Letter to the Editor fom Monroe, Ga

Published: May 17, 2007

To the Editor:

After reading Lorraine V. Murray’s review of the book “Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust” by Immaculee Ilibagiza (The Georgia Bulletin, May 3), I am looking forward to hearing more of her amazing story at the Eucharistic Congress in June. Her faith in God and her constant praying of the rosary as “others succumbed to despair” in such desperate circumstances even while “Satan assailed her with doubts, telling her that God had abandoned her and she would surely die” is a testimony to the power of Our Lady’s intercession to defeat Satan.

As we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 on Mother’s Day this May 13, I know that every mother’s prayer is that her children will live in a world of peace where war and violence no longer threaten the human race as Our Lady promised at Fatima.

Many people are not aware that the Blessed Mother also appeared in Kibeho, Rwanda, to seven young people from 1981-1989. The visionaries were shown visions of terrifying future events including a river of blood and many decapitated corpses. Our Lady asked the people to turn back to God. Immaculee is a living witness to these horrifying events, which actually took place from April to June 1994. It was a systematic genocide in which nearly a million people died, including two of the visionaries. On June 29, 2001, the Vatican published the statement of Archbishop Augustin Misago of Rwanda with his definitive judgment that the apparitions were authentic. The consequences of not heeding Our Lady’s request to turn back to God in Rwanda are unthinkable.

In the 23 years since the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1984 by Pope John Paul II, the world has not yet experienced the promised period of peace. Is it possible that the Holy Father has done his part but that we have not done our part? The real-life nightmare that Immaculee experienced in Rwanda in 1994 should not have happened if we had truly fulfilled Our Lady’s requests at Fatima in 1984. Was something lacking in our fulfillment of Our Lady’s requests for the consecration to the Immaculate Heart? How many more innocent people must die before we realize that each one of us has a responsibility to respond to Our Lady’s request to ensure that Our Lady’s peace plan is accomplished?

This 90th anniversary year may be a good time to renew our personal and family consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to pray the rosary daily for peace, to offer penance and eucharistic reparation for our sins and the sins of the whole world, and to make the Five First Saturdays a priority in our parishes. Our Lady promised that in the end the Immaculate Heart will triumph, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. May it come soon, before another terrible disaster such as the Rwanda holocaust or nuclear war strikes.

Richard Pfundstein, Monroe