Fatima secret: secret no more.

Files from Rome

Vatican City - The so-called third secret of Fatima is a symbolic prophecy of the Church's 20th-century struggles with evil political systems and of its ultimate triumph, said Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on June 26.

The vision, he writes, describes the path of the Church through the 20th century as a Way of the Cross, "a journey through a time of violence, destruction, and persecution".

The cardinal said he believed the particular period of struggle described by the vision, culminating in the attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II, has ended, therefore making it appropriate to reveal the secret's contents.

Sister Lucia, he wrote, said the Vatican's "interpretation corresponded to what she had experienced and that, on her part, she thought the interpretation correct".

Archbishop Bertone

Before revealing the secret on June 26, Pope John Paul had sent Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of the doctrinal congregation, to Portugal to review the Vatican interpretation with Sister Lucia.

The archbishop said he felt he had to ask Sister Lucia why she had given instructions that the secret should not be revealed before 1960, an instruction many people had come to believe was an order from Mary herself that it be published that year.

Archbishop Bertone asked Sister Lucia if Mary had fixed the date. Sister Lucia replied: "It was not Our Lady. I fixed the date because I had the intuition that before 1960 it would not be understood".

Sister Lucia also told the archbishop that while she had been given the vision, it was up to the Pope to interpret it.

The present Pope, who was elected in 1978, first read the contents of the wax-sealed envelope in May 1981 while in Rome's Gemelli Hospital recovering from an attack on his life. This fact deflated the Fatima myth that during a semi-private meeting in Fulda, Germany, in November 1980, Pope John Paul had referred to the Fatima secret and its supposedly apocalyptic, end-of-the-world vision.

Cardinal Ratzinger said the story "really was apocryphal; it never happened".

He pointed out that the language of the vision is symbolic and, like biblical prophecy, it does not predict the future, but warns what the future may hold if people do not convert and pray.

Of course, the cardinal said, the Church has experienced martyrdom throughout its history, but the Fatima vision "speaks of a very specific situation of violence, persecution, and the destruction of cities," which fitted the 20th century's two world wars, Nazism, communism, and other forms of totalitarianism which oppressed the Church.

Not to be imposed

Also at the June 26 Vatican press conference, Cardinal Ratzinger said "that there does not exist an official definition or official interpretation of this vision on the part of the Church."

Like any private revelation approved by the Church, the cardinal said, the Fatima message "is a help which is offered" to Catholics for living their faith, "but which one is not obliged to use."

"Naturally," he said, there is "a margin of error" when interpreting visions, which is one reason why "the Church is not imposing an interpreta

The full text of the third secret and the doctrinal congregation's commentary is at the following address on the Vatican's web site: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_c on_cfaith_doc_20000626_messagefatima_en.html.

Text of secrets

The first and second parts of the "secret" of Fatima were written down by Sister Lucia on August 31, 1941, and addressed to the Bishop of Fatima. They are as follows:

Part one and two: the vision of hell and the prophesy.

Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amidshrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made ustremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven? Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror. We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so sadly: (part two)

"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. 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. When you see a night illumined 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 persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In th e end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world".

Part three

The third part of the "secret" was written down at the request of the bishop of Fatima after Sister Lucia experienced a serious illness. The date was January 3, 1944.

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 splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'.

"And we saw in an immense light, that is God, something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it, a Bishop dressed in white. We had the impression that it was the Holy Father.

"Other bishops, priests, men and women Religious, were 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".

Some further points:

The third secret was placed in a sealed evelope on which Sister Lucia wrote: "Not to be opened before 1960." It was held in the custody of the Bishop of Fatima for a while until it was sent to the Secret Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF, formerly "Holy Office") on April 4, 1957.

Pope John XXIII opened the envelope on 17, 1959 and, after prayer and meditation, decided against revealing the secret.

Subsequently, Pope Paul VI read the contents together with the substitute Secretary of State, Archbishop Angelo Dell'acqua, on March 27, 1965, and he also decided not to publish it.

Pope John Paul II read the 'secret' in hospital shortly after the attempted assassination of May 13, 1981. He then decided to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He composed an "Act of Entrustment" which was celebrated in the Basilica of St. Mary Major on June 7, 1981. This was repeated in Fatima during the Pope's visit there, one year after the attack, May 13, 1982.

The Holy Father then decided--"in order to respond more fully to the requests of Our Lady"--to make the Act of Entrustment more explicit during the Holy Year of Redemption, 1984, consecrating the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary together with Catholics around the world. I myself remember reading this Act of Consecration at two Masses at St. Basil's Church, Ottawa, in March 1984.

There are some people such as Father Nicholas Gruner of Fort Erie, ON, who have argued that because there was no specific mention of Russia, this 1984 consecration does not satisfy the wishes of Our Lady of Fatima.

However, in his June 26, 2000 report, Archbishop Bertone notes that he asked Sister Lucia about this and that in response, she "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" (emphasis is ours).

During the June 26 press conference Cardinal Ratzinger was asked about Father Gruner and he responded by saying that he hoped Father Gruner would now understand that no further action is required.

The Vatican's interpretation Penance is the key to the "secret"

The most important part of the theological commentary written by Cardinal Josef Ratzinger is dedicated to "an attempt to interpret the 'secret' of Fatima."

In the same way as the keyword of the first and second part of the 'secret' is to 'save souls,' the keyword of this third part is the threefold cry: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!', says the Cardinal.

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, of conversion, of faith. This is the correct response to this moment of history, characterized by the grave perils outlined in the images that follow.

The prefect of the CDF 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 judgement 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".

Freedom

"The vision then shows the power which stands opposed to the force of destruction, 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."

Place of action

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: 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."

Via crucis (way of the cross)

At this point human persons appear: the Bishop dressed in white (We had the impression that it was the Holy Father, said Sister Lucia of herself and her two cousins), 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."

Role of popes

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."

Images

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 signpost for man in his 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."

Overall meaning

"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 that '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.

Triumph of the Immaculate Heart

"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 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."

Consecration of Third millennium to Immaculate Heart

According to the official program of the Jubilee year celebrations, a solemn act of Consecration of the Third Millennium to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is scheduled to take place on October 8. Pope John Paul II will preside over the act, in company of Bishops from all over the world present in Rome for the Jubilee of Bishops. The image of the Virgin of Fatima will be specially taken to the Eternal City for this occasion.

First Saturdays devotions

In making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, she instructed us thus:

I promise to help at the hour of death, with the graces needed for salvation, whoever on the first Saturday of five consecutive months shall:

l)Confess and receive Holy Communion.

2)Recite five decades of the rosary

3)Keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the rosary with intention of making reparation.