Fatima
in Twilight
by
Bernadette Vesco
Editor’s Note: Catholic Family News is proud to
announce its first publication under its publishing arm, Marmion Publications. Fatima
in Twilight by Mark Fellows is one of the finest books written on
The period of peace promised by Our Lady of Fatima
seems so far from us at present. Every day we hear of new horrors arising,
threatening to provoke more wars, spill more blood, anguish more families. The
only peace we have ever known is that silence that exists between periods of
conflict; that profound silence of the world holding its breath while waiting
for the next blow. It is difficult to imagine existing otherwise, such
degeneracy has become an acquired part of our consciousness, of our
understanding of life itself. After all, isn’t suffering our punishment for the
fall of our first parents?
Yet what if we were offered a chance at a true peace?
What if we were given a definitive remedy to the degradations of our present
state? Certainly, we have heard the pleas for peace so often that we have
become deaf to the true meaning of the word. Peace. It is a sign we make with
our fingers. It is a symbol we draw. It is a word we use thoughtlessly to calm
irritated people. The meaning has become so debased that we no longer hold any
appreciation for it in its true form. We no longer hear it and recognize that
its potential lies not in democracy, or universal brotherhood, or the United
Nations, but in God.
The 20th Century was both cursed and blessed: cursed
with unending revolution, conflict and war; blessed with a remedy. The blessing
came in the form of a promise made by the Mother of God Herself, who in 1917
appeared to three shepherd children in
The Fatima Message was sealed by an irrefutable
miracle witnessed by believers and nonbelievers alike. In 1929 in
Thus the Consecration of Russia is the act of homage
upon which our fates lie. It was asked for in 1929, and now, seventy-four years
later it remains to be done. Surely the world has been realizing the
consequences of both our sins against the Immaculate Heart and the refusal of a
line of Popes to make the consecration. How have the effects shown themselves?
If one looks at the major events of the world and the Church since
Though Fatima Revisionists contend that the
consecration of
The book begins with an account of the
“Conversion,
penance, sacrifice and reparation for sinners, the mercy and exhausted patience
of God, the prominence of the Queen of Heaven in the designs of Heaven and man,
the threat of eternal damnation of millions of souls, the lifeline of the
Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart, all these sober, serious themes
punctuated by unexplained phenomena and climaxed with a stupendous, undeniable
miracle that is a fact of history attested to by thousands of eyewitnesses,
believers and atheists, at Fatima and as far as 30 miles away. Heaven had
visited earth and delivered an unmistakably ominous warning to three rustic
peasant children on a Portuguese hillside near the beginning of the most
enlightened, godless, murderous and bloodstained century in human civilization.
Was anyone listening?” (p. 28)
Fatima in Twilight also familiarizes
us with the protagonists of Fatima, whom we come to love and appreciate
acutely. Francisco’s quiet piety and desire to console the wounded hearts of
Jesus and Mary humbles us. Jacinta’s ardent love of souls encourages us. Lucy’s
strength in the face of persecution and suffering fortifies us. In the space of
a few chapters, Fellows succeeds in bringing us to a much more intimate
understanding of the worth of these three pious young shepherds.
Though
What exactly are
“The poor wretches
the Bolsheviks expressed such empathy for, and made so many promises to, fled
from their benefactors by the tens of thousands. Those unfortunate enough to be
captured by the Red Army either killed themselves or were slaughtered by the
army or the Cheka (forerunner of the KGB). In one case fifty to one hundred and
fifty thousand refugees were butchered en masse by the Bolsheviks ... (p. 57) By 1923, it is estimated that 28 bishops, 1,219
priests, 6,000 professors and teachers, 9,000 doctors, 54,000 officers, 260,000
soldiers, 70,000 policemen, 12,950 property owners, 535,250 intellectuals,
193,290 workmen, and 618,000 peasants had been murdered.” (p. 61)
Lenin’s successor, Josef Stalin, continued his murderous campaign. He is
conservatively estimated to have starved close to 15,000,000 peasants between
1929 and 1934.
Not content with the murderous domination of
The book’s treatment of the Spanish Civil War is truly notable, and cites many
individual accounts of the murders committed by the enemy, especially of the
religious, and thereby reveals a chapter of history that has been hidden by the
secular world. In one case, “Bishop Asensio was castrated, hit in the mouth
with a brick (‘Here, take Communion’ he was told), and after somehow surviving
a firing squad was left to die on a pile of corpses. ‘Do what you like,’
Asensio told his torturers, ‘I will pray for you in Heaven.’ (p. 77) Fellows rightly notes that it was only by God’s
blessing of “Catholic Action” through Pope Pius XI that stability was restored
to the two countries, who profited because of their recognition of the
sovereignty of Christ in their governments. Other countries were not so
fortunate however, as Communism was eventually established in Albania, Hungary,
Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany, Manchuria,
Mongolia, North Korea, China and North Vietnam.
While World War I was still raging, Our Lady of Fatima predicted, “The war is
going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break
out during the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown
light, know that it is the great sign given you by God that He is about to
punish the world for its crimes by means of wars, famine, and persecution of
the Church and of the Holy Father”. As promised, the illumined night sky
occurred on January 15, 1938, and the world entered into its second major bloodbath
of the century. Fatima in Twilight demonstrates that though Hitler is
viewed as the greatest evil during World War II, Stalin was
much more vicious, instigating the war in order to spread
Communism throughout Europe. He declared openly his plan of “exploiting the
antagonisms between the capitalistic states, to precipitate them into an armed
conflict. The principal work of our Communist parties must be to facilitate
such a conflict.”
Stalin aided Germany’s recovery after the First World War, only to use Germany
to incite European democracies against that country once Hitler came to power.
Stalin used whatever means necessary to spread Communism: Stalin and Hitler
signed the Germano-Soviet peace accord, allowing Germany to invade Poland, and
provoking European democracies to declare war on Germany. Fellows points out
that “when the smoke cleared atheistic Communism ruled Christian Eastern
Europe, and the democracies were a shambles. Game, set, and match to the man
the Western press affectionately dubbed ‘Uncle Joe’.” (p.
105) Of course, Hitler was guilty of his own extreme malevolence, and
Fellows does not discharge his guilt. He says, “the point here is not to
minimize Nazi evil, but to emphasize that Heaven’s depiction of Russia as the
scourge of humanity is factually and historically accurate”.
Fatima
and the Church
Fatima in Twilight also examines the roles of a line of Pontiffs in the Fatima Message,
from Pius XI to John Paul II. Fellows illustrates, using extensive
documentation, each Pope’s action and ultimate inaction concerning Fatima. It
was in 1929, during the reign of Pius XI, that the Blessed Mother appeared to
Sister Lucy at Tuy to ask for the consecration to be made: “The moment has come
when God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the
world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it
by this means.”
Though the Fatima
apparitions were approved in 1930, and the Holy Father both knew the part of
the Secret concerning Russia’s errors and was fully aware of the diabolical
state of Bolshevik Russia, he did not consecrate that nation
to the Immaculate Heart. He even had a glimpse of
Our Lady’s promised peace in Portugal, which was experiencing a Catholic
restoration through its own
consecration to the Immaculate Heart. However, it remained undone, and as
Fellows asserts, “The consequences of Pius XI’s failure to consecrate Russia to
the Immaculate Heart were the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War”. (p. 71)
It was during the reign
of Pius XII that the first two parts of the Fatima Secret were made known to
the public, and the world was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart. Fatima in
Twilight details this Pope’s strengths and weaknesses during his
pontificate, especially concerning Fatima. Pius XII was responsible for many
noteworthy things, including pronouncing the dogma of the Assumption and
canonizing Saint Pius X, yet he did not fulfill his duty to the will of God as
expressed through Fatima. This Pope possessed the Third Secret though he
probably didn’t read it, witnessed a miracle of the sun himself, and was well
aware of the requests made of him. Consequently, his inaction led to the part
of Church history Fellows identifies as “Twilight”.
The Twilight of the
Church accelerated with the election of John XXIII to the throne of Peter and
the Council he subsequently called. The book chronicles well the progressive
forces alive and growing through the reigns of Pius XI and Pius XII, until
their complete emergence during the Council. Also noted is that what support
Fatima received before the Council was promptly disregarded by the pontiffs
thereafter. The author attributes the subversion of the Fatima Message, the
consistent failure of Conciliar and post-Conciliar Popes to consecrate Russia
by name to the Immaculate Heart and announce the Third Secret to the “papal
vision,” which “appears to be rooted not in tradition or scripture, but in the
future. ... It is likely the Second Vatican Council was convoked in order to
consummate the papal vision, and to establish the new religion necessary for it
to thrive.” (p. 165) Fatima, with its
reality of hell, call to conversion and reparation, and focus on the spiritual,
not temporal, clearly has no place in this vision. Fatima in Twilight
examines this vision as the guiding light of the post-Conciliar Popes, and the
cause of the crisis in the Church since the Council. Sister Lucy herself has repeatedly
spoken of “disoriented souls” in the Church being “fooled by false doctrine”;
and “a great disorientation in so many persons who occupy places of
responsibility ... They are blind men guiding other blind men.” (p. 251)
The book also gives a
detailed history of the careers of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II before their
elections, as men who have promoted the new, man-centered papal vision. Paul VI
read the Secret, chose not to disclose it, and refused Sister Lucy a meeting.
He also saw the beginnings of the Council’s bitter fruits, yet instead of
turning to the consolation of the Immaculate Heart and God’s plan for peace, he
gave more fuel to a papal vision that was the cause of the destruction. Mark
Fellows also thoroughly examines John Paul II’s role in the present crisis, his
actions and inaction, and his relationship with Fatima. Fellows demonstrates
that though the current pontiff made consecrations of the entire world in 1982
and 1984, which probably merited some graces, they are incomplete according to
the will of Heaven and have not converted Russia. Fatima in Twilight
cites extensive statistics to corroborate this assertion, proving that Russia
is in fact a decaying nation, from the highest abortion rate in the world, to
its rampant homosexuality and child pornography, to its suppression and hatred
of the Catholic Church and its faithful.
As for the Secret
revealed by the Vatican in 2000, Fellows proves that it is incomplete. Though
the author believes that the vision of a “Bishop dressed in white” being
murdered on a steep mountain amidst many corpses was probably written by Sister
Lucy, it is a vision that lacks the conclusion of the Blessed Mother’s words,
“In Portugal the dogma of the faith will always be preserved, etc.,” and
actually contains no words of Our Lady at all. The Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith’s subsequent document, “The Message of Fatima,” is an
effort to interpret the vision as the failed 1981 assassination attempt on John
Paul II, a contention that hardly makes sense given that the Pope in the vision
was murdered and John Paul II was not. The CDF’s “Message of Fatima” claims
that the Third Secret has been completely revealed and the Consecration has
been fulfilled, therefore making Fatima a thing of the past. The document goes
so far as to cite supposed testimony by Sister Lucy claiming that the
consecration of Russia has been done and the entire Secret has been revealed,
even though this contradicts a consistently held position by Lucy. The
CDF’s “Message of Fatima” has left Catholics confused and unsure what the
truth is concerning Fatima. Fellows, however, brings the reader to a better
understanding by addressing this subject thoroughly. Using logic and a thorough
documentation of facts, Fellows ultimately proves that the CDF document
contains inconsistencies and contradictions that are out of character for Lucy
or are completely unlikely to be confirmed by her, given past testimonies.
For example, the CDF’s
“The Message of Fatima” contains the text of Pope John Paul II’s 1984
consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, after which
Monsignor Bertone states: “Sister Lucy 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.” (p.
284) However, this new testimony is contrary to Lucy’s
consistent assertion that the consecration of Russia has not taken place, and
Fellows includes numerous examples, such as her interview with the Portuguese
nuncio a year after the 1982 consecration of the world. “Did Lucy really think
John Paul’s consecration fulfilled Heaven’s request? ‘The consecration of
Russia is not done as Our Lady has demanded it,’ Lucy answered, because Pope
John Paul did not specifically consecrate Russia, and the consecration was not
in union with the world episcopate. ‘We can expect some benefits from the
Pope’s consecration,’ Lucy said, ‘but not the conversion of Russia’.”
In a 1989 visit with
Cardinal Law, Lucy again confirmed that the consecration had not been done.
“The Holy Father speculates that it has been done, done in the best possible
way under the circumstances,” Lucy told the Cardinal. “Done on the narrow road
of the collegial consecration that She has demanded and has been wanting? No,
that has not been done.” (p. 268) Fellows sums up his argument thus: “It is likely that Lucy’s present
opinion on the consecrations of John Paul II is the same as her opinion in 1991
and 1984: that Heaven is still awaiting the consecration of Russia to the
Immaculate Heart. The statements attributed to Lucy in the CDF document ‘The
Message of Fatima’ really must be questioned, inasmuch as they fail to
correspond to this reality: in matters concerning Fatima, Lucy does not waver,
does not hesitate, and does not change her mind.” (p.
287)
The
Beacon of Fatima
Once, when asked about the Third Secret, Sister Lucy responded, “It is in the
Gospel and the Apocalypse, read them!” Fatima in Twilight devotes a
chapter entitled “Beyond Assisi: The Papal Vision” to the relationship between
Fatima, the Apocalypse, and the fulfillment of Fatima prophecies. The battle
between the woman and the dragon in Apocalypse 12 is a chilling reminder of
what Lucy calls the devil’s “decisive battle with the Blessed Virgin,” a battle
which has intensified throughout the past century. “As in the Apocalypse, the
battle between the Virgin and the dragon has been joined. The outcome is known,
but at present a mystery of iniquity has led a series of Popes away from not
only the Fatima Message, but from the gospel message that Fatima and the
continual teaching of the Church embodies.” (p.
267)
The battle is raging before our very eyes, and instead of looking away we must
choose a side. For Fatima is not an isolated incident of a long forgotten past,
but the defining moment in which the world was offered peace over enmity, and
the refuge of the Immaculate Heart over the tempests of the Prince of this
world. The consistent choice against Fatima has resulted in the predicted
spread of Russia’s errors, throughout the world and the Church, as Fellows
illustrates in each chapter of this outstanding book. He concludes by stressing
the weight of our present peril, but leaves us with the light that, as
promised, will illumine the end:
“The Virgin foretold
Peter’s repentance, and his compliance with the demands of Heaven. Until this
occurs, however, the Church and the world will be rocked with the concussive
force of divine wrath. One recalls Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem not knowing the
hour of its visitation, and the dreadful consequences of this willful
ignorance. Alas, we echo the perfidy of the Jews. Sowing the wind of the spirit
of the age, we have reaped the whirlwind. The price will be paid in souls. ... (p. 267)
“... For it is not
Fatima that is in twilight. Fatima is a beacon of faith, hope, and charity, a
message as clear and uncompromising as the Gospel, shining on all souls
stumbling in the twilight of the Church and the world, as both fade to black in
the long hours before the dawn.” (p. 334)
This
article was reprinted with permission from the September 2003 issue of
Catholic Family News — a Roman Catholic monthly published 12 times a
year.
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