Are natural disasters God's punishment for our sins?

Not necessarily. Sungenis explained that disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and wars should not automatically be interpreted as divine punishment. He argued that if God directly punished humanity every time it sinned, the world would no longer exist. Instead, God restrains His wrath through the daily Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which, as prophesied in Malachi, is offered “from east to west” to hold back divine judgment. Only when Heaven specifically reveals that a disaster or war is a punishment, such as the warnings given at Fatima, can Catholics confidently attribute it to sin. Otherwise, natural catastrophes are part of the fallen world’s natural order.