Feast of Our Lady of Fatima – 13 May …
“I was a youth in 1960, but I clearly remember waiting with anticipation in 1960 for the Fatima secret to be revealed. Interest in Fatima was very strong then, the devotion was flourishing, and my parents – like so many others – were anxiously waiting for the Pope to open the sealed letter and reveal to the world the message, according to the express desire of Our Lady related by Sister Lucia.” (Marian T. Horvat)
Editor writes…
The above quote from Martian T. Horvat caught my attention just days after I had been telling some young relatives that I could remember a conversation from 1960 when I was 12 years of age, walking to school. A group of us we speaking about the fact that this was the year when the Third Secret was to be revealed. We shared our parents’ opinions, some worrying that war would be foretold, and other such disasters. There was no-one – not one – who suspected that the Third Secret more likely than not, was a warning against modernism and its undue influence within the Church – in other words none of us guessed that Our Lady had come with a message from God to warn us against changing the Church. To quote Pope Pius XII: “I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a Divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul. I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the true Faith of the Church, reject Her ornaments and make Her feel remorse for Her historical past.”
Far from revealing that part of the Fatima Message known as the Third Secret, it became clear that, if the Vatican authorities had their way, the “Secret” would never be divulged. Your thoughts – but for those who are not familiar with the Fatima apparitions, first watch this excellent video…
Comments (30)
N O T I C E…
I have been asked to post the following advertisement.
Public Rosary in honour of Our Lady of Fatima will be on Saturday 13th May 2023 at 2pm opposite St Andrew’s Cathedral, 196 Clyde Street, Glasgow G1 4JY This will also incorporate special visit to Glasgow of the Pilgrim Statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary organised by UKPrays.org
Any further information can be obtained by calling 01412589284. Ends.
I encourage all who can manage to attend, to support this initiative…
I used to be well up on Fatima vis-à-vis what happened to the Secret once it arrived in the Vatican. Suffice to say that I do not have all the details to hand as I write, but my extensive reading after the Vatican published the Secret in 2000 led me to believe that something was missing. I remember thinking at the time that, if that’s all there is to it, the Secret could well have been published in 1960, or indeed at any time.
My problem is with what I call, borrowing from legal jargon, the chain of custody. When Paul VI was elected Pope and wanted to know about the Secret, Mgr. Loris Capovilla, John XXIII’s private secretary, had to be called to find out where it was, and he duly indicated a desk in the papal apartment. (Pius XII had kept it in a box in his bedroom.)
As I understand it, the Secret was put to paper in such a way that an eventual prophesy regarding the Church, for which we have strong evidence (Cardinal Ciappi, etc.), could have been subtracted without obvious damage to would have been left of the manuscript, i.e. the ‘perpetrator(s)’ would not have to tear a page out or tear a page in half, just remove one or more of several pages not joined together.
I believe this is what happened; when, I don’t know. I am convinced, however, that John XXIII had access to the complete Secret and did not like what he read because it did not fit in with his vision—patently wrong and childishly naive—of a bright future for the Church, if only she could explain herself better to the world.
Cutting to the chase, in the light of all we know now about the destruction of the Church following Vatican II—which is essentially, and continues to be, a destruction from within—do we really think that the men behind this would have hesitated to interfere with the written account of a divine prophesy?
No, I don’t, either.
Re-reading my original post, I see that I have inadvertently mis-spelled Cardinal Ciappi’s name. Ciappi, not Chiappi.
Corrected in your post now – worry not about typos, as I do try to catch and correct them.
Leitourgos,
You can read the whole history of the Third Secret still hidden by Christopher Ferrara at the Fatima Center here https://fatima.org/books/the-secret-still-hidden/
It is so obvious that the hidden part is about what is happening in the Church. As you say, and it’s laughable, Our Lady wasn’t “on message” about the wonderful springtime that would take place in the Church after Vatican II. She got it wrong, LOL!
I think we can all see now, how right she got it!
Leitourgos,
I’ve found Christopher Ferrara on video speaking about the Third Secret (I see Nicky has posted Ferarra’s excellent book on the subject). I haven’t watched this video myself, yet, but I expect it will be very helpful…
Happy Feast!
I remember speaking about the Third Secret being revealed in 1960. We were all aware of it and keen to know what it was. Little did we guess.
Happy Feast Day everyone. I wish I could go to the rosary today, but I can’t. It is really a very important apparition.I pray for the Consecration of Russia every day,
Me, too It’s a lovely day and Feast for a public rosary.
Happy Feast Day everyone. I plan to go to the public rosary, and it looks like it will be a lovely day too! I’m re-reading the Whole Truth About Fatima by Frere Michel De La Sainte Trinite, The importance for the Consecration of Russia and Devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart (First Five Saturdays) is crucial for all our future.
Happy Feast Day. The Whole Truth About Fatima by Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite is crucial reading, but sadly out of print now and second hand copies are often expensive, but it is free online here: https://fatima.machado-family.com/ This same site advertises a fourth book called Fatima, The Pope and America by Joao H Machado, but you have to buy this online. I haven’t read it so can’t give any opinion either way, but the Frere Michel trilogy is masterly.
Unfortunately, instead of concentrating on securing the release of the full Third Secret from the Vatican, the internet is awash with various alleged ‘seers’ and booksellers revealing alleged ‘genuine Third Secrets’ (which always differ in content) and then there is the ridiculous ‘Two Sister Lucys’ conspiracy theory. I beg everyone not to go down these rabbit holes and to stick to getting the Vatican to release the WORDS of Our Lady in the Third Secret, not just the Vision.
WF,
Frere Michel is “the” classic work on Fatima. It’s fantastic.
Happy Feast.
Westminsterfly,
If my theory is correct, the Vatican may not, and I would maintain very probably does not, know that there is any more to the Third Secret than what was published in 2000. My guess is that the prophesy regarding the Church was subtracted from the rest of the Secret between the death of John XXIII and the Pontificate of Paul VI, and has probably been destroyed.
Leitourgos,
That is a theory which I have never heard posited before – ever – by any of the reliable Fatima experts. I think there must be some safeguard against plundering Vatican archives and destroying originals of what doesn’t suit the current narrative.
Leitourgos,
Also, although it is not public revelation in the strict sense of the word, do you think the Holy Ghost and Our Lady would permit that to happen? Truth will out. It always does. I have heard it said that the piece in the biography of Sr Lucia ‘A Pathway under the Gaze of Mary’ published by the nuns at Coimbra, reveals a passage written by Sr Lucia never previously revealed by anyone before. Some have linked this to the Third Secret, although I am not personally making that link, but it obviously means something – if only of a temporal chastisement, not the spiritual one, and it heralds the renewal of the Church ‘in time’ – not in eternity:- “I felt my spirit flooded by a mystery of light that is God, and in Him saw and heard: The tip of the spear as a flame unlatches and touches the axis of the earth. It shudders. Mountains, cities, towns, and villages with their inhabitants are buried. The sea, the rivers, and the clouds emerge from their limits, overflowing and bringing with them in a whirlwind houses and people in numbers that are not possible to count. It is the purification of the world as it plunges into sin. Hatred and ambition cause the destructive war. Then I felt the rapid beating of my heart, and in my mind the echo of a gentle voice saying: ‘In time, one faith, one baptism, one church, holy, catholic and apostolic. In eternity, heaven.’ This word heaven filled my soul with peace and happiness, so that almost without realising it, I was repeating for a long time: ‘Heaven, heaven’. As soon as the full force of the supernatural passed, I wrote without difficulty on Jan 3, 1944, on my knees, resting on the bed that served me as a table”.
Westminsterfly,
I am very sorry, but having read the book by Antonio Socci, ‘The Fourth Secret of Fatima’, published in English in 2009 by Loreto Publications, I withdraw unreservedly my previous posts on this thread. I was on the right track, as it turns out, but things are a lot more complicated than I thought.
This book recounts a meeting and a correspondence between a young Italian scholar of Fatima and the then Archbishop Loris Capovilla, private secretary to John XXIII.
The ‘complete’ publication of the Third Secret by the Vatican in 2000, implies that Paul VI read the Third Secret in the presence of Archbishop Angelo dell’Acqua, Substitute of the Secretariat of State, on 27 March 1965, deciding not to publish it and sending it for safekeeping to the Archive of the then Holy Office. But Capovilla’s own personal notes, given to the young scholar, state that Paul VI read the Secret on the afternoon of Thursday, 27 June 1963.
Is this a simple discrepancy? Apparently not. Capovilla would have subsequently implied to this young scholar the existence of two versions of the Secret, one of which was published in 2000.
Socci’s book is a must-read and is still available second hand.
Hi Leitourgos,
I’ve got the Socci book, but another point which indicates that the unreleased part of the Third Secret wasn’t destroyed, is that Pope John Paul II obliquely referred to it in a talk he gave in Fulda, Germany in 1980. Interestingly enough, what he said chimes in very much with what Sr Lucia wrote, published in ‘A Pathway under the Gaze of Mary’ (see above). The Pope was asked, “What about the Third Secret of Fatima? Should it not have already been published by 1960?”
Pope John Paul II replied: “Given the seriousness of the contents, my predecessors in the Petrine office diplomatically preferred to postpone publication so as not to encourage the world power of Communism to make certain moves.
“On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired.”
The Pope continued: “Many wish to know simply from curiosity and a taste for the sensational, but they forget that knowledge also implies responsibility. They only seek the satisfaction of their curiosity, and that is dangerous if at the same time they are not disposed to do something, and if they are convinced that it is impossible to do anything against evil.”
At this point the Pope grasped a Rosary and said: “Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray, and ask for nothing more. Leave everything else to the Mother of God.”
The Holy Father was then asked: “What is going to happen to the Church?”
He answered: “We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ… With your and my prayer it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary.” https://fatima.org/pope-john-paul-ii-in-fulda-germany-1980/
Westminsterfly, Editor,
I think that probably the most enduring fruit of the Newsletter/Bog for me is going to be my conversion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart and to the Fatima message. I have bits and pieces on Fatima in my library, but I am resolved to put them all together, so to speak and start again from first principles.
I fear I have been very wrong on this matter, as I have been about the liturgy. (The two are very strongly connected.)
I will say more about this on the thread concerning future threads until the closure of the Blog.
Hi Leitourgos,
I think the best way to start is to read (or re-read) the trilogy by Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite – The Whole Truth About Fatima – now only available online: https://fatima.machado-family.com/ This same site advertises a fourth book called Fatima, The Pope and America by Joao H Machado, but you have to buy this online. I haven’t read it so can’t give any opinion either way, but I think the Frere Michel trilogy is a necessity for anyone wanting a full understanding of the Fatima message. There was a fourth book which claimed to be the successor to the trilogy, but it wasn’t – it wasn’t even written by Frere Michel, and it was rubbish, so I won’t even name it. The cover was made to look like the Frere Michel trilogy and at the time, it fooled a lot of people. After Frere Michel’s books, the only other source of reliable information is the Fatima Centre books: ‘The Devil’s Final Battle’ ‘Fatima Priest’ and the books by Christopher Ferrara ‘The Secret Still Hidden’ and ‘False Friends of Fatima’. Also, Antonio Socci’s book ‘The Fourth Secret of Fatima’ and Fr Gruner’s ‘Crucial Truths to Save your Soul’.
Also, Sister Lucia’s memoirs (Volumes I and II) and writings (Calls from the Message of Fatima) are very good, but sadly, they often come with a foreword written by someone else saying that the Consecration of Russia was done in 1984 and the Third Secret fully released in 2000, but otherwise Sr Lucia’s writings are worth reading. That should keep you busy for quite a while!
Happy Feast everyone!
I’ve just added my favourite video to the introduction – it’s the only video I know which gives the entire history of the apparitions accurately and in a concise easy to understand manner. Here it is again, to make sure nobody misses it if you’ve already read the introduction…
Happy Feast Day All. Yes I to believe that the Secret was about the Modernists and Heretics. I listened and watched a You Tube Blog on The Coptic Catholics and their reference to Almighty God. As the Pope is now visiting them maybe they can give him a lesson on Tradition . What they do in regards the Eucharist would put us to shame. Especially now of the Vatican rulings regards the same.
Editor,
I absolutely love that video. I have watched it lots of times since I first came across it on this blog. It is easily the best out there. It doesn’t make the classic mistake of going along with the lies that the Consecration has been done and the Third Secret revealed. It really should be spread far and wide and anyone seeing the state of the world and the Church right now who doesn’t pay attention to it, deserves all that is coming to them.
Marvellous video. It is crystal clear that Fatima is coming true before our very eyes if only most people were not so blinded by materialism. God help them at their judgment time if they continue to ignore these prophecies. God will not be mocked, as the saying goes.
Please pray for my friend up north – Paul – for whom I’ve asked prayers several times.
He is now very poorly – hasn’t eaten since last Sunday and may have to go into hospital for tube-feeding.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for him. Paul has been devoted to Fatima for years now, always keen to know everything possible about the apparitions.
Our Lady of Lourdes, Health of the Sick, pray for him!
Praying for Paul.
Prayers assured for Paul
Happy Feast Day everyone.
Editor
I will certainly pray for Paul, whose condition I have known about for some time. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for him and his family.
Thanks for that, Athanasius – I know Paul and his family will be pleased and thank to everyone who has promised prayers for this lovely man, a long-time supporter of Catholic Truth.
I will remember Paul in my prayers, today. May he get well soon.
My prayers for Paul – he must be extremely weak after a whole week without food, God help him.