I continue to read Mark Fellows book on Sister Lucia and it is a real eye-opener. He quotes from some of her correspondence. In one letter she wrote:
God willing, the meeting with the Archbishop of Mitilene will have gone well, and His Excellency will not be one of the chicken-hearted...I think the best course would be that things be done with the bishops' full knowledge, but without them taking responsibility (as if they did not know), this is to say, to avoid the inconvenience of fears...Afterwards, when success comes, they can then declare that they took part in it.What a realist she is. Most bishops are cowards and one must go around them while letting them know what one is doing. Then they can hide under the bed if things go badly and take full credit if things go well. Has anything changed since she wrote this in the late 1960s or 70s?
In another letter she elaborated on those in positions of responsibility:
Our poor Lord, Who saved us with such love, and how little understood He is! How little loved! How badly served! [I hear the echo here of Blessed Francisco's lament, "Love is not loved!] It is painful to see such disorientation, and in so many people who occupy positions of responsibility!...
Voluntarily I sacrifice myself and offer my life to God, for peace in His Church, for priests and for all consecrated souls, above all for those who carry on so erroneously and so deceived!...this is why the devil has made such war against it (the Rosary). And what is worse is that he has succeeded in deluding and deceiving souls who have much responsibility because of the positions they occupy!... They are the blind leading the blind!...We pray, work, sacrifice ourselves and trust that -- in the End, My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph!Mary's requests at Fatima were not frustrated by simple souls responding to her request to pray the rosary, but by those in authority who know better than the Mother of God what is good for the Church. Her requests will ultimately prevail, but the time will be late and there will be much suffering. Meanwhile, the chastisement continues with the increased assaults against peace by Islam, whose attack on Christendom was roundly defeated by the rosary at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 only to resurface now with the complicity of clerics proclaiming, "Peace, peace... when there is no peace."
Pray the rosary. It is our surest "weapon" (besides the Eucharistic) against the wiles of Satan. "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."
I became a Catholic in 2002 in my middle ages.
ReplyDeleteThis is very hard for me to understand why the Pope and Bishops will not comply with Our Lady of Fatima's request for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart
if it has not been done.
It's like Naaman being told to go down to the Jordan River and dip himself seven times,but refusing ... as the man of God said .... had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?
ReplyDeleteThat would include the "Bishop or Rome" aka the Pope I presume?
ReplyDeleteI remember when Lucia was brought up to meet P Paul the Sixth by Carlos Evaristo
( who appeared to be her handler). She went in tears and asked the Pope to speak privately with her .He refused telling her to speak with her Bishop.
Is that in the book you are reading Maryanne?
Just this morning i made myself a bowl of oatmeal with dried cherries. I looked at the name on the dried fruit bag and remembered the name as the multi millionaire owners of a dried fruit company. I said a prayer for the soul of a priest from this family who owned and ran a hotel in Fatima for pilgrims and was close to Evaristo.
He was/is a homosexual according to Salbato who also lived there. Last time I asked him how the priest was doing he told me he was dying of AIDS.
I often wondered how it is it was said that Portugal would ,"Preserve the Doctrine of the Faith....." , especially when Portugal legalized abortion and hosts interfaith services at the sterile strange cathedral that was more recently built there? Perhaps that statement refers mainly to the ROSARY?
Yes, sadly that statement was in the book, or perhaps in the last one I read. None of the popes except John Paul I seemed to have taken Fatima seriously.
ReplyDeleteI think perhaps the message of Portugal has to do with the faith of the people -- like all those simple souls who trudged through the mud for miles to see the miracle of the sun. If you look at the photos you don't see the "beautiful people." You see rough peasant faces and simple clothing. Paul VI spoke disparagingly of Lucia as a "peasant." I think we should all be more like those three little "peasants" who were giants in the practice of prayer and penance.
Also, we should be more like the simple carpenter of Nazareth who was dismissed so summarily by so many. "Can anything good come from Galilee?"
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine! Please!
Nonsense. The popes have been fervent pilgrims to Fatima. Pope John Paul II, shot on the May 13 feast, was certain that the Lady of Fatima had protected him and went to Fatima to present the bullet that had been in him to the holy Image. et c et c
ReplyDeleteFatima attracts some fanatics and extremists of cult-like tendencies who detract from the Fatima message. The late Father Gruner was a notoriously eccentric example, but not the only one.
Yes, Fr Gruner was "eccentric". He was *not* in the centre of the "broad way that leads to destruction". He realized the extreme urgency of the Fatima Message, where the annihilation of nations and the salvation of many, many souls is at stake. But we don't want to be extreme, do we? Hell only lasts forever.
DeleteWell, according to Mark Fellows book, Pope John Paul II showed no interest in Fatima until after he was shot. That was the point at which he began paying more attention to the Fatima message. John XXIII and Paul VI both dismissed Sister Lucia as a "peasant." John XXIII apparently did not believe the messages. Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to Mary, but most of the popes dismissed Mary's requests.
ReplyDeleteIn view of the fact that the consecration never took place I think it's hard to make a case for the popes being "fervent pilgrims to Fatima."
Mary Ann what you said above stacks up against what Escriva's long time secretary had also stated, (Carmen del Tapia) That after returning from Tuy where he met her shortly after she put the Third Secret to paper, del Tapia states they were eager to hear all about his visit when he returned to Spain and that he just commented, "Lucia is a very silly woman but a good person."
ReplyDeleteOddly, in his book he credits the first OD House outside of Spain in Coimbre, Portugal) as being entirely Lucia's idea, keeping in mind that at that point Lucia was still a Dorothean and had been there for twenty three years. Forgive me but I find it all odd, especially since after she became a cloistered nun in the Coimbre convent, everything regarding Fatima was apparently very controlled.
the control extended to the Vatican's Secretary of State as exemplified by the very public revelation of the Third Secret revealed by Cdl Sodano followed by Cdl Bertone. You will recall the News reports as Cdl Bertone who worked for Sec of State Cdl Sodano at the time, had her cell sealed off from even her fellow nuns and removed her belongings including her computer.
I wondered at the time how it was that according to his explanation we are asked to believe the Secret referenced PJP2's attempted murder and Our Lady's intervention.
The vision clearly had referenced he died while we know his life was spared.
So we are to conclude when the children were given that vision the the Queen of Heaven did not know at the time She would intervene to spare his life?
That is where the "nonsense" really comes in. Does the author address it?
BTW, I am old enough to remember seeing the broadcast of Lucia being escorted up to the stage by Carlos Evaristo when Pope Paul6th visited Fatima and she was crying. The reporters attributed it to the awe she felt to stand next to the Pope and her natural humility.
Anonymous said... Nonsense. The popes have been fervent pilgrims to Fatima. Pope John Paul II, shot on the May 13 feast, was certain that the Lady of Fatima had protected him and went to Fatima to present the bullet that had been in him to the holy Image. et c et cFatima attracts some fanatics and extremists of cult-like tendencies who detract from the Fatima message. The late Father Gruner was a notoriously eccentric example, but not the only one.
ReplyDeleteIt is that above post that is "nonsense."
Father Gruner knew the Fatima message, and lived it, better than 99% of the Catholic clergy. He did not detract from the message in the least. On the contrary, he defended the truth until the day he died.
The collegial consecration of Russia, by the pope and all the bishops, has never been done. Never. And there will be no peace, nor a conversion of Russia, until that happens. That is a truth that Father Gruner ceaselessly proclaimed.
May he rest in peace under Our Lady's mantle.
"Pope John Paul II showed no interest in Fatima until after he was shot."
ReplyDeleteI think that statement is not entirely fair. John Paul II had a very passionate devotion to Mary from well before being ordained and certainly knew the errors of Russia very well from having lived under the communist thumb for most of his adult life. If he did not pay immediate, explicit, public heed to the Fatima message, he certainly dedicated immense effort to causing Poles to fight culturally for their faith AND their country; I believe he also consecrated Russia to the Virgin. Declaring that he was dismissive of the prophesies does not seem to me to hold up very well to the facts of his life.
John, What I said was almost a direct quote from Fellows, but he said the pope showed "little interest" until after the assassination attempt. I was not disparaging the pope's obvious devotion to Our Lady as evidenced in his apostolic motto "totus tuus."
ReplyDeleteAnon. 9:20 p.m. Fellows quotes Canon Barthos who says that Sister Lucia refused to go to that event until she was ordered to do so. Here's the quote:
"Lucia had obstinately refused to obey the order which the Bishop of Coimbra had transmitted to leave her cloister on May 13th to go to Fatima. Finally she telephoned, herself, the Nuncio in Lisbon who informed her that she would gravely disobey the Holy Father if she didn't go there. If that had only been a wish of the Holy Father, and not a command, she would have preferred to stay in the convent."
Lucia begged to speak to the pope in private and he refused. Fellows says that Lucia likely "wept from grief: grief that the Holy Father would not speak with her or listen to her. Perhaps she also wept for the masses, deprived of the truth. Most of all she wept for the beautiful Lady, whose message was securely hidden by the Church it had been entrusted to."
Quoting from Frere Francois de Marie des Anges, Fatima: Intimate Joy, World Event, Fellows writes: "On the plane back to Rome that night Paul VI said of Lucia, 'A very simple girl! She is a peasant without complication. The people wanted to see her, I showed her to them.'"
I'd say that was a pretty dismissive statement and that ordering Lucia to Fatima was a photo op and little more.
Pope JPll consecrated the "world" (twice)and not Russia to the Immaculate Heart without being in concert with all of the Bishops. This is NOT what our Lady asked - the consecration was not done. If it was THIS would be the current reign of the Immaculate heart of Mary! ( Yikes- looks more like the reign of Bealzebub) Even JPll knew he did not consecrated as the Virgin asked, because he intimated that the consummation of Our Lady's request was "yet to be done".
ReplyDeleteThe consecration of Russia is Heaven's only path for peace through the reign of the Immaculate Heart in our time, requested by Jesus himself. Why not just do it, Holy Father?
PS- One day soon Father Gruner will be a canonized Saint in the same Catholic Church that he so loved which rejected and marginalized him- Our Lady will see to it!
Thank you Mary Ann,confirms what I remember and also gives credence to what Escreva's secretary alleges his own attitude was on Lucia. Escriva of Opus Dei described her as "Silly" but ,"...a good person". IMHO a good amount of the Hierarchy and other clerics in the Church seem to view all the apparitions approved or not as peripheral to their role, unless the same devotions brought large numbers of people to church.
ReplyDeleteOne wonders how they really see their Faith vs the Faith of the people, given how the sexual abuse was dealt with.
John, I recall the Vatican stating that P JP2 called to read the Third Secret brought to him in the hospital while recovering from his wounds. I guess because it surprised me so much as to think, If I became Pope that would be one of the first things I would want to get my hands on to read! Especially if one is truly devoted to Our Holy Mother!
ReplyDelete