I think America Needs Fatima does wonderful things in spreading knowledge about the rosary and Fatima; however, they hide the fact that they believe Russia has not been consecrated and that the Third Mystery has not been revealed, which I find problematic positions for a Catholic to take.
In addition, I have some big problems with their parent the TFP. The TFP at first appears to be a just a good conservative Catholic organization. But, once you look into their philosophy you run into some troubling elements.
The key to understanding the TFP is reading it’s founders book *Revolution and Counter-Revolution. * This book is often misunderstood by Catholics as it seems to be just a defense of conservatism, but in fact the TFP is not conservative, but condemns the ideology. The basic idea that the TFP’s founder, Plinio de Carrera, advocated was that Christian Civilization reached its apogee in the middle ages, but than that this Civilization was torn asunder by the “Revolution,” an anti-Christian movement that has dominated history for the past 500 years. Its 3 biggest phases were: 1. The Reformation 2. The Enlightenment 3. Marxism. It’s my understanding that current members believe the 4th phase of the Revolution to be the “Hippie/homosexual movement”. All these movements existed only to destroy Christian Civilization.
So, the TFP calls for “counter-revolution” or an embrace of Christian Civilization. But, they aren’t just calling for a rejection of the evils of the modern world, but the rejection of the entire modern world. They seek to return to the middle ages. Thus, modern democracy is not compatible with Catholicism. TFP members will often state they have no problem with monarchy or democracy, but they clearly prefer monarchy and aristocracy. In addition their view of acceptable democracy would be the kind that existed in the middle ages: one dominated by a few elite land holders.
While the modern world is very problematic, I am not ready to abandon it for the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages had its share of problems such as feudalism, which the TFP defends.
In addition, the last version of Revolution and Counter-Revolution lambasted John Paul II for being in league with the communists, which is just ridiculous. But, the TFP has such a high reverence for the landed aristocratic elite that they see anyone who rejects this nobility as essentially Marxist.
There is also a lot of false information spread wrongly about the TFP. They don’t deprive the church of priests by having celibate lay members anymore than Opus Dei does. And there is a famous critique of them made by an excommunicated SSPX bishop, but its whole complaint is that they didn’t leave the church with him!
However, some of the rumors are a bit troubling in how the TFP has responded to them. Some website accused them of a number of seemingly ridiculous claims, and the TFP publicly responded in a document that I will link. Among some of their statements that I find a little off are: Their founder should be considered a prophet under New Testament guidelines, their founder had the ability to discern a person’s vocation by looking at them (He called this ability the “Tao”), a prayer composed by some young TFP members to the founder’s mother that claimed her to be a “Mediatrix,” a title generally reserved to Our Blessed Lady, is canonically sound (but suppressed because of confusion it causes).
Anyway, I do think the TFP and America Needs Fatima do some wonderful things, but ultimately I don’t see their views as completely compatible with Catholicism.
Refutation of Criticism’s by the TFP:
tfp.org/ref/Unity.pdf
Revolution and Counter-Revolution:
tfp.org/tfp-home/books/revolution-and-counter-revolution.html
If they want to make me the Baron of the Americas then I’m all in favor of the TFP.