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Fátima the "third secret" revealed Some Background
In 1930, after a seven-year study, the bishop of Leiria proclaimed the legitimacy of the apparitions and authorized the cult of Our Lady of Fátima. Subsequently, Jacinta provided two important accounts of the apparitions in 1935-37 and 1941-42, from with the "Threefold Message of Fátima," namely, the practice of penance, the recitation of the Rosary, and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was made known.
MONDAY, 26 June 2000 - SUMMARY: SPECIAL BULLETIN ON THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA
- PRESENTATION OF TEXT OF THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA - COMPLETE TRANSLATION OF ORIGINAL TEXT - CARDINAL RATZINGER: PENANCE IS THE KEY TO THE "SECRET" Presentation of the text of the third secret of Fátima
"Sr. Lucia," continued the archbishop, "personally confirmed that this solemn and universal act of consecration corresponded to what Our Lady wished. Hence any further discussion or request is without basis." Sr. Lucia had already hinted at the interpretation of the third part of the 'secret' in a letter to the Holy Father dated May 12, 1982. That letter is also published in the document. Finally, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone indicates that "the decision of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to make public the third part of the 'secret' of Fatima brings to an end a period of history marked by tragic human lust for power and evil, yet pervaded by the merciful love of God and the watchful care of the Mother of Jesus and of the Church."
.../MESSAGE FATIMA/BERTONE VIS 20000626 (740) Complete translation of the original text.
"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 splendor 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." .../THIRD SECRET/... VIS 20000626 (380) Cardinal Ratzinger (Now Pope Benedict XVI): Penance is the key to the "secret."
VATICAN CITY, JUN 26, 2000 (VIS) - Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, writes that the "key word" of the third secret of Fatima "is the triple cry, 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'" These words appear in his "theological commentary" published at the end of the document made public today by the Holy See. Cardinal Ratzinger goes on to state that other key words are "my Immaculate heart will triumph," and "the Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The 'fiat' of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world."
The theological commentary of the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is divided into three parts: "Public Revelation and private revelations - their theological status"; "The anthropological structure of private revelations" and "An attempt to interpret the 'secret' of Fatima".
"The term 'public Revelation' refers to the revealing action of God directed to humanity as a whole and which finds its literary expression in the two parts of the Bible: the Old and New Testaments. It is called 'Revelation' because in it God gradually made himself known to men, to the point of becoming man himself, in order to draw to himself the whole world and unite it with himself through his Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. ... In Christ, God has said everything, that is, he has revealed himself completely, and therefore Revelation came to an end with the fulfillment of the mystery of Christ as enunciated in the New Testament."
'Private revelation,' on the other hand, "refers to all the visions and revelations which have taken place since the completion of the New Testament. This is the category to which we must assign the message of Fatima. ... The authority of private revelations is essentially different from that of the definitive public Revelation. The latter demands faith." Private revelation, on the other hand, "is a help to this faith, and shows its credibility precisely by leading (one) back to the definitive public Revelation."
Quoting the Flemish theologian E. Dhanis, Cardinal Ratzinger affirms that "ecclesiastical approval of a private revelation has three elements: the message contains nothing contrary to faith or morals; it is lawful to make it public; and the faithful are authorized to accept it with prudence. Such a message can be a genuine help in understanding the Gospel and living it better at a particular moment in time; therefore it should not be disregarded. It is a help which is offered, but which one is not obliged to use."
Cardinal Ratzinger also highlights that "prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean to predict the future but to explain the will of God for the present, and therefore show the right path to take for the future." The most important part of the theological commentary is dedicated to: "An attempt to interpret the 'secret' of Fatima." In the same way as the key word of the first and second part of the 'secret' is to 'save souls,' "the key word of this third part is the threefold cry: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!' The beginning of the Gospel comes to mind: 'Repent and believe the Good News.' To understand the signs of the times means to accept the urgency of penance B of conversion B of faith. This is the correct response to this moment of history, characterized by the grave perils outlined in the images that follow. Allow me to add here a personal recollection: in a conversation with me Sister Lucia said that it appeared ever more clearly to her that the purpose of all the apparitions was to help people to grow more and more in faith, hope and love, C everything else was intended to lead to this."
The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith then considers the "images" of the secret: "The angel with the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the threat of judgment which looms over the world. Today the prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his inventions, has forged the flaming sword. "The vision then shows the power which stands opposed to the force of destruction C the splendor of the Mother of God and, stemming from this in a certain way, the summons to penance. In this way, the importance of human freedom is underlined: the future is not in fact unchangeably set, and the image which the children saw is in no way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed. Indeed, the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction. ... Its meaning is to mobilize the forces of change in the right direction. Therefore we must totally discount fatalistic explanations of the 'secret,' such as, for example, the claim that the would-be assassin of May 13 1981 was merely an instrument of the divine plan guided by Providence. ... Rather, the vision speaks of dangers and how we might be saved from them."
Cardinal Ratzinger explains that "the place of the action is described in three symbols: a steep mountain, a great city reduced to ruins and finally a large rough-hewn cross. The mountain and city symbolize the arena of human history: history as an arduous ascent to the summit, history as the arena of human creativity and social harmony, but at the same time a place of destruction, where man actually destroys the fruits of his own work. ... On the mountain stands the cross C the goal and guide of history. The cross transforms destruction into salvation; it stands as a sign of history's misery but also as a promise for history.
"At this point human persons appear: the Bishop dressed in white ('we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'), other Bishops, priests, men and women Religious, and men and women of different ranks and social positions. The Pope seems to precede the others, trembling and suffering because of all the horrors around him. Not only do the houses of the city lie half in ruins, but he makes his way among the corpses of the dead. The Church's path is thus described as a 'Via Crucis,' as a journey through a time of violence, destruction and persecution. The history of an entire century can be seen represented in this image. Just as the places of the earth are synthetically described in the two images of the mountain and the city, and are directed towards the cross, so too time is presented in a compressed way.
"In the vision we can recognize the last century as a century of martyrs, a century of suffering and persecution for the Church, a century of World Wars and the many local wars which filled the last fifty years and have inflicted unprecedented forms of cruelty. In the 'mirror' of this vision we see passing before us the witnesses of the faith decade by decade." The cardinal also states that "in the Via Crucis of an entire century, the figure of the Pope has a special role. In his arduous ascent of the mountain we can undoubtedly see a convergence of different Popes.
Beginning from Pius X up to the present Pope, they all shared the sufferings of the century and strove to go forward through all the anguish along the path which leads to the Cross. In the vision, the Pope too is killed along with the martyrs. When, after the attempted assassination on 13 May 1981, the Holy Father had the text of the third part of the 'secret' brought to him, was it not inevitable that he should see in it his own fate? He had been very close to death, and he himself explained his survival in the following words: '... it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death' (May 13 1994). That here 'a mother's hand' had deflected the fateful bullet only shows once more that there is no immutable destiny, that faith and prayer are forces which can influence history and that in the end prayer is more powerful than bullets and faith more powerful than armies."
The conclusion of the secret, continues the cardinal, "uses images which Lucia may have seen in devotional books and which draw their inspiration from long-standing intuitions of faith. It is a consoling vision, which seeks to open a history of blood and tears to the healing power of God. Beneath the arms of the cross angels gather up the blood of the martyrs, and with it they give life to the souls making their way to God. Here, the blood of Christ and the blood of the martyrs are considered as one: the blood of the martyrs runs down from the arms of the cross. The martyrs die in communion with the Passion of Christ, and their death becomes one with his."
"The vision of the third part of the 'secret', so distressing at first, concludes with an image of hope: no suffering is in vain, and it is a suffering Church, a Church of martyrs, which becomes a sign-post for man in his search for God. ... From the suffering of the witnesses there comes a purifying and renewing power, because their suffering is the actualization of the suffering of Christ himself and a communication in the here and now of its saving effect."
"What is the meaning of the 'secret' of Fatima as a whole (in its three parts)?" asks the Cardinal: "First of all we must affirm with Cardinal Sodano: '... the events to which the third part of the 'secret' of Fatima refers now seem part of the past.' Insofar as individual events are described, they belong to the past. Those who expected exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or the future course of history are bound to be disappointed. Fatima does not satisfy our curiosity in this way, just as Christian faith in general cannot be reduced to an object of mere curiosity. What remains was already evident when we began our reflections on the text of the 'secret': the exhortation to prayer as the path of 'salvation for souls' and, likewise, the summons to penance and conversion.
"I would like finally to mention another key expression of the 'secret' which has become justly famous: 'my Immaculate Heart will triumph.' What does this mean? The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The 'fiat' of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Saviour into the world C because, thanks to her 'Yes,' God could become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away from God.
"But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this: 'In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world.' The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise." .../FATIMA MESSAGE/RATZINGER VIS 20000626 (1940)
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Fátima
is a small town in Portugal associated with one of the most
important Marian shrines. On 13 May 1917, three illiterate
children, Lucia dos Santos and her two cousins, Francisco and
Jacinta, claimed to have seen a vision of a woman standing on a
cloud in an evergreen tree near the Cove de Iria. In a
conversation heard only by Lucia and Jacinta, the woman asked
the children to return to the site on the thirteenth of each
month until October. Despite local resistance and an effort to
refute the testimony of the children, the popularity of the
apparitions grew, so that by October fifty thousand pilgrims
assembled with the children at the Cova de Iria. Although many
claimed to have witnessed a "miracle of the sun," the woman was
visible only to the children. She identified herself as "Our
Lady of the Rosary," and asked the children to recite the Rosary
daily, proclaim the need for moral conversion, and erect a
chapel in her honor.
Although
approved by the Church, the events surrounding Fátima are
private revelations. Catholics are not required to give assent
to the apparitions themselves or to the revelations disclosed at
Fátima. Details of this are included in Cardinal Ratzinger's
words which follow. The text of the third "secret" of Fátima
was not revealed until 26 June 2000. There has been speculation
by some that it would include specific details about the end of
the world. The Vatican has been accused of hiding or holding on
to the secret, and even not consecrating Russia to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in the proper way. Cardinal Ratzinger
deals with these issues in his words as well. The revelation of
the "third secret" has been called for by many who at times
speculate on what they expect to be a spectacular new
revelation. Accusations have been leveled against the Church
over the years, including a suspicion that Sister Lucia had been
silenced. We present these recent words from the Vatican as a
means for us to understand private revelations more clearly, and
to temper some of the apprehension and misunderstanding
surrounding Fátima, and in particular the "third secret." Pope
John Paul II visited Fatima in May of 2000 for the Beatification
of Francisco and Jacinta. Fátima statues have visited many
Churches, including ours. They have helped us pray and learn
and to draw closer to Jesus. Many of us wear blessed medals
too, bearing the image of Our Lady of Fátima.
VATICAN
CITY, JUN 26, 2000 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press
Office, the document "The Message Of Fatima" was presented. It
has been prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith and carries the signatures of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., respectively prefect and
secretary of the congregation. The document, which is over 40
pages long, has been published in English, French, Italian,
Spanish, German, Portuguese and Polish. It is made up of an
introduction by Archbishop Bertone; the first and second parts
of the "secret" of Fatima in Sr. Lucia's original text dated
August 31, 1941 and addressed to the bishop of Leiria-Fatima,
and a translation; the photostatic reproduction of the original
manuscript of the third part of the "secret" and a translation;
John Paul II's letter to Sr. Lucia dated April 19, 2000, and a
translation; a summary of Sr. Lucia's conversation with
Archbishop Bertone and Bishop Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva
of Leiria-Fatima which took place on April 27, 2000, in the
Carmel Monastery of St. Teresa of Coimbra, Portugal; the words
of Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano at the end of the
beatification of Jacinta and Francisco on May 13, 2000; a
theological commentary by Cardinal Ratzinger. In his
introduction, Archbishop Bertone affirms that "Fatima is
undoubtedly the most prophetic of modern apparitions. ... In
1917 no one could have imagined all this: the three 'pastorinhos'
of Fatima see, listen and remember, and Lucia, the surviving
witness, commits it all to paper when ordered to do so by the
Bishop of Leiria and with Our Lady's permission."
He
continues: "The third part of the "secret" was written ... on
January 3, 1944. There is only one manuscript, which is here
reproduced photostatically. The sealed envelope was initially in
the custody of the Bishop of Leiria. To ensure better protection
for the 'secret' the envelope was placed in the secret archives
of the Holy Office on April 4, 1957. The Bishop of Leiria
informed Sr. Lucia of this." The secretary of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith indicates that "according to the
records of the Archives, the Commissary of the Holy Office, Fr.
Pierre Paul Philippe O.P., with the agreement of Cardinal
Alfredo Ottaviani, brought the envelope containing the third
part of the 'secret of Fatima' to Pope John XXIII on August 17,
1959. 'After some hesitation,' His Holiness said: 'We shall
wait. I shall pray. I shall let you know what I decide.' In fact
Pope John XXIII decided to return the sealed envelope to the
Holy Office and not to reveal the third part of the 'secret.'
Paul VI read the contents with the Substitute, Archbishop Angelo
Dell'Acqua, on March 27, 1965 and returned the envelope to the
Archives of the Holy Office, deciding not to publish the text.
John Paul II, for his part, asked for the envelope containing
the third part of the 'secret' following the assassination
attempt on May 13, 1981," and this was given to Archbishop
Eduardo Martinez Somalo, Substitute of the Secretariat of State,
on July 18 of the same year. On August 11 it was returned to the
Archives of the Holy Office.
"As
is well known," added Archbishop Bertone, "Pope John Paul II
immediately thought of consecrating the world to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary and he himself composed a prayer for what he
called an 'Act of Entrustment' which was to be celebrated in the
Basilica of St. Mary Major on June 7 1981." "In order to respond
more fully to the requests of 'Our Lady,' the Holy Father
desired to make more explicit during the Holy Year of the
Redemption the Act of Entrustment of June 7, 1981, which had
been repeated in Fatima on May 13, 1982."
VATICAN
CITY, JUN 26, 2000 (VIS) - Given below is the complete
translation of the original Portuguese text of the third part of
the secret of Fatima, revealed to the three shepherd children at
Cova da Iria-Fatima on July 13, 1917, and committed to paper by
Sr. Lucia on January 3, 1944: