkish ship from the Victory. At Saint Mary Major Basilica in Rome, close to the tomb of the great St. Pope Pius V, one was once able to view yet another Islamic flag from the Battle, until 1965, when it was returned to Istanbul in an intended friendly token of concord.
The Rosary
At Lepanto, the Victory over the Moslems was won by the faithful praying the Rosary. Even though they had superior numbers, the Turks really were overmatched. Blessed Padre Pio, the Spiritual Father of the Blue Army, said: “The Rosary is the weapon,” and how right he was!
The Battle of Lepanto was at first celebrated liturgically as “Our Lady of Victory.” Later, the feast of October 7th was renamed “Our Lady of the Rosary” and extended throughout the Universal Church by Pope Clement XI in 1716 (who canonized Pope Pius V in 1712).
And with that we are back to Fatima, Portugal where Our Lady, when asked her name, said: “I am the Lady of the Rosary.” At Fatima, Our Lady taught us to pray the Rosary every day. Heaven presented its peace plan at Fatima and truly gave us hope for the world. Conversions were promised at Fatima: the conversion of sinners; the conversion of Russia; and what also appears to be the conversion of Islam. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!
Source: http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/olislam.htm
Taken from:
Soul Magazine
© 2001 The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, U.S.A., Inc.
September – October 2001, page 6
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
“In addition, Islam accepts the New Testament of the Christians and the Old Testament of the Jews as Divinely inspired works.”
Somewhat misleading (I’m sure unintentionally).
Moslems believe that the Old and New Testaments are actually corrupt versions of original revelations given by Allah.
Furthermore, ‘Islam’ means ‘submission’ – not ‘to make peace’.
Interesting article, nonetheless.
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When I read the first line:
“Islam is an Arabic word that can be defined as “to make peace.”
My reaction, naturally was, “Oh yes, and how else can it be defined?”
So, thanks Omvendt. (Although, maybe it can not only be defined as ‘Submission,’ or ‘To Make Peace, but maybe ‘Slippery When Wet,’ as well, for all I know.)
AND THEN; we read…
In the fullness of time, we can be sure that Almighty God knew that the Islamic religion would pose a serious threat to Christianity. God also knew that the Spanish missionaries would face grave resistance in the “new world” from the mighty Aztec Indians. The Aztecs worshipped an evil stone “serpent god” that demanded human sacrifice. It was extremely difficult to win souls for Christ from these bloodthirsty savages.
AND THEN, we read…
At Lepanto, the Victory over the Moslems was won by the faithful praying the Rosary.
Oh, really? I had always thought it was won by fighting better than the other lot.
I suspect that I will not be alone on this site in lamenting the childish and petulant of this post. Very Damianesque, I reckon.
But, who knows? We shall see.
AND, what the heck is ‘The Blue Army’? Don’t like the sound of that. Bit fascist?
(Although, I now notice it emanated from The States, so that explains much.)
.
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SORRY, after this I’m off. Too much posting.
(Omitted the word ‘tenor’ after ‘petulant’ above.)
Re Lepanto,
… in which, as we all know, Cervantes lost the use of his left arm (Lucky it wasn’t his ‘rosary’ arm, eh?) The following, from Wikki, might carry some weight.
But then, it might not.
An important and arguably decisive advantage for the Christians was their numerical superiority in guns and cannons aboard their ships, and probably the better fighting quality of the Spanish infantry. It is estimated the Christians had 1,815 guns, while the Turks had only 750 with insufficient ammunition. The Christians embarked with their much improved arquebusier and musketeer forces, while the Ottomans trusted in their greatly feared composite bowmen.
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Omvendt,
I believe the name “Islam” is derived from the Arabic root “Salema”. The meaning can be peace or purity, but also submission and obedience! I think you are probably correct that in the religious sense, Islam means submission to the will of God and obedience to His law.
Strange how this apparent “submission” and “obedience” is often interpreted by the Moslems though, eh? If the sole meaning of the name were to be “to make peace”, I think everywhere, down through all the centuries of wars and persecution, and especially in this current day and age, the cry of “HYPOCRITES” would be yelled!!
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Toad,
The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima is a worldwide Apostolate of Prayer whose purpose is to spread the urgent messages of the Blessed Virgin given to the three little ‘seers’ in 1917 . This is done in obedience to her wishes through many forms of communication: talks and conferences given in parishes, organising prayer cells, special celebrations of the Holy Mass on feast days of the BVM’s apparitions in Fatima, and by the distribution of books, pamphlets, videos etc. It is of course not strictly speaking an “army”, only in the metaphorical sense, in it’s war against communism and sin. It is not fascist…… but Toad must live up to his name 😉
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For a more detailed description of the Battle of Lepanto, I really like this one by Robert McMullen: http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_001_Lepanto.html
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I read the McMullen link, from Kathleen, above, on Lepanto, with special interest in the last two paragraphs:
“But the enemy has not forgotten history. He remembers it all too well, and he is still deadly serious about his religion. His goal over the years has not changed in the slightest, and he is very patient. The enemy within is now smiling, just biding his time.
And long dead Christian knights, our ancestors in the Faith, are probably turning over in their graves right about now, trying desperately to shout out a warning. The final chapter, it seems, has yet to be written…”
.. McMullen seems petulant and unhappy. He has his reasons, we must suppose.
The naughty old Muslims have the brass nerve to not forget history, and persist, idiotically, in the face of all the ‘evidence,’ in remaining ‘deadly serious’ about their religion. And the Jews are ‘deadly serious’ about theirs, and the Christians are ‘deadly serious’ about theirs and, doubtless The Quivering Brethren and the Hindus are ‘deadly serious’ about theirs. Naturally. Why not?
They are all equally deadly serious – and we are all equally dead.
In this analysis, Mr. McMullen is, no doubt utterly correct. And his Christian knights, as they spin angrily in their graves like teetotems, are all still cheerfully bellowing, “Kill, kill, kill all the Muslims!”
Quite right, too.
There is, I fear, no hope whatsoever for this planet. Religious ‘differences of opinion,’ (as Montaigne put it) will be the death of us all.
And God, as ‘Ladis K. Sizic’ points out, is clearly only too well aware of this.
He could do something about it, if he wanted, apparently, but “He works in mysterious ways.” I’ll say He does. Way too strange for me.
So, The End will probably arrive quite promptly, within a decade or so, and who can say that will not be a moment too soon? Not Mr. McMullen, for sure.
It’s the young people, like my grandchildren and yours, if you have any, I feel sorry for.
With any luck, I’ll be good and dead.
Anyway, the devastated planet will give the cockroaches and ants their chance.
They can’t make a worse mess of the place than we have.
So, I devoutly wish a hideous plague on all your houses and churches and mosques and synagogues and temples and shrines and Places of Worship and God knows what all else gibberish.
Of course, it ain’t gonna happen, sadly.
And I know I might just as well be whistling Dixie.
(I seem to be a bit extra-grumpy today.)
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My goodness Toad – you are grumpy today! I have sympathy with Montaigne as there is much in history, that is not meritorious, carried out in the Name of God. A sage of my youth once told me ‘If religion disunites – you’re better off without it’.
I have to admit that I have never felt this ‘disunity’ – sure there are people who disagree. Today for example, in the Catholic Press, the Polish Church has defended the right of the Church in that country, in it’s Catholic schools, to ban ‘gay’ teachers. On another page an Augustinian priest in once holy Ireland is calling for gender to be ignored in a ‘redesign’ of Catholic doctrine! What would St. Augustine have thought?
It is what unites us that makes us strong and ‘grows’ our faith. As for the ‘mysterious ways’ of Ladis Sizik well, I would not presume to know the mind of Almighty God, and I suspect neither would you. God Bless you anyway.
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Toad gloomily predicts:
“In this analysis, Mr. McMullen is, no doubt utterly correct. And his Christian knights, as they spin angrily in their graves like teetotems, are all still cheerfully bellowing, “Kill, kill, kill all the Muslims!””
No, Toad, not even as a joke should you suggest such a thing. The warning and advice those valiant Christian knights would probably give us today would be to return to our Christian roots, abandoned by so many (or should I say by most?) in the selfish pursuit of pleasure, materialism and secularism. Our birthrate in the western nations had fallen below replacement level (thanks to abortion and birth control) to be replaced by mostly Muslim immigrants. We strip all signs of Christianity from our classrooms, public places, and even traditional Christian feast days – remember what the HF said to us about Christmas? – in order to pander to the religious “feelings” of these newcomers to our shores. And why do we? Because we have drifted away from all the beauty and meaning of our Catholic heritage, and filled it with meaningless hedonism. In doing so we have become weak……. spiritually and morally weak.
Whether there is any truth or not in Robert McMullen’s final dire warning, I don’t know. I hope he’s wrong. But I certainly think we need a wake-up call to see the tendencies in the way things are going in America and Europe today.
And in the meantime, I shall hope and pray that Fr Ladis J. Cizik’s prediction one day, in the long distant future, Heaven’s Peace Plan, might be the correct one. Voluntary conversion to Christ and the True Faith would be better, don’t you think?
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No, Kathleen. It was not a joke. Unfortunately.
We may well soon find ourselves – Christians, Hindus, Agnostics, Atheists, everyone who is not a Muslim – in a situation where killing all the Muslims is the only solution. The alternative being that they will kill all of us.
As I see it, the only way we will have a peaceful world is when one religion wipes out everyone else. Then there will be peace. Not happiness, mind you. And not peace for long.
Another religion will start up and, well, you know…
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Wow, that Fr. Cizik sure has a way with history. I think it´s called “revisionism” in some circles, and “wacked-out conspiracy theory” in some others. It would flow along a bit better without the references to bloodthirsty savages, I think, seeing as San Juan Diego was himself a son of that tribe, and most Christian Mexicans are of Native blood.
But enough of my political correctness. Please go easy on Toad. He is mourning the loss of a dear friend, and this day is long and grey and hopeless for him.
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Rebrites,
My heart is with Toad. By the Mercy of God, may his friend rest in peace, and may perpetual light shine upon them.
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rebrites,
I’d like to second what Burro said.
Toad and I have – shall we say – some ‘differences’ (more of that another time).
But I feel some affection for the ‘old curmudgeon’, and I hope his spirits revive soon
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