The Third Secret of Fatima and World Events

The message below (an extended post with links) was assembled by Robert Moynihan, editor of Inside the Vatican. Thanks to Jane who sent it via email.with his permission. It relates to the Fatima message, the third secret, and current events. Sr. Lucy believed we were in the end times. How long they will last, we can have no way of knowing, but with the number of natural disasters and the increasing wars around the world we are certainly being warned. (Read Matthew 24.) If you aren't saying the daily rosary, please start for your own sake. On a number of occasions the Blessed Mother has warned us of coming punishments that can only be mitigated, not stopped, because of the magnitude of sin in the world. When will we take our loving mother seriously and repent? Live the message of Fatima! Pray and do penance. Don't wait any longer.  (I highlighted in red sections I thought should be stressed.)
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Fatima and tsunamis -- just random items collected from the internet.... from Robert Moynihan

Published Testimony:

Pope John Paul II in Fulda, Germany (1980)

The October 1981 issue of the German magazine Stimme des Glaubens reported on a discussion that Pope John Paul II had with a select group of German Catholics, in November of 1980. The following is a verbatim report of the discussion 1:

Text of the Published Report

The Holy Father was asked, "What about the Third Secret of Fatima? Should it not have already been published by 1960?"

Pope John Paul II replied: "Given the seriousness of the contents, my predecessors in the Petrine office diplomatically preferred to postpone publication so as not to encourage the world power of Communism to make certain moves.

"On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired."

The Pope continued: "Many wish to know simply from curiosity and a taste for the sensational, but they forget that knowledge also implies responsibility. They only seek the satisfaction of their curiosity, and that is dangerous if at the same time they are not disposed to do something, and if they are convinced that it is impossible to do anything against evil."

At this point the Pope grasped a Rosary and said: "Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray, and ask for nothing more. Leave everything else to the Mother of God."
The Holy Father was then asked: "What is going to happen to the Church?"
He answered: "We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ … With your and my prayer it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary."

What it Means

When Pope John Paul II spoke at Fulda, he had not yet been the victim of the 1981 assassination attempt. Speaking of the Third Secret of Fatima, he did not allude to anything resembling a future assassination attempt (which in 2000 the Vatican announced to be the subject of the final part of the Secret that Our Lady revealed at Fatima in 1917), but rather to imminent chastisement and worldwide tribulation.

The Holy Father implied that evil is the force behind the elements contained in the Third Secret. The themes alluded to here by the Holy Father are consistent with those considered by leading Fatima experts to be the substance of the real Third Secret of Fatima, and are discussed in detail in the article "The Real Third Secret".

Notes:
1. This report was originally published in German in the October 1981 issue of Stimme des Glaubens. It is given as a verbatim report of the meeting between His Holiness John Paul II and a select group of German Catholics at Fulda during his visit to Germany the previous November. The preface to the article states, "We know the name of the reporter and also that the document is authentic." This translation was made by Rev. M. Crowdy for Approaches Magazine, edited by Mr. Hamish Fraser of Scotland. It was translated from the Italian magazine published in Rome by Father Francis Putti. Both magazines are worthy of our trust.

Related Articles:

The Real Third Secret
The Third Secret Fully Revealed

In the "Published Testimony" series:

Father Fuentes (1957)
Neues Europa (1963)
Father Alonso (1975-1981)
Sister Lucy’s Letter (1982)
The Bishop of Fatima (September 10, 1984)
Cardinal Ratzinger (November 1984)
Some Other Witnesses (1930’s - 2003)

Published Testimony:

Neues Europa (1963)

In 1963, the German newspaper Neues Europa published what it purported to be "an extract" of the Third Secret of Fatima. The text of this "extract" was preceded by the following introduction from the editor, Louis Emrich:

I have done everything possible to procure for myself the original text of the third message of Fatima, but all my efforts remained futile. The Vatican has made all the arrangements for this document to remain a papal secret until a new order.

However, today I am in a position to communicate to readers of Neues Europain all countries an extract of the content of the third Secret, in the form made available in inside information, in diplomatic circles of Washington, London and Moscow …

The editor then claims that the "extract" was read by President Kennedy, Great Britain’s Prime Minister MacMillan, and Soviet leader Khrushchev, and led to the signing of the Anglo-American-Russian accord at Moscow. He concludes by stating that "although this document is not the original text of the message of Fatima, such as it was revealed on October 13, 1917, by the Mother of God to the little seer Lucy, essential points of the original are nevertheless found there."

The Neues Europa Extract of the Third Secret

Here is the "extract" of the Third Secret of Fatima that was published by Neues Europa:

"It was the thirteenth of October, 1917. On that day, the Holy Virgin appeared for the last time to the little visionaries, Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucy, at the end of a series of six apparitions in all. After the manifestation of the miracle of the sun at Fatima, the Mother of God revealed a special secret message to Lucy, in which She particularly stated:

"‘Don’t worry, dear child. I am the Mother of God speaking to you and begging you to proclaim in My name the following message to the entire world. In doing this, you will meet great hostility. But be steadfast in the Faith and you will overcome this hostility. Listen, and note well what I say to you: Men must become better. They must implore the remission of the sins which they have committed, and will continue to commit. You ask Me for a miraculous sign so that all may understand the words in which, through you, I address mankind. This miracle which you have just seen was the great miracle of the sun! Everyone has seen it – believers and unbelievers, country and city dwellers, scholars and journalists, laymen and priests. And now, announce this in My name:

"‘A great punishment shall come to all mankind, not today as yet, nor even tomorrow, but in the second half of the 20th Century. What I have already made known at La Salette through the children Melanie and Maximin, I repeat today before you. Mankind has not developed as God expected. Mankind has gone astray and has trampled underfoot the gifts which were given it. There is no order in anything. Even in the highest positions, it is satan who governs and decides how affairs are to be conducted. He will even know how to find his way to the highest positions in the Church. He will succeed in sowing confusion in the minds of the great scientists who invent arms, with which half of humanity can be destroyed in a few minutes. If mankind does not refrain from wrongdoing and be converted, I shall be forced to let fall My Son’s arm. If those at the top, in the world and in the Church, do not oppose these ways, it is I who shall do so, and I shall pray God My Father to visit His justice on mankind.

"‘There will also come a time of the hardest trials for the Church. Cardinals will be against Cardinals and bishops against bishops. Satan will put himself in their midst. In Rome, also, there will be big changes. What is rotten will fall, and what will fall must not be maintained. The Church will be darkened and the world plunged into confusion.

"‘God will punish men still more powerfully and harshly than He did by means of the Flood, and the great and powerful will perish just as much as the small and the weak.

"‘The greatest World War will happen in the second half of the 20th Century. Then fire and smoke will fall from the sky, and the waters of the oceans will be turned to steam, hurling their foam towards the sky; and all that is standing will be cast down. Millions and millions of men will lose their lives from one hour to the next, and those who remain living will envy those who are dead. There will be tribulation as far as the eye can see, and misery all over the earth and desolation in every country.

"‘The time is continually approaching, the abyss is growing wider, and there is no end in sight. The good will die with the wicked, the big with the small, the princes of the Church with their subjects. Satan’s henchmen will then be the only sovereigns on earth.

"‘This will be a time which neither king nor emperor, Cardinal nor bishop expects, but it will come, nevertheless, in accordance with My Father’s plan to punish and take vengeance. Later, however, when those who survive all this are still alive, God and His glory will once more be invoked, and He will once more be served as He was, not so long ago, when the world had not yet become corrupted.

"‘I call on all true imitators of My Son, Jesus Christ, all true Christians and apostles of the latter days! The time of times is coming and the end of everything, if mankind is not converted, and if this conversion does not come from above, from the leaders of the world and the leaders of the Church. But woe! Woe if this conversion does not come about, and if all remains as it is, nay, if all becomes even worse!
"‘Go, My child and proclaim this! I shall always remain by your side to help you.’"

This was the first widely published version of the "secret" after the Vatican announced in 1960 that the Third Secret of Fatima would "remain under seal." Emrich claimed that it was an "extract of the third message of Fatima (sic) … circulating in diplomatic circles." No less an authority on the Fatima apparitions than Father Messias Coelho gave credence to it on the authority of one Cardinal, who said that it fundamentally corresponds with the true Secret. However, it must be noted that the text provided above is not an extract of the real Third Secret – there are serious problems of credibility with the Neues Europa version, as Frère Michel pointed out:

1. The Third Secret was written on one sheet of paper. The vision revealed by the Vatican on June 26, 2000 was written on four sheets of paper and totaled 297 words. Yet these "extracts" published in Nueus Europa total 797 words in English. Thus it is impossible that Sister Lucy could have written the almost 800 words contained in this extract on a small sheet of paper, when she took four pages to write less than half the amount for the vision.

2. Although an extract, there is no connection between this text and the known words of Our Lady from the Third Secret: "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc."

3. "It was the great miracle of the sun! Everyone has seen it – believers and unbelievers, country and city dwellers, scholars and journalists, laymen and priests." This text from the first paragraph of "Our Lady’s" words is word for word from Canon Barthas’ famous bookFatima, Marvel of the 20th Century. This coincidence is more likely plagiarism than miracle.

4. On July 13, 1917 Our Lady said, "Tell (the Secret to) no one. Yes, you may tell Francisco." Here, She allegedly says, "Announce this" (first paragraph) and "Proclaim this" (last paragraph).

5. According to this extract, Our Lady said, "You have seen the Miracle of the Sun" to the children when She gave the Third Secret. She gave the Secret on July 13, 1917, but the Miracle of the Sun occurred on October 13, 1917.

6. No war greater than that predicted by the second Secret broke out in the second half of the 20th Century.

With such evidence against the credibility of this "extract," we must conclude that it is not authentic. However, Frère Michel, who considered this fraud to be based on the prophecies of La Salette, concludes that "it is not devoid of interest, because … it really expressed, and in a striking manner, certain themes of the true Third Secret." Though the text Neues Europapublished is not the Third Secret, the core of the message is very similar. We have as evidence of this the testimony of Msgr. Corrado Balducci, a Vatican insider for more than forty years, who related that when Cardinal Ottaviani was asked whether the Neues Europa account should be published, the Cardinal, who had read the Third Secret – and who had a dry personality and was basically indifferent to most apparitions – exclaimed very emphatically: "Publish 10,000 copies! Publish 20,000 copies! Publish 30,000 copies!"

Notes:

1. Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Volume III: The Third Secret, (Immaculate Heart Publications, Buffalo, New York, 1990) pp.642-647; from Neues Europa, no. 20, October 15, 1963, Stuttgart, p. 5.
2. Ibid., p. 655.

Related Articles:

Published Testimony:

Cardinal Ratzinger
(November 1984)

On November 11, 1984, Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave an interview in Jesus magazine, a publication of the Pauline Sisters. The interview is entitled "Here is Why the Faith is in Crisis," and was published with the Cardinal's explicit permission. In this interview, Cardinal Ratzinger revealed that he had read the Third Secret and that the Secret refers to "dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world."

Cardinal Ratzinger said in the same interview that the Secret also refers to "the importance of the Novissimi [the Last Times / the Last Things]" and that "If it is not made public, at least for the time being, it is in order to prevent religious prophecy from being mistaken for a quest for the sensational ..." The Cardinal further revealed that "the things contained in this ‘Third Secret’ correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and has been said again and again in many other Marian apparitions, first of all that of Fatima ..."

Photo of Original Italian Extract from "Jesus" Magazine

We give here a photographic reproduction of the key part of Cardinal Ratzinger’s interview as it has been approved by His Eminence in the first days of October and published in the November 11, 1984 issue of Jesus magazine, concerning the Third Secret. The original Italian text reported above was photographically reproduced and published in The Fatima Crusader, Issue 37, Summer 1991. The English translation appearing below was published in The Fatima Crusader, Issue 18, October-December 1985 and in The Fatima Crusader, Issue 37, Summer 1991 (with a circulation of 1,000,000) — it has never been challenged by anyone.

We give here, therefore, the interview as it has been approved by His Eminence Cardinal Ratzinger in the first days of October.
One of the four sections of the Congregation (for the Doctrine of the Faith) concerns itself with Marian apparitions;

"Cardinal Ratzinger, have you read what is called the Third Secret of Fatima: i.e., the one that Sister Lucia had sent to Pope John XXIII and which the latter did not wish to make known and consigned to the Vatican archives?" (In reply, Cardinal Ratzinger said:)


"Yes, I have read it," (which frank response provoked a further question:)


"Why has it not been revealed?" (To this the Cardinal gave the following most instructive reply:)


"Because, according to the judgement of the Popes, it adds nothing (literally: 'nothing different') to what a Christian must know concerning what derives from Revelation: i.e., a radical call for conversion; the absolute importance of history; the dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian, and therefore of the world. And then the importance of the 'novissimi' (the last events at the end of time). If it is not made public - at least for the time being - it is in order to prevent religious prophecy from being mistaken for a quest for the sensational (literally: 'for sensationalism'). But the things contained in this 'Third Secret' correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and has been said again and again in many other Marian apparitions, first of all that of Fatima in what is already known of what its message contains. Conversion and penitence are the essential conditions for 'salvation'."

In the portion of the text of the interview shown in the photo above, the Cardinal says that the Third Secret contains "religious prophecy" which cannot be revealed "to prevent [its] being mistaken for a quest for the sensational". Yet on June 26, 2000, the same Cardinal Ratzinger says that the Third Secret refers only to events which had already happened (culminating in the attempted assassination of the Pope in 1981) and contains no prophecy concerning the future. What has happened to make Cardinal Ratzinger change his prior testimony? Why does he suggest on June 26, 2000 that the Third Secret could be the result of Sister Lucy’s imagination alone? Does he really believe in the Message of Fatima? If not, can his personal interpretation of the Message of Fatima be trusted?

In June 1985, the November 1984 interview in Jesus magazine was published in a book entitled The Ratzinger Report. Key references in the interview concerning the contents of the Third Secret had been mysteriously deleted from the book. The book was published in English, French, German and Italian and reached over 1,000,000 copies in print. Although the revelations concerning the Third Secret had been censored, the book admitted that the crisis of Faith which Father Alonso tells us is predicted in the Third Secret is already upon us, and that it encompasses the whole world.1
For more information on the Third Secret themes Cardinal Ratzinger alluded to in this interview, see the article "The Real Third Secret"

Notes:

1. Father Paul Kramer, ed., The Devil’s Final Battle, (The Missionary Association, Terryville, Connecticut, 2002) pp. 33, 274-275. See Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima – Volume III: The Third Secret, (Immaculate Heart Publications, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A., 1990) pp. 822-823. See also Jesus magazine, November 11, 1984, p. 79. See also The Fatima Crusader, Issue 37, Summer 1991, p. 7.

Related Articles: (See list above)

The Real Third Secret

Loss of Faith

In 1984 Bishop Alberto Cosme do Amaral of Fatima confirmed that the Third Secret of Fatima is not about atomic war or the end of the world, but instead concerns the Catholic Faith, and specifically the loss of that Faith throughout (at least) Europe. (See quote in "Published Testimony: The Bishop of Fatima (September 10, 1984)".)

In her third memoir, which she completed in August 1941, Sister Lucy stated that the Secret of Fatima is divided into three distinct parts, after which she recorded, for the first time, the first two parts of the Secret. She wrote, "The Secret is made up of three distinct parts, two of which I am now going to reveal."1 She felt that "the moment had come to reveal the first two parts of the Secret."2 However, she kept silent on the third part of the Secret, since she had not received Heaven’s permission to reveal it.

In her fourth memoir, which was written from October-December 1941, Sister Lucy copied the first two parts of the Secret from the text of her third memoir, but added a sentence that is not found there. Sister Lucy gave us the first sentence of the Third Secret when she inserted into her fourth memoir the phrase "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc." This sentence had not appeared in her previous memoir. Sister Lucy purposely inserted it into her fourth memoir to indicate to us what the final part of the Secret is about.

In 1943, after having been asked by Bishop da Silva to write down the text of the Third Secret, Sister Lucy was finding the task difficult. She declared to the bishop that it was not absolutely necessary to write out the text, "since in a certain manner she had said it." Sister Lucy was very likely referring to the additional phrase she had inserted into her fourth memoir, "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc."

The phrase, "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc." is a promise that the true Faith will be preserved in that country, although in its vagueness it does not state by whom. Yet, if in Portugal the true Faith will be preserved, what does that imply about the rest of the world? The Portuguese Father Messias de Coelho concluded that, "this allusion, so positive about what will happen among us, suggests to us that it will be different around us. …"

Father Alonso, the official Fatima archivist had this to say on the Third Secret:

‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved’: The phrase most clearly implies a critical state of Faith, which other nations will suffer, that is to say, a crisis of Faith; whereas Portugal will preserve its Faith.3

In the period preceding the great triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, terrible things are to happen. These form the content of the third part of the Secret. What are they?

If ‘in Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,’ ... it can be clearly deduced from this that in other parts of the Church these dogmas are going to become obscure or even lost altogether.4

Thus it is quite possible that in this intermediate period which is in question (after 1960 and before the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), the text makes concrete references to the crisis of the Faith of the Church and to the negligence of the pastors themselves.5
One conclusion does indeed seem to be beyond question: the content of the unpublished part of the Secret does not refer to new wars or political upheavals, but to happenings of a religious and intra-Church character, which of their nature are still more grave.6

Knowledgeable Church authorities have confirmed Father Alonso’s conclusions about the Third Secret, that it concerns an unprecedented loss of faith, an apostasy, from which Portugal will be preserved. In 1984 the Bishop of Fatima said, "the loss of Faith of a continent is worse than the annihilation of a nation; and it is true that Faith is continuously diminishing in Europe." And in his 1984 interview with Vittorio Messori, Cardinal Ratzinger confirmed this conclusion when he said that the final part of the Secret speaks of "dangers threatening the faith and life of Christians, and therefore the world."

Finally, we know that the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Third Secret began to be realized in 1960 because when Sister Lucy was asked why the Third Secret was to be revealed no later than 1960, she responded "because it will be clearer then." Since 1960 we have seen the prophecy of the Third Secret unfold before our eyes, and it is clear that since that time the world has been progressively suffering from a terrible loss of faith.

Pastoral Negligence

In his 1976 book, The Secret of Fatima: Fact and Legend, Father Alonso added to his hypothesis that the Third Secret concerns the crisis of Faith within the Church, the belief that it also speaks of the negligence of the pastors, especially within the upper hierarchy. "It is therefore completely probable," he said, "that the text (of the Third Secret) makes concrete references to the crisis of faith within the Church and to the negligence of the pastors themselves." He also speaks of "internal struggles in the very bosom of the Church and of grave pastoral negligence by the upper hierarchy," and "deficiencies of the upper hierarchy of the Church."
Father Alonso also said:

... Does the unpublished text speak of concrete circumstances? It is very possible that it speaks not only of a real crisis of the faith in the Church during this in-between period, but like the secret of La Salette for example, there are more concrete references to the internal struggles of Catholics or to the fall of priests and religious. Perhaps it even refers to the failures of the upper hierarchy of the Church. For that matter, none of this is foreign to other communications Sister Lucy has had on this subject.7

Besides Sister Lucy, Father Alonso was the foremost authority on Fatima. He had met with Sister Lucy often, and had questioned her while working on his critical study of Fatima. Therefore, before making such bold suggestions about the content of the Third Secret, it is certain that Father Alonso would have beforehand consulted Sister Lucy. And if Father Alonso had been mistaken in his conclusions, it is certain that Sister Lucy would have informed him of this fact, since she had never hesitated to correct other statements by clerics and various authors concerning Fatima when they were in error.

In June of 1943 Sister Lucy became seriously ill with pleurisy, which caused Canon Galamba and Bishop da Silva to fear that she would die without having revealed the final Secret. Canon Galamba later convinced Bishop da Silva to suggest that Sister Lucy write down the Third Secret. However, Sister Lucy was unable to take the step of committing the Third Secret of Fatima to paper based on the bishop’s mere suggestion. The absence of an explicit order from the bishop troubled her deeply, and Lucy did not wish to take responsibility for the initiative.

In mid-October 1943, Bishop da Silva finally gave Sister Lucy the formal order to write down the Third Secret. Lucy attempted to obey the bishop’s command, but was unable to do so for the next two and a half months. From mid-October 1943 to early January 1944, Sister Lucy was prevented from obeying a formal order to write down the Third Secret by an unspeakable anguish that she experienced. Finally, on January 2, 1944 Our Lady appeared to her to give her strength and confirm that it was the will of God that she write it down. It was only then that Sister Lucy was able to reveal the final part of the Secret. In addressing this difficulty, Father Alonso asks,

Moreover, how are we to understand Lucy’s great difficulty in writing the final part of the Secret when she has already written other things that were extremely difficult to put down? Had it been merely a matter of prophesying new and severe punishments, Sister Lucy would not have experienced difficulties so great that a special intervention from Heaven was needed to overcome them. But if it were a matter of internal strife within the Church and of serious pastoral negligence on the part of high-ranking members of the hierarchy, we can understand how Lucy experienced a repugnance that was almost impossible to overcome by natural means.8

Decisive Battle Between Our Lady and the Devil

In her 1957 interview with Father Fuentes, Sister Lucy spoke of a decisive battle between the Blessed Virgin and the devil. Though not as evident as the above-mentioned crisis of Faith and pastoral negligence, this third theme frequently appears in the communications of Sister Lucy. Yet what does she mean by "decisive battle"?

In her interview with Father Fuentes, Sister Lucy discusses this theme, saying:

"Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin, and the devil knows what it is that most offends God, and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them.

"Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world, but She made me understand this for three reasons. The first reason is because She told me that the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. And a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. Hence from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil; there is no other possibility.

"The second reason is because She said to my cousins as well as to myself, that God is giving two last remedies to the world. They are the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others.

"The third reason is because in the plans of Divine Providence, God always, before He is about to chastise the world, exhausts all other remedies. Now, when He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever then, as we say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offers us with a certain trepidation the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother. It is with a certain trepidation because if you despise and reject this ultimate means, we will not have any more forgiveness from Heaven, because we will have committed a sin which the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Ghost. This sin consists of openly rejecting, with full knowledge and consent, the salvation which He offers. Let us remember that Jesus Christ is a very good Son and that He does not permit that we offend and despise His Most Holy Mother. We have recorded through many centuries of Church history the obvious testimony which demonstrates by the terrible chastisements which have befallen those who have attacked the honor of His Most Holy Mother, how Our Lord Jesus Christ has always defended the honor of His Mother.

"The two means for saving the world are prayer and sacrifice. [Regarding the Holy Rosary, Sister Lucy said:] Look, Father, the Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we will sanctify ourselves. We will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.

"Finally, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Most Holy Mother, consists in considering Her as the seat of mercy, of goodness and of pardon, and as the sure door of entering Heaven."

Father Alonso stated that the texts of Father Fuentes’ interview "do not say anything that Sister Lucy has not said in her numerous writings delivered to the public." In further writings, Sister Lucy spoke of the diabolical campaign being waged. In a letter to her friend Mother Martins, after discussing devotion to the Rosary, she writes: "That is why the devil has waged such a war against it! And the worst is that he has succeeded in leading into error and deceiving souls having a heavy responsibility through the place which they occupy ...! They are blind men guiding other blind men. …"

The following year Sister Lucy wrote again to Mother Martins:

Thus the little pamphlets [referring to a text on the Rosary composed by Sister Lucy] will remain with souls, as an echo of Our Lady’s voice, to remind them of the insistence with which She recommended the prayer of the Rosary to us, so many times. It is because She already knew that there had to come these times, during which the devil and his supporters would fight so much against this prayer, to lead souls away from God. And without God, who shall be saved?! For this reason we must do everything in our power to lead souls back to God.9

Finally, in a letter to Don Umberto Pasquale, who was very devoted to the cause of Fatima, Sister Lucy wrote:

... The decadence which exists in the world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the holy Eucharistic liturgy, the prayer most apt for preserving faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.

... We must defend souls against the errors which can make them stray from the good road. ... We cannot and we must not stop ourselves, nor allow, as Our Lord says, the children of Darkness to be wiser than the children of Light ... The Rosary is the most powerful weapon for defending ourselves on the field of battle.10

The theme repeated again and again in these letters is that we are in the last times and that the devil has therefore begun his last and most virulent battle for souls. And, as Sister Lucy explained to Father Fuentes, God has given us "the last means of salvation, His Holy Mother." Therefore She is engaged in this battle. The Blessed Virgin came to Fatima to give a warning and the remedy beforehand.

Notes:

1. Documentos, p. 219.
2. From Sister Lucy’s letter to Father Gonçalves, August 31, 1941. Documentos, p. 445.
3. Father Joaquim Alonso, La Verdad sobre el Secreto de Fátima (English version), p. 70; taken from Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Volume III: The Third Secret, p. 687.
4. Father Alonso, p. 80; Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, p. 687.
5. Father Alonso, p.80; Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, p. 687.
6. Father Alonso, p. 81; Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, p.687.
7. Father Alonso, p. 80; Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, p. 705.
8. Father Alonso, p. 82; Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, p. 707.
9. Uma Vida, pp. 390-91. Quoted in Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Volume III: The Third Secret, (Immaculate Heart Publications, Buffalo, New York, 1989) pp. 758-59.
10. Quoted by L’Osservatore Romano in 1984, under the title Il Rosario è l’arma potente che ci difende nella battaglia. Quoted in Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Volume III: The Third Secret, (Immaculate Heart Publications, Buffalo, New York, 1989) p. 759.

Related Articles:

Published Testimony: The Bishop of Fatima (September 10, 1984)
Pope John Paul II Gives Us the Key to the Real Third Secret, Part I
Pope John Paul II Gives Us the Key to the Real Third Secret, Part II
Pope John Paul II Gives Us the Key to the Real Third Secret, Part III

Published Testimony:

The Bishop of Fatima

(September 10, 1984)

On September 10, 1984 the Bishop of Fatima, Alberto Cosme do Amaral, spoke of the Third Secret during a question and answer session at the Technical University of Vienna, Austria. His comments, which were published in the February 1985 issue of Mensagem de Fatima, are as follows:

The Secret of Fatima speaks neither of atomic bombs, nor nuclear warheads, nor Pershing missiles, nor SS-20’s. Its content concerns only our faith. To identify the Secret with catastrophic announcements or with a nuclear holocaust is to deform the meaning of the message. The loss of faith of a continent is worse than the annihilation of a nation; and it is true that faith is continually diminishing in Europe.1

It is important to note that, as part of the general attempt to conceal and suppress the truth about Fatima, Bishop Amaral was pressured to withdraw his remarks shortly after they were made. But then, ten years later and safely retired, the bishop casually reaffirmed his testimony in a public interview in 1995, adding a crucial bit of evidence: "Before I asserted in Vienna (in 1984) that the Third Secret concerned only our Faith and the loss of Faith I had consulted Sister Lucy and first obtained her approval."

Notes:

1. Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Volume III: The Third Secret, (Immaculate Heart Publications, Buffalo, New York, 1990) pp. 675-676.