Further Consideration of the Dogma of the faith and the Secret of Fatima

by Brother David Mary, M.I.C.M. Tertiary

Introduction

There is a monograph published by The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary entitled The Third Secret of Fatima and The Dogma of Faith by Br. Michael MICM, which analyzes the great Secret given by Our Lady to the children Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco at Fatima in Portugal on July 13, 1917. Like that monograph, this article deals exclusively with the mystery of the 3rd part of the Secret of Fatima. Here we will elaborate on some of the issues brought up by Br. Michael's work, and we will carry what was begun in that treatise to some startling, yet logical, conclusions.

By incorporating the findings of the Church's foremost Fatima scholars with the statements of those who have been privileged to read the 3rd part of the Secret, we will construct a very concrete and clear solution to this great mystery. Notice as we proceed, it will be as if we are putting together a large jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces will be laid on the table before us, and it will be simply a matter of putting all the pieces together to form a complete picture of this tremendous Secret.

Before beginning this project I want to make a note on the title of this work - Suppressing the Principle of Conversion by Diabolical Disorientation. To prepare in your mind what will appear in this paper I am giving you the necessary clues to the conclusion. Suppression indicates a positive action on the part of an authority in an attempt to do away with; the Principle of Conversion should be understood as that underlying foundational doctrine which causes conversions and Diabolical Disorientation is that confusion from which the Church (and therefore mankind) is currently suffering, which was foretold by Our Lady herself at Fatima on July 13, 1917 and which she said must come to pass.

The Great Secret of Fatima

First, as a reference, let us give the Secret of Fatima as we currently know it, spelling it out as Father Joaquin Maria Alonso, CMF displayed it on pages 21-22 of his work The Secret of Fatima - Fact and Legend. By the way, the wording comes from the actual text of Sister Lucy of Fatima as it is found in her 4th Memoir. Father Alonso simply adds the paragraph numbers.

"1. Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady who said to us, so kindly and so sadly, 'You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.
'2. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI.
'3. 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.
'4. 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.
'5. 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.
'6. 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.
'7. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc....
'8. Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.'"

Summarizing the text of the secret, Father Alonso tells us:

"In the first [paragraph] is set forth the very reason for the vision of hell: 'To save them (the souls who were going to hell), God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.' In the second paragraph we have the good or evil effects which will follow if this devotion is or is not established. Like all prophecies of the same type, this one is clearly of a 'warning and conditional' nature. In the third section is given a visible sign for recognizing the times in which these things will be fulfilled.

"...We need to mark well the material character of the evils that are to come: famine, war, persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. None of this, as we have said, will have to be repeated in the third part of the Secret.

"In the fourth section there is express mention of the radical remedy: the consecration of Russia to 'my Heart,' and devotion to the Heart of Mary made more specific by the practice of the First Saturdays. This is also followed by a prophetic warning.

"Logically it would seem that the sixth section should have come after the seventh, for it speaks of a later 'definitive' period, whereas the seventh deals with a preceding 'intermediate' period. The reason for this apparent contradiction is simple. When Lucia wrote the first version of the text, the seventh section was not given at all; therefore any allusion to the intermediate period was overlooked. But when she wrote the final version (in December, 1941) and introduced this disquieting section, she departed from the earlier versions already written, and the seventh part has therefore been placed where it is. Both the literary structure of the text, however, and the interpretations that Lucia has given us concerning it make its meaning very clear." [pp. 78-80]

Father Alonso sees an apparent contradiction in the format of Lucy's text, as she wrote it in the 4th Memoir. His explanation for the "contradiction" is plausible but as I will illustrate soon enough, there is no contradiction in the format of Lucy's text as she wrote it down. [With all due respect to Father Alonso, since it is his opinion in the matter regarding the arrangement of the text itself and not Sister Lucy's admission, I feel I can dispute him on this point.] Her arrangement of the text is deliberate. This format is in fact a clue for our understanding of the whole message itself which consists of 3 distinct parts as Sister Lucy herself tells us in her 3rd Memoir:

"Well, the secret is made up of three distinct parts, two of which I am now going to reveal."

What is Known of the 3rd Secret of Fatima

In this part I will present what is known about the 3rd part of the Secret from several different aspects. Many of the pertinent details surrounding it will be reviewed - from the writing of the Secret by Sister Lucy to comments made about the Secret by those who have read it, and everything in between. It will be redundant to many of you who have studied the history of Fatima but it will be important to get the pieces of this puzzle on the table for all to see. I will simply enumerate them.

#1

Father Joaquin Alonso writing in The Secret of Fatima - Fact and Legend tells us:

"The Bishop [of Leiria] determined finally to give a command. In a letter written in mid-October [1943], he gave the express order for [Lucia to write down the secret].
"Speaking with [her spiritual director] Don Antonio Garcia, Sister Lucy confided to him her interior anguish: 'They have ordered me to write down the part of the Secret that Our Lady revealed in 1917, and which I still keep hidden, by command of the Lord. They tell me either to write it in the notebooks in which I've been told to keep my spiritual diary, 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.'" [pp 38-39]

#2

Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite in The Third Secret [Volume III of The Whole Truth About Fatima] continues:

"Having received the formal order to write down the Secret in mid-October, two months later Sister Lucy still had not done so. This shows how much the writing of this text made her tremble. Indeed as she took up her pen, she found her incapable of writing. In effect, as she asked Don Garcia for advice she added that she had wanted to obey several times, that she had sat down to write, without being able to. This mysterious impediment still existed on December 24, 1943, where she makes it clear in a letter to Don Garcia 'that this phenomenon was not due to natural causes.'
"...Undoubtedly we see it as Satan's final outburst against the messenger of the Immaculate One, guessing what a great weapon this prophecy would be, once it was set down in black and white, against his domination and his claim of being able to infiltrate the very heart of the Church...thus the seer's great trial was the measure of how great was the event about to be accomplished." [p.45]

#3

Frere Michel continues:

"[Canon Martins dos Reis] informs us of an immensely significant event: it was the Virgin Mary Herself who came in an apparition, to finally dispel the seer's darkness and put an end to her painful trial. Our author writes: 'Before this apparition of the Mother of God, at the infirmary of Tuy, three times the seer had attempted to write the Secret in order to obey the order of Don Jose Alves Correia da Silva, but she was never capable. Only after this vision was she able to do so without the slightest difficulty, ...'"[p. 47]

This apparition occurred on January 2, 1944, and Sister Lucy had written the Secret down by January 9th.

#4

Frere Michel:

"As we have said, once the text was written Sister Lucy recovered her usual peace. However, the extreme care she takes to pass it on safely to its recipient is a new indication of the exceptional importance she attaches to this document. Bishop da Silva,..., had proposed that she either write the text in her notebook containing her spiritual notes - somewhat like the way she had done for the first two parts of the Secret, inserted in her Third and Fourth Memoirs - or put it in an envelope sealed with wax. She chose this second solution."[pp. 48-49]

#5

Frere Michel writing in The Third Secret of Fatima [from a talk he gave at the Vatican Symposium on Fatima in 1985]:

"Concerning the transmission of the Secret to the Hierarchy, it is necessary to underline four facts of the highest importance:

1. The immediate recipient of the Secret was Bishop da Silva and he could have read it at once. Sister Lucy told him so from the Blessed Virgin. But frightened by the responsibility that he would have to assume, he did not dare, he did not wish to have knowledge of it. He then tried to commit it to the Holy Office, but Rome refused to receive it. It was then agreed that if Bishop da Silva happened to die, the envelope would be entrusted to Cardinal Cerejeira, the Patriarch of Lisbon. It is therefore false to say, as has been so often repeated after 1960, that the Third Secret is destined explicitly and exclusively for the Holy Father!" [Emphasis mine]

Note Bishop da Silva took possession of the Secret on June 17, 1944. [See Tragedy and Triumph by Frere Francois de Marie des Anges, p.41]

#6

Frere Michel continues:

"2. It is true, however, -- I will provide several proofs of it in my book -- that Sister Lucy wanted Pope Pius XII to know the Secret without further delay. Unfortunately, that did not happen." [Emphasis mine]

Note From Frere Francois de Marie des Anges' book Tragedy and Triumph we have concerning this:
"In May or June 1944, as well as on several occasions in 1946, [Sister Lucy] expressed the desire to speak in person with the Holy Father, and as Canon Formigao made clear 'to tell him the third part of the Secret of Our Lady of Fatima.'"[p.42] [Emphasis mine]

In the history of the Fatima story, this is the first time that Sister Lucy wants to see the Pope in person.

#7

Back to Frere Michel:

"3. Ascertaining that Bishop da Silva persisted in not wishing to open the envelope, Sister Lucy 'made him promise,' in the words of Canon Galamba, 'that the Third Secret would be opened and read to the world upon her death or in 1960, whichever would happen first.' A series of testimonies which give us an account of the repeated statements of Sister Lucy enabled this fact to be established with absolute certitude."

Note From Tragedy and Triumph [p. 42]:
"Finally, as Sister Lucy could not converse with Pope Pius XII, as early as 1946 it was agreed between Sister Lucy and Bishop da Silva that the final Secret would be divulged in 1960. This is a very important truth for which we have indisputable proof.
"Let us quote first of all the decisive words of Canon Galamba: 'When His Excellency the Bishop refused to open the letter, Sister Lucy made him promise that it would definitely be opened and read to the world at her death or in 1960, whichever would come first.'"

#8

Frere Michel continues:

"4. Finally, this promise to disclose the Secret immediately after the death of Sister Lucy or in any case, 'in 1960 at the latest,' surely corresponds to a request by the Virgin Mary Herself. In fact, when in 1946 Canon Barthas asked the seer why it would be necessary to wait until 1960, Sister Lucy replied to him in the presence of Bishop da Silva: 'Because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so.'"

Note From Tragedy and Triumph we have:
"On September 7, 1946, in Brazil, on the closing of the Marian Congress of Campinas, Cardinal Cerejeira made the following declaration: 'From the two parts of the Secret already revealed, the third part has not been made known, but it has been written and placed in a sealed envelope, and will be opened in 1960...'
"During his conversations with Sister Lucy on October 17 and 18, 1946, Canon Barthas questioned her on the Third Secret. Here is the account which he published in 1952: <<'When will the third element of the Secret be revealed to us?' Already in 1946, to this question Sister Lucy and the Bishop of Leiria answered me uniformly, without hesitation and without comment: 'In 1960.' And when I pushed my audacity so far as to ask why must we wait until then, I got the same answer from both the Bishop and Sister Lucy: 'Because the Most Holy Virgin wishes it so.'>>
"Cardinal Ottaviani, pro-prefect of the Holy Office, came to the Carmel of Saint Theresa at Coimbra on May 17, 1955. He questioned Sister Lucy on the Third Secret: <<The message was not to be opened before 1960, >> he would relate in his conference of 1967. <<I asked Sister Lucy: 'Why this date?' And she replied: 'Because then it will become clearer.'>>"[p. 42] [Emphasis mine]

#9

Frere Francois de Marie des Anges writing in Tragedy and Triumph tells us:

"We know through the revelation of Rianjo that, for having refused to enter into the Divine designs, the papacy will be struck by 'misfortune.' In 1945, Lucy let it be understood that its great tribulations were yet to come. She wrote to Father Aparicio, her former confessor, then a missionary in Brazil: 'There, do they pray for the Holy Father? It is necessary to pray for His Holiness unceasingly. Great days of affliction and torment still await him.' It is probably necessary to place those 'great days of distress' in connection not only with the persecutions of the Holy Father mentioned in the second part of the Secret, but also with a more terrible chastisement, with a spiritual 'misfortune', that is with the deficiencies, faults, and blindness of the Popes, announced in the Third part."[Emphasis mine][pp. 251-252]

Note The revelation of Rianjo: Our Lord appeared to Sister Lucy in 1931 in Rianjo, Spain and spoke to her the following: "Make it known to My Ministers, that it has been given to them that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My command and that they will follow him into misfortune."

#10

Br. Michael, MICM, relates the following:

"In 1946 several historians of Fatima were privileged to obtain more precise information from Sister Lucia. Here are a few of the questions they asked her, along with her candid replies. Note the obvious ring of truth in her simple, unaffected, and honest responses:
'...
'Q. At what stage are we of the period mentioned in the secret?
'A. I think you are at that period when false doctrine shall propagate its errors throughout the world.' (More About Fatima, Rev. J. DaCruz, C.S.Sp., pp. 65-66)" [The Third Secret of Fatima and the Dogma of Faith, pp. 20-21]

#11

Frere Francois de Marie des Anges relates the following from Tragedy and Triumph:

"Pope Pius XII probably had an indication of its content through Father Joseph Schweigl, whom he had charged with a mission to personally visit the seer in August 1952. After questioning Sister Lucy on the Third Secret, on his return to the 'Russicum', Father Schweigl confided to one of his relatives, Father Cyrille Karel Kozina: <<'I cannot reveal anything about what I have learned at Fatima about the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts: the one concerns the Pope. The other, logically - although I should say nothing - should be the continuation of the words: In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.' ... Concerning the part which concerns the Pope, [Father Kozina] had asked: 'The present Pope, or rather the next one?' To that question, Father Schweigl did not reply.>> Undoubtedly because Father Schweigl informed Pius XII about the gravity of the events predicted in the final Secret the Pope did not wish to read it."[pp. 252-253] [Father Kozina informed Frere Michel of this himself in a letter written in 1984.]

#12

Frere Francois informs us about the transfer of the Secret from Leiria to Rome:

"<<It is a well-known fact (Father Alonso writes) that at the beginning of 1957, the Holy office asked the chancery of Leiria to send copies of all Sister Lucy's writings to Rome.>> It was on this occasion, then, that the final Secret left Portugal for Rome. Father Alonso states, <<We can be sure that the document was still in the chancery of Leiria until the end of February 1957, and that by the last half of March it had already been delivered to the Apostolic Nuncio at Lisbon.>>
"When in mid-March, Bishop da Silva ordered his auxiliary, Bishop Venancio, to bring everything - copies of Sister Lucy's writings and the original of the Secret - to the Nunciature at Lisbon, Bishop Venancio begged his Bishop to finally read the Secret and to make a copy of it before dispatching the manuscript to Rome. As Bishop da Silva was obstinate in his refusal, Bishop Venancio related he could only try to look at the large envelope of the Secret in transparency. He discerned, that it contained a smaller envelope, that of Sister Lucy, and inside this envelope an ordinary sheet of paper with margins of each side of three-quarters of a centimeter. He took the trouble to note the size of everything. The final Secret of Fatima, written on a small sheet of paper, is therefore not very long. Probably twenty to twenty-five lines, that is almost the same length as the Second Secret."[Emphasis mine][Tragedy and Triumph, pp. 44-45]

#13

What was the reason for transferring the Secret from Leiria to Rome? Cardinal Ottaviani states, according to Frere Michel:

"Did Rome want the Secret for safekeeping? 'The Bishop of Leiria,' declared Cardinal Ottaviani, 'gave the Secret to the Apostolic Nuncio, then Msgr. Cento... The latter transmitted it faithfully to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which had asked for it, in order to prevent something of so delicate a nature, not destined for public consumption from falling, for any reason whatsoever, even accidentally, into alien hands.'"[Emphasis mine][The Third Secret, pp. 482-483]

#14

Frere Francois continues:

"...we now know that the precious envelope sent to Rome by the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Cento, was not immediately placed in the archives of the Holy Office. Arriving at the Vatican on April 16, 1957, the Secret undoubtedly was placed by Pope Pius XII in his personal desk, inside a small wooden box, bearing the inscription Secretum Sancti Officii (Secret of the Holy Office). Robert Serrou reports the following fact: During a photo story at the Vatican on May 14, 1957, Mother Pascalina declared to him, in showing him a little box bearing a label with the mention 'Secret of the Holy Office:' 'The Third Secret of Fatima is in there...'
"Robert Serrou, questioned through our own efforts, stipulated: 'I believe I can tell you that there is no doubt about the veracity of this Sister's information.' Pope Pius XII kept the Secret in his desk, but did he read it? As surprising as it seems, it is almost certain that he did not. Father Alonso wrote: 'Pius XII certainly did not read the document.' The testimonies of Cardinal Ottaviani and of Monsignor Capovilla, private secretary of Pope John XXIII, agree: both affirming that the envelope was always sealed until after the death of Pius XII, John XXIII opened it."[Tragedy and Triumph, pp. 44-45]

#15

Frere Francois next hypothesizes:

"For what reasons was the Third Secret transferred from Leiria to Rome in 1957? Who took the initiative? And with what intention? Indeed 'apparently,' notes Monsignor Luciano Guerra, 'it was neither the wish of Sister Lucy nor of the Bishop of Leiria.'
"We can only formulate an hypothesis, but it is very plausible. The tenacious adversaries of Fatima in [Rome]...feared [its revelation to the world in 1960]. In addition, we can suppose that it is to prevent the publication of it that [Rome] decided to bring about the transfer of the Third Secret to the Vatican."
"Did they succeed in deceiving Cardinal Ottaviani? And Pius XII, himself? Probably."[Tragedy and Triumph, pp. 45-46]

Comment: Frere Francois' contention that the Pope is being deceived makes no sense in the light of what has come before. Pope Pius XII, who is the head of the Holy Office, has the envelope in his possession for over a year and a half and does not read it! It is only logical to contend that Pope Pius XII ordered its removal from Leiria to make sure no one saw it or published it, and it was kept close to him so that others would not have access to it. It is not his advisors then, nor the Curia that has deceived him by bringing the Secret to the Vatican so that it won't be published.

#16

Pope Pius XII died on October 9, 1958, and Angelo Cardinal Roncalli was elected as the next Pope - John XXIII. We know he read the contents of the 3rd Secret. Father Alonso tells us:

"Pope John XXIII received the document [of the Secret] on August 17, 1959 at Castelgandolfo saying, 'I reserve the right of reading it with my confessor.' The latter was Msgr. Alfredo Cavagna.
"The letter was read a few days after being delivered to the Holy Father but in order to be absolutely sure about certain Portuguese expressions, the help of Msgr. Paulo Jose Tavares (later Bishop of Macau) was sought. The contents of the document were made known to the officials of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Secretariat of State, and to a few other persons. It is certain that the Holy Father spoke about the matter with his close aides. However, he made no public statement. He simply said, 'This makes no reference to my time,'..."[Emphasis mine][The Secret of Fatima, pp. 50-51]

Frere Michel relates this episode as follows:

"On August 17, 1959, Father Paul Philippe, O.P., a future Cardinal who at the time was a superintendent of the Holy Office, came to Castelgandolfo to place the envelope sealed with wax in the Sovereign Pontiff's hands. Let us remark that this transmission of the Secret to the Holy Father was thus vested with an official character and surrounded with a certain solemnity, which attests to the prestige Fatima still had at this period.
"However, a question comes up: Father Philippe's mission presupposes that the Secret, in this summer of 1959, was kept at the Holy Office. Moreover, Msgr. Capovilla confirms it in two instances. How long ago, and at whose initiative, had the envelope left the office of Pius XII? We do not know.
"Msgr. Capovilla also reveals to us that John XXIII, ..., did not open right away the envelope handed to him. He was content to declare: 'I am waiting to read it with my confessor.' His confessor at that time was Msgr. Alfredo Cavagna, former national chaplain of the young women of Italy. Msgr. Capovilla adds the detail that the reading of the Secret 'was done a few days later. But because of the difficulty caused by expressions proper to the language, help was sought from a Portuguese translator from the Secretariat of State, Msgr. Paulo Jose Tavares, who later became Bishop of Macao and is now deceased.
"As for John XXIII's reaction after reading the Secret, and the importance he attributed to it, this is difficult to say. Again according to Msgr. Capovilla, 'Pope John XXIII made no pronouncement on the contents of the Secret. He said that he preferred to leave to others the appraisal (of the text).'"[Emphasis mine][The Third Secret, pp. 555-557]

#17

Frere Michel now informs us:

"[Quoting Msgr. Capovilla] 'After reading the text, the Pope wrote a personal note which was transcribed by his secretary (Msgr. Capovilla himself), and which was placed in the envelope containing the Secret. John XXIII took the document to the Vatican, and kept it on the writing table of his bedroom until his death, on June 3, 1963. From 1959 to 1963 (Msgr. Capovilla states), it stayed on the Pope's work table, sealed.'"[The Third Secret, p. 559]

#18

Br. Michael MICM relates the following:

"Shortly after Pope John XXIII put the Secret of Fatima away [...], he requested the file of an American priest, a very controversial priest, the only priest to be excommunicated nominatim (though uncanonically) in the 20th century (as far as we know), Father Leonard Feeney, the Jesuit. An Italian priest, working temporarily in America, Monsignor Francis Cassano [who has since passed away] was assigned by Rome to review the writings of Father Feeney. ...Having examined Father Leonard's book The Bread of Life, the Italian censor reported back to Rome that, as he himself told us, he had not found anything in Father Feeney's work that could even be considered of questionable orthodoxy."[The Third Secret of Fatima and the Dogma of Faith, p. 29]

#19

1960 arrives and the Secret is not read to the world as expected. Instead the following news item appeared in the press:

"According to Vatican sources (February 9, 1960), the Secret of Fatima will never be disclosed.
"It has just been stated, in very reliable circles of the Vatican, to the representatives of United Press International, that it is most likely that the letter will never be opened, in which Sister Lucia wrote down the words which Our Lady confided as a secret to the three little shepherds in the Cova da Iria.
"As indicated by Sister Lucia, the letter can only be opened during the year 1960. Faced with the pressure that has been placed on the Vatican, some wanting the letter to be opened and made known to the world, others, on the supposition that it may contain alarming prophecies, desiring that its publication be withheld, the same Vatican circles declare that the Vatican has decided not to make public Sister Lucia's letter, and to continue keeping it rigorously sealed.
"Does the Vatican already know the contents of the envelope? The decision of the Vatican authorities is based on various reasons: 1. Sister Lucia is still living. 2. The Vatican already knows the contents of the letter. 3. Although the Church recognizes the Fatima apparitions, she does not pledge herself to guarantee the veracity of the words which the three little shepherds claim to have heard from Our Lady. "In these circumstances, it is most probable that the Secret of Fatima will remain, forever, under absolute seal. (ANI)"

Frere Francois comments:

"Who had made that so bewildering [a] decision? The press communiqué did not indicate that. It was the fact of the 'Vatican', of 'Vatican authorities,'... However, the one who unquestionably assumes the primary responsibility for the announcement was the Pope, John XXIII. He had therefore chosen to make known to the world his decision of a diverting manner, doubly anonymous, through a simple press communiqué without any avowable origin! It is clear that to use that bizarre and deceitful procedure, to reveal to the faithful his decision of supreme Pastor on such a grave subject, was to recognize implicitly the arbitrary, unacceptable character, of that desire to bury forever, in indifference and scorn, the final Secret of the Queen of Prophets.
"In order to justify that scandalous decision, the Vatican communiqué advanced only inconsistent lying and also contradictory pretexts. Those alleged motives, Father Messias Coelho stigmatized immediately in an article of his review 'Mensagem de Fatima,' while showing that they were 'absolutely without foundation and ridiculous.' That press communiqué finished with a treachery: 'Although the Church recognizes the Fatima apparitions, she does not pledge herself to guarantee the veracity of the words which the three little shepherds claim to have heard from Our Lady.'"[Tragedy and Triumph, pp. 52-53]

#20

Also, in 1960, Sister Lucy is silenced by the Holy Office. Frere Francois tells us:

"Even Father Aparicio, her former confessor, was then unable to meet her in the parlor of Coimbra. That Jesuit, whom she venerated, had left in 1938 for Brazil where he had been successively rector, master of novices, and finally provincial of the vice-province of northern Brazil. In 1960, he had returned to Portugal in order to participate on August 15 in the celebration of the centenary of the foundation of the novitiate of the Jesuits, at Soutelo. Now, Father Martins tells us, during his stay in Portugal which lasted more than a month, 'the venerable old man suffered the greatest chagrin of his life: he could not speak with Sister Lucy.'
"Certainly he had learned, from the moment of his arrival in Portugal in 1960 only the members of her family could visit her, for 'her superiors forbade her to receive any other person.' However, 'he hoped, in spite of that, to be able to speak with her.' One of his letters is a witness to that: 'Tomorrow or later, he wrote on August 7, I will go to Coimbra. I will not be able to speak with Sister Lucy because she is isolated. By order of the Holy Office in Rome, she may not communicate with anyone.'
"And on his return to Brazil, Father Aparicio stipulated to a correspondent: 'I have not been able to speak with Sister Lucy because the Archbishop could not give the permission to meet her. The conditions of isolation in which she finds herself have been imposed by the Holy See. Consequently, no one may speak with her without a license from Rome.'" [Tragedy and Triumph, p. 33]

#21

First, Father Alonso:

"In order to speculate, with historical foundation, about the contents of the remaining part of the Secret of Fatima, it is necessary to take into account certain circumstances connected with the Secret as a whole, for these give us norms of interpretation for all hypotheses on the subject.
"There is, in the first place, the marked brevity of the written Secret. Lucia tells us that she wrote it on one sheet of paper. Cardinal Ottaviani, who has read it, tells us the same thing. 'She has written on one sheet of paper what Our Lady told her to tell the Holy Father.'...
"As for the general character of the Secret, as it was expressed by the good and simple people who questioned the children about it, we have here a few indications:

#22

Continuing with Father Alonso:

"Another important criterion for understanding the third part of the Secret is the unity of the three parts which constitute the communication of July, 1917. This criterion obliges us to discern clearly what is revealed and what is kept hidden, and also enables us to surmise, with reasonable probability, the nature of that which is held back.
"The literary structure which Lucia adopts when she begins to write is quite clear: 'Well, the Secret is made up of three distinct things, two of which I am now going to reveal.' When, therefore, there is a question of hazarding a guess about the third 'thing,' it should not be disconnected from the other two as though it were a second thought that had been overlooked.
"All authors have taken into consideration how Lucia, in the fourth Memoir, introduced the famous paragraph with the words: 'In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc....' They have deduced as certain that the third 'thing' began there. These words introduce the revelation of the third part of the Secret. The phrase most clearly implies a critical state of faith, which other nations will suffer, that is to say, a crisis of faith;..." ."[The Secret of Fatima, pp. 69-70]

#23

Father Alonso again:

"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.
"Thus it is quite possible that in this ...period which is in question, ...the text makes concrete reference to the negligence of the pastors themselves....
"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."[Emphasis mine][The Secret of Fatima, pp. 80-81]

#24

Father Alonso makes a good point about Sister Lucy's inability to write down the 3rd part of the Secret in 1944:

"Moreover, how are we to understand Lucia's great difficulty in writing the final part of the Secret when she had already written down other things that were extremely difficult to put down? Had it been merely a matter of prophesying new and severe punishments, Sister Lucia 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 Lucia experienced a repugnance that was almost impossible to overcome by any natural means."[The Secret of Fatima, p. 82]

Note There is another important reason why Sister Lucy cannot write down the Third part of the Secret. Frere Michel points to this inability on the part of Sister Lucy to fulfill Bishop da Silva's command on the fact that Sister Lucy had not been given permission to do so by Our Lord and Our Lady. I will elaborate on this in the next section.

#25

Father Alonso relates the story of the interview one Father Lombardi had with Sister Lucy in 1954:

"On February 7, 1954 Father Lombardi, after much insistence, but at an inopportune time for Sister Lucia, managed to speak with her in the parlor of the Carmelite convent in Coimbra. He wrote later of the impression she made on him:
'Her face was simple, her voice clear and without the slightest trace of the artificiality which can be so easily assumed in certain situations. She was not well; in fact, she was running a temperature. I questioned her:
<<Tell me if the Better World Movement (which was already known to her) is the Church's response to the words of Our Lady to you.>>
<<Father, >> she replied, <<there is certainly need of this great renewal. Without it, and considering the present state of humanity, only a limited part of the human race will be saved.>>
<<Do you really believe that many people go to hell? I myself hope that God will save the greater number, and I even wrote it in a book entitled The Salvation of Those Who Have No Faith.>>
<<Father, many are condemned.>>
<<It is certain that the world is an abyss of vice....Still, there is always hope of salvation.>>
<<No, Father, many, many are lost.>>'"[Emphasis mine][The Secret of Fatima, p. 106]

Note Although not included here by Father Alonso, Sister Lucy defends herself by asking Fr. Lombardi, in the same interview: "How can a Protestant be saved if he will not confess his sins to a priest?"

#26

Father Alonso discusses the relationship Sister Lucy's views on Hell have with the Secret entrusted to her by Our Lady:

"We already know the text of the vision of hell. It does not say one single word as to whether the damned are few or many. Lucia tells us of the impression this vision made upon little Jacinta. When she wishes to explain Jacinta's spirit of mortification for sinners - for whose salvation she suffered so intensely - Lucia gives us two reasons: 'First, because God willed to bestow on her a special grace, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and second, because she had looked upon hell, and had seen the ruin of souls who fall into it.' Jacinta was profoundly impressed and exclaimed, 'We must pray very much to save souls from hell! So many go there! So many!' In the same Memoir we see how Jacinta had visions of the war end and of the many dead. Lucia asked her, 'Jacinta, what are you thinking about?' 'About the war that is coming. So many people are going to die, and almost all of them are going to hell!'
"...It is true that little Jacinta, who was so deeply impressed, used that awe-inspiring expression which has horrified so many people. But do we have to take it literally? As far as Lucia is concerned, there is nothing to justify the reactions of alarm aroused by Father Lombardi's account. In any event it is certain that none of this pertains to the Secret of Fatima."[The Secret of Fatima, pp. 107-108]

Comment: Father Alonso's opinion here is based upon no solid foundation. He simply thinks it is too horrific that most souls are damned, therefore Sister Lucy's views, and Jacinta's exclamations cannot be taken literally. As a result, Father calls the whole of Father Lombardi's interview with Sister Lucy into question. However, the fact remains, the children did see Hell and the souls that fall into it [this fact comprises the 1st part of the Secret of Fatima], and Father Alonso has logically inferred that the 3rd part of the Secret refers to a critical state of faith befalling many nations on Earth. Does not Father Alonso realize that one cannot be saved without holding the Catholic Faith?

#27

Frere Michel tells us of the nature of the 3rd part of the Secret:

"...So it is clear: all the material chastisements which still threaten us, even the most frightful ones, are already predicted by Our Lady in her second Secret, and we also know the supernatural means of warding them off, before it is too late... But all these things, Father Alonso assures us, the third Secret does not speak of; it no longer mentions them. There is, he explains, a very simple and convincing reason:
'We should remember in interpreting Lucy's writings that she never repeats herself in the same text, especially when she is dealing with related things. If therefore the first part of the Secret speaks of the vision of hell and the intercessory function of Our Lady to save sinners who would otherwise go there, and if the second part deals with the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, emphasizing particularly the disastrous effects failure to do so will bring to the world and the Church in their external, political and material aspects, then we can be certain that none of this will again be included in the third part.'
"In effect, since the Secret is composed of 'three parts', coherent but distinct, whose dates indicated by Heaven for their disclosure were not the same, we can be sure that the third part of the Secret will not repeat the same thing as the second, at an interval of just a few lines! So, Father Alonso continues, it is no longer a question of material chastisements, which already are all evoked in the Secret which is known: famines, wars, persecutions. No, it must concern something else.
"...[I]f the final Secret of Our Lady no longer is announcing temporal chastisements, it has to prophesy events of another order... undoubtedly a spiritual chastisement, far worse, more frightful than famine, wars and persecutions, much more to be feared than atomic war itself, for it concerns souls, their salvation or their eternal loss."[Emphasis mine][The Third Secret, pp. 672-673]

#28

Frere Michel constructs some important inferences:

"Is the Pope mentioned in the unpublished part of the Secret? Once again, the most enlightening rule is the conformity of the third Secret to the context of the message. This rule allows us to conclude, with assurance, in the affirmative: Yes, the Holy Father is certainly mentioned in the final Secret of Our Lady, and we can even deduce in what sense.
"The great Secret of Fatima is nothing other than the concise and clear expression of Divine Mercy's great design for our century, given by the Blessed Virgin herself. We must reread the text attentively to discover, (perhaps to our astonishment), to what extent the Sovereign Pontiff's role is absolutely decisive for the success of this great providential design.
"In the twenty-three lines of Sister Lucy's manuscript, the Holy Father is mentioned five times. Moreover the very structure of the Secret, where the promises and announcement of chastisements are repeated twice in a row, clearly underlines the supreme responsibility of the Holy Father, on whom everything depends in the final analysis....
"To be sure, in our twentieth century God has completely entrusted the salvation of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But the Blessed Virgin - like the Holy Spirit, Whose visible Figure and living Tabernacle She is - cannot act, and does not wish to act in the Church independently of the ministers instituted by Jesus Christ to teach, govern, and sanctify the faithful in His name. The fulfillment of the promises of Fatima - incomparable, unheard of promises - depends entirely on the good will of the Pope, who by his apostolic authority must accept and promote the admirable design of mercy proposed by Heaven, but which cannot be fulfilled without his cooperation.
"It cannot be denied that in the Message of Fatima, the responsibility confided to the Holy Father is immense, dizzying: either wonderfully to the good, or terrible and disastrous....
"...[I]n two places in the Secret, Our Lady foretells the sufferings of the Holy Father. However, it is important to interpret this prophecy correctly. Here once again, a later revelation sheds light on the meaning of the Secret of 1917: the revelation of August 1931, which is so important, but curiously enough, passed over in silence by the majority of commentators on the Message of Fatima.
'Later on by means of an intimate communication, Our Lord complained to me, saying: <<They did not wish to heed My request. Like the King of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars, and persecutions of the Church; the Holy Father will have much to suffer.>>'
"There are other texts of Lucy, ...insisting on this chastisement of the papacy, comparable to the chastisement that befell King Louis XIV and his successors for not obeying the requests of the Sacred Heart, passed on by St. Margaret Mary. However, we have said enough on this subject to draw the obvious conclusion about the content of the third secret.
"The inference is simple: if the Holy Father is named five times in the part of the Secret which has been disclosed, as the first one responsible for the salvation or chastisement of Christendom, how is it conceivable for him to have no responsibility for an infinitely more serious catastrophe, a spiritual one, which therefore depends on his direct and immediate power?
"It might be possible for a schism or heresy in one part of the world, tearing part of the flock away from the Church. But the fragment of the Secret which we know, as small as it is, does not permit us to suspect this kind of trial. It suggests instead a near universal apostasy. And in this case, how could such an apostasy happen except with the knowledge of the Pope, in direct dependence on his supreme responsibility as Guardian of the Faith? How can 'the dogma of Faith' come close to disappearing without a lapse on the part of him whose principal duty is precisely to preserve intact the deposit of Faith within the Church?
"...Since her prophecies which contain threats are always conditional, Our Lady of Fatima never predicts a chastisement without mentioning the responsibility of those who draw it on themselves: it is sinners who go to hell; and the Pope, bishops and faithful, by turning a deaf ear to her requests, bring on the scourge of communism and its aftermath. If then the apostasy makes its way into the Church, how can the Shepherds not be responsible?...
"Moreover, one fact stands out before our eyes: the parallel and simultaneous development of the two series of chastisements: the temporal ones striking the nations and the Church, but from without, and the spiritual chastisements which wound the Church from within, by the loss of Faith...
"This is also what the internal logic of that part of the Secret which has been revealed leads us to believe: the Queen of Prophets, predicting that an unprecedented spiritual chastisement would fall on the Church, also explicitly announced the causes of this apostasy."[Emphasis mine][The Third Secret, pp. 694-703]

#29

Frere Francois echoes Frere Michel's conclusions when he states:

"That the Third Secret announces not only an almost universal apostasy, but that it equally sheds light, and probably with some concrete precisions, easily recognizable on the grave deficiencies of consecrated souls - priests, religious, nuns - as also and first of all members of the hierarchy and some Sovereign Pontiffs themselves."[Emphasis mine][Tragedy and Triumph, p. 249]

#30

Frere Michel informs us that Pope Paul VI read the Secret:

"Elected on June 21, 1963, shortly afterwards he asked to be given the text -- a proof of his lively concern on the subject. Since nobody knew what John XXIII had done with it, Msgr. Capovilla was asked, and he was able to indicate where it had been placed:
'Paul VI, after his election, asked for information regarding this document; I no longer recall if it was in July 1963, or a few months later. We may believe he read the Secret.'
"It is indeed very probable that he read it immediately."[The Third Secret, p. 635]

#31

Father Alonso will quote from Cardinal Ottaviani and Pope Paul VI, but first he makes these significant statements:

"Still, the famous document [the 3rd Secret] must also contain elements of hope and promise provided that the Church, the hierarchy and the faithful turn to true prayer and penance and give themselves, in confidence and love, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was Cardinal Ottaviani again who spoke with clarity on these points:
'The relationship of the message of Fatima with conditions in the Church in certain regions has become evident. In such areas, the attacks against religion are causing them to feel the weight of persecution. There, too, the message of hope and conversion exists, even before it becomes common knowledge, and this conversion can be hastened by the prayers of all who are devoted to Our Lady of Fatima....There are already signs which give us a glimpse of new situations which are beginning to appear. I may perhaps be optimistic, but it seems to me that the Holy Virgin is encouraging us to have confidence. These revealing signs are various indications of developments in certain countries, and of success in an ecumenism which is bringing peoples more closely together, even those who are not Catholic, but who glory, and justly so, in the name of Christian. Then there are signs of the success of all the Holy Father's initiatives in favor of peace....These are all signs which lead us to hope that, in this fiftieth anniversary of the events at Fatima, Our Lady wishes to give us a sign of her satisfaction with her children, to give new hope to the Christian world. We must say then: let us welcome Our Lady's desire, and let us hasten its fulfillment by prayer.'
"Cardinal Ottaviani alludes here to the fact that there also exist signs of hope in the Secret. He refers to two [hopes]. First there is the conversion of Russia, of which he believes there are already certain indications. Next he refers to the ecumenical movement, as though there were also an allusion to this in the document. In regard to this second point, we should affirm that Lucia has always thought that the conversion of Russia is not to be understood as being limited to the return of the Russian people to the Orthodox Christian religion, ...but rather as a total and perfect conversion to the one, true Roman Catholic Church. In this sense, the ecumenical movement may find in the unpublished document a hopeful promise.
"We have said that we believed that Pope Paul VI had read the Secret, and that this influenced his decision to be present at Fatima for the fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions on May 13, 1967.
"We would like to conclude this chapter by quoting that portion of Pope Paul's homily which seems to us to refer to the Secret. The Holy Father began by greeting the pilgrims, clergy and laity, who had come to Fatima from all over the world. He then continued:
'You all know our special intentions which have characterized this pilgrimage. Now we recall them, so that they give voice to our prayer and enlightenment to those who hear them. The first intention is for the Church; the Church, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. We want to pray, as we have said, for its internal peace. The Ecumenical Council has revitalized the heart of the Church, has opened up new vistas in the field of doctrine, has called all her children to a greater awareness, to a more intimate collaboration, to a more fervent apostolate. We desire that these be preserved and extended. What terrible damage could be provoked by arbitrary interpretations, not authorized by the teaching of the Church, disrupting its traditional and constitutional structure, replacing the theology of the true and great Fathers of the Church with new and peculiar ideologies; interpretations intent upon stripping the norms of faith of that which modern thought, often lacking rational judgment, does not understand and does not like. Such interpretations change the apostolic fervor of redeeming charity to the negative structures of a profane mentality and of worldly customs. What a delusion our efforts to arrive at universal unity would suffer, if we fail to offer to our Christian brethren, at this moment divided from us, and to the rest of humanity which lacks our Faith in its clear-cut authenticity and in its original beauty, the patrimony of truth and of charity, of which the Church is the guardian and the dispenser!
We want to ask of Mary a living Church, a true Church, a united Church, a holy Church. We want to pray together with you, in order that the aspirations and efforts of the Council may find fulfillment through the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the font of the true Christian life, Whom the Church worships tomorrow on the feast of Pentecost. These fruits are enumerated by the Apostle Paul: <<love, faithfulness, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.>> We want to pray that the love of God now and forever reign in the world; that His laws guide the conscience and customs of modern man. Faith in God is the supreme light of humanity; and this light not only must never be extinguished in the hearts of men, but must renew itself through the stimulus which comes from science and progress. This thought, which strengthens and stimulates our prayer, brings us to reflect, at this moment, on those nations in which religious liberty is almost totally suppressed; and where the denial of God is promulgated as representative of the truth of these times and the liberation of the people, whereas this is not so. We pray for such nations; we pray for the faithful of these nations, that the intimate strength of God may sustain them and that true civil liberty be conceded to them once more.'
"The remainder of the Pope's address was an appeal to men everywhere to work for true peace in the world. While peace is of course a vital concern for the Church, it is also of concern to the rest of mankind, and therefore not the intra-Church matter to which we believe the Secret refers."[Emphasis mine][The Secret of Fatima, pp. 83-86]

#32

Frere Francois gives a run-down of statements made by Cardinal Ottaviani and Pope Paul VI since 1960:

"We know that Cardinal Ottaviani read the Secret, and that prelate seems to have made a discreet allusion to one of its themes, on December 15, 1960, in an allocution to the members of the Marian international Academy. He declared:
'It suffices to cast a rapid glance at what is happening at this moment in the world, in order to recognize that without the intervention of the Mother of all mercy near the All-Powerful, the world risks becoming pagan once more, a paganism more deplorable than the first paganism, because it is aggravated by apostasy. We are witnessing a veritable deluge of sins, a deluge which leaves behind it a nauseating quagmire, infected by immorality, lies and blasphemy...'

"Whereas the final session of the Council began in autumn, 1965, while conversing with a Milanese reporter, Paul VI manifestly mentioned several of the themes of the Third Secret...:
'The Council is about to demonstrate that in addition to a crisis of faith in the world, fortunately there is no crisis in the Church. The gravest topics, such as religious liberty, have been debated with love by the Church. The formation of two currents, progressive and non-progressive, as they say, never put into question fidelity to the Church. Everyone discusses this for the good of the Church, and we do not see there being produced any defection or alarming signs of internal struggle. If there had been any, as some people allege, the Pope would preoccupy himself with them, and he would say it clearly. He is there for that reason.'

"Beginning in 1968, Paul VI on several occasions brought to mind in his discourse 'the crisis of faith', as well as the 'confusion' and the 'fever' reigning in the Church.
'Because, you know, the Church is now going through a spiritual moment of its history which is not serene, especially in some countries .... It is thus, We said, not only by reason of the practical apostasy which is so wide-spread, but also and especially by reason of the uneasiness which troubles certain sectors of the Catholic world and affects the sensibility of those who have responsibilities in the Church. Each one knows it. After the Council, the Church has known and still knows, a grand and magnificent awakening, which We are the first to recognize and favor. But the Church has suffered and suffers still from a whirlwind of ideas and of facts which are certainly not inspired by the good spirit, and do not announce this renewal of life which the Council promised and promoted.'(Discourse of April 25, 1968)

'The Church finds itself in a period of uneasiness, autocriticism, we would say even of autodestruction. It is like an interior confusion, sharp and complex, which no one would have expected after the Council... We thought of a flowering, of a sane expansion of the ripened conceptions in the great assizes of the Council. That aspect exists likewise. But... we come to notice above all its dolorous aspect. As if the Church was striking itself.' (Discourse of December 7, 1968)

'Numerous symptoms seem to announce grave uneasiness in the Church.' (Discourse of September 17, 1969)

'A sentiment of confusion seems to be spreading among the children of the Church, even among the best ones, and sometimes also with the most qualified, those who exercise the greatest authority.' (Discourse of December 3, 1969)

'We are at a moment of crisis of the faith, a crisis which has repercussions indeed on other domains, on our whole religious, moral and social life.' (Discourse of June 29, 1971)

'Through some crack the smoke of satan has entered into the temple of God: the doubt, uncertainty, the problematic, the inquietude, the dissatisfaction occur daily... We would have believed that the day after the Council would be a day of sun for the Church. But we have found new storms. We seek to dig new abysses in place of filling them up.' (Discourse of June 29, 1972)" [Emphasis in bold-type mine] [Tragedy and Triumph, pp. 270-273]

#33

Frere Michel relates the fact that Pope John Paul II has read the 3rd part of the Secret:

"As for John Paul II, we know from a reliable source that he read it. He did so before his trip to Fatima on May 13, 1982, the first anniversary of the attempt on his life. He even consulted a Portuguese priest of the Curia, for the priest to translate the text for the Pope 'with all the nuances of the language.' But during his pilgrimage, he gave no hint of what he had thought of it, and in any case he did not reveal it." [Emphasis mine][The Third Secret, pp. 636-637]

#34

Frere Michel gives the testimony of Bishop Alberto Cosme do Amaral:

"On September 10, 1984, Bishop Alberto Cosme do Amaral, the present Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, finally coming out of his reserve, made a declaration of capital importance: it eliminates for good the principal false hypotheses concerning the contents of the third Secret. Here, in effect, is what appears in Mensagem de Fatima of February, 1985, under the title 'The Secret of Fatima does not announce the end of the world':
'<<The Secret of Fatima speaks neither of atomic bombs, nor nuclear warheads, nor Pershing Missiles nor SS-20s>>, declared Don Alberto Cosme do Amaral, Bishop of the diocese of Leiria-Fatima, during a session of questions and answers which took place in the aula magna of the technical University of Vienna, last September 10.
'<<Its content,>> he insisted, <<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.>>'"[Emphasis mine][The Third Secret, pp. 675-676]

#35

Frere Michel shows the text of an interview that Cardinal Ratzinger gave to the Italian journalist Vittorio Messori, and which first appeared in a November 1984 article called "Here is why the Faith is in Crisis".

Here is the part that discusses the Secret of Fatima:

"V.M. [Vittorio Messori]: Cardinal Ratzinger, have you read the so-called 'third Secret of Fatima', which Sister Lucy forwarded to Pope John who didn't want to reveal it, and ordered it to be deposited in the archives?

"C.R. [Cardinal Ratzinger]: Yes, I have read it.

"V.M.: Why hasn't it been revealed?

"C.R.: Because according to the judgment of the Popes, it would add nothing to what a Christian must know from Revelation: a radical call to conversion, the absolute seriousness of history, the dangers threatening the faith and life of the Christian, and therefore the world. And also the importance of the last times. If it is not published - at least for the moment - it is to avoid confusing religious prophecy with sensationalism. But the things contained in this third Secret correspond to what is announced in Scripture and are confirmed by many other Marian apparitions, beginning with the Fatima apparitions themselves in their known contents. Conversion, penance are essential conditions of salvation."[Emphasis mine][The Third Secret, pp. 818-824]

#36

An interview conducted by the reporter Lucio Brunelli with Silvio Cardinal Oddi and which appeared in the Italian magazine Il Sabato in March 1990 contains some enlightening statements regarding the Third Secret of Fatima. Among the things this article contains, it states the following:

"Regarding the Third Secret of Fatima, Cardinal Oddi says: 'It has nothing to do with Gorbachev. The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against the apostasy in the Church.'"

Also:

"L.B. (Lucio Brunelli): Are you of [the opinion that the Perestroika of Gorbachev can be attributed to the miraculous character of a spiritual and religious rebirth]?

"C.S.O. (Cardinal Silvio Oddi): No, on the contrary, I remain very skeptical. I believe I knew John XXIII quite well, since I spent a number of years at his side when he was at the nunciature in Paris. If the Secret had concerned realities consoling for the Church like the conversion of Russia or the religious rebirth of eastern Europe, I believe that he would have brought pressure to bear to make the Secret public.

"By temperament he did not hesitate to communicate joyful things (it has been revealed that Cardinal Roncalli in a number of letters to friends practically announced his election to the papacy). But when I asked him during an audience why in 1960, when the obligation to keep the Secret had come to an end, he had not made public the last part of the message of Fatima, he responded with a weary sigh. He then said: 'Don't bring that subject up with me, please...'

[...]

"C.S.O.: What happened in 1960 that might have been seen in connection with the Secret of
Fatima? The most important event is without a doubt the launching of the preparatory phase of the Second Vatican Council. Therefore I would not be surprised if the Secret had something to do with the convocation of the Vatican II...

"L.B.: Why do you say that?

"C.S.O.: From the attitude Pope John showed during our conversation, I deduced -- but it is only an hypothesis -- that the Secret might contain a part that could have a rather unpleasant ring to it. John XXIII had convened the Council with the precise intention of directing the forces of the Church toward the solution of the problems that concern all of humanity, beginning from within. That is, he intended the work to begin with the evangelical perfection pursued by consecrated persons ... But we all know that, despite the great merits of the Council, many sad things have also taken place. These sad things are not due to the Council, but they took place in conjunction with the Council. I am thinking, for example, of the number of priests who have abandoned the priesthood: it is said that there have been 80,000. But one only has to recall the anguish with which the Holy Father, Paul VI, in 1968 cried out against the 'autodemolition' taking place in the Church..." [Emphasis in bold-type mine]

#37

On October 13, 1996, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger made an official visit to Fatima and gave two interviews to the press. During the second, a press conference held on the afternoon of October 13, he was questioned about the 3rd part of the Secret of Fatima. This was his reply:

"I've had enough of speaking about that. The message transmitted by Sister Lucy, and not yet revealed, concerns neither the history of the world in general nor individual facts in particular. The Lady does not enter into details about the future. The Secret contains nothing new, it foretells no tragedy for humanity, nothing apocalyptic and nothing essential for the faith. The Lady simply opens a path, and this path leads to conversion and to faith. In a certain sense, the Second Vatican Council was the realization of the Virgin's message and, in summoning it, Pope John XXIII did the essential in answer to the Virgin's message."[Emphasis mine][taken from The Catholic Counter-Reformation in the XXth Century, #289, Oct. 1996]

#38

From Frere Michel:

"To a priest-nephew, Sister Lucy writes on April 4, 1970:
'...May your apostolate, like that of all our missionary brothers and sisters, be for souls the light of Faith which guides them on the way of Truth, Hope and Love! This light which the Lord speaks to us about in His Gospel: <<You are the light of the world, and the salt of the earth.>>
'It is necessary, for this purpose, not to be led by the doctrines of disoriented disputants... The campaign is diabolical. We must stand up to it, without placing ourselves in conflict. We must tell souls that, now more than ever, we must pray for us and for those who are against us! We must recite the Rosary every day. This is the prayer which Our Lady recommended the most, as if to arm us in advance, foreseeing these days of diabolical campaign! The devil knows that we shall save ourselves through prayer. ...'

"On April 13, 1971, Sister Lucy wrote to her Salesian nephew, Father Jose Valinho:
'I see by your letter that you are preoccupied by the disorientation of our time. It is indeed sad that so many persons let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave sweeping over the world, and that they are blinded to the point of being incapable of seeing error! ...'

"[Sister Lucy writes to a friend, Dona Maria Teresa da Cunha on April 12, 1970]:
'People must recite the Rosary every day. Our Lady repeated this in all her apparitions, as if to arm us in advance against these times of diabolical disorientation, so that we would not let ourselves be fooled by false doctrines, and that through prayer, the elevation of our soul to God would not be diminished....
'This is a diabolical disorientation invading the world and misleading souls! It is necessary to stand up to it; ...'

"On September 16, 1970, Sister Lucy wrote to a friend in religion, Mother Martins, who had been her companion at Tuy, in the novitiate of the Dorothean Sisters. She had just been sorely tried by illness:
'...I too, was not feeling very well in my heart, my eyes, etc.; but it is necessary to the Passion of Christ; it is necessary that His members be one with Him, through physical pain and through moral anguish. Poor Lord, He has saved us with so much love and He is so little understood! so little loved! so badly deserved! It is painful to see such a great disorientation and in so many persons who occupy places of responsibility...!
'For our part we must, as far as is possible for us, try to make reparation through an ever more intimate union with the Lord; and identify ourselves with Him that He may be in us the Light of the world plunged in the darkness of error, immorality and pride. It pains me to see what you tell me, now that that is going on over here...!
'It is because the devil has succeeded in infiltrating evil under the cover of good, and the blind are beginning to guide others, as the Lord tells us in His Gospel, and souls are letting themselves be deceived....
'...This is why the devil has waged such a war against [the Rosary]! 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, in December 1971, again in a letter to Mother Martins, Sister Lucy expresses the same thoughts:
'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.'

"A letter of November 26, 1970, addressed to Don Umberto Pasquale, an Italian Salesian devoted to the cause of Fatima for a very long time:
'...The decadence which exists in the world is without 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 struggle 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.'" [Emphasis mine][The Third Secret, pp. 750-759]

Some Important Points Can Now Be Established

In this part I will now make further sense of the pieces of the puzzle that have been shown to us. There will be some minor adjustments made to the thinking of the Fatima experts and there will be some more inferences drawn -- both of which will lead to a clear and concrete understanding of the 3rd part of the Secret of Fatima. To accomplish this, I will reiterate what has been enumerated above, but this time I will combine these clues into a coherent body so that the solution will become evident to the reader. Some of these points will be simple, and some a little more complex, but all will be based upon established facts and logical reasoning.

There are two types of chastisements foretold by Our Lady of Fatima -- one Temporal (which the 2nd part of the Secret of Fatima deals with) and one Spiritual. This spiritual chastisement is the subject of the 3rd part of the Secret of Fatima. Please see #9, #10, #22-24, #26-28 above.

The 3rd Secret deals with Apostasy in the Church. (See #22, #27-28, #34, and #36)

The Holy Father bears the responsibility for the chastisements foretold in the 2nd part of the Secret of Fatima, and he bears the responsibility for the chastisements predicted in the 3rd part as well. In other words, by the Pope's actions or inactions, the Apostasy in the Church commences. Thus, the Pope causes the Apostasy in the Church. (See Father Alonso's statements in #23 above, and especially what Frere Michel has to say in #28. I need not elaborate on what they have to say about this, but I need only to make the explicit statement concerning the Holy Father's role.)

The length of the text in the 3rd part of the Secret is the same as the length of the text in the 2nd part of the Secret.. (#12) Knowing the size of the 3rd part of the Secret gives us a good idea as to the structure contained therein. Since we know the structure of the 2nd part in describing the temporal chastisements, the structure of the 3rd part is probably similar since it contains a discussion of a chastisement as well.

And as we know, there is the burden of responsibility on the Holy Father to offset the temporal chastisement described in the 2nd. There is also the description of the chastisement in the 3rd if the Holy Father does not fulfill the requests of Heaven. Then there is the solution to the temporal chastisement in the 2nd part, also involving the Holy Father. With the 3rd part, it would be essentially the same, except for the fact that the chastisement is of the spiritual order. The detail and concreteness of events in the 3rd part would also be the same as what is found in the second. The following graphic will help illustrate these points.