The Devil’s Final Battle
By Fr Paul Kramer
(Chapters 1, 5, 8, 10 and 16 Including,
Foreward, Editors Preface and Introduction)
Available from www.catholicbook.com
Foreword
For the
past half-century, a bizarre story has been unfolding inside the Catholic
Church that could have serious implications for the entire world.
As
this book explains, the crux of the story is a message from Heaven, and hence,
a matter of faith and belief. This may make it seem to be of concern only to
Catholics and Church officials, but there’s more to this story than that—much
more.
The
message was conveyed in a manner that is unique in Church history, and its form
and content are also unique. This puts it in a class by itself; it can’t be
relegated to the broad category of "private revelations" experienced
by various Catholic saints and mystics over the centuries. If it could,
non-Catholics and even many otherwise devout Catholics would be free to ignore
it. But ignoring this particular message is impossible for Catholics, and may
also be unwise for everyone else on this troubled planet.
The
message in question was delivered by the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd
children near the little town of Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Far from being a
private event, its delivery was accompanied by a public miracle witnessed by
70,000 people, and reported in newspaper headlines around the world. No other
apparitions, not even those associated with the world-famous shrines at Lourdes
in France and Guadalupe in Mexico, have been authenticated in this spectacular
manner. This sets the apparitions themselves apart from all previous events of
this kind, but that is only one unique aspect of Fatima.
When
the content of the message received by the children was revealed, it, too, was
unique in the annals of Christianity. It contained a request, as well as a
warning of punishments to come if the request were not granted. Never before
has a message of this kind been reported, either in public or in private, by
any witnesses to an apparition.
As it
does in all cases of this kind, the Vatican subjected the Fatima events to
intense scrutiny. The Church is usually reluctant to endorse such things, as
they are often quite subjective, and difficult to verify. In the case of
Fatima, however, the Catholic hierarchy, from the local bishops of Portugal to
a series of Popes in the Vatican, has unanimously regarded the Fatima
apparitions as "worthy of belief." Pope John Paul II has gone so far
as to say that the Message of Fatima "imposes an obligation" on the
Church. This uniform hierarchical approbation over the years strongly
reinforced the conviction of the Catholic faithful that the Fatima apparitions
had conveyed an authentic message from Heaven.
But
then, on June 26, 2000, the Fatima story took a strange turn. On that day, the
Cardinal in charge of Catholic doctrine at the Vatican and his immediate
subordinate held a press conference which the Los Angeles Times
described as an attempt at "gently debunking the cult of Fatima." The
theme of the conference was that the Fatima prophecies are in the category of
"private revelations" and that, in any event, they "belong to
the past."
What
happened? How did the Fatima apparitions go from being officially declared
worthy of belief to being officially debunked by a high-ranking Cardinal? And
what about the message, with its request and its threat of punishment? These
are questions any reasonable Catholic might well ask, given the strange
behavior of Church leaders on this matter. But once the content of the message
is considered, they are also questions every human being on earth might ask.
The
content of the Fatima message is largely concerned with matters of Catholic
religion that lie entirely in the realm of faith and belief. One part of the
message, however, has wider implications that warrant wider attention. This is
the part that makes a request, and then warns of punishment if the request is
not granted.
The
request is that Russia be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the
Pope, together with all the Catholic bishops of the world. To those outside the
Church, this ritual may have little meaning. Inside the Church, however, such
ceremonies are a well-established tradition. Consecrations have a sanctifying
effect, so in the eyes of Catholics, such a ceremony would be beneficial to
Russia.
Of
course, performing this ceremony is something only the Catholic Church can do.
However, the threat that accompanies the request extends well beyond the
Catholic Church. If the consecration is done, says the message, "a period
of peace will be granted to the world." But if it is not done, the message
warns, then, among other things, "various nations will be
annihilated."
Is
this a credible threat? Should non-Catholics and non-Christians worry about
such a thing? At first glance, one might think not, but the question deserves
closer examination. It isn’t necessary to believe this message definitely came
from Heaven to give it some serious consideration. This is what gives Fatima
its global dimension.
Since
the Vatican judged the apparitions believable, and the annihilation of nations
may be at stake, one would think the consecration would have been performed
long ago. After all, what it requires is a simple, traditional ceremony that
obviously can do no harm to anyone. And if the message has even the remotest
chance of being authentic, the benefit of performing the ceremony as requested
could be of incalculable value. Given these circumstances, even the most
skeptical of outsiders might well consider the consecration "worth a
try."
And
yet, for reasons known only to a small group of Vatican officials, the Fatima
request has not been granted, even though the Church has been aware of it for
at least six decades. Time and time again, various formal consecrations have
been performed, including one that named Russia explicitly, but in all cases,
they have avoided fulfilling the specific requirements of the Fatima request:
that the Pope and the Catholic bishops of the world consecrate Russia, by name,
in a solemn public ceremony. The most recent example was a consecration of the
world in Rome by Pope John Paul II and 1,500 visiting bishops in 2001. Many
people thought the Pope might take that opportunity to fulfill the Fatima
request, but to their disappointment, Russia was not mentioned.
To
both insiders and outsiders, the Vatican’s treatment of this matter seems
strangely inconsistent with its own standards and traditions. It also seems to
show a reckless disregard for the safety not only of the Catholic faithful, but
the rest of humanity as well. If the Fatima threat is genuine, the price of the
Vatican’s reluctance could be very high indeed—and it would be paid by all
mankind.
Under
these circumstances, any reasonable person might ask why the Church persists in
ignoring the message, and risking such catastrophic consequences.
How
and why this is happening is the subject of this book. The story it tells
involves a mixture of facts and matters of faith. For non-believers, the facts
may not prove conclusively that the message is authentic, but they go a long
way in that direction—far enough to persuade many open-minded people to regard
authenticity as a real possibility. And for those who share the Catholic faith,
the facts go much further, affirming authenticity and raising alarming
questions about the state of the Church hierarchy today.
The
story shows the Vatican undergoing a series of changes that caused it first to
endorse Fatima, then to cast doubt on it, then to suppress it, and finally to
discard it altogether. Tracing this process is difficult, as much of what
happens in the Vatican is done in secret, and official attitudes must be
decoded from pronouncements that are often cryptic.
No
one can see into the hearts and minds of the Vatican officials who have
conspired to treat the Fatima message this way. They can only be judged by
their actions, and by the logical consequences of their avowed positions. When
these are analyzed, as they are in this book, a disturbing picture emerges of a
Church divided against Herself, with the rift going right to the top.
There
is an ironic aspect to this story that will not be lost on unbelievers. The
facts related in this book will convince many open-minded non-Catholics that
the authenticity of Fatima is at least possible. If this can be said of
outsiders, how much more convincing should the story be for Catholics? And yet,
even as the story moves unbelievers towards belief, it seems to have the
opposite effect on certain Vatican officials. Ironically, some of the people
now least likely to believe in Fatima are among those who should be the most
likely. Beliefs once central to the Catholic faith are now being abandoned not
by the faithful who remain in the pews, but by some of the highest authorities
in the Church.
A
further irony concerns the position of the Pope in this matter. Like all his
predecessors since the Fatima apparitions occurred, John Paul II has openly and
repeatedly professed his belief in the authenticity of the apparitions. He has
visited the Fatima shrine three times, and attributes his survival of an
assassination attempt in 1981 to Our Lady of Fatima. And yet, even the Pope
seems powerless to prevent his own highest-ranking Cardinals from taking a very
different view of Fatima. He was not present at the June 2000 press conference
mentioned above, where two of the Vatican’s top officials made an effort to
undermine the credibility of the Fatima prophecies and relegate them to the
past.
As
several chapters in this book explain, the Message of Fatima also has political
implications that may have influenced the way Vatican officials have handled
it. The message asks for the consecration of Russia specifically, in order to
convert that nation to Catholicism. To perform a ceremony with that overt
intention runs counter to the so-called "Ostpolitik" the Vatican
adopted first with regard to international communism, and more recently to the
Russian Orthodox Church. In both these areas, the Vatican apparatus has
abandoned the Church’s traditionally militant defense of Her teaching, agreeing
to refrain from denouncing communism as evil, and to cease seeking the
conversion of Russian Orthodox adherents. Hence, the Fatima message has been
and still is "politically incorrect" in the context of current
Vatican policy.
One
might suspect that the Vatican is refraining from consecrating Russia simply
for these political reasons. But is that really credible? Given what is at
stake, would the Vatican really risk the annihilation of nations just to avoid
a diplomatic incident with the Russians? Would Russia really be seriously
offended by a ceremony that, in effect, commends that country to the care of
the Mother of God? And even if Russia were offended, what would they do about
it? What could they possibly do that would be worse than the penalty for not
consecrating Russia, namely, that "various nations will be
annihilated"?
This
book reveals and examines the political machinations that have clearly
influenced attitudes towards Fatima among some high-level Vatican diplomats.
There can be little doubt that the architects of the Vatican’s conciliatory
"Ostpolitik" find the Fatima message inconvenient. But it still seems
unlikely that these diplomatic considerations alone could persuade the Vatican
to ignore a message from Heaven. For that to happen, something else must be at
work, something deeper and darker than worldly politics.
That
deeper and darker ailment is the ultimate subject of this book. It reveals how
the Catholic Church has been transformed in ways that have left many of the
faithful confused. Meanwhile outsiders now see a church maintaining an
appearance of normal function that only masks the radical transformation behind
this facade.
Viewed
from afar, the Catholic Church appears to be an institution that changes only
slowly and reluctantly. The process of reform initiated by Vatican II in the
1960s led to unprecedented changes in the Church (e.g., vernacular Masses,
abandonment of distinctive clerical garb, etc.) that may have seemed dramatic
to insiders, but were almost invisible to outsiders. Compared to secular trends
in the latter half of the 20th Century, the Church seemed resistant to change,
maintaining Her teaching on such things as priestly celibacy, ordination of
women, contraception, divorce and abortion. In all these respects, the Church
still seems firmly entrenched in positions She has maintained for centuries.
But
does this mean that Vatican leadership is resolutely traditionalist? Outsiders
who rely on such things as the Pope’s public utterances might well think so.
But as this book explains, insiders know better. The Catholic Church today is
not what She seems, and the gap between public perceptions and actual realities
is growing wider every day.
While
traditions have been officially upheld in certain respects, they have been
abandoned or undermined in others. And while the positions still being
maintained have been widely publicized, those being abandoned or undermined
have been barely acknowledged. Catholics who once shared a common set of
beliefs around the world now find themselves drifting in different directions
in different places, following contradictory and uncertain leadership at all
levels.
The
famously monolithic Catholic Church is no longer monolithic at all; it is full
of fractures that this book traces to their sources. It shows us a fragmented
Church leadership where the first fissure divides a Pope who is an ardent
believer from his own immediate subordinates, who are anything but.
Four
of these high-ranking officials are examined closely in this book, which amply
documents their role in attempting to "close the book" on Fatima as a
politically incorrect expression of traditional Catholic belief. While it is
impossible to be certain about their individual motivations, it is also
impossible to avoid the conclusion that what they have been doing has
contributed to the current crisis of faith and discipline in the Church.
Many
Catholic commentators have noted that in the post-Vatican II epoch, beliefs
once shared by virtually all Catholics have now been marginalized, and reduced
to cult status. Principal among these are beliefs in apparitions, miracles and
prophecies. Over the centuries, the Catholic Church has raised to the rank of
sainthood many hundreds, each of whom was canonized on the basis of miracles
performed through his or her intercession. Many of these same saints
experienced apparitions of Christ or the Virgin Mary. Catholic tradition
affirms belief in a dialogue between earth and Heaven, mediated by visionary
saints, who are called forth as prophets of their time and who authenticate
their prophecies with miracles. Far from upholding this long-standing aspect of
Christian belief, certain of today’s Vatican officials make a point of
asserting that "private apparitions" can be disregarded as "not
essential" to the faith—including the apparitions at Fatima, despite
Fatima’s warning of global catastrophe.
In
general, the post-conciliar "updating" of the Catholic Church has
left Catholic beliefs reduced to a shrunken core, and even that core is
challenged at high levels. Widely-published (and openly heretical)
"theologian" Hans Küng has received only a slap on the wrist for
questioning such basic articles of faith as the resurrection and divinity of
Christ.
The
plain fact is that it is no longer possible to determine clearly what some top
Vatican officials actually believe. The key official in this regard is called
the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Traditionally,
this position is occupied by a man whose commitment to the preservation of
Catholic doctrine is absolute and unquestionable. Today, the position is
occupied by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a man whose statements concerning
Catholic doctrine (in numerous interviews and even in certain official
pronouncements) are so laden with ambiguity that even theological experts are
unable to say with certainty what he actually believes in many areas.
All
this may seem irrelevant to outsiders, and in most respects, it is. It is of no
concern to non-Catholics or non-Christians if Catholics attend the traditional
Latin Mass or go to a modern vernacular Mass, or pray the Rosary or not. What
Cardinal Ratzinger thinks about matters of Catholic doctrine generally means
nothing to outsiders.
But
what Cardinal Ratzinger thinks about apparitions, miracles and prophecies does
matter. It matters because if he does not believe in the Fatima apparitions,
disregards the Miracle of the Sun, and ignores the prophecies in the Fatima
message, he may be putting the whole world at risk.
The
collapse of traditional belief thus emerges as the most plausible explanation
for the Church’s otherwise inexplicable behavior with regard to Fatima. The
traditional Catholic belief in apparitions, miracles and prophecies is at the
heart of the Fatima story. Abandonment of belief in these things is what has
transformed Fatima from something "worthy of belief" into a cult the
Church’s doctrinal leader tries to discredit and debunk.
Outsiders
might wish this was entirely an internal Catholic matter, but it isn’t. One
doesn’t have to be a Catholic to wonder about God, and how God might choose to
communicate with humanity. People who lack faith in any particular religion
usually don’t deny the existence of God, they simply don’t know whether God
exists. In that state of uncertainty, how can anything be ruled out? God might
well choose to communicate with the human race through the Message of Fatima,
however bizarre that may seem to many people. As the Bible wisely tells us,
God’s ways are not our ways.
The
ultimate issue is therefore not simply what the Catholic Church believes, but
what this might mean for humanity as a whole. This situation invites everyone,
Catholic or not, Christian or not, to consider the possibility that the Fatima
message is authentic. Improbable as it may seem on the face of it, there are
some persuasive pieces of evidence to support this idea. The Vatican’s own
exhaustive investigation found none of the inconsistencies, contradictions or
discrepancies that often invalidate events of this kind. Instead, they found
everything in order. They also acknowledged the unique nature of the Miracle of
the Sun, an event witnessed by thousands for which there is still no adequate
scientific explanation.
When
the content of the message was more widely publicized in the 1940s, further
support for authenticity began to accumulate. The message contained a series of
prophecies, each of which has come to pass as predicted. These include the end
of World War I, the election of Pope Pius XI, the start of World War II, and
the expansion of communist Russia. The evidence has proved sufficient to elicit
the belief of six successive Popes since the apparitions occurred, along with
millions of Catholic faithful. It has also persuaded the Vatican, under the
present Pope, to beatify the two deceased witnesses to the apparitions,
Francisco and Jacinta Marto, and to commemorate the Fatima apparitions in the
Roman Missal, the official book of Catholic worship used by the Roman Catholic
Church for the celebration of Mass.
Yet
another Fatima prophecy, which has only been partially revealed, is the Third
Secret of Fatima. Evidence outlined in this book points strongly to a
prediction of serious problems in the leadership of the Church, problems that
bear an uncanny resemblance to what is actually happening in the Church today.
Most
Catholics have been stunned by the recent cascade of revelations of sexual
abuse of children and teenagers by members of the clergy. Such a thing is
completely unprecedented in Church history, even in medieval times, when many
high-ranking prelates made a mockery of celibacy. In their search for an
explanation for this appalling situation, both Catholics and others might well
look to the still-unrevealed Third Secret.
This
book provides good reasons to believe that the Third Secret predicts exactly
what is happening now. Scandals in the clergy are the beginning of the
chastisement promised if the consecration is not done. While the whole world
will ultimately be punished, the penalty falls first on the Church Herself. The
withering of the Catholic priesthood and its moral degeneracy are just the
first signs of a calamity that will ultimately engulf the whole of mankind.
The
fact that the four Vatican officials examined in this book have gone to great
lengths to put the Fatima question to rest while still concealing the text of
the Third Secret strongly supports this interpretation. Clearly, these
officials still have something to hide. Otherwise, why not publish the document
in question, and why not allow Sister Lucia dos Santos, the only surviving
witness to the apparitions, to testify to its authenticity?
When
the whole story is told, it seems obvious that the real reason the Vatican
won’t perform the consecration is because doing so would affirm the
authenticity of the Fatima message. And doing that, in turn, would affirm the
authenticity of the prophesied apostasy reaching even into the Vatican itself.
Unbelieving officials are not about to indict themselves by heeding a message
that points a finger at them. Instead, they have tried to bury the message, so
as to avoid giving credence to that which the Vatican itself had earlier
declared worthy of credence.
In
virtually any other era in the history of the Church, members of the top
echelon in the Vatican would have been foremost among believers in a message
from Heaven delivered in such convincing fashion. They would have lost no time
in heeding it, and complying with its request. With the confusion that has
followed the Second Vatican Council, and the rapid advance of secularism into
every institution, including the Church, over the past 40 years, such a message
is now being given a hostile reception even by certain Vatican officials. In
ignoring the message, these prelates place themselves not only outside the
ranks of believers, but even outside the ranks of non-believers possessed of
common sense, because they aren’t even willing to give the message a try
anyway—just in case.
The
Bible offers an enlightening example in this regard. The Fourth Book of Kings
(4 Kings 5:1-15, in some Bibles it is referred to as 2 Kings 5:1-15) tells the
story of Naaman, the leader of the Syrian army, whose king sent him to the
prophet Eliseus in Israel to seek a miraculous cure for his leprosy. Without
actually meeting him, Eliseus sent Naaman instructions to bathe seven times in
the river Jordan, in order to be cured. Naaman was indignant that Eliseus
didn’t come to administer his cure personally. Merely bathing in the Jordan, he
felt, couldn’t possibly be any better than bathing in any of Syria’s fine
rivers. Rejecting the prophet’s instructions as trivial, Naaman prepared to
depart, but his advisers dissuaded him. They argued that, if the prophet had
asked him to perform some arduous feat to be cured, Naaman would have done it.
So why not do the very mundane thing that had been asked instead? In effect,
they said to him: Why not try it, since it’s such a simple thing? Naaman agreed
to give it a try on this basis, and sure enough, on his seventh washing in the
Jordan, his leprosy disappeared.
There
is a striking parallel between this miraculous Biblical event and the attitude
now being taken by the Vatican regarding the consecration of Russia. Like
Naaman, Vatican officials seem unable to believe that something as simple as a
consecration could deliver a benefit as momentous as genuine world peace. And
they are so obdurate in their position that won’t even allow the remedy to be
tried, despite repeated appeals over many decades from millions of the
faithful, including thousands in the Catholic clergy.
To
outsiders, it may seem incredible that a tiny group of highly-placed doubters
can block an action so ardently desired by huge numbers of believers. To
understand this, it is necessary to understand the structure of the Church,
which is very different from a democracy. Bishops of the Catholic Church are
not selected by the faithful, nor even by their peers. They are chosen by the
Pope and consecrated by him or (more usually) by an existing bishop, and the
power conferred on them by this consecration comes directly from God. Once
consecrated, each bishop is ultimately answerable to God alone and, under God,
owes obedience in Church matters to the Pope alone.
Given
the temper of the times and the administrative style of the present Pope, it is
certain the Pope will give no direct order to all the bishops unless there is a
general consensus among them first of all.
What
all this means is that it is ultimately up to the bishops of the Church, who
number about 4,500, to agree voluntarily to do the consecration as requested.
Given their wide powers over appointments, promotions and other privileges, it
is easy for the small group in charge at the Vatican to prevent such a
spontaneous agreement from ever emerging.
Today,
it is obvious to everyone in the Catholic clergy that speaking out on Fatima is
a one-way ticket to oblivion for any priest, bishop or even Cardinal. So most
bishops are silent on the matter, regardless of what they actually think or
believe. The same is true for priests, who are even more vulnerable to
punishment for being "politically incorrect."
This
book also mentions the repressive treatment of the "Fatima Priest,"
Father Nicholas Gruner, who has devoted himself to the promotion of the Fatima
message at great personal cost. The Vatican’s efforts to silence him, which
have even included the threat of excommunication, stand in sharp contrast to
the lenient treatment of hundreds of other priests, and even bishops and
Archbishops, who have been embroiled in allegations of sexual molestation of minors.
The sorry state of the Catholic clergy today is epitomized by this contrast
between the treatment of Father Gruner and that accorded to Catholic clergy who
are actually guilty of serious crimes.
The
Catholic Church has in its hands a remedy that might do something no one else
knows how to do—bring peace to this endlessly war-torn world. Based on the
compelling case presented in this book, those who are preventing this remedy
from being tried have much to answer for. They owe both the Catholic faithful
and the world an explanation for their conduct. Further, given its importance
to the world at large, the cover-up of the Fatima message is even more an
occasion for public outrage than the episcopal cover-ups of priestly sexual
misconduct that have been exposed in the year 2002 by the press.
The
final chapter of this book offers some suggestions as to what individuals, both
believers and non-believers, might do to persuade the leaders of the Catholic
Church to act in both the Church’s own best interest and that of the whole
human race. As this book makes clear, both Catholics and non-Catholics have
much to gain and a great deal to lose if the Message of Fatima continues to be
ignored by the very men who are charged to follow its imperatives.
The Devil’s Final Battle
Editors' Preface
The hypothetical man on the street would be surprised to learn that the
terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 and the sexual scandal now wracking the
Catholic Church are closely related events. But they are indeed closely
related. The relation becomes apparent when the two events are viewed through
the prism of the Message of Fatima.
It is often said that as the Church goes, so goes the world. That, in essence,
is what the Mother of God cautioned when She came to Fatima, Portugal, 85 years
ago, in a series of apparitions authenticated by a public miracle without
precedent in world history. Since that time the prophetic admonitions in the
Message of Fatima have all been fulfilled to the letter—save for one: the
annihilation of various nations, which the Virgin of Fatima warned would be the
ultimate consequence of failing to honor Her requests.
The Fatima apparitions have been deemed authentic by a series of Popes and are
now commemorated in the Roman Missal (the basic book of Catholic worship) by
the decree of Pope John Paul II. And yet, in what must be seen as a mystery of
iniquity, the Virgin’s simple requests remain unfulfilled due to conscious
decisions by some of the highest-ranking prelates in the Catholic Church. The
result, just as She predicted, is an ever-deepening crisis in the Church and
the world, accompanied by a growing sense, even among non-Catholics, that we
are witnessing the beginning of an apocalypse.
This book was originally conceived as a compilation of some of the more
important writings and speeches on Fatima in recent years.1 It was hoped that collecting these works
under one cover would give them wider distribution and longer shelf life. But
this concept was soon supplanted by a better one—recasting the articles and
speeches as an integral book with a coherent overall theme. With the authors’
permission, Father Paul Kramer and the editorial staff of The Missionary
Association sculpted the articles and speeches (adding much new material) into
a work unlike anything ever published about Fatima.
It was in the process of assessing and augmenting the material that something
remarkable happened: a theme emerged entirely on its own, as if by Providence.
In approaching the subject of the Fatima Message from different angles, the
various speakers and writers had all converged on one conclusion: the events at
Fatima represent a heavenly focal point in the battle now raging for the Church
and the world. Both the crisis in the Church and the crisis in the world center
around the divine truths summed up with heavenly concision in the Fatima
apparitions. In the fulfillment of the Message of Fatima lies the end of these
twin crises. In the denial of that Message lies, in great measure, the origin
and the augmentation of both.
The astounding events at Fatima were not some useless spectacle, for God does
not engage in useless spectacles. The Mother of God came to earth with our
present circumstances clearly in view, and with the solicitude of a mother She
offered us a way out—the way chosen by God Himself for our time. That being the
case, one cannot understand the state of the Church and the world today without
understanding what happened at Fatima.
One must also understand the strange and systematic effort by certain Catholic
churchmen to obstruct fulfillment of the heavenly imperatives of the Fatima
Message including: the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary;
the miraculous conversion of Russia to Catholicism; and the consequent triumph
of the Immaculate Heart in a period of world peace. The central importance of
Fatima in the scheme of current world events is only demonstrated by the
recent, almost frantic, efforts of certain Vatican officials to
"deconstruct" and "demythologize" Fatima in order to avoid
giving offense to various elements outside the Church—especially the Russian
Orthodox, whose implacable opposition to Rome is as intense as ever after forty
years of useless "ecumenical dialogue" with Vatican representatives.
The pages that follow present evidence against the most prominent churchmen
involved in this campaign against Fatima, laying at their feet a large portion
of the blame for the ecclesial crisis and the world crisis we must all face.
To those who say that our undertaking to expose their campaign against Fatima
is scandalous, we can only reply with the words of the Virgin Herself: "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." Russia has not
converted. Russia’s errors, including the holocaust of "legalized"
abortion, have spread throughout the world. There is no peace. And today even
non-Catholics and unbelievers live in fear of the annihilation of nations. To
echo the words of Pope St. Gregory the Great, it is better that scandal arise
than that the truth be hidden—especially when, as in this case, the truth could
avert global disaster.
We submit this work to the judgment of the Pope and to the judgment of you, the
reader. We submit this work publicly because numerous private entreaties,
spread over more than five years, to high Church authorities have all been
unavailing. Meanwhile, the men who surround an increasingly frail Pope render
him effectively incapable of responding to petitions from rank-and-file clergy
and laity. At this very moment a papal deathwatch is underway, with would-be
successors to the papal throne maneuvering for positions of advantage at the
next conclave. As the decades-long episcopal cover-up of sexual scandals among
the priesthood demonstrates, in present circumstances the public forum is the only
forum open to Catholics who seek redress of just grievances affecting the whole
Church.
Our motivation in presenting this book is that of loyal sons and daughters of
the Church, who know and love the Faith and believe in conscience that the
current course still being followed by certain Church leaders is gravely
mistaken, as recent events in the Catholic Church should make clear to any
objective observer. If we have erred in any of our facts, reasoning or
conclusions, or committed any injustice, it would be the duty of the reader to
offer us, not invective or empty denunciations, but legitimate correction based
upon facts—for our own sake and the sake of the Church. But if the case
we present is well-founded, then the reader has a different duty: the duty to act
upon the evidence we present—now, while there is still time.
Father Paul Kramer and the
Editorial Team of The Missionary Association
December 8, 2002
Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Footnote:
1. Among the
principal sources of this book are: "Are There Two Original Manuscripts on
the Third Secret?", Andrew M. Cesanek (The Fatima Crusader, Issue
64, Spring 2000); "Cardinal Ratzinger’s Third Secret", Father Gregory
Hesse (The Fatima Crusader, Issue 66, Winter 2001); "Chronology of
a Cover-up", Father Paul Kramer (published on www.fatima.org);
"Freemasonry and the Subversion of the Church (the Alta Vendita)",
John Vennari (Transcript of speech from Fatima Conference in Rome, October
2001); "It Doesn’t Add Up", John Vennari (The Fatima Crusader,
Issue 70, Spring 2002); "Let us Hear the Witness, for Heaven’s Sake,"
Christopher Ferrara (The Fatima Crusader, Issue 70, Spring 2002);
"Lucy and the Pirates", Mark Fellows (The Fatima Crusader,
Issue 70, Spring 2002); "The Lying Press Conference of June 26,
2000", Father Paul Kramer (Transcript of speech from Fatima Conference in
Rome, October 2001); "Our Lady of Fatima vs. the Desire to Destroy our
Catholic Heritage", John Vennari (Transcript of speech, Fatima Rally
Against Terrorism, New York, November 2001); "The ‘Party Line’ and its
Relationship to Fatima", Father Paul Kramer (Transcript of speech from
Fatima Conference in Rome, October 2001); "Pope John Paul II Gives Us the
Key to the Real Third Secret," Father Nicholas Gruner (Three part series, The
Fatima Crusader, Issues 67-69); "The Stalinization of the Catholic
Church" (Transcript of speech from Fatima Conference in Rome, October
2001); "The Third Secret," Father Nicholas Gruner (Transcript of
speech from Fatima Conference in Rome, October 2001).
|
SELECTED
CHAPTERS
Chapter 1
The Message and the Miracle
God
does not waste miracles. Throughout salvation history—from Joshua, to Moses, to
the Twelve Apostles, to the saints of the Catholic Church down through the
centuries—God has granted miracles for one overriding purpose: to serve as a
divine credential for a witness who invokes the miracle in His name. When God
chooses a witness, and then associates an authentic miracle with the testimony
of that witness, we can know for certain that the witness is worthy of belief.
God does not grant miracles to vouch for unreliable witnesses; God does not choose
unreliable witnesses.
No,
God does not waste miracles. Much less does God waste a public miracle
witnessed by 70,000 people, believers and unbelievers alike, which occurred at
precisely the moment predicted three months earlier by three witnesses whose
testimony had been doubted: Lucia dos Santos (known to the world as Lucy) and
her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto.1
It
is October 13, 1917. In a humble field known as the Cova da Iria in Fatima some
70,000 people have assembled to await the happening of a miracle. This in
itself is astounding. For never before in salvation history has a visionary predicted
months in advance that a public miracle would occur at a precise time and
place. Never before has a vast crowd assembled to witness a predicted public
miracle. Yet that is exactly what was happening on this day.
Why
this day? Because Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta had
been receiving apparitions from "the Lady" on the thirteenth of each
month since the previous May. The Lady had been appearing to them above a
holm-oak tree in the Cova, and with each apparition the crowds had grown. But doubts
about the veracity of the seers had also grown, as well as mockery and
persecution of the seers and their families at a time when Portugal was under
the control of an atheistic and Masonic political regime.
And
then, on July 13, 1917, the Lady had shown them something which would terrify
them and change them forever, making them into saints who would spend their
lives (in the case of Francisco and Jacinta, very brief lives) praying and
making sacrifices for sinners. As Lucy recounts in testimony the Catholic
Church has deemed worthy of belief, the Lady showed them hell:
She opened Her hands
once more, as She had done during the two previous months. The rays of light
seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in
this fire were demons and souls [of the damned] 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 huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and
groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear.
(It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they
heard me). The demons could be distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by
their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black
and transparent like burning coals.2 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.3
Having
shown the children the fate of the damned, which is considered the first part
of the Great Secret of Fatima, the Lady then confided to the children the
second part. Everyone, including those members of the Vatican apparatus who are
the focus of this presentation, agrees that the second part of the Secret, as
recorded in Sister Lucy’s diaries, is as follows:
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 reign
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 against 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 the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The
Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and she will be converted, and a
period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal the dogma of the
Faith will always be preserved etc. Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco,
yes, you may tell him.4
The
basic elements of this astonishing Message are these:
- Many souls go to hell because of the sins they commit.
- To save them, God wishes to establish throughout the world
the uniquely Catholic devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
- This is to be accomplished by consecrating the nation of
Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (in conjunction with the Communions
of Reparation on the first Saturdays of each month), whereupon Russia will
be converted to the Catholic faith.
- If this is done, many souls will be saved and there will
be peace.
- If it is not done, Russia will spread its errors
throughout the world. There will be wars, famine, persecutions of the
Church, and martyrdom of the good. The Holy Father will have much to
suffer. And if Our Lady’s requests are still not obeyed, then various
nations will be annihilated.
- Nevertheless, "In the end, My Immaculate Heart will
triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, which will be
converted, and a period of peace will be given to mankind."
To
these things, the Lady added an urgent request that Catholics include in their
recitation of the Rosary at the end of each decade, the following prayer:
"O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all
souls to Heaven, especially those most in need." In obedience to the
Lady’s request, and as a testament to the authenticity of Her apparitions at
Fatima, the Church included this prayer in the Rosary, and Catholics recite it
to this day.
The
Church has also adopted the First Saturday devotion of the Communion of
Reparation, which the Lady explained thusly: "I promise to help at the hour
of death, with all the graces needed for salvation, whoever on the First
Saturday of five consecutive months shall: confess and receive Holy Communion,
recite five decades of the Holy Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen minutes
while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of
making reparation to Me."
We
pause here to note in passing (for further discussion later) the curious phrase
at the end of the first two parts of the Secret: "In Portugal the dogma of
the Faith will always be preserved etc." The incomplete phrase, ending
with "etc.", appears in Sister Lucy’s fourth memoir of the
apparitions. It clearly introduces a heavenly prediction, containing further
words of Our Lady not recorded, about the state of adherence to Catholic dogma
in the Church at large, distinguished from Portugal in particular, where the
dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.
Standing
alone, the observation about adherence to Catholic dogma in Portugal appears
gratuitous and quite senseless, for the phrase does not at all follow logically
from the first two parts of the Secret. Every recognized Fatima scholar
concluded from this that the phrase represents the beginning of a third part of
the Secret—what came to be known simply as the Third Secret of Fatima. As we
shall see, Lucy was so terrified by its contents that even after she was
ordered to write it down in October of 1943, she was unable to do so until the
subsequent apparition on January 2, 1944 in which Our Lady assured her that it
ought to be done. And yet, to this day, the Vatican has never revealed the
words of the Virgin which clearly follow "In Portugal the dogma of the
Faith will always be preserved etc." The "etc." remains a
secret. This ongoing concealment is a key element of the crime that is the
subject of this book.
Having
received from Heaven itself a message with obviously profound importance for
the Church and all humanity, Lucy knew that she and her cousins needed a divine
credential if they were to be believed. During the apparition on July 13,
Sister Lucy asked the Lady "to tell us who You are, and to work a miracle,
so that everybody will believe that You are appearing to us." And the Lady
replied: "Continue to come here every month. In October I will tell you
who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and
believe."5 The Lady repeated this promise in further
apparitions to Lucy and the other seers on August 19 and again, at the Cova, on
September 13.
And
so the people had assembled in a great crowd at the Cova on October 13. And at
precisely the hour predicted in July—12 noon solar time, and 1:30 p.m. by the
clock in Portugal—it begins. Lucy suddenly tells the people in the crowd to
shut their umbrellas in the midst of a drenching rain which has turned the Cova
to mud. She then goes into an ecstasy, and the Lady, appearing again, first
tells Lucy who She is and what She wants, just as She had promised: "I
want a chapel to be built here in My honor. I am the Lady of the Rosary."
The Lady is the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, who will henceforth also be
known under the title Our Lady of Fatima, one of many bestowed upon the Blessed
Virgin by the Church. The chapel, of course, was built, and then rebuilt after
being blown up on March 6, 1922 by a bomb placed there by the friends of the
Tinsmith, a nickname for the Masonic mayor of Ourem.6
And
then the Miracle began. We recount here the testimony of a reporter who cannot
possibly be accused of partiality in this matter and for a good reason! We
refer to Avelino de Almeida, the chief editor of O Seculo, the large
"liberal" anticlerical and Masonic daily newspaper of Lisbon. He
writes:
From the road, where
the carriages were crowded together and where hundreds of persons had stayed
for want of sufficient courage to advance across the muddy ground, we saw the
huge crowd turn towards the sun which appeared at its zenith, clear of the
clouds. It resembled a disc of silver, and it was possible to stare at it
without the least discomfort. It did not burn the eyes. It did not blind. We
would say that it produced an eclipse. Then a tremendous cry rang out, and the
crowd nearest us were heard to shout: "Miracle! Miracle! ... Marvel! ...
Marvel!" Before the dazzled eyes of the people, whose attitude transported
us to biblical times, and who, dumbfounded, heads uncovered, contemplated the
blue of the sky, the sun trembled, it made strange and abrupt movements,
outside of all cosmic laws, "the sun danced", according to the typical
expression of the peasants ...7
Attacked
violently by all the anticlerical press, Avelino de Almeida renewed his
testimony, fifteen days later, in his review, Ilustração Portuguesa.
This time he illustrated his account with a dozen photographs of the huge
ecstatic crowd, and repeated as a refrain throughout his article: "I saw
... I saw ... I saw." And he concluded fortuitously: "Miracle, as the
people shouted? Natural phenomenon, as the experts say? For the moment, that
does not concern me, I am only saying what I saw... The rest is a matter for
Science and the Church."8
Saturday,
October 13 begins for the pilgrims as a walk of penance because it had rained
the whole preceding night. Now, this "almost sudden change of weather,
with the dusty roads transformed into muddy quagmires by a pelting rain,
causing to replace abruptly, for a day, the sweetness of autumn with the biting
rigors of winter, did not succeed in moving them, to make them give up or
despair."9
In
comparing the numerous accounts of witnesses, we can distinguish the diverse
aspects and the result of the astounding phenomena seen by all. For each one of
the phenomena, it would be possible to line up some ten pages of witnesses
which would constitute in themselves an impressive book.
Here
is the first marvelous fact described by Dr. Almeida Garrett:
It must have been
1:30 p.m. when there arose at the exact spot where the children were, a column
of smoke, thin, fine and bluish, which extended up to perhaps two meters above
their heads, and evaporated at that height. This phenomenon, perfectly visible
to the naked eye, lasted for a few seconds. Not having noted how long it had
lasted, I cannot say whether it was more or less than a minute. The smoke
dissipated abruptly, and after some time, it came back to occur a second time,
then a third time ...10
Whereas
"the low and heavy sky had a very dark color, laden with moisture, [which]
released an abundant and long lasting rain," during the time of the
apparition, the rain stopped totally. Abruptly the sky cleared: "The sun
triumphantly pierced the thick bed of clouds hiding it until then, and shone
intensely." (Dr. Almeida Garrett) This abrupt change of weather took all
the eyewitnesses by surprise: "It was a day of heavy and continuous rain.
But a few minutes before the miracle, it stopped raining." (Alfredo da
Silva Santos)
And
this testimony from a physician, a man of science, concerning the inexplicable
silvering of the sun, allowing it to be viewed directly without harm to the
eyes:
"Suddenly I
heard the uproar of thousands of voices, and I saw the whole multitude spread
out in that vast space at my feet ... turn their backs to that spot where,
until then, all their expectations focused, and look at the sun on the other
side ... I turned around, too, toward the point commanding their gazes, and I
could see the sun, like a very clear disc, with its sharp edge, which gleamed
without hurting the sight ... It could not be confused with the sun seen
through a fog (there was no fog at that moment), for it was neither veiled, nor
dim. At Fatima, it kept its light and heat, and stood out clearly in the sky,
with a sharp edge, like a large gaming table. The most astonishing thing was to
be able to stare at the solar disc for a long time, brilliant with light and
heat, without hurting the eyes, or damaging the retina." (Dr. Almeida
Garrett)11
In
the same vein this testimony by the editor-in-chief of O Seculo:
"And then we
witnessed a unique spectacle, an incredible spectacle, unbelievable if you did
not witness it. From above the road ... We see the immense crowd turn towards
the sun, which appeared at its zenith, clear of the clouds. It looked like a
plate of dull silver, and it was possible to stare at it without the least
discomfort. It did not burn the eyes. It did not blind. One might say that an
eclipse had occurred." (Article of October 15, 1917)
And
likewise: "The people could look at the sun as we look at the moon."
(Maria do Carmo)12
One
could multiply endlessly the testimonies about the ensuing solar phenomena,
witnessed even by the secular editor-in-chief of an anticlerical newspaper.
Consider these:
"It shook and
trembled; it seemed like a wheel of fire." (Maria da Capelinha)13
"The sun turned
like a fire wheel, taking on all the colors of the rainbow." (Maria do
Carmo)14
"It appeared
like a globe of snow turning on itself." (Father Lourenço)15
"The pearl-like disc
had a giddy motion. This was not the twinkling of a star in all its brilliance.
It turned on itself with impetuous speed." (Dr. Almeida Garrett)16
"At a certain
moment, the sun stopped and then began again to dance, to spin; it stopped
again, and began again to dance." (Ti Marto)17
"The sun took on
all the colors of the rainbow. Everything assumed those same colors: our faces,
our clothes, the earth itself." (Maria do Carmo)18
"A light, whose
colors changed from one moment to the next, was reflected on the people and on
things." (Dr. Pereira Gens)19
What
happened next constitutes the most terrifying aspect of the Miracle, and one
with profound implications for our era, in which man has perfected the ability
to destroy the whole world with fire from the sky: the sun appeared to detach
itself from the sky and plunge toward the earth.
"We suddenly
heard a clamor, like a cry of anguish of that entire crowd. The sun, in fact,
keeping its rapid movement of rotation, seemed to free itself from the
firmament and blood-red, to plunge towards the earth, threatening to crush us
with its fiery mass. Those were some terrifying seconds." (Dr. Almeida
Garrett)20
"I saw the sun
turn and it seemed to descend. It was like a bicycle wheel." (John
Carreira)21
"The sun began
to dance and, at a certain moment, it appeared to detach itself from the
firmament and to rush forward on us, like a fire wheel." (Alfredo da Silva
Santos)22
"I saw it
perfectly descending as if it came to crash on the earth. It seemed to detach
itself from the sky and rush toward us. It maintained itself at a short
distance above our heads; but that sort of attack was of very short duration...
It seemed very near the people and it continued to turn in the opposite
direction." (Maria do Carmo)23
"Suddenly, the
sun appeared with its circumference well-defined. It came down as if to the
height of the clouds and began to whirl giddily upon itself like a captive ball
of fire. With some interruptions, this lasted about eight minutes."
(Father Pereira da Silva)24
"It suddenly
seemed to come down in a zig-zag, menacing the earth." (Father Lourenço)25
"Seeing the sun
falling on us ..." (Father John Gomes)26
"Finally, the sun
stopped and everybody breathed a sigh of relief ..." (Maria da Capelinha)27
"From those
thousands of mouths I heard shouts of joy and love to the Most Holy Virgin. And
then I believed. I had the certainty of not having been the victim of a suggestion.
I had seen the sun as I would never see it again." (Mario Godinho, an
engineer)28
Another
astonishing fact: all those people, who were for the most part soaked to the
bone, verified with joy and amazement that they were dry. The fact is attested
to in the canonical process for Jacinta and Francisco, who were ultimately
beatified on May 13, 2000.
"The moment one
would least expect it, our clothes were totally dry." (Maria do Carmo)29
"My suit dried
in an instant." (John Carreira)30
The
academician Marques da Cruz testified as follows:
This enormous
multitude was drenched, for it had rained unceasingly since dawn. But—though
this may appear incredible—after the great miracle everyone felt comfortable,
and found his garments quite dry, a subject of general wonder ... The truth of
this fact has been guaranteed with the greatest sincerity by dozens and dozens
of persons of absolute trustworthiness, whom I have known intimately from
childhood, and who are still alive (1937), as well as by persons from various
districts of the country who were present.31
And
finally, there were also moral miracles of the conversions of many people. In
his book, Meet the Witnesses, John Haffert writes:
The captain of the
regiment of soldiers on the mountain that day—with orders to prevent the
gathering of the crowd—was converted instantly. Apparently so were hundreds of
other unbelievers, as their testimony will show.32
"There was an
unbeliever there who had spent the morning mocking the ‘simpletons’ who had
gone off to Fatima just to see an ordinary girl. He now seemed paralyzed, his
eyes fixed on the sun. He began to tremble from head to foot, and lifting up
his arms, fell on his knees in the mud, crying out to God." (Father
Lourenço)33
"I live eighteen
miles from Fatima. And in May of 1917 we were told about the extraordinary
apparitions, but the news came to us mixed up with the fantasy of the people.
Naturally I did not believe. I sincerely supposed it was only (the) imagination
of someone. ... At my mother’s request, I went once more to Cova da Iria in
August at the time of the apparitions. Once more I came back discouraged and
disappointed. But that time, something extraordinary happened. My mother, who
had had a large tumor in one of her eyes for many years, was cured. The doctors
who had attended her said they could not explain such a cure. Still I did not
believe in the apparitions. Finally, and again at my mother’s request, I went
to the Cova da Iria once more on the thirteenth of October. ... In spite of
what had happened to my mother, I was disappointed and did not believe in the
apparitions. So I sat inside my car. Then all at once I noticed that everybody
looked at the sky. Natural curiosity attracted my attention, and I got out of
the car and looked at the sky, too. ... From those hundreds of mouths I heard
words of belief and of love to the Blessed Virgin. And then I believed."
(Mario Godinho, an engineer)34
A
number of other cases of cures and conversions are documented in, among other
places, the following books: Documentação Crítica de Fátima and Fatima
from the Beginning.35
To
those who would say the miracle was a product of "mass hysteria" at
the scene, God Himself arranged a ready rebuttal: the phenomenon could be
admired from beyond Fatima. Perfectly credible witnesses, who were very far
from the Cova da Iria, related having seen the unprecedented spectacle of the
dance of the sun, exactly like the 70,000 pilgrims gathered around the holm-oak
where the Virgin had appeared.36
In
the small village of Alburitel, situated about ten miles from Fatima, the whole
town was able to enjoy the vision of the solar prodigy. The testimony frequently
quoted is that of Father Inacio Lourenço, because it is the most detailed. But
what he relates having seen, all the villagers, questioned by the
investigators, confirmed seeing it exactly the same way.
The
witnesses of the event were indeed innumerable, their testimonies agree and we
are flooded with the documents they have left us.37
In
the first place, numerous accounts appeared at once in the Portuguese press. It
is noteworthy that the first to provide testimony were the anticlerical
reporters. The three articles of Avelino de Almeida—the one of October 13,
immediately before the event; the other of October 15, edited at Vila Nova de
Ourem on the evening of the 13th; and a third article of October 29—merit a
special mention. In spite of the jeering tone and Voltarian irony which inspire
in part the first article, in spite of the expected anticlerical tones which
still appear in the article of the 15th, these texts from a talented reporter,
one who besides, is honest and conscientious, are historical documents of prime
importance.38 But he was not the only one to relate the facts, for
other reporters were present at the Cova da Iria.
Next
there were the official investigations. In November 1917, at the request of
Bishop de Lima Vidal, who was then directing the diocese of Lisbon, the parish
priest of Fatima led his investigation and questioned several witnesses of the
parish. Unfortunately, he transcribed only four depositions!
The
investigations of the historians fortunately compensated for the negligence of
the official investigators. The report of Father Formigao, who obtained from
Dr. José Maria de Almeida Garrett, professor at the Faculty of Sciences of
Coimbra, a very thorough account, is the most scientific report in our
possession.39 In addition, we have the reports of Father da Fonseca
(whose work was done in order to verify the points disputed by Father Dhanis,40
who refused to examine the evidence), Father de Marchi, Canon Barthas, Father
Dias Coelho and Father Richard.
In
1977, to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the last apparition, it was
still possible to assemble in Fatima more than thirty persons who had been
present at the solar prodigy and who could reveal their memories. Thanks to
those numerous testimonies, it is possible to reconstruct a precise running
commentary, allowing us to relive, hour-by-hour and minute-by-minute, this
decisive day, assuredly one of the most important in the history of the world.
Indeed, the evidence of the solar miracle on October 13, 1917 was so
overwhelming that in 1952 even Hollywood vouched for its authenticity by
releasing a classic film (starring Gilbert Roland) entitled "The Miracle
of Our Lady of Fatima", which is still being sold on videotape today.
Why
was this day so important? Because it was the day on which a heavenly Message
from the Mother of God was authenticated beyond any reasonable doubt; a message
which, more than 84 years later, stands at the heart of the perilous situation
of the Church and the world at this very moment in human history, offering us a
way out.
|
The first chapel of Our Lady of
Fatima built on the exact spot where Our Lady appeared. It was dynamited by
anti-Catholic forces in Portugal on March 6, 1922. The photograph above shows
the hole in the roof from the explosion. Providentially, the original statue
of Our Lady of Fatima, pictured on page xxiv, was not in the chapel at the
time. |
Footnotes
1. This chapter is largely taken verbatim from
Frère François de Marie des Anges, Fatima: Intimate Joy World Event,
Book One, The Astonishing Truth, (English edition, Immaculate Heart Publications,
Buffalo, New York, 1993) Chapter III, pp. 163-198.
2. English translation of text in Sister Lucy,
"Fourth Memoir", Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words, (Postulation
Centre, Fatima, Portugal, 1976) p. 162. See also Frère Michel de la Sainte
Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima — Volume I: Science and the Facts,
(Immaculate Heart Publications, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A., 1989) pp. 181-182.
3. English translation of text in Sister Lucy,
"Third Memoir", Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words, p. 104. See also The
Whole Truth About Fatima — Volume I, p. 182.
4. English translation of text in Sister Lucy,
"Fourth Memoir", Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words, (Postulation
Centre, Fatima, Portugal, 1976) p. 162. See also Sister Lucy, Memorias e
Cartas da Irma Lucia, (Porto, Portugal, 1973, edited by Father Antonio
Maria Martins) pp. 340-341; in Sister Lucy’s own handwriting there is no
ellipsis after the "etc.". See also Frère Michel de la Sainte
Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima — Volume I: Science and the Facts,
p. 182.
5. Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole
Truth About Fatima — Volume I, pp. 180-181.
6. Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole
Truth About Fatima — Volume II: The Secret and the Church, (English
edition, Immaculate Heart Publications, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A., 1989) pp.
357-358.
7. O Seculo of October 15, 1917.
8. Article of October 29, 1917. See also Frère
François de Marie des Anges, Fatima: The Astonishing Truth, p. 164.
9. Ilustração Portuguesa, October 29, 1917.
10. Frère François de Marie des Anges, Fatima:
The Astonishing Truth, pp. 171-172.
11. Ibid., pp. 172-173.
12. Ibid., p. 173.
13. Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole
Truth About Fatima — Volume I, p. 337.
14. Frère François de Marie des Anges, Fatima:
The Astonishing Truth, p. 178.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., pp. 178-179.
23. Ibid., p. 179.
24. Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole
Truth About Fatima — Volume I, p. 337.
25. Ibid., p. 339.
26. Ibid., p. 340.
27. Ibid.
28. Frère François de Marie des Anges, Fatima:
The Astonishing Truth, p. 179.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole
Truth About Fatima — Volume I, p. 340. See also Father John de Marchi,
I.M.C., Fatima From the Beginning, (Missoes Consolata, Fatima, Portugal,
1981, third edition, first published in 1950) p. 141; and Joseph A. Pelletier,
A.A., The Sun Danced at Fatima, (Doubleday, New York, 1983) pp. 129-130.
32. John M. Haffert, Meet the Witnesses,
(AMI International Press, Fatima, Portugal, 1961) p. 62. This book was
published with an Imprimatur from the Bishop of Leiria, Portugal and provides
us with credible direct testimonies of numerous witnesses to the Miracle of the
Sun.
33. Ibid., p. 65.
34. Ibid., pp. 86-89.
35. Documentaçáo Crítica de Fátima, Volume
II, (Santuário de Fátima, 1999) 17 cases documented on pp. 277-372; and Father
John de Marchi, I.M.C., Fatima From the Beginning.
36. Father John de Marchi, I.M.C., Fatima
From the Beginning, p. 136. See also Documentaçáo Crítica de Fátima,
Volume I, (Santuário de Fátima, 1992) p. 408. See also Frère Michel de la
Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima — Volume I, pp. 330-331.
37. Among the many reference works, see: Frère
Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima — Volume I:
Science and the Facts; John M. Haffert, Meet the Witnesses; Father
John de Marchi, I.M.C., Fatima From the Beginning, pp. 135-142.
38. We find the photographic reproduction of those
three articles in Fatima 50 of October 13, 1967, pp. 6-10; 14-15.
39. Novos Documentos de Fatima, Loyola
editions, Sao Paulo, 1984, pp. 60-63.
40. The modernist Jesuit priest, Father Dhanis, who
would later attempt to "debunk" the vision of hell and the prophetic
elements of the Message, including the consecration and ultimate conversion of
Russia. Father Dhanis refused the invitation of Sister Lucy herself to come to
Fatima and study the Fatima archives. Father Dhanis will eventually be cited by
key members of the Vatican apparatus in their attempt to revise the Message of
Fatima according to a "commentary" published on June 26, 2000.
Chapter 5
A Motive Emerges
As
we charged in the Introduction, the crime against the Church and the world
which we intend to prove in this book involves "a systematic attempt,
since the year 1960, to conceal, misrepresent and deny the authenticity of this
message — the Message of Fatima—even as its alarming prophecies are being
fulfilled before our very eyes."
But
why would men in the highest positions of authority in the Church commit such a
crime? As Aristotle observed, in order to understand an action one must look to
the motive. That is what we shall do in this chapter.
To
be sure, proving motive is always a difficult business; for one cannot read
another man’s mind, much less judge the state of his soul. In arriving at a
conclusion as to motive you, like any jury in a merely civil case, can only
base your decision on the external actions of the accused, in light of the
surrounding circumstances. When a jury finds that a man has murdered his wife
for the motive of obtaining insurance money, for example, it makes its finding
of motive based on a reasonable inference drawn from the surrounding
circumstances. Rarely would the killer in such a case openly admit "I
killed her for the insurance." Instead, motive would be inferred from such
things as the husband’s recent purchase of a very large insurance policy on the
wife.
Now,
no one would accuse a jury of "rash judgment" in inferring from the
circumstances that the husband in our hypothetical case harbored the intention
of killing his wife for money. In the case of Fatima, too, motive can be
deduced from circumstances; it is not "rash judgment" to reach a
reasonable conclusion about motive based on what the accused themselves have
said and done. Moreover, as we will demonstrate in this case we have the equivalent
of an admission as to motive. The accused have been quite explicit about what
they approve and what they intend concerning the crime at issue.
A
New and Ruinous Orientation of the Church
As
we charged in the Introduction, the motive in this case arises from the
recognition by the accused that the Message of Fatima, understood in a
traditional Catholic sense, cannot be reconciled with decisions they have taken
since the Second Vatican Council to change the entire orientation of the
Catholic Church. That is, the Message stands in the way of their effort to do
precisely what the future Pope Pius XII foresaw in his moment of supernatural
clarity: to remake the Church into an institution oriented toward the world.
The currently raging scandal in the Catholic priesthood is only one symptom of
this ruinous effort to "update" the Catholic Church. Another way of
putting it is that the current condition of the Catholic Church is the result
of an unprecedented invasion of the Church by liberalism. We recall once
again those prophetic words of Msgr. Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII),
uttered in the light of the Message of Fatima:
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 Church, reject Her ornaments and make Her feel remorse
for Her historical past.
A day will come when
the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter
doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our
churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits
them. Like Mary Magdalene, weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask,
"Where have they taken Him?"
In
the Introduction we also noted that this great change of orientation in the
Church—in "Her liturgy, Her theology, Her soul", as the future Pope
Pius XII put it—was the long-cherished goal of the organized forces that have
been plotting against the Church for centuries; the same forces that were at
work in Portugal in 1917, but were repelled by the Consecration of that nation
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1931. To repel those forces throughout the
world was the very reason Heaven itself sent the Mother of God to Fatima to
prescribe the Consecration of Russia. Those forces were soon to become the
prime weapon of Satan’s long war against the Church. Truly, the outcome of the
war against the Church in our time hinges on the battle over fulfillment of the
Fatima Message.
Our
presentation of the evidence of the motive in this case—namely, a desire to
impose upon the Church a new orientation to the exclusion of the Message of
Fatima—requires some considerable historical background, which we will now
present. This background will be of interest not only to Catholics, but also to
non-Catholics who are seeking to understand what has happened to the Catholic
Church since Vatican II.
The Goal of Organized Freemasonry:
To Neutralize and "Instrumentalize" the Catholic Church
As
we have seen with the example of Portugal in 1917, the forces of Masonry (and their
Communist fellow travelers) conspired to prevent the Message of Fatima from
finding its fulfillment in Portugal. The Message was called a fraud or a
childish delusion; the seers themselves were persecuted and even threatened
with death. Such was the hatred of these forces for the Catholic Church and the
Virgin Mother of God.
And
so it is with these forces in the world at large today. One need not descend
into the fever swamps of conspiracy theory to know that before 1960, the Popes
issued more condemnations and warnings about the plotting of the Freemasons and
the Communists against the Church than on any other single subject in Church
history.
On
this point, one cannot fail to consider the infamous Permanent Instruction
of the Alta Vendita, a Masonic document that mapped out an entire plan for
the infiltration and corruption of the Catholic Church in the 20th
Century.1 While it has become fashionable since the Second Vatican
Council to scoff at the existence of such a conspiracy, it must be noted that
the secret papers of the Alta Vendita (an Italian secret society), including
the Permanent Instruction, fell into the hands of Pope Gregory XVI. The Permanent
Instruction was published at the request of Blessed Pope Pius IX by
Cardinal Cretineau-Joly in his work The Roman Church and Revolution.2
With his brief of approbation of February 25, 1861 (addressed to the author)
Pope Pius IX guaranteed the authenticity of the Permanent Instruction
and the other Masonic papers, but he did not allow anyone to divulge the true
names of the members of the Alta Vendita implicated in the documents. Pope Leo
XIII had likewise requested their publication. Both Popes acted, no doubt, in
order to prevent such a tragedy from taking place. These great Pontiffs knew
that such a calamity was far from impossible. (Pope Pius XII also knew it, as
we can see from his prophetic remarks while he was still Vatican Secretary of
State.)
The
full text of the Permanent Instruction is also contained in Msgr. George
E. Dillon’s book, Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked.3 When
Pope Leo XIII was presented with a copy of Msgr. Dillon’s book, he was so
impressed that he ordered an Italian version to be completed and published at
the Pope’s own expense.4
The
Alta Vendita was the highest lodge of the Carbonari, an Italian secret society
with links to Freemasonry and which, along with Freemasonry, was condemned by
the Catholic Church.5 The estimable Catholic historian Father E.
Cahill, SJ, who is hardly a "conspiracy nut", states in his work Freemasonry
and the Anti-Christian Movement that the Alta Vendita was "commonly
supposed to have been at the time the governing center of European
Freemasonry."6 The Carbonari were most active in Italy and
France.
In his book Athanasius and the Church of Our Time (1974), Bishop Rudolph Graber, another objective and quite unimpeachable authority writing after the Second Vatican Council, quoted a prominent Freemason who declared that "the goal (of Freemasonry) is no longer the destruction of the Church, but to make use of it by infiltrating it."7 In other words, since Freemasonry cannot completely obliterate Christ’s Church, it plans not only to eradicate the influence of Catholici