Quote and Question: “Through her apparitions, the Blessed Mother asserted that the sins of the world continue to grieve our Lord, and that we are to pray for the souls of sinners. After being shown a vision of hell, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta immediately came to a crystal clear understanding of the reality of hell as the messages of the Blessed Mother penetrated their hearts with an untold passion which carried through their acts of reparation and penance for sinners.

The Blessed Mother impressed upon their tender hearts that she was counting on them and on us. She said, “Pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifices for them.” She also taught the children a sacrifice prayer. She explained, “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners and say often whenever you make a sacrifice: ‘O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary’.”

Quote from: Donna-Maria Cooper O’Boyle – Catholic World Report. (in Winter 2017 of Vision Magazine-))

Am I missing something here?  The above clearly seems to suggest that Jesus’s sacrifice was not enough for these poor damned souls.   It also seems to suggest that countless souls go to hell (reportedly falling in huge numbers like leaves falling in Autumn) because we are not praying and making sacrifices for them, in other words because of our fault.  How to push a guilt trip!   I don’t remember any doctrinal statement of the Church suggesting something so extreme.  It certainly isn’t from Holy Scripture.

Comment: Another underlying interpretation from these reported apparitions seems to be: Pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for she is the new Mediatrix. What happened to Jesus our only real Mediator?   Fortunately that title for Our Blessed Mother (Mediatrix of all Graces) was never approved by the Church as it so easily could be misunderstood. (The implication: we have to go to Mary to intercede for us because we can’t go to Jesus since he is God and not really one of us.) 

That thinking is where it borders on heresy because it really denies the humanity of Jesus.  Mind you, I believe there is a true sense in which Our Blessed Mother, Mary has a mediating role in Body of Christ – the Church – as a primary intercessor in the similar way that we and the saints are intercessors for one another. So it is certainly right and good we make prayers and sacrifices for sinners.