jhpb@garage.att.com (06/05/90)
This is the conclusion of the brief look at an apparition approved by
the Roman Catholic hierarchy. I breezed through a synopsis of events,
and some historical evidence to support the authenticity of the
apparitions. This covers the relevance of Fatima to the current state
of the world and the Catholic Church.
The information is taken from an edited transcript of a talk that Frere
Michel de la Sainte-Trinite gave at a Fatima symposium in Rome in
November, 1985. He had just finished publishing volume 3 of his work on
Fatima in August. It deals with the "3rd secret" of Fatima, which was the
subject of his talk.
The 3rd secret: The three children were told certain things during one
of the apparitions that they were forbidden to reveal.
Two parts of the secret were made public by the surviving witness,
Sister Lucia, in summer of 1941:
The secret consists of three distinct parts, and I will reveal two
of them.
The first part was the vision of Hell, and the revelation of God's
desire that the devotion to the Immaculate Heart be established to keep
so many people from going there. (The devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus was started 100 years earlier by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, in
case you didn't know.)
The second part was the great prophecy about world peace. God will
grant peace to the world, but only under two conditions: Russia must be
consecrated to the Immaculate Heart by the pope and the bishops; the
communion of reparation of the First Saturdays must become an
established practice. ("All those who, every 1st Saturday of the month,
5 months in a row, will confess, receive Holy Communion, say a Rosary,
and keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the 15 mysteries
of the Rosary, I promise to assist them when they die with all the
graces they need for the salvation of their soul.")
The third and last part of the secret has never been revealed. Frere
Michel set himself the task of determining its contents through the
use of the available evidence. I think it probable that he has
succeeded.
The secret was written down by Lucia in 1944 at the command of her
bishop; she was ill and in danger of death. She trusted no one to carry
it to her diocesan bishop save another bishop. This was done June 17,
1944.
At this point, there are several things to note:
- The secret was addressed to the local bishop. It was not a message
for the Pope alone.
- The local bishop obstinately refused to open the envelope. Whereupon
Sister Lucia extracted a promise from him: the Secret was to be revealed
by the bishop immediately after the Sister's death or, at the latest, in
1960. (Thus the expectation in 1960; people knew this much.)
In 1957, the Holy Office (run by Cardinal Ratzinger's predecessor)
demanded that the secret be sent to Rome. It was never opened by the
diocesan bishop. The prelate who carried it to Rome held it up to the
light; from this it is known that the message is only about 20 to 25
lines long. Pius XII placed the secret in a box on his desk, and never
opened it before he died. (There are lots of supporting footnotes that
I am omitting here.)
Pope John XXIII read the secret a little after he became Pope. He let
Cardinal Ottaviani, Prefect of the Holy Office, read it also.
In 1960, a press release from a Portuguese source stated that the Holy
See would not reveal the secret, and that it would probably *never* be
revealed.
Paul VI probably read the secret shortly after being elected. He said
nothing, however. On February 11, 1967, Cardinal Ottaviani made a long
declaration on behalf of Paul VI on the subject (the occasion was the
approaching 50th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima). He tried to
justify non-disclosure of the secret, no matter what. He made
seriously inexact statements in the process.
John Paul I, before he was elected, apparently talked to Sr. Lucia about
the secret. (The meeting was at her request, very unusual.) The
meeting made a deep impression on him.
John Paul II has also read the secret. As has Cardinal Ratzinger.
Cardinal Ratzinger has even publically discussed it twice, in Oct. 1984,
and June 1985. (I think -- I am not sure -- you can find something on
the subject in the book he did with Vittorio Messori. The Ratzinger
Report, is it?) Both times he gave the same two reasons for not
revealing it:
- It added nothing to what a Christian should already know about
Revelation.
- It risked sensationalism.
Now, what is the content of this secret? Here are Frere Michel's
thoughts:
First, we know the context of the secret. The first two parts of the
secret were mentioned above. The ending is also known: "In the end My
Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia
to me, Russia will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be
granted to the world."
Second, there is something tragic about the secret. Sr. Lucia went
through a very mysterious ordeal just to get it onto paper. (I have
omitted the details of this above.)
Third, the one and only reason why all the Popes since 1960 have refused
to reveal the secret is its content.
Fourth, the prophecy has been coming true under our eyes since 1960.
(This is known because of certain statements by Sister Lucia regarding
the reason for the 1960 date.)
So what is in the secret?
It is not a mere invitation to prayer and penance. That is absurd after
all this. Neither does it say that all is well. If it had been good,
we would have been told.
So what is it, then? The end of the World? World War III? Nuclear
war? No. That sort of thing was included in the parts of the
message that are already public knowledge: "The good will be martyred,
the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be
annihilated."
All that is left is this, then: spiritual punishment. This is far
worse; people only get killed in wars, etc. They lose their souls in a
spiritual crisis.
The bishop of Fatima stated in 1985, at the Technical University of
Vienna: "The Secret of Fatima has nothing to do with A-bombs, nuclear
warheads, or SS-20 missiles... Its contents concerns but our faith.
Identifying the Secret with catastrophic forecasts or with a nuclear
holocaust is twisting the message. The loss of faith all over a
continent is far worse than the annihilation of a nation, and, as a
matter of fact, faith is continually being lost in Europe."
Indeed, the part just before the 3rd secret is: "In Portugal, the dogmas
of the faith will always be preserved..." Cardinal Ratzinger said to
Vittorio Messori that the 3rd secret concerns "the dangers threatening
the Faith and life of Christians."
According to Frere Michel, most experts have adopted this hypothesis of
the 3rd secret: that it states that the Faith is going to be in a
critical state in parts of the Catholic Church. The available evidence
points in that direction. It's what we've been seeing come true since
Vatican II: greater and greater departures from the Catholic faith
world-wide.
Frere Michel goes further; he states that the 3rd secret probably says
that the crisis is due to negligence on the part of the hierarchy.
Among other things, that would explain the hesitancy of the hierarchy to
reveal it, and the preoccupation of the children at Fatima with praying
and sacrificing for the Holy Father.
There are some interesting implications of this apparition. It says
that Russia will eventually be converted, but only after certain
conditions. The conditions have not been fulfilled, and look further
away than ever. So, I have a little trepidation about what is going on
in Europe. I think we haven't seen the end of Communism quite yet.
This also provides an explanation of what is going on at Medjugorje. If
it is indeed a false apparition, then it is probably a distraction to
keep people's minds from the subject of Fatima.
That's it... If you want to obtain an English translation of Frere
Michel's work (the parts available in English, anyway), email me for the
address.
Joe Buehler
P.S. There is an official "cause", as they say, for the canonization of
the two deceased witnesses of the apparitions at Fatima, Francisco and
Jacinta Marto. On May 13, 1989, John Paul II promulgated the decree of
their heroic virtues, granting them the title of Venerable. I suggest
that Catholics who are in need of assistance from on high ask help from
these two; saints that are on the way to being canonized often do quite
extraordinary things.