The Third Secret
The third secret, a vision of the death of the Pope and
other religious figures, was transcribed by the Bishop of
Leiria and reads:
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"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, Religious men and women 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, Religious men and women, 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."
Controversy around the Third Secret
The Vatican withheld the third secret until June 26, 2000 – despite
Lúcia's declaration that it could be released to the
public after 1960. Several sources, including Canon Barthas
and Cardinal Ottaviani, said that Sr. Lúcia insisted
to them it must be released by 1960, saying, "by that time,
it will be more clearly understood." When 1960 passed without
any such announcement, immense speculation over the content
of the secret materialized.
Some sources claim that the third part of the secret revealed
in the year 2000 was not the real secret, or at least not the
full secret. This was long suspected because it was known that
the third part of the Secret began with the words, "In Portugal,
the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc." Sister
Lúcia revealed this in her Fourth Memoir. These words
and even this theme were not reflected by the version released
by the Vatican on June 26, 2000.
Another argument for this revolved around the decision to
release the secret much later than when specified by Sister
Lúcia. It was thought that the secret might contain
condemnatory remarks about the last pope (who obviously would
not have wanted to release it), or that it might contain inflammatory
remarks about Russia. Instead, the third part of the secret
as revealed was by far the most unspecific and ambiguous part
(compared to earlier parts which said that if unconsecrated, "Russia
will spread its errors around the world").
On November 11, 1984, as reported in the Pauline Catholic
magazine Jesus, Cardinal Ratzinger stated that he
had "read the text of the Third Secret." When asked why he
had not revealed it, he replied:
-
"Because, according to the judgment of the Popes, it
adds nothing to what a Christian must know concerning what
derives from Revelation: i.e., a radical call for conversion;
the absolute importance of history; the dangers threatening
the faith and the life of the Christian, and therefore
of the world. And then the importance of the end times.
If it is not made public - at least for the time being
- it is in order to prevent religious prophecy from being
mistaken for a quest for the sensational."
This followed the report in the October 1981 issue of the
German Catholic magazine Stimme des Glaubens of a
discussion at Fulda in November 1980 when Pope John Paul II
had stated to a select group of German Catholics, in response
to the question why he had not revealed the Third Secret of
Fatima, "If you read that the oceans will inundate continents,
and millions of people will die suddenly in a few minutes,
once this is known, then in reality it is not necessary to
insist on the publication of this Secret."
However, in another interview, Pope John Paul II indicated
that the entire secret of Fatima could be summarized in the
idea that prayer, especially the Rosary, is the remedy against
all manner of evil.
On November 15, 1966 Pope Paul VI revised the Code of Canon
Law, striking down canons 1399 and 2318, which among other
things had prohibited and penalized the publication of any
material concerning any apparitions (approved or not) without
beforehand obtaining a bishop’s imprimatur. After the
revision, therefore, anyone in the Church was permitted to
publish freely on Marian apparitions, including those at Fatima.
Yet Sister Lúcia was still forbidden to reveal the Fatima
Secret. She remained under an order of silence until her death
in February 2005, unable to speak freely about Fatima without
special permission from the Vatican. |