In their meetings, Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for peace in the whole world and to offer sacrifices. She likewise gave them three secrets.

Since Francisco and Jacinta died a few years after the apparitions, Lucia, who later became a Carmelite nun, entrusted the secrets to the care of Church authorities. In 1927, Sister Lucia revealed the first secret concerning devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She later revealed the second secret which was a vision of hell. In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See’s Secretary of State to reveal the third secret. It spoke of a "bishop in white" who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him. Many people linked this to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.

The feast of Our Lady of Fatima was approved by Fatima’s local bishop in 1930 but it was added to the Catholic Church’s worldwide liturgical calendar only in 2002, three years before Sister Lucia died. It is also worth noting that the Blessed Virgin Mary’s main messages at Fatima are basic elements of the Christian faith: Prayer and penance. Nonetheless, some people have focused more on the apocalyptic tone of the secrets rather than Mary’s messages.

They have, for example, claimed that the recent worldwide calamities are signs of God’s punishments because Mary’s request for the world’s consecration to her has been ignored. Such view, however, runs counter to that of Sister Lucia who agreed that Pope John Paul II’s public consecration in St. Peter’s Square on March 25, 1984, already fulfilled Mary’s request. A document explaining the "third secret" was issued by Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on June 26, 2000.

Whenever we read Mary’s faith-filled words in the gospels: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." (Lk 1:38) and "Do whatever he [Jesus] tells you." (Jn 2:5), we see that she is perfectly honored when people generously imitate her simplicity and humble submission to God’s will. Thus, it is clear that Mary never intended to be seen as a rival to Jesus or to the teaching authority of the successors of the Apostles, as exercised by the College of Bishops united with the Pope in Rome.

The Church is always very cautious about endorsing alleged apparitions, but it has seen benefits from people changing their lives and going back to God because of the messages of Our Lady of Fatima. Prayer for sinners, offering penance, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and praying the rosary – all these reinforce the Good News Jesus came to preach.