He said,
THE CHASTISEMENT"It has too much good and too little bad to leave out. I do not think anything is left out of the third secret except maybe a personal note to the Holy Father but the rest is good. The three dots after the Portugal thing are meaningless."
The Timeliness & Urgency of the Third Part of the Secret of Fatima
July-August 2007By James Anderson
The Rev. James Anderson, M.S.A., retired in 1999 from the U.S. Naval Reserve Chaplain Corps. He writes from Santa Maria, California, where he currently volunteers as a state prison chaplain.
There is a widespread and accurate perception that our world has become a most dangerous place. Tsunamis, monster hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, earthquakes, wildfires, epidemics, hunger, and poverty are common. Since September 11, 2001, regional skirmishes have morphed into constant global war. Perhaps the deadliest sign of these times is the abandonment of our most basic law by those sworn to uphold it. Federal judges deny our natural right to public prayer, the public expression of our faith in God, and our obligation to obey His eternal law, including respect for life and sexual morality. Consequently, the most dangerous places in America are mothers' wombs, and our most vulnerable victims are children. What can we do? What should we already have done to remedy this?
Our Blessed Mother's "secret" given at Fatima, Portugal, in three parts to the young shepherds, Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, on July 13, 1917, is among the most significant prophecies of our times. It contains Heaven's plan to bring us the Peace of Jesus Christ, and prophesies unimaginable chastisement if the Church disobeys Heaven's plan. Catholics owe it attention because the Fatima apparitions have been approved by the Church. Others owe it attention because Mary's appearances and prophesy were authenticated by a spectacular "solar phenomena" witnessed by 70,000 people on October 13, 1917. All witnesses were soaking wet after waiting all night in the rain for the promised miracle. About noon the sun whirled and danced, became blood red, and came rushing down on them. Minutes later it returned to its proper place in the heavens. All present had become thoroughly dry, but none was scorched or burned, proving the event to be both real, and supernatural (John DeMarchi, I.M.C., Fatima: The Full Story [A.M.I. Press, 1986], p. 141).
In 1941, after the deaths of her younger cousins, Lucia, then a Dorothean nun, was ordered by the Bishop of Leiria, Portugal, to write down the prophetic secrets. According to the account of Fatima archivist and noted scholar Fr. Joaquin Maria Alonso, C.M.F., she did so in eight paragraphs. The first six paragraphs contain parts one and two of the secret. The first part was a terrifying vision of Hell. Mary explained that that was "where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart." The second part of the secret was: "If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war [World War I] is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world" (Joaquin Maria Alonso, The Secret of Fatima: Fact and Legend [Ravengate Press, 1979], pp. 21-22).
Sr. Lucia's seventh paragraph begins: "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc...." This paragraph appears only in Sr. Lucia's fourth memoir and, as here, is not completed. Fr. Alonso writes that it "contains what is most certainly the third part of the Fatima Secret." The final paragraph, eight, commands silence: "Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him." Sometime between Christmas 1943 and January 9, 1944, Sr. Lucia wrote out the third part of the secret on a sheet of paper, sealed it in an envelope, and it was given to the Bishop of Leiria, who put it in his own sealed envelope and gave it to the Cardinal of Lisbon. Sr. Lucia had asked that it not be opened until her death, or until 1960. She asked that it definitely be opened and read to the world in 1960: "Because then it will seem clearer." In fact, the sealed envelope with the secret was forwarded to Rome, arriving April 16, 1957. Pope Pius XII had not read it before his death. Pope John XXIII read it, and wrote out a comment that he placed with the secret in the archives. His only public statement was: "This makes no reference to my time." Pope Paul VI probably read the secret, and suddenly journeyed to Fatima for the 50th anniversary of the apparitions, on May 13, 1967. It is well known that the failure to reveal the contents of the third part of the secret in 1960 caused great disappointment in the world. However, the secret was addressed to the Holy Father — not to the faithful or the world. Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, head of the Vatican's Holy Office, who read the third secret, reasons as follows: "Yes, the Secret is important; it is important for the Holy Father for whom it was destined. It was addressed to him. And if the one to whom it was addressed has decided not to declare ‘now is the moment to make it known to the world,' we should be content with the fact that in his wisdom he wished it to remain a secret" (ibid., pp. 70-71).
The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, decided in the year 2000 that the time had come to reveal the third part of the secret to the Church and the world. On May 13, 2000, at the end of Mass at the Shrine of Fatima, during which John Paul had beatified the children Jacinta and Francisco, Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano read out, in Portuguese, a text concerning the third secret of Fatima. He stated that His Holiness had visited Fatima both to beatify the two "little shepherds" and to thank "Our Lady for her protection during these years of his papacy. This protection seems also to be linked to the so-called ‘third part' of the Secret of Fatima." Cardinal Sodano continued:
That text contains a prophetic vision similar to those found in Sacred Scripture, which do not describe with photographic clarity the details of future events, but rather synthesize and condense against a unified background events spread out over time in a succession and a duration which are not specified. As a result, the text must be interpreted in a symbolic key.... According to the interpretation of the "little shepherds," which was also recently confirmed by Sister Lucia, the "bishop clothed in white" who prays for all the faithful is the Pope. As he makes his way with great effort towards the Cross amid the corpses of those who were martyred (bishops, priests, men and women religious and many lay persons), he too falls to the ground, apparently dead, under a burst of gunfire. (Angelo Cardinal Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, "Official English Trans. of Address on the Third Part of the Secret of Fatima," Vatican Information Service, June 26, 2000)
Cardinal Sodano stated that His Holiness believed that the Blessed Mother's hand had saved him from death, and that events from 1989 led to the fall of Communist regimes in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, which had promoted atheism, for which His Holiness also thanked the Most Holy Virgin. Cardinal Sodano concluded: "Even if the events to which the third part of the Secret of Fatima refers now seem part of the past, Our Lady's call to conversion and penance, issued at the beginning of the twentieth century, remains timely and urgent today.... In order that the faithful may better receive the message of Our Lady of Fatima, the Pope has charged the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with making public the third part of the Secret, after the preparation of an appropriate commentary" (ibid.).
On June 26, 2000, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published the English translation, along with photostatic copies of the four pages of the original Portuguese text, which it claimed was the complete third part of the secret of Fatima, revealed to the three children on July 13, 1917, and written out by Sr. Lucia on January 3, 1944:
J.M.J.
The third part of the secret revealed at the Cova da Iria-Fatima, on 13 July 1917.
I write in obedience to you, my God, who command me to do so through his Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your Most Holy Mother and mine.
After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: "Penance, Penance, Penance!" And we saw in an immense light that is God: "something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it" a Bishop dressed in White "we had the impression that it was the Holy Father." Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.
Tuy-3-1-1944
(Sister Lucia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, "Complete Official English Trans. of the Third Part of the Secret of Fatima," Vatican Information Service, June 26, 2000)
He who has read Fr. Alonso's account of the third part of the secret is struck by the stark difference in the account presented at Fatima by Cardinal Sodano and translated by the CDF above. Remember that, according to Fr. Alonso, in 1941 Sr. Lucia wrote down the secret, and did so in eight paragraphs. The first six contained parts one and two of the secret. Paragraph seven begins: "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc...." Fr. Alonso writes that paragraph seven "contains what is most certainly the third part of the Fatima Secret." The final paragraph, eight, commands silence: "Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him" (Alonso, The Secret of Fatima: Fact and Legend, p. 22). Paragraph seven is incomplete because Sr. Lucia was obedient to the Blessed Mother's order of silence in regard to it, and did not write the whole third part of the secret out until between Christmas 1943 and January 9, 1944. Fr. Alonso's exact words are important to our discernment: "Therefore, even though our research up until now has not been able to determine the exact date, we know for certain that between December 25, 1943 and January 9, 1944 the famous final section of the Secret of Fatima, revealed on July 13, 1917, was at last written down by Lucia" (ibid., p. 41).
One must note that paragraph seven is not a description of a prophetic vision. It is the first sentence of a statement by the Blessed Mother that certainly would have referred to the prophetic vision, and perhaps explained what it meant, as she had done after the vision of Hell. There can be no question of this because paragraph eight commands silence, but allows the girls to tell the third part of the secret to Francisco. But Francisco was right there and he, along with Lucia and Jacinta, had already seen the prophetic vision together, as noted by both Cardinal Sodano and the statement by the CDF. The Blessed Mother's permission for the girls to tell the secret to Francisco would be meaningless if the secret consisted only of the prophetic vision he and the girls had just seen. Francisco's piety in prayer was not equal to that of the girls and so he was permitted to see the several visions but not to hear the Blessed Mother's beautiful voice (ibid., p. 25). But Heaven has used even that lack of piety by Francisco as positive proof that the third part of the secret of Fatima includes an oral statement of the Blessed Mother made to Lucia and Jacinta, and only with explicit permission later told to Francisco.
Moreover, Cardinal Ottaviani, who had read the third part of the secret, stated that it was addressed to the Holy Father, and if in his wisdom the Holy Father judged that it was not the time for it to be revealed, then we should be content with that. But the prophetic vision shown to the three children and described in four pages by Sr. Lucia, which was presented by the CDF in 2000 as the complete third part of the secret, contains no reference to that vision being addressed to the Holy Father alone, as Cardinal Ottaviani claims!
Nor is that vision mentioned by Sr. Lucia in her fourth memoir, which Fr. Alonso divided into eight paragraphs containing the three parts of the secret (ibid., p. 22). One could conclude that the four pages containing that vision were written "in the notebooks in which I've been told to keep my spiritual diary...," and then copied onto four sheets of paper by Sr. Lucia on January 3, 1944, in obedience to the Bishop. However, she was told by the Bishop either to write the third part of the secret in those notebooks "or, if I wish, to write it on a sheet of paper, put it in an envelope, and then close it and seal it up" (ibid., p. 39; Fr. Louis Kondor reports that the second and last notebook was completed December 8, 1941 [Fr. Louis Kondor, S.V.D., ed., Fatima in Lucia's Own Words: Sister Lucia's Memoirs (Postulation Center, 1963), p. 120]). She chose the latter, writing to the Bishop on January 9, 1944: "I have written what you asked me; God willed to try me a little, but finally this was indeed His will: [the text] is sealed in an envelope and it is in the notebooks..." (Alonso, "Meaning of the ‘Consecration' of Russia [Part I]," The Fatima Crusader, Autumn 1995, issue 50). If the vision copied from Sr. Lucia's spiritual diary in the notebooks on January 3 was the complete third part of the secret, why did she wait until January 9 to write to the Bishop to inform him that she had done what he asked?
From these facts one can validly infer that the third part of the secret of Fatima includes an oral statement told to Lucia and Jacinta, and repeated by them to Francisco with permission, that begins: "In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc...," as Fr. Alonso has clearly stated. We may not validly infer why the Vatican has not revealed the rest of the Blessed Mother's oral statement. However, since John Paul II determined in 2000 that the time had come to reveal it to the Church and the world, the admonition of Cardinal Ottaviani to be content no longer applies. In fact, given the Holy Father's decision, and considering the signs of these times, there would seem to be a most grave moral imperative to God's shepherds to reveal our Lady's message to the Church and the world (Ezek. 3:16-21). What must the Blessed Mother have told Lucia and Jacinta that required such secrecy by three Popes until 2000?
On May 13, 1982, John Paul II went to Fatima both to commemorate the anniversary of the apparitions and to thank Mary for interceding to save his life when he was shot several times at close range in St. Peter's Square a year before. Speaking as the leader of the universal Church, the pontiff said in paragraph seven of his homily at Mass: "When Jesus on the Cross said: ‘Woman, behold, your son' (Jn 19: 26), in a new way he ‘opened his Mother's Heart,' the Immaculate Heart, and revealed to it the new dimensions and extent of the love to which she was called in the Holy Spirit by the power of the sacrifice of the Cross." Then, in obvious reference to Mary's having been made mother of the whole Church in the person of St. John, he continued: "In the light of a mother's love we understand the whole message of the Lady of Fatima. The greatest obstacle to man's journey towards God is sin, perseverance in sin, and, finally, denial of God.... Can the Mother who with all the force of the love that she fosters in the Holy Spirit desires everyone's salvation keep silence on what undermines the very bases of their salvation? No, she cannot." John Paul here states unequivocally that "the whole message of the Lady of Fatima" concerns "what undermines the very bases of salvation." Could the third part of the secret of Fatima include, therefore, apostasy within the Church? His Holiness's conclusion of paragraph seven of his homily suggests that it does: "The message is addressed to every human being. The love of the Saviour's Mother reaches every place touched by the work of salvation. Her care extends to every individual of our time, and to all the societies nations and peoples. Societies menaced by apostasy, threatened by moral degradation. The collapse of morality involves the collapse of societies" (L'Osservatore Romano, May 17, 1982). Fr. Alonso reaches the same conclusion that the opening words of paragraph seven: "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc..." implies that nations other than Portugal will suffer a crisis of faith, but that Portugal will preserve its faith.
When John Paul was in Fulda, Germany, in November 1980, he was asked by a group of laymen about the third part of the secret of Fatima and about the near future of the Church. Answering the first question, the Holy Father replied, "Due to its shocking content and so as not to allow the global power of communism to interfere with the affairs of the Church, my predecessors gave confidential information in a diplomatic way. In addition, it should be enough for every Christian to know what follows: when you read that oceans will flood whole continents, that millions of men will die very suddenly in a few minutes...if this is known, it isn't really necessary to claim the publication of this secret.... Many people want to know it just for curiosity and sensationalism: but they forget that ‘knowing' involves also responsibility...but they just want to satisfy their own curiosity. This is dangerous when at the same time, they don't want to do anything, saying: ‘It is useless to do anything to improve the situation!'" Then the Pope took his Rosary and said: "Here is the medicine against this illness! Pray, pray and don't question further. Recommend all the rest to Our Lady!" (Vox Fidei, No. 10, 1981). Could the third part of the secret include such a worldwide chastisement? One could so infer from John Paul's words.
In reply to the second question about the near future of the Church, John Paul replied: "We must be ready to face great imminent trials, which could also require the sacrifice of our life for Christ.... The trials could be reduced through your and our prayers, but they can't be (anymore) avoided, because a true renewal of the Church can take place only this way...just as it has already occurred many times that the Church rose up again through blood. It won't be different either this time. Let's be strong and let's get ready, having faith in Christ and in his Mother. Let's pray much and often the Holy Rosary" (ibid.). Could the third part of the secret include a severe persecution of the whole Church? Again, one can so infer from John Paul's words.
On April 22, 1984, the late Bishop John Shojiro Ito of the Diocese of Niigata, Japan, signed a pastoral letter authorizing "the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita, while awaiting that the Holy See publishes definitive judgment on this matter." In this letter, Bishop Ito recounted the apparently miraculous events of tears and blood flowing from a carved wooden statue of our Lady, located at Akita in the convent chapel of the Institute of the Handmaids of the Eucharist, and the restoration of the hearing of Sr. Agnes Sasagawa. The letter also included three messages claimed to have been given to Sr. Agnes by our Lady, seemingly coming from that same wooden statue. The third message came on an anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, October 13, 1973, as follows:
My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. You will inform your superior.
As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and the priests.
The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres, churches and altars sacked, the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.
The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them.
Bishop Ito added that: "This message is based on the condition that if men do not repent and better themselves..." (Teiji Yasula, O.S.V., trans. John M. Haffert, Akita: The Tears and Message of Mary [101 Foundation, 1989], pp. 190-199).
A former Philippine ambassador to the Vatican, Howard Dee, said in a 1998 interview with Inside the Vatican magazine, "Bishop Ito was certain Akita was an extension of Fatima, and Cardinal Ratzinger personally confirmed to me that these two messages, of Fatima and Akita, are essentially the same."
Our Blessed Mother's prophesy at Akita includes a most severe apostasy within the Church, devastating worldwide chastisement, and such thoroughgoing persecution that churches and altars will be sacked and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass unavailable. The deduction of such things as the possible content of the third part of the secret of Fatima from the quoted words of John Paul II in 1980 at Fulda and in 1982 at Fatima is confirmed by Ambassador Dee's 1998 conversation with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
This reflection has thus far not included speculation or opinion. Rather, it has been limited to inferences from authoritative facts. However, considering the gravity of the inferred contents of our Queen Mother's prophesy, prudence and filial regard for the wishes of Christ's Vicar justify our consideration of why His Holiness John Paul II decided that the time had come in the year 2000 to reveal these prophesies to the Church and to the world. Could it be that this most spiritual Pontiff foresaw the forces leading to the events of September 11, 2001, and the aftermath the world continues to experience? Could it be that he foresaw usurpation of political power by enemies of the Church and the instigation of a systematic persecution? Could it be that he foresaw that divine justice required that the Church herself be spiritually renewed and purified by the blood of martyrs, as in previous centuries, and that he wanted to prepare us to stand firm and strong in the faith even when all might seem lost? Could it be that he fully accepted the Blessed Mother's maternal authority over us and her love for us from Christ on the cross, and wished as the Vicar of Christ to proclaim her message and lead his bishops in total obedience to it? Could it be that John Paul had lost confidence in mere human institutions and efforts for peace? Did the Vicar of Christ intend to lead his bishops to exercise their authority from Christ to call upon Mary as Queen Mother to fulfill the prophesies of Genesis 3 and Apocalypse 12 to crush the head of proud Lucifer and defeat his misguided minions?
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is what military commanders call a "force multiplier." Our worship, prayers, devotions, and penances offered to God are good. But when we offer them through the Immaculate Heart of Mary they will be multiplied by the love in the Holy Spirit with which Jesus, from His cross, pierced His mother's heart with the words: "Mother, behold your son." As Jesus multiplied her love for us by letting her experience His love for us from His cross, she can increase our love for her Immaculate Heart, and for the souls Jesus has given into her care, as she did for the shepherds at Fatima.
