FATIMA: PAST OR FUTURE?
The Unheeded Message

UPDATED EDITION
WITH 3RD SECRET AND SPECIAL COMMENTARY

Translation of the Brazilian edition
Translation and Editing: Philip Moran
Design: Felipe Barandiarán

ISBN: 84930626-6-X
Dep. Legal: M-12108-2001

© Tradition, Family, Property
Bureau for the United Kingdom
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G62 6 YJ
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email: secretary@tfpuk.fsnet.co.uk

Printed by: Henagraf S.L. Coslada (Madrid)

BIOGRAPHIES

The Author

ANTONIO BORELLI MACHADO was professor of moral philosophy at the Sacred Heart College in São Paulo. He graduated as a civil engineer from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo and he worked in that profession for fifteen years. Following that, he has dedicated his time entirely to the Brazilian Society for the Defence of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). He is currently head of the Brazilian TFP's Commission of Readers, its department for research and documentation, which analyses, summarises and catalogues more than four hundred periodicals in thirteen languages from twenty-five countries, and which maintains a specialised library on current doctrinal subjects.

He is a contributor to the prestigious monthly cultural magazine Catolicismo, which circulates throughout Brazil. He has most distinguished himself as the author of the book The Apparitions and Message of Fatima According to the Manuscripts of Sister Lucia. This is a thoroughly documented and incisive study of the revelations of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three little shepherds Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco in the Cova da Iria in 1917, a study that has been of great interest to scholars as well as to the general public.

The book has been translated into eighteen languages and published in numerous editions in twenty-two countries. Over thirty seven million copies have been distributed worldwide.

Dr. Borelli has spoken at international forums on Fatima, such as the Luci sull'Est/Lepanto Cultural Association conference in Rome in 1998. And his articles and interviews have featured in various magazines and newspapers.

The Founder of the TFP

PROF. PLINIO CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA was born in 1908 in São Paulo, Brazil, a country having the largest Catholic population in the world. Both his parents came from traditional aristocratic families.

He dedicated his life to promoting the cause of the Catholic Church and Christian civilisation. In 1928 he joined the Marian Congregations, then Brazil's largest Catholic movement, soon rising to national leadership, and distinguishing himself as an orator, lecturer and man of action. At twenty-four years of age he was elected to the Brazilian Constitutional Assembly of 1933 as a candidate for the Catholic Electoral League.

In the following years he practiced law, held the chair of history of civilisation at the University of São Paulo Law School, and the chair of modern and contemporary history at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. In 1960 he founded the Brazilian Society for the Defence of Tradition, Family and Property, serving as its president until his death in 1995.
As a thinker and writer, Professor Corrêa de Oliveira made a major contribution to modern Catholic thought. While president of the São Paulo Archdiocesan Board of Catholic Action, he directed the weekly Legionário, making it Latin America's front-ranking Catholic newspaper. Later, he was a contributor to the influential monthly magazine Catolicismo, and a syndicated columnist with Brazil's largest daily newspaper, the Folha de São Paulo. He also wrote 15 books.

Professor Corrêa de Oliveira's life and work was the inspiration for other Catholics around the world to establish TFPs in their respective countries. His legacy is seen today in the thriving school of thought he founded and in his worldwide following of disciples.
A man of profound piety and unshakable faith, he was intensely devoted to the Blessed Eucharist and the Holy Virgin Mary, to whom he consecrated himself according to the method of St. Louis de Montfort. He loved the Papacy, having unlimited admiration for the principle of Infallibility. He never lost an opportunity to incite others to these devotions, and so they are hallmarks of the spiritual life of every TFP member.

PREFACE

The Approaching Storm and Ultimate Triumph of the Immaculate Heart

This is the first British edition of a work that narrates the apparitions and messages of the Most Holy Virgin at Fatima, Portugal, which took place between May and October of 1917. The work has been widely spread throughout the world with 3.7 million copies in eighteen languages!

A sceptic, or someone not too well informed, could ask: What is the relevance of the message of Fatima for today's world? Especially now that the third part of the Secret has been revealed, how can it help us?

In fact, the message of Our Lady at Fatima is not only the key to understanding the events of the 20th Century, but also those of the days we now live, as well as those to come.

The Mother of God spoke to three shepherd children - Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco (the latter two were beatified on 13 May 2000) - and, through them, to the whole world. Essentially, she asked them to communicate to the world her profound affliction in face of the impiety and corruption of mankind. If mankind does not amend its ways, the Most Holy Virgin added, a terrible chastisement would result.

The 20th century has come to an end, and we must admit that sinful humanity has not amended its ways. It is immersed in a tremendous crisis affecting every aspect of life. Moral, family, social and religious values are all topsy-turvy. To bring about a change, Our Lady clearly presented an alternative: either conversion or chastisement.

In the apparition of 13 July 1917, she spoke of a chastisement in the next life. This one will be eternal, supreme and definitive: the condemning to hell of sinners who die unrepentant. The Mother of God did not hesitate to show hell to the three seers who were only ten, nine and seven years of age. This aspect of the Fatima message constituted the "first Secret" or, more precisely, the first part of the Secret.

The second part - or "second Secret" - refers to a chastisement in this life. It presents mankind with a great alternative: if men "do not stop offending God…He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father." War is presented as a chastisement for the sins of mankind, unless they convert. And Our Lady adds: "God wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world."

Mary Most Holy is even more precise about the punishments. She points out Russia as the scourge: [Russia] "will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church".

If the evil effects of communism are the errors Russia will spread throughout the world, how can we understand this prophecy in the light of the collapse of the USSR?

The Bolchevik revolution of 1917 put into effect egalitarian doctrines that for over a hundred years had originated and developed in Western Europe, especially in France. These doctrines emerged during the apex of the French Revolution with the "conspiracy of the equals" and became an ideological system with the Communist Manifesto of 1848. They also inspired the Paris Commune of 1871 that killed priests, profaned churches, and burnt palaces. All these crimes were perpetrated in the name of an egalitarian utopia.

On 13 July 1917, the day on which Our Lady solemnly warned about the "errors of Russia", most of the Bolcheviks did not think it possible for these doctrines to take hold in Russia. Lenin had just returned to the country thanks to the powerful support of the West. In addition, the provisional head of state, Prince Lvov, lulled the people by affirming that the old empire of the czars would become a "universal democracy".

Nevertheless, on 7 November, against all odds, some few hundred communist militants, reinforced by deserters and opportunists, took power and established an impious and brutal form of government. The Bolshevik party immediately began to spread "its errors" throughout the world, thus confirming the words of the Most Holy Virgin.

Never before had an official government proposed such an ensemble of aberrations: the implantation of the most complete egalitarianism and the suppression of private property, divorce and free love, abortion and contraception, the "rights" of homosexuals, the "liberation" of the woman, euthanasia, the control of the totalitarian State, the planning of lifestyles to the smallest detail. All this had as its objective the eradication of every vestige of religion from souls and the establishment of an anti-religion: materialism and relativism.

For almost a century, Russia spread its errors throughout the world like a gigantic aerosol sprayer, even to the last drop. Today, the spray can might seem empty, but the world has been contaminated. Our Lady's prophecy was fulfilled. Most of the errors that in 1917 were only held by communists have now been adopted by the main political parties of the whole world.

Internationally, these errors are even considered to be the norm. They are the "errors of Russia" that have spread throughout the world. And it is most sorrowful to say that they even have profoundly infiltrated important sectors of the Roman Catholic Church (*). This brings to mind Pope Paul VI's famous words referring to the "process of self-destruction", and the "smoke of Satan in the temple of God".

How can we not see that this ensemble of errors called communism, far from having disappeared, has profoundly imbued the West without even a shot being fired? Utilising the most advanced form of revolutionary tactics - at times called counter-culture or cultural revolution - it systematically destroys Christian tradition, the basis of our civilisation; it openly fights against upright morals, even undermining the institution of the family; and finally, it promotes unbridled egalitarianism by even trying to suppress the principle of private property. This is a principle that is so essential to safeguard the institution of the family that it is an integral part of Church teaching and protected by two Commandments of the Law of God.

Today the world is even more immersed in sin than at the time of the apparitions in 1917. And the "errors of Russia" have penetrated the nucleus of social and religious life in the West. The appeal of Our Lady to do penance was not heeded as it should have been. Consequently the punishments for the sins of humanity have increased in a frightful manner. The Second World War and the crimes of nazism, the more than 100 million deaths for which the communist regimes are responsible, the ever-increasing number of wars, conflicts and religious persecutions are all evident examples of these punishments. Can one conclude otherwise?

With this world scenario as a backdrop- in many ways so dramatic - the third part of the Secret of Fatima, or "third Secret", was revealed by the Holy See on 26 June 2000.

In summary, the third part is a vision of an angel brandishing a flaming sword, who threatens the world and who cries out in a loud voice: penance, penance, penance! Then, the Pope, bishops, priests, religious, men and women of all states of life, after having passed through a city in ruins, climb a hill on whose crest is a large cross. There they are martyred and the blood of the martyrs is gathered up by angels who sprinkle it over the souls making their way to God.

So not only the harmful "errors of Russia" will have spread throughout the West and the whole world - having thus systematically destroyed Christian civilisation - but persecutions will also multiply, whether bloody or not.

In fact, those who manifest and profess their adhesion to the perennial principles of Christian morality, the foundation of a true civilisation, are already being persecuted and will be more so in the near future.

How? In what way?

Catholic doctors who refuse to perform an abortion are persecuted and punished by the law. Any Catholic who professes Church teaching that the homosexual act is a sin against nature is persecuted and punished by the law. Any Catholic headteacher or teacher who refuses to include programmes on sexual licentiousness in his school is persecuted and punished by the law. Any priest who refuses to violate the secret of confession is persecuted. Any Catholic who, whether meeting in private or in associations, wants his voice to be heard as a faithful echo of the Magisterium of the Church is persecuted. And this does not include the many countries where, even today, the blood of Christians is being shed in martyrdom.

To avoid, as much as possible, the terrible consequences of the final unleashing of the chastisements predicted by Our Lady and to hasten the blessed dawn of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as she promised, we should do what she requested.

What were her requests? They were: a more fervent devotion to the Mother of God; prayer, especially the recitation of the rosary; penance, and the practice of the commandments of the Law of God. Only in this way will the terrible world crisis be resolved. Only in this way will the conditions be met for true and lasting peace: the peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ, and more particularly, the peace of Mary in the Reign of Mary.

In light of the above considerations, without entering into the controversy of whether or not the successive Papal consecrations of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary have fulfilled the conditions established by Our Lady for the conversion of Russia (the nation that must be specifically mentioned in the formula of consecration), any statement about the promises of Fatima being fulfilled would demand the greatest circumspection, considering that mankind has not corresponded to the requests of Our Lady in a fundamental point, that is, amendment of life.

* * *

In the preface to the American edition of this book, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira wrote: "These considerations could make certain people sceptical and disdainful. Men without faith - and their near relations: those with little faith - will smile at what they consider to be disconcerting oversimplifications, even childish oversimplifications, of modern problems…. To try to find a solution in the candid message announced by three illiterate shepherd children seems ridiculous; possibly even demented.

"I do not deny the great complexity of today's problems. Much to the contrary, I believe they are so complex that human hands cannot resolve them….

"However, I cannot resist the urge to show my sceptical readers something of the irreplaceable possibilities religion has to offer. I would like to show them a keyhole through which they can see the vast horizons religion has to offer.

"Saint Augustine outlines a truly Christian society, in The City of God, and the benefits thus derived for the State. '[Imagine],' he writes, 'an army as the teaching of Christ orders soldiers to be; let them provide such governors, such husbands, such wives, such parents, such children, such masters, such servants, such kings, such judges, and lastly such taxpayers and tax collectors as Christian teaching admonishes them to be; and then let them dare to say that this teaching is opposed to the welfare of the State, or, rather, let them even hesitate to admit that it is the greatest safeguard of the State when faithfully observed.' (Epist. 138 ad Marcellinum, Chap. II, no. 15)

"What political, social or economic school could prevent, without the help of religion, the final demise of a society that, impelled by the very dynamism of its own unbelief and corruption, is now transgressing every principle of the City of God described by Saint Augustine?"

* * *

I sincerely hope these reflections, linking the Fatima message to current world events, help the reader to take better advantage of this serious study on the apparitions and the message of Our Lady at Fatima.

============

(*) During the Second Vatican Council, 213 Council Fathers signed a petition in which the Holy Father was asked to provide for the elaboration and study of a schema of a Conciliar constitution on the errors "of the communist, socialist or marxist sect". They considered that a condemnation of communism was an issue "of the highest order for the good of the Church and the salvation of souls". After recalling the terrible conditions of the faithful living under the communist yoke, as well as the imminent danger of many others to be likewise subjugated, the 213 Council Fathers warned about the infiltration of communist ideas in Catholic circles. "Many Catholics look upon communism with sympathy" and, even worse, "many faithful feel a certain guilt for not yet openly professing communism or socialism". Consequently, they asked that a document be made to explain very clearly Catholic social doctrine and to condemn the errors of marxism, of communism and of socialism from a philosophical, sociological and economical point of view. They also asked that the errors that prepare the spirit of Catholics to accept socialism or communism also be denounced. (The complete text of this petition was published in the Brazilian monthly journal Catolicismo in its January 1964 edition).

What is the Society for the Defence of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP)

A SCHOOL OF THOUGHT. As a civic association of Catholics, TFP bases itself on the teachings of the traditional magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. We see the crisis of contemporary society as having its roots in the most profound problems of the soul of present-day man, whence it spread to his whole personality and to all his activities. We understand this crisis to include:

1. A loss of Faith and a rejection of the principles of the natural order established by God.

2. The continuous opposition of the disorderly passions of the soul, particularly pride and sensuality, to the mandates of Natural and Moral Law, leading to absolute equality and licentiousness.

3. The existence of a process, through which individuals - and even whole nations - are gradually attracted either to the pole of good and of order, or else to the pole of evil and disorder.

A SCHOOL OF ACTION. To counter the above revolutionary process, which led to the present anti-Christian order of things, we aim to re-establish Christian civilisation. To accomplish this we use every available peaceful and lawful means, such as:
Direct action to inform the public about key ideological issues, thereby frequently changing the course of events. In public campaigns that are a hallmark of the TFP, our volunteers talk directly to people on the streets and hand out leaflets.

Informing and educating through leaflets, newsletters and books dealing with a range of topics of interest to Catholics and the general public. TFP's carefully researched books and position papers always receive the highest praise for their accuracy and in-depth insights into issues. TFP Viewpoint, our bi-monthly newsletter, keeps us in touch with our friends. We also give talks to a wide variety of groups, explaining our work, or dealing with specific topics.

One of our on-going activities since 1995 has been a very successful project called Britain Needs Fatima. It aims to bring the message of Fatima to as many Britons as possible. To date, over one million copies of an attractive leaflet about Fatima and another on the Rosary have been distributed in over 170 towns and cities, from Southampton to Aberdeen. Leafletting has also been done at over 250 parishes nationwide. The leaflets are handed out on the streets, at shopping centres and markets, enabling us to meet with and talk to passers-by. In this way we have reached countless people of all ages and backgrounds telling them about Fatima and about the Catholic Faith. The centrepiece of the campaign is a well-documented book on Our Lady's apparitions and messages at Fatima. The present work is the latest edition.

Why Tradition, Family, Property?

Why is it important to defend tradition, the family and the right to private property? At first sight these values might seem to be an arbitrary mix. But, in fact, they are three pillars supporting every sound civilisation, and especially Christian civilisation. Abolish any one of them and the other two will wither and die. They are values rooted in both Natural Law and Divine Revelation. Today they are under attack as never before. To restore Christian civilisation we must foster and defend tradition, the family and the principle of private property.

Tradition is the sum of a people's accomplishments in the religious, moral, cultural and material fields. It is a gift handed down from generation to generation by virtue of which youth moves forward with a surer step, enlightened and guided by the experience of elders. Tradition is not merely an historic value, nor simply a romantic yearning for bygone days. It is an indispensable factor for contemporary life. Through tradition societies avoid stagnation, as well as chaos and revolt.

Family is tradition's most dynamic element. If the family did not exist, neither would tradition, for families are the bearers of natural and supernatural moral values that are passed on from one generation to the next. A family must develop this rich patrimony into a school of being, living, progressing and serving one's country and Christendom. Otherwise it risks producing maladjusted individuals who don't know who they are and who cannot stably and logically fit into any social group.

Property is a human right based on the nature of man as a free individual entitled to the fruits of his labour. Private property is indispensable for the well-being of the family. In accordance with their God-given instincts, all parents worthy of the name work, struggle and save to provide a secure future for their children. Thus, families accumulate patrimonies which are passed on from generation to generation as inheritance. Inheritance is the rendezvous of family and property. Although even more important than material possessions are intangible goods like education and cultural and moral values. To deny the legitimacy of this is to make parents strangers to their own children. The seventh and ninth Commandments explicitly state the sacredness of private property.
The destruction of tradition, the family, and private property has been sought by all the totalitarian movements of the modern age, especially Socialism, National Socialism (Nazism), Fascism and Communism. These movements are natural enemies of Christian civilisation.

Introduction
In books about Fatima, the narration of the apparitions and the conversations of Our Lady with the seers are usually not the primary focus; instead these are intermixed with other related events and aspects of the story, such as the local repercussions of the apparitions, the interrogations of the seers and witnesses, the cures and extraordinary conversions that followed, the fascinating details of the spiritual progress of the privileged children, and numerous associated episodes. All of this is perfectly natural and understandable.
Nevertheless, after reading these books, many feel a desire for a text that would devote special attention to the contents of the apparitions. They seek to more fully grasp the meaning of the message Our Lady came to communicate to men and thus heed her admonitions.
To satisfy this legitimate desire, we have attempted to put together a story centred on what occurred between the Virgin and the seers; and between the Angel of Portugal and the seers. The numerous edifying and picturesque facts interwoven with the story of Fatima have been set aside in order to focus attention on this essential part.
The accounts of the apparitions of the angel in 1916 and Our Lady in 1917 are followed by private revelations received by the seers, especially Sister Lucia. Since they complement the apparitions at Cova da Iria, they could not be omitted here.
The first edition of this work in 1967 was based primarily on two well-known works, which we recommend to those who are anxious to read more about the story of Fatima. One is William Thomas Walsh's Our Lady of Fatima; the other, Era uma Senhora mais brillante que o sol by Father John M. de Marchi, I.M.C. (See bibliography).
Father De Marchi spent several years in Fatima, questioning witnesses of the events and carefully recording their remarks. He interviewed Sister Lucia and was able to examine her manuscripts, which we shall discuss further on.
In 1946, William Thomas Walsh also went to Portugal to interview witnesses and do research. He spoke with Sister Lucia and relied extensively on her four memoirs in the writing of his book.
The works of Father De Marchi and Walsh are well researched and in essential agreement in most details. Nevertheless, further care was taken to compare them with books of other authors, who complete and clarify certain facts and details. These are pointed out in their proper places. Unfortunately, it was then impossible to examine the authoritative sources themselves, the manuscripts of Sister Lucia. Those manuscripts had not yet been published, save for a few excerpts reproduced by several authors who had been able to examine them.
When the first edition was published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions, we expressed the desire to see the complete text of those precious manuscripts brought to light for the edification of all those who are devoted to Our Lady of Fatima. Today it behoves us to acknowledge the fulfilment of this desire. The manuscripts were at last published in 1973 by Father Antonio Maria Martins, S.J. in Memórias e Cartas da Irmã Lúcia.
However, we are still eagerly awaiting a complete work that, in addition to the memoirs and letters already published, contains all the interrogations to which Sister Lucia was subjected, the documents of the canonical investigation, and all the seer's correspondence that still exists. The importance of the Fatima message certainly warrants such a meritorious effort.
The four accounts Sister Lucia wrote are usually designated as Memoirs I, II, III, and IV. (The remaining parts of Father Antonio Maria Martins' book are referred to here simply as Memoirs.)
Memoir I is a collection of Sister Lucia's reminiscences for a biography of Jacinta. On 12 September 1935, the mortal remains of the little seer of Fatima, who died in 1920, were exhumed. Her face was found to be incorrupt. The Rt. Rev. José Alves Correia da Silva, Bishop of Leiria, sent Sister Lucia a photograph taken on this occasion. In her letter of thanks, she referred to the virtues of her cousin. The prelate then ordered her to write all she knew about the life of Jacinta. Thus, the task of writing the first manuscript began. It was finished around Christmas 1935.
In April of 1937, Father Ayres da Fonseca told the Bishop of Leiria that Sister Lucia's first account suggested the existence of yet unknown facts related to the apparitions. This prompted a new order from the bishop for Sister Lucia to write the story of her life, a task she accomplished between 7 and 21 November of the same year. In this account she also speaks, although very briefly, of the apparitions of Our Lady and, for the first time, officially discloses the apparitions of the Angel of Portugal. Until then, she had remained silent about them for several reasons: She had been advised to do so by the archpriest of Olival, Father Faustino José Jacinto Ferreira (to whom she had narrated the apparitions), later reinforced by the same recommendation from the Bishop of Leiria; additionally, the criticism and mockery resulting from her account of the three apparitions of the angel in the spring and summer of 1916 and the severe reprimands of her mother always prompted her to great caution and discretion. But Sister Lucia's great reluctance to talk about herself and, therefore, about the apparitions in her memoirs still mystifies the reader.
In 1941, the Bishop of Leiria again ordered the seer to provide, to the best of her ability, a detailed narrative of Jacinta's life for a book being written by Canon José Galamba de Oliveira about the youngest seer. "This order," writes Sister Lucia, "touched the depth of my soul like a beam of light telling me that the time had come to reveal the first two parts of the secret...." Thus, Sister Lucia began her third manuscript by revealing the currently known parts of the secret of Fatima. Following this, she recorded the impression these revelations had made on Jacinta. This account is dated 31 August 1941.
Surprised by such revelations, Canon Galamba de Oliveira concluded that Sister Lucia had not told everything in her previous accounts and urged the Bishop of Leiria to command her to write the complete story of the apparitions. "Your Excellency… give her the order to write everything, and I mean everything. She will have to wander a while in purgatory for staying silent about so many things." Sister Lucia excused herself, saying that she always acted out of obedience. Canon Galamba de Oliveira insisted that the bishop order her "to tell everything, everything; she should hide nothing". (He was apparently alluding to the third part of the secret.) The bishop, however, chose not to become involved. "That I shall not order. In secret matters, I shall not meddle." Instead, he simply told the seer to make a complete narration of the apparitions. Then she wrote the fourth manuscript, which bears the date of 8 December 1941. In this memoir, Sister Lucia, for the first time gave a systematic and ordered account of the apparitions, stating in the conclusion of the narrative that nothing of all that she could remember had been "knowingly" omitted, save, evidently, the third part of the secret, which she had not been ordered to reveal.

In June 1943 Sister Lucia fell ill with pleurisy that lasted for several months, during which time she would sometimes improve and sometimes have relapses. This was further complicated by the side effects of the medicine she was taking.

Fearing the worst, the Bishop of Leiria, after much hesitation, in the middle of September of that year, asked the seer to write the third part of the Secret. It was a request and not an order. As a result, the seer was left in a state of perplexity, because she did not feel moved to do this by any interior grace. In mid-October, the Bishop of Leiria gave the explicit order she had requested, but, nonetheless, the seer was unable to overcome her interior anguish.

Having been consulted about this, Bishop Antônio Garcia, apostolic administrator of Tuy and Archbishop-designate of Valladolid, suggested she explain her difficulties to the Bishop of Leiria. But the Superioress of Sister Lucia retained his letter to the seer, dated early December, until mid-January.

However, before the letter was delivered to Sister Lucia, Our Lady dispelled all of her doubts on 2 January 1944. Our Lady appeared to her in the infirmary of the House of the Doretheans in Tuy and ordered her to write what was requested of her. The seer did so the very next day.

This document's long itinerary of having been given to the Bishop of Leiria five months later until its revelation in the year 2000 will be dealt with in detail in Chapter II of this work.

In the first edition of this work in 1967, we tried to reconstruct the development of the apparitions with the greatest possible fidelity, using the principal bibliographical sources then available. Unfortunately, discrepancies among the best authors were found. Many doubts were settled with the publication of the manuscripts of Sister Lucia, but some still linger. Accordingly, a consultation with the surviving seer is still desirable so that she may clarify the ambiguities wherever possible.

In offering this latest edition to the public, we hope to contribute toward making the message of Our Lady of Fatima more widely known, loved, and observed.

FOREWORD
by The Reverend Antony F. M. Conlon CM HEL **
THE LAST CENTURY was one of war and violence unequalled in the annals of human history. Ideals and values and institutions that had shaped and nurtured our civilisation for many centuries were overthrown and trampled upon. And innocent people fared no better. The statistics of victimisation, terror and mass-killing almost defy analysis by the sheer enormity of the figures concerned. Two World Wars have been followed by scores of regional and civil wars that have added to the dreadful toll of death and destruction. At the same time, our society has been plagued since the decade of the sixties with the scourge of legal abortion. The ending of innocent human life, sanctioned by governments. The scale of this genocide is rapidly overtaking even the horrendous total of those killed in wars. Its baleful influence reaches into the very sanctuary of maternity and domestic and family life. Its fruits are all too obvious. Callous indifference to respect for age, decency and morality now afflict vast areas of the world, as we stand on the threshold of a third Christian Millenium.
We may often be tempted to raise our hands heavenwards and ask Almighty God why He appears to look on and permit these evils to continue unabated. Why is there no message, no sign to tell us what we must do in this situation, to warn us of the evil consequences of the abandonment of religion and the headlong pursuit of material convenience, commodity and baser instincts. We find in the apparitions of Our Blessed Lady at Fatima an answer to these anxious entreaties. God has heard and continues to hear the cries of His People - as well as those who sincerely long for justice, peace and true values of love and respect - who beseech that the good triumph over wickedness and false ideology. The sky may be dark at times, but the Light of the World can never be extinguished. This is the hope of all true Christians. This is the substance of Our Lady's message to the world.
The sharp arrows of human distress and faithful pleading that have pierced the skies to reach the throne of God have had as their response from His infinite Majesty a beam of light so powerful and so penetrating that its effects still radiate, ninety years on. For God, through the prayerful innocence and piety of three young Portuguese children, has provided in 1917 a vision of what has been and what is still to come. The Immaculate Virgin has in Fatima - as in other places and at other times - brought words of comfort, counsel, witness and warning to lead us out of the abyss and upward to the light which is Her Son.
From the very first, the story of Fatima and its timely message for mankind was relevant to the imminent catastrophic collapse of the institutions of government, justice, religion and morality which began in the early decades of the twentieth century and has continued in various forms to affect us ever since. It was not to be an overthrowing of just one system of government, but the gradual and systematic elimination of every trace of the Christian culture that was at the heart of society and its civic and social institutions in so many parts of the globe. Godless ideologies of race, social progress, economic expansion, military might and perfectibility through social engineering were propagated in place of the age-old philosophies of benevolence, compassion, responsibility, philanthropy and eschatological accountability which had influenced the processes of human development for two thousand years. The message of Fatima was a simple yet powerful antidote to this pervasive poison. It is still so today as it has been since 1917.
The evil powers that sought the destruction of civilisation then are still at work. The motives, names and the faces may change, or rather be more occult, but the programme continues unabated. With sophisticated and subtle weapons the warfare continues, perverting, distorting and eroding the true and the good. But their days, however long they may be, are numbered. And we must realise that our conflict with these dark forces is fought not with material weapons but with those of the spirit. The mighty host of those, in heaven, on earth, and as yet unborn who are to be numbered among the children of Mary, must take their stand with her and, following behind her banner, know that they are invincible.
But first, for this great enterprise, it is essential to provide ourselves with the armour of a clear and renewed vision and a rallying call that is unambiguous and forthright. This new edition of the Fatima prophecies is therefore a means that is both timely and invaluable. Not only to those who are already courageously engaged in the fight, but to those fearful of the times that are and of what is to come, and to those who are seeking an answer to the question, why? We should all read and inwardly digest the message on these pages and thereby discover not only the "why" of all our global afflictions, but also the "wherefore" by which they may be remedied.

** The Reverend Antony F. M. Conlon is Rector of Saint Joseph's Parish - Bunhill Row in Central London, and Chaplain to the Grand Priory of England of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Chapter I
The Apparitions of the Angel of Portugal
Before the apparitions of Our Lady occurred, Lucia de Jesus dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who all lived in the village of Aljustrel in the township of Fatima, had three visions of the Angel of Portugal, also called the Angel of Peace.
The First Apparition of the Angel
The angel first appeared either in the spring or summer of 1916 at Loca do Cabeço, a rocky outcrop near the top of a knoll called Cabeço, not far from Aljustrel. This is Sister Lucia's account of the apparition:
"We had been playing for a while when a strong wind shook the trees. Since it was a calm day, this made us raise our eyes to see what was happening. Then we began to see, well above the trees that covered the stretch of land to the east, a light whiter than snow in the shape of a transparent young man who was more brilliant than a crystal struck by the rays of the sun.
"As he approached, we began to see his features. He was a young man of great beauty about fourteen or fifteen years old. We were surprised and ecstatic. We did not utter a word.
"Once he drew near us, he said: 'Fear not. I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.'
"Kneeling down, he bowed forward until his forehead touched the ground. We imitated him, led by a supernatural inspiration, and repeated the words we heard him say: 'My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee. I beg Thee forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love Thee.'
"After he had repeated this twice, he rose and said: 'Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.' Then he disappeared.
"The supernatural atmosphere that enveloped us was so intense that we were almost unaware of our own existence. For a long time, we remained in the same position we were in when he left, repeating the same prayer. The presence of God was so intense and intimate that we dared not speak to each other. On the following day, we felt our spirits still enveloped in that atmosphere, which was but slowly disappearing.
"None of us thought of talking about this apparition or of recommending secrecy, for the incident itself demanded it. It was so intimate that it was difficult to utter a word about it. This might well have been the apparition that impressed us the most, because it was the first one thus manifested."
The Second Apparition of the Angel
The second apparition occurred in the summer of 1916 over the well at the house of Lucia's parents, next to which the three children were playing. This is how Sister Lucia narrates what the angel said to them:
"'What are you doing? Pray! Pray a great deal! The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs concerning you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High!' "'How must we sacrifice?' I asked.
"'Offer God a sacrifice of anything you can as an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended and as a supplication for the conversion of sinners. Draw peace upon your country by doing this. I am its guardian angel - the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and endure with submission whatever suffering the Lord sends you.' Then he disappeared.
"The angel's words were impressed upon our souls like a light that made us understand who God is, how much He loves us and wishes to be loved, the value of sacrifice and how it pleases God, and how He converts sinners because of it."
The Third Apparition of the Angel
The third apparition occurred either at the end of the summer or the beginning of the autumn of 1916, once again at Loca do Cabeço. According to Sister Lucia's account, it took place as follows:
"As soon as we arrived there, we began to say the angel's prayer on our knees, with our faces to the ground. 'My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee....' I do not know how many times we had said this prayer when we saw an unknown light shining over our heads. We rose to see what was happening, and we saw the angel bearing a chalice in his left hand. Drops of blood fell into the chalice from a Host suspended over it. Leaving the chalice and the Host suspended in the air, the angel prostrated himself beside us and said the following prayer three times:
"'Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I adore Thee profoundly and offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the earth, in reparation for the insults, sacrileges, and indifference with which He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg Thee for the conversion of poor sinners.'
"After this, rising up, he again took the chalice and the Host in his hand; he gave the Host to me and the contents of the chalice to Jacinta and Francisco to drink, saying: 'Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, who is horribly insulted by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.'
"He again prostrated himself on the ground and repeated with us the same prayer three more times. 'Most Holy Trinity....' Then he disappeared.
"Compelled by the supernatural force that enveloped us, we imitated the angel in everything, that is, prostrating ourselves as he did and repeating the prayers he said. The strength of God's presence was so intense that it absorbed and annihilated us almost completely. It seemed to deprive us even of the use of our bodily senses for a long period of time. For several days afterward, we performed our physical actions as though sustained by that same supernatural being who compelled us to do them. The peace and happiness we felt were great, but intimate, as our souls were entirely concentrated on God. The physical weariness that overwhelmed us was also great.
"I do not know why, but the fact is that the apparitions of Our Lady had a very different effect on us. There was the same intimate gladness, the same peace and happiness. But instead of physical weariness, we felt a certain expansive liveliness, a sense of glee instead of that annihilation in the Divine Presence, a certain communicative enthusiasm instead of that difficulty in speaking. But, in spite of these feelings, I felt the inspiration to remain silent, especially about certain things. In the interrogations, I felt an intimate inspiration that suggested to me the answers, which, although true, would not disclose what I should still keep secret."
The apparitions of the angel in 1916 were preceded by three other visions from April to October of 1915, in which Lucia and three other little shepherd girls (Maria Rosa Matias, Teresa Matias, and Maria Justino) saw something suspended in the air over the trees in the valley. It was "a kind of cloud whiter than snow, somewhat transparent, with a human form...a figure like a statue made of snow that the rays of the sun had turned somewhat transparent". This description is the one given by Sister Lucia herself.

Chapter II
The Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin
At the time of the apparitions of Our Lady, Lucia de Jesus, Francisco, and Jacinta were, respectively, ten, nine, and seven years old, having been born 22 March 1907, 11 June 1908, and 11 March 1910. As we have said, the three children lived in Aljustrel, a hamlet of the township of Fatima. The apparitions took place on a small property belonging to Lucia's parents called Cova da Iria, about a mile and a half from Fatima on the road to Leiria. Our Lady appeared over a holm oak just over three feet high. Francisco could only see Our Lady; he could not hear her. Jacinta could see and hear her. Lucia could see, hear, and talk with the Blessed Virgin. The apparitions occurred at about midday.
The First Apparition 13 May 1917

The three seers were playing at Cova da Iria when they saw two flashes like lightning, after which they saw the Mother of God above the holm oak. She was, according to the description of Lucia, "a Lady dressed all in white, more brilliant than the sun, shedding a light that was clearer and more intense than that of a crystal goblet filled with crystalline water and struck by the rays of the most brilliant sun". Her face, indescribably beautiful, was ''neither sad nor happy, but serious, "with an air of mild reproach. Her hands, joined together as if she were praying, were resting at her breast and pointing upward. A rosary hung from her right hand. Her clothes seemed to be made of light. The tunic was white. The veil, white and edged with gold, covered the head of the Virgin and descended to her feet. Neither her hair nor her ears could be seen. Lucia could never describe her features, for it was impossible for her to fix her gaze on the dazzling heavenly face. The seers were so close to Our Lady - about a yard and a half away - that they stood within the light that radiated from and enveloped her. The conversation developed in the following manner:

Our Lady: Do not be afraid; I will not harm you.
Lucia: Where is Your Grace from?
Our Lady: I am from heaven. (Our Lady raised her hand and pointed to the sky.)
Lucia: And what does Your Grace wish of me?
Our Lady: I have come to ask you to come here for six months in succession on the thirteenth day of each month at this same hour. Later I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterward, I will return here a seventh time.
Lucia: And will I go to heaven, too?
Our Lady: Yes, you will.
Lucia: And Jacinta?
Our Lady: Also.
Lucia: And Francisco?
Our Lady: Also, but he must say many Rosaries.
Lucia: Is Maria das Neves already in heaven?
Our Lady: Yes, she is.
Lucia: And Amélia?
Our Lady: She will be in purgatory until the end of the world. Do you wish to offer yourselves to God to endure all the sufferings that He may be pleased to send you, as both an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended and an act of supplication for the conversion of sinners?
Lucia: Yes, we do.
Our Lady: Well then, you will have much to suffer. But the grace of God will be your comfort.
"It was upon saying these last words, 'the grace of God...' that for the first time she opened her hands, which emitted a most intense light that penetrated our breasts, reaching the innermost part of our souls and making us see ourselves in God, Who was that light, more clearly than we can see ourselves in the best of mirrors. Then, driven by a deep inspiration, we knelt down and repeated inwardly: 'O Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, my God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament'.
"A moment later, Our Lady added, 'Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war'.
"She immediately began to rise serenely toward the east until she disappeared far into the distance. The light that surrounded her was, so to speak, opening her way through the starry firmament."
The Second Apparition 13 June 13 1917
Preceding the second apparition, the seers once again saw a great brilliance, which they called lightning, but which was really the glare of the approaching light. Some of the approximately fifty spectators who had come to the place noticed that the light of the sun became dimmer during the first few minutes of the conversation. Others said that the top of the budding holm oak bent down, as if under the weight of something, a moment before Lucia spoke. During Our Lady's conversation with the seers, some of the bystanders heard a whispering, like the humming of a bee.
Lucia: What does Your Grace wish of me?
Our Lady: I want you to come here on the thirteenth of next month, to pray the Rosary every day, and to learn to read. I shall later say what I want. (Lucia asked for the cure of a sick person.)
Our Lady: If he converts, he will be cured within the year.
Lucia: I would like to ask you to take us to heaven.
Our Lady: Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain here for some time yet. Jesus wishes to use you in order to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. I promise salvation to those who embrace it; and these souls will be beloved of God like flowers arranged by me to adorn His throne.
Lucia: Will I stay here alone?
Our Lady: No, daughter. Does that make you suffer much? Do not be dismayed. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart shall be your refuge and the road that shall lead you to God.
"Upon saying these last words, she opened her hands, and for the second time she communicated to us the reflection of that intense light. We could see ourselves in it, as if immersed in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in the part of this light that went up toward heaven, and I in the part that was cast toward the ground. In front of Our Lady's right hand there was a heart encircled by thorns that seemed to pierce it. We understood that it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, insulted by the sins of humanity and which desires reparation."
When this vision ceased, the Lady, still surrounded by the light that she radiated, rose from the little tree and glided toward the east until she disappeared completely. Several persons who were closer noticed that the buds at the top of the holm oak were bent in the same direction, as if they had been drawn by the Lady's clothes. They returned to their usual position only some hours later.
The Third Apparition 13 July 1917
Mr. Marto, father of Jacinta and Francisco, says that when the third apparition began, a little grayish cloud hovered over the holm oak, the sunlight diminished, and a cool breeze blew over the mountain range, even though it was the height of summer. He also heard something that sounded like flies inside an empty jug. The seers saw the customary glare, and immediately afterward they saw Our Lady over the holm oak.
Lucia: What does Your Grace wish of me?
Our Lady: I want you to come here on the thirteenth of next month and to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, for she alone can be of any avail.
Lucia: I would like to ask you to tell us who you are and to perform a miracle so everyone will believe that Your Grace appears to us.
Our Lady: Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I wish, and I will perform a miracle that everyone shall see so as to believe.

Lucia then made a number of requests for conversions, cures, and other graces. Our Lady recommended the constant recitation of the Rosary; thus they would obtain those graces during the year.
Then she went on: "Sacrifice yourselves for sinners and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice, 'O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.'"
The First Part of the Secret: The Vision of Hell

"As she said these last words," writes Sister Lucia, "she once again opened her hands as she had done in the two previous months. The radiant light [which streamed from them] seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a great sea of fire; submerged in that fire were demons and souls in human shapes who resembled red-hot, black and bronze-coloured embers that floated about in the blaze, borne by the flames that issued from them with clouds of smoke, falling everywhere like the showering sparks of great blazes - with neither weight nor equilibrium - amidst shrieks and groans of sorrow and despair that horrified us and made us shudder with fear.
"The devils stood out like frightful and unknown animals with horrible and disgusting shapes, but transparent like black coals that have become red-hot."
The vision lasted only a moment, during which Lucia let out a gasp. She remarks that if it were not for Our Lady's promise to take them to heaven, the seers would have died of fright and terror.
The Second Part of the Secret: The Warning of the Chastisement and the Ways to Avoid It

Frightened and as though pleading for help, the seers raised their eyes to Our Lady, who said with kindness and sadness:
"'You saw hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. If they do what I shall tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.
"'The war is going to end, but if they do not stop offending God, another even worse war will begin in the reign of Pius XI. Behold, a night illuminated by an unknown light will be the great sign that God shall give you that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father."
"'To prevent it [the war], I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays. If they listen to my requests, Russia will convert and there will be peace; if not, it will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and several nations will be annihilated.
"'Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.
"'The Holy Father will consecrate Russia - which will convert - to me, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world.
"'In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be kept, etc.
(After relating the third part of the Secret, reproduced on page 53, Our Lady continued:)
"'Do not tell anybody about this. You may tell Francisco, though.'"
Some instants later, the dialogue resumed.
Our Lady: When you pray the Rosary, after each decade say, "O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell; lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need."
Lucia: Does Your Grace wish anything else of me?
Our Lady: No, today I do not wish anything else of you.
"As usual, she then began to rise toward the east until she disappeared in the expanse of the firmament."
At that point, a sound like thunder was heard, indicating that the apparition had ended.
The Third Part of the Secret: Prophetic vision of an iminent chastisement, an immense catastrophe and the great return of souls to God

"J.M.J.
"The third part of the secret revealed on 13 July 1917 in the Cova da Iria - Fatima.
"I write in obedience to You my God who commands me through His Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your Most Holy Mother and mine."

First scene: the threat of chastisement that hangs over a sinful world.

"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!'"
Second scene: a terrible catastrophe befalls the world, leaving it half ruined. The cataclysm engulfs victims from all social classes, even His Holiness the Pope.

"And we saw in an immense light that is God: something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it. A Bishop dressed in White (we had the impression that it was the Holy Father). Other bishops, priests, men and women religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark. Before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins, and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way. Having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other bishops, priests, men and women religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions."

Third scene: the great return of humanity to God.

"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.

Tuy-3-1-1944."

OUR COMMENTARY
FIRST SCENE
THE THREAT OF CHASTISEMENT THAT HANGS OVER A SINFUL WORLD.

"Sister Lucia agrees with the interpretation that the third part of the secret is a prophetic vision, similar to those found in sacred history", affirms Archbishop Bertone in his report on his conversation with the seer on 27 April 2000.

The prophetic vision of the third part of the Secret can be divided into three distinct scenes which together form a profound and unified whole. In the first scene, as Cardinal Ratzinger observes in his "Theological Commentary", "The angel with the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the threat of judgement which looms over the world".

The angel, Sister Lucia narrates, with a flaming sword "looked as though he would set the world on fire". Obviously the angel is not about to do so of his own volition. He must have been ordered by God to do this. One concludes, then, that the world is in a spiritual and moral state which deserves chastisement by God in this way. And, it would seem, it will be a total destruction. This is how Cardinal Ratzinger interprets it: "Today the prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his inventions, has forged the flaming sword".

The first point to note then is that humanity has strayed from God and His Church so totally - as we can see daily in the rejection of His doctrine and morals, whether theoretically and/or in practice - that it constitutes a rebellion against God. This rebellion merits a supreme chastisement. It is vital to emphasise this conclusion, since many Catholics - even prominent ones - nowadays think, speak and behave as if the present state of the world was not so bad.

Even so, Our Lady intervenes and obtains mercy from God so the angel does not destroy the world. The flames cast by the angel towards the earth "quench in contact with the radiance coming from Our Lady's right hand", describes Sister Lucia. This means that Our Lady has merciful designs for the world: she wants to give it an opportunity to save itself. But for this to be possible, humanity first needs to recognise its sinfulness and do penance. Hence, in the final part of this scene "the angel, pointing with his right hand to the world, says in a loud voice: Penance, Penance, Penance!"

The fact that the angel exclaimed "in a loud voice" and repeated "penance" three times indicates that it is no small penance that is demanded! But great penance, the sort which is done after a profound conversion, which, to repeat, indicates the grave state of forgetfulness of God into which humanity has fallen.

The first scene is therefore perfectly coherent.

SECOND SCENE
A TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE BEFALLS THE WORLD, LEAVING IT HALF RUINED. THE CATACLYSM ENGULFS VICTIMS FROM ALL SOCIAL CLASSES, EVEN HIS HOLINESS THE POPE

The world now appears half destroyed ("a big city half in ruins"). Our Lady's intervention prevented a total destruction, but even so there has been a lot of destruction. Obviously men did not do penance and the chastisement was unleashed.

The key person in this scene is the Holy Father. Together with many "other bishops, priests, and religious" he climbs "a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big cross of rough-hewn trunks". Yet, before arriving there, the Pope passes 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". Cardinal Ratzinger comments: "The Pope seems to walk ahead of the others, trembling and suffering because of all the horrors around him. Not only do the houses of the city lie half in ruins, but he makes his way among the corpses of the dead." This scene is one of frightful catastrophe.

It would hardly be exaggerating to say it is apocalyptic, as also the angel who unleashed it is apocalyptic. But keep in mind that this vision is not about the end of the world, as Cardinal Ratzinger wisely noted in his "Theological Commentary".

What then happened? Here is the Cardinal's interpretation: "The history of an entire century can be seen represented in this image. Just as the places of the earth are synthesised in the two images of the mountain and the city, and are directed towards the cross, so too time is presented in a compressed way. In the vision we can recognise the 20th century as a century of martyrs, a century of suffering and persecution for the Church, a century of world wars and many local wars."

In other words, that which the vision represents as one single scene is actually a montage of various scenes of persecution of the Church and destruction (wars) which unfold along the century - wars and persecutions which unfortunately are far from over. Suffice it to keep in mind the persecutions of Catholics going on even today in many parts of the world and the many conflicts still existing between peoples and nations.

Cardinal Ratzinger sees the arduous climb up the mountain also as a telescoping of decades of history. In the arduous ascent of the mountain "we can undoubtedly see a convergence of different Popes. Beginning from Pius X up to the present Pope, they all shared the sufferings of the century and strove to go forward through all the anguish along the path which leads to the Cross. In the vision, the Pope too is killed along with the martyrs".

Then he adds: "When, after the attempted assassination on 13 May 1981, the Holy Father had the text of the third part of the 'secret' brought to him, was it not inevitable that he should see in it his own fate?"

While this correlation between the third part of the Secret and the assassination attempt on John Paul II is not agreed on by all Catholic commentators, we could not fail respectfully to mention it here. Some writers, while not excluding the attack from the context of persecution of the Church, nonetheless prefer to see the figure of "a Bishop dressed in white" as a symbol of several popes rather than just one in particular. This is the opinion of Bishop Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva, Bishop of Leiria-Fatima [reported in Corriere della Sera, 27 June 2000]. And it is also the view of Cardinal Ratzinger himself, as can be seen from his above comments.

At any rate, the long sequence of martyrs described in the third part of the Secret - which includes "lay people of different ranks and positions - continues in our days. Nor can we be surprised if the hatred of the enemies of the Faith provokes them to more attacks on an even greater scale.

In the vision a "group of soldiers" "fired bullets and arrows" at the Holy Father and those with him, killing them one after the other. Who are the human agents of this violence and destruction symbolically represented by the soldiers?

As indicated by Sr. Lucia in her letter to John Paul II on 12 May 1982, the third part of the Secret must be interpreted in light of the second part, specifically in light of these words of Our Lady: "If they heed my requests Russia will convert and there will be peace; if not, it will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and many nations will be annihilated." On this Sr Lucia herself comments: "Since we did not heed this appeal of the Message, we see that it has been fulfilled, Russia has invaded the world with her errors. And if we have not yet seen the complete fulfilment of the final part of this prophecy, we are going towards it little by little with great strides."

In his first mention of the third part of the Secret on 13 May 2000 at Fatima, Cardinal Sodano included amongst the human agents of these persecutions all the atheistic political systems of the twentieth century. And he did so with good reason, for systems like Socialism and Nazism are but veiled or open lackeys of Communism, even when they portray themselves as the very opponents of Communism. These atheistic systems of the twentieth century have not died. They have simply evolved into new forms better adapted to twenty-first century conditions.

The whole world has become secularised and amoral; it is in open revolt against God and His Holy Church. The errors of Communism abound. It is enough to think of abortion, free love, the legalisation of homosexual unions, the abolition of private property, and the most radical egalitarianism which continues to promote class warfare in order to destroy just, proportional and harmonious social inequalities.

What will be the fruit of these martyrdoms of the past, present and future? The third scene of the vision gives us an indication.

THIRD SCENE
THE GREAT RETURN OF HUMANITY TO GOD

The predictions made at Fatima will only be brought to happy conclusion when apostate humanity returns to God. But for that to be possible, it is first necessary that humanity be irrigated with special graces from God. These are symbolised by the blood of the martyrs which the angels sprinkle on the souls that strayed so far from God and now return to Him (since they now "approach", it implies they had first strayed away).

Therefore, Cardinal Ratzinger, paraphrasing Sr. Lucia's description, says: "Beneath the arms of the cross angels gather up the blood of the martyrs, and with it they give life to the souls making their way to God. Here, the blood of Christ and the blood of the martyrs are considered as one: the blood of the martyrs runs down from the arms of the cross. The martyrs die in communion with the Passion of Christ, and their death becomes one with His. For the sake of the body of Christ, they complete what is still lacking in His afflictions (cf. Col 1:24).... The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians, said Tertullian. As from Christ's death, from His wounded side, the Church was born, so the death of the witnesses is fruitful for the future life of the Church. Therefore, the vision of the third part of the 'secret', so distressing at its outset, concludes with an image of hope: no suffering is in vain, and it is a suffering Church, a Church of martyrs, which becomes a sign-post for man in his search for God…. from the suffering of the witnesses there comes a purifying and renewing power, because their suffering is the actualisation of the suffering of Christ Himself and a communication in the here and now of its saving effect."

The earth renewed and purified by the blood of authentic martyrs corresponds to the idea of the 'Reign of Mary' spoken about by St Louis de Montfort in his famous Treatise on the true devotion to the Blessed Virgin. This great Marian saint says there will come: "…that happy day when God's Mother is enthroned in men's hearts as Queen, subjecting them to the dominion of her great and princely Son…. Lord, that your kingdom come, may the reign of Mary come!" (no.217)

This is an idea which ties in admirably with Our Lady's famous prediction at the end of the second part of the Secret of Fatima: "Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph". Either this triumph happens above all in the hearts of men, as St Louis de Montfort insists, or the whole third part of the Secret becomes void of meaning. It must be a permanent return of humanity to God, an immense Great Return [Grand Retour, in French, was the motto of a spiritual movement in France which had as its goal the Grand Retour of souls to Jesus through Mary]. So, either this happens or it is not possible for the world to be given that "period of peace" which Our Lady promised at Fatima. (See text of the second part of the Secret)

"This is the day which the Lord has made: let us be glad and rejoice therein. The Lord chastising has chastised me: but he has not delivered me over to death." (Psalms 117:24,18)

So, the three parts of the Secret known to us today form a united whole. The central themes running through this whole are: the glory of God, the exaltation of Holy Mother Church, and the welfare of souls in this life and the next through the most powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary with the Heart of her Divine Son.

The Fourth Apparition 19 August 1917

On 13 August, the day the fourth apparition was to take place, the seers could not go to Cova da Iria, as they had been abducted by the mayor of Vila Nova de Ourém, who wanted to force the secret from them. The children held fast.
At Cova da Iria, thunder followed by lightning was heard at the usual time. The spectators noticed a small white cloud that hovered over the holm oak for a few minutes. Phenomena of coloration were observed on the faces of the people, the clothing, the trees, and the ground. Our Lady had certainly come, but she had not found the seers.
On 19 August , at about four o'clock in the afternoon, Lucia was with Francisco and another cousin at Valinhos, a property belonging to one of her uncles, when the atmospheric changes that preceded the apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria began to occur: a sudden cooling of the temperature and a waning of the sun. Feeling that something supernatural was approaching and enveloping them, Lucia sent for Jacinta, who arrived in time to see Our Lady appear - heralded as before by a bright light - over a holm oak slightly larger than the one at Cova da Iria.
Lucia: What does Your Grace wish of me?
Our Lady: I want you to continue to go to Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of each month and to continue to pray the Rosary every day. On the last month, I will perform the miracle for all to believe.
Lucia: What does Your Grace want done with the money that the people leave at Cova da Iria?
Our Lady: Have two portable stands made. You and Jacinta with two other girls dressed in white carry one of them, and let Francisco carry the other one with three other boys. The portable stands are for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The money that is left over should be contributed to the chapel that they shall build.
Lucia: I would like to ask you for the healing of some sick persons.
Our Lady: Yes, I will cure some during the year.
"Becoming sadder, she recommended anew the practice of mortification, saying lastly, 'Pray, pray much, and make sacrifice for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to sacrifice and pray for them.'
"As usual, she then began to rise toward the east."
The seers cut boughs off the tree over which Our Lady had appeared to them and took them home. The boughs gave off a uniquely sweet fragrance.

The Fifth Apparition 13 September 1917

A crowd estimated at twenty thousand observed atmospheric phenomena similar to those of the previous apparitions: the sudden cooling of the air, a dimming of the sun to the point where the stars could be seen, and a rain resembling iridescent petals or snowflakes that disappeared before touching the ground. This time, a luminous globe was noticed which moved slowly and majestically through the sky from east to west and, at the end of the apparition, in the opposite direction. The seers saw a light, and, immediately following this, they saw Our Lady over the holm oak.
Our Lady: Continue to pray the Rosary to obtain the end of the war. In October, Our Lord will also come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus, to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices, but He does not want you to sleep with the ropes; wear them only during the day.
Lucia: They have requested me to ask you for many things, for the cure of some sick persons, of a deaf-mute.
Our Lady: Yes, I will cure some, others not. In October, I will perform a miracle for all to believe.
"And rising, she disappeared in the same manner as before."

The Sixth and Last Apparition 13 October 1917
As on the other occasions, the seers first saw a bright light, and then they saw Our Lady over the holm oak.
Lucia: What does Your Grace wish of me?
Our Lady: I wish to tell you that I want a chapel built here in my honour. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue to pray the Rosary everyday. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.
Lucia: I have many things to ask you: if you would cure some sick persons, and if you would convert some sinners…
Our Lady: Some yes, others no. They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins.
"Becoming sadder, she added, 'Let them offend Our Lord no more, for He is already much offended.'
Then, opening her hands, Our Lady shone the light issuing from them onto the sun, and as she rose, her own radiance continued to be cast onto the sun."
At that moment, Lucia cried, "Look at the sun!"
Once Our Lady had disappeared in the expanse of the firmament, three scenes followed in succession, symbolising first the joyful mysteries of the Rosary, then the sorrowful mysteries, and, finally, the glorious mysteries. Lucia alone saw the three scenes; Francisco and Jacinta saw only the first.
The first scene: Saint Joseph appeared beside the sun with the Child Jesus and Our Lady of the Rosary. It was the Holy Family. The Virgin was dressed in white with a blue mantle. Saint Joseph was also dressed in white, and the Child Jesus in light red. Saint Joseph blessed the crowd, making the Sign of the Cross three times. The Child Jesus did the same.
The second scene: This was followed by the vision of Our Lady of Sorrows, without the sword in her breast, and of Our Lord overwhelmed with sorrow on the way to Calvary. Our Lord made the Sign of the Cross to bless the people.
Lucia could only see the upper part of Our Lord's body.
The third scene: Finally, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, crowned queen of heaven and earth, appeared in a glorious vision with the Child Jesus in her bosom.
While these scenes took place, the great throng of about seventy thousand spectators witnessed the miracle of the sun.
It had rained all during the apparition. At the end of the conversation between Our Lady and Lucia - when the Blessed Virgin rose and Lucia shouted, "Look at the sun!" - the clouds opened up, revealing the sun as an immense silver disk. It shone with an intensity never before seen, but was not blinding. This lasted only an instant. Then the immense ball began to "dance". The sun began to spin rapidly like a gigantic circle of fire. Then it stopped momentarily, only to begin spinning vertiginously again. Its rim became scarlet; whirling, it scattered red flames across the sky. Their light was reflected on the ground, on the trees, on the bushes, and on the very faces and clothing of the people, which took on brilliant hues and changing colours.
After performing this bizarre pattern three times, the globe of fire seemed to tremble, shake, and then plunge in a zigzag toward the terrified crowd.
All this lasted about ten minutes. Finally, the sun zigzagged back to its original place and once again became still and brilliant, shining with its everyday brightness.
The cycle of the apparitions had ended.
Many people noticed that their clothes, soaking wet from the rain, had suddenly dried.
The miracle of the sun was also seen by numerous witnesses up to twenty-five miles away from the place of the apparition.

Chapter III
Some Private Visions
In the short time they spent on earth after the apparitions, and even during the time of the apparitions, Francisco and Jacinta had several private visions. We will relate here the principal ones.

Francisco: mystical graces of the highest degree

"Francisco," Sister Lucia says, "seemed to be the least impressed with the vision of hell." Fr. Joaquín María Alonso believes that Francisco's mystical perception was of the highest degree and, for this reason, "the vision of hell itself did not impress him much because he contemplated the mystery of Iniquity in the light of a superior mystical contemplation". "What impressed or absorbed him most," Sister Lucia comments, "was God, the Most Holy Trinity within this immense light that penetrated the innermost depths of the soul."

However, this does not mean he did not tremble out of fear when seeing the devil in some of the lesser visions. Sister Lucia thus describes the scene:

"One day we were walking in a place called Pedreira. While the sheep were grazed, we jumped from rock to rock and made our voices echo off these steep banks. As was his custom, Francisco retired to a hollow of a rock.

"After a while, we heard him shout and call us and Our Lady. Worried at what might have happened to him, we began to search and call for him.

" 'Where are you?'

" 'Over here! Over here!'

"But it still took us a while to find him. When we did finally find him he was trembling with fear and still kneeling. Because of his affliction he had not even thought of rising to his feet.

" 'What's up?! What is wrong with you?!

"With his voice still stifled from fear, he said: 'It was one of those big animals that was in hell who was here trying to set fire'".

"What a beautiful light, over there, next to our window"

What Francisco wanted most was to console Our Lord offended by the sins of men. For this reason, on the eve of his death, he said to Lucy:

"Look! I am very sick; in a little while I will go to heaven.
"Then, when you are there, make sure not to forget to pray for sinners, for the Holy Father, for me and Jacinta.
"Yes, I will. But look, you had better ask Jacinta to do these things, because I fear I will forget when I see Our Lord! I want to console Him first."

As a result, he was most likely rewarded with a heavenly vision before dying. Fr. Fernando Leite, S.J. relates: "On 4 April, 1919, Francisco exclaimed at a certain moment: 'Oh my mother, what a beautiful light, over there, next to our window!' And a while later in sweet perplexity: 'I can see no longer' (Parochial investigation on 28 September, 1923). A bit later, his face became illuminated with an angelic smile. Around 10 o'clock in the morning, without any agony, any contraction or groan, he sweetly expired."

It is licit to suppose that God Himself, Who is infinitely beautiful light, thus manifested Himself to the Virgin's confidant in his last moments.

"I Saw the Holy Father..."

On one occasion, at about midday, near the well of the house of Lucia's parents, Jacinta asked Lucia, "Did you not see the Holy Father?"
"No."
"I cannot say how, but I saw the Holy Father in a very large house, kneeling beside a table with his hands on his face. He was crying. Many people were outside the house. Some were throwing stones at him; others were cursing him and saying foul words to him. Poor Holy Father, we have to pray much for him!"
On an afternoon in August 1917, while the seers were sitting on the boulders of the knoll of Cabeço, Jacinta suddenly began to say the prayer the angel had taught them and, after a deep silence, said to her cousin: "Do you not see so many thoroughfares, roads, and fields full of people weeping with hunger and having nothing to eat? And the Holy Father praying in a church before the Immaculate Heart of Mary? And many people praying with him?"
Sister Lucia adds:
"Some days later, she asked me:
"'Can I say that I saw the Holy Father and all those people?'
"'No. Don't you see that this is part of the secret?! That would give it away!'
"'Alright, then I will not say anything'."

Lucia, in Jacinta's home one day, found her very pensive and asked her, "Jacinta, what are you thinking about?"
"About the war that is to come. So many will die! And almost all of them will go to hell! Many homes will be razed, and many priests will be killed. Listen, I am going to heaven, and when one night you see the light the Lady told us would appear before all this, you flee to heaven also."

The Last Visions of Jacinta
At the end of October 1918, Francisco and Jacinta fell ill, almost at the same time. When Lucia visited them, she found Jacinta elated. The latter explained:
"Our Lady came to see us and said that she is coming to take Francisco to heaven very soon. She asked me if I still wanted to convert more sinners. I told her I did. She told me I would be taken to a hospital and that I would suffer greatly there, but that I should suffer for the conversion of sinners, in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and for the love of Jesus. I asked if you would be going with me. She said you would not. This is what hurts me most. She said my mother would take me, and after that I will remain there alone!"
Lucia frequently visited the seers during their illness. They would converse at length about the events in which they had been protagonists. We transcribe here some of Jacinta's observations:
"It will not be long before I go to heaven. You will stay here to make known God's wish to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the world. When the time comes for you to speak, do not hide. Tell everybody that God grants us His graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that they should ask her for them, that the Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be honoured along with His, that they should ask the Immaculate Heart of Mary for peace because God has placed it in her keeping. Oh, if I could only put into everybody's heart the flame that burns in my breast, making me love the Hearts of Jesus and Mary so much!"
"You know, Our Lord is very sad because Our Lady told us He should not be offended anymore since He was already much offended, but nobody paid attention. People continue to commit the same sins."
At the end of December 1919, Our Lady again appeared to Jacinta, who thus related the event to her cousin:
"She told me I am going to another hospital in Lisbon, and that I will not see you or my parents again. After having suffered much, I will die alone, but I should not be afraid because she will be there to take me to heaven."

"Who Taught You All These Things?"
Taken to Lisbon, Jacinta first stayed in an orphanage adjoining the Church of Our Lady of Miracles and was later taken to the Dona Estefânia Hospital. In the orphanage, she was attended by Mother Maria da Purificaçao Godinho, who wrote down - though not always verbatim - her last words.
Some of them, imbued with a prophetic tone and full of unction and teachings, are reproduced below. Father De Marchi published them grouped by subject matter.

On War
"Our Lady said that there is much war and dissension in the world."
"Wars are nothing but punishments for the sins of the world."
"Our Lady can no longer hold back the arm of her beloved Son from the world. It is necessary to do penance. If people change their ways, Our Lord will still spare the world; but if they do not, the chastisement will come."
"Our Lord is profoundly indignant at the sins and crimes committed in Portugal. For this reason, a terrible social cataclysm threatens our country, particularly the city of Lisbon. It seems that a civil war of anarchic or communist character will break out, accompanied by sackings, assassinations, fires, and devastation of all kinds. The capital will be changed into a veritable image of hell. When Divine Justice, outraged, inflicts so frightful a punishment, all who can should flee from this city. This punishment now predicted should be announced gradually and with due discretion."
"If men do not change their ways, Our Lady will send the world a punishment the like of which has never been seen. It will fall first, …upon Spain."
Jacinta also spoke of "great world events that would take place around 1940"

On Priests and Rulers
"My godmother, pray much for sinners! Pray much for priests! Pray much for religious! Priests should only occupy themselves with the affairs of the Church. Priests should be pure, very pure. The disobedience of priests and religious to their superiors and to the Holy Father greatly offends Our Lord.
"My godmother, pray much for those who govern! Woe to those who persecute the religion of Our Lord! If the government left the Church in peace and gave freedom to the holy Faith, it would be blessed by God."

On Sin
"The sins that lead more souls to hell are the sins of the flesh."
"Fashions that will greatly offend Our Lord will appear. People who serve God should not follow fashions. The Church has no fashions. Our Lord is always the same."
"The sins of the world are very great."
"If men knew what eternity is, they would do everything to change their lives."
"Men are lost because they do not think of the death of Our Lord and do not do penance."
"Many marriages are not good; they do not please Our Lord, and they are not of God."

On Christian Virtue
"My godmother, do not walk in the midst of luxury. Flee from riches. Be very fond of holy poverty and silence."
"Have much charity even for those who are bad. Speak ill of no one and flee from those who do so. Be very patient, for patience leads us to heaven. Mortification and sacrifices greatly please Our Lord."
"Confession is a sacrament of mercy. Therefore, one must approach the confessional with confidence and joy. Without confession there is no salvation."
"The Mother of God wants more virgin souls who bind themselves to her by the vow of chastity."
"To be a woman religious, it is necessary to be very pure in soul and body."
"Do you know what it means to be pure?" asked Mother Godinho.
"I do. I do. To be pure in body is to keep chastity. To be pure in soul is not to commit sins, not to look at what one should not see, not to steal, never to lie, always to tell the truth however hard it may be."
"Those who do not keep the promises they make to Our Lady will never succeed in their affairs."
"Doctors do not have light to cure the sick properly because they do not have love of God."
"Who taught you all these things?" asked Mother Godinho.
"It was Our Lady, but some I think of myself. I very much like to think."
Noticing that many visitors chatted and laughed in the chapel of the orphanage, Jacinta asked Mother Godinho to warn them of the lack of respect for the Real Presence this represented. When this measure did not bring about satisfactory results, she asked that the cardinal be advised that "Our Lady does not want people to talk in church."

Jacinta's Last Days
During her short stay in the hospital, Jacinta was favoured with new visits of Our Lady, who told her the day and hour she would die. Four days before taking her to heaven, the Blessed Virgin took away all her pain.
On the days prior to her death, someone asked her if she wanted to see her mother. Jacinta answered: "My family will remain a short time on earth and soon will meet in heaven.... Our Lady will appear again, but not to me, because I will surely die as she told me."
On 20 February 1920, Our Lady came to take Jacinta. She was buried in the cemetery of Vila Nova de Ourém.
On 12 September 1935, Jacinta's mortal remains were transferred to the cemetery of Fatima, where they were deposited in a tomb built especially for her and her brother. The tombstone bore a simple epitaph: "Here lie the mortal remains of Francisco and Jacinta, to whom Our Lady appeared".
Later (in 1951 and 1952 respectively), their precious remains were taken to the Basilica of Fatima, where they remain to this day.
The preparatory canonical processes for the beatification of the two seers of Fatima were officially begun in 1949. On 28 June 1999 the decree that recognised the authenticity of the necessary miracle for beatification was issued. Finally, on 13 May 2000, His Holiness John Paul II personally travelled to Fatima where he proceeded to solemnly beatify, in the presence of some 400 thousand people, the Servants of God Francisco and Jacinta. Their feast will be celebrated annually, "in the places and according to the proper norms, on 20 February" (Voice of Fátima, 13-6-00).

Chapter IV
Sister Lucia's Mission
As we said before, at the time of the second apparition, when Lucia asked to be taken to heaven together with her cousins, Our Lady answered: "Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain here for some time yet. Jesus wishes to use you in order to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world".
These words clearly indicate that Lucia, aside from being the trustee of the secrets revealed by Our Lady, would remain on this earth to carry out a specific mission.
We should recall that during the first apparition, on 13 May, Our Lady announced: "I have come to ask you to come here for six months in succession on the thirteenth of each month at this same hour. Later I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterward, I will return here a seventh time".
Therefore, a seventh apparition of Our Lady would take place at Cova da Iria. When? What might Our Lady wish to communicate or show to mankind?
Whatever it may be, it seems reasonable to believe that it will once again fall upon Sister Lucia to be the confidante of Our Lady at Cova da Iria.
Consequently, this is one of the great expectations of the Fatima story, unless this seventh apparition has already occurred secretly.

Lucia's Itinerary
On 17 June 1921, Lucia left Aljustrel and was admitted as a boarding pupil in the school of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy at Vilar, a suburb of Oporto. On 24 October 1925, she entered the Institute of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy and was accepted as a postulant in that congregation's convent of Tuy, just across the Spanish border.
On 2 October 1926, Lucia became a novice. On 3 October 1928, she took her first vows as a lay sister. Six years later, on the same day in October, she took her perpetual vows. She took the religious name of Sister Maria of Sorrows.
During the communist revolution in Spain, she was transferred for safety reasons to the school of Sardão at Vila Nova de Gaia, where she remained for some time.
On 20 May 1946, Sister Lucia was again able to see the sites of the apparitions on a visit to Cova da Iria, Loca do Cabeço, and the property of Valinhos.
On 25 March 1948, she left the Institute of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy to enter the Carmel of Saint Joseph in Coimbra; she took the name of Sister Maria Lucia of the Immaculate Heart, taking the habit of Saint Teresa on 13 May of the same year. On 13 May 1949, she was professed as a Discalced Carmelite.

The Revelations Subsequent to 1917
In the secret given in July, Our Lady had said, "I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays."
In other words, the message of Fatima was not definitively concluded with the cycle of apparitions at Cova da Iria in 1917.
The Five First Saturdays Devotion
On 10 December 1925, the Blessed Virgin, with the Child Jesus at her side above a luminous cloud, appeared to Lucia in her cell at the Dorothean house of Pontevedra. Placing one of her hands on Lucia's shoulder, she showed her a heart surrounded by thorns that she had in her other hand. The Child Jesus, pointing to it, entreated the seer with the following words: "Have pity on the Heart of your Blessed Mother, which is pierced and covered with thorns by ungrateful men at every moment with no one to make an act of reparation to remove them".
The Blessed Virgin added: "My daughter, look at my Heart surrounded with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me constantly through blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me, and tell men that I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months, confess, receive Holy Communion, pray a Rosary (see footnote 4, Chap. II), and keep me company for a quarter of an hour meditating on the fifteen mysteries with the intention of offering me reparation."
On 15 February 1926, the Child Jesus again appeared to Lucia in Pontevedra, asking her if she had yet divulged this devotion to His Blessed Mother. The seer explained the difficulties presented by her confessor, adding that the mother superior was ready to divulge it, but that the confessor had said that the mother superior alone could not succeed. Jesus answered, "It is true that your superior alone can do nothing, but with My grace she can do everything".
Lucia presented the problem that going to confession on Saturdays posed for some people and requested that a confession within a period of eight days before and eight days after the first Saturday be valid. Jesus answered, "Yes, it can even be within many more days, provided they are in the state of grace when they receive Me and have the intention of offering reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary".
Sister Lucia further raised the possibility that some people might forget to make that intention when they confessed. Our Lord answered, "They can make it in the following confession, using the first opportunity they have to confess".
During the vigil that Sister Lucia kept on the eve of 30 May 1930, Our Lord spoke in her interior and solved yet another difficulty. "The practice of this devotion will be equally acceptable on the Sunday following the First Saturday, whenever My priests, for just reasons, so grant it to souls."

Revealing The Secret
On 17 December 1927, Sister Lucia approached the tabernacle in the chapel of the Dorothean house of Tuy to ask Our Lord how she was to carry out her confessor's order to write about some graces she had received from God, since the secret confided to her by the Blessed Virgin was connected with them. With a clear voice, Jesus made her hear the following words: "My daughter, write what they ask you, as well as everything that the Blessed Virgin revealed to you in the apparition in which she spoke about this devotion [to the Immaculate Heart of Mary]. As for the rest of the secret, remain silent".
In compliance with this order, Sister Lucia made public what had happened during the apparition of June.
In 1941 when the Bishop of Leiria, The Rt. Rev. José Alves Correia da Silva, ordered the seer to recall everything of interest in Jacinta's life for a new book that was going to be published, she revealed two of the three parts of the July secret after obtaining permission from heaven.
She wrote: "The secret is composed of three different parts, two of which I am going to reveal.
"Well, then, the first was the vision of hell."
She continues with the narration of the two parts of the secret as they appear in the description of the July apparition.

As for the third part of the Secret, the seer wrote it in the Dorothean house of Tuy on 3 January 1944. She wrote it on a letter size sheet of ruled paper, having first folded it in half so as to become 4 pages, approx. 12 x 18 cm, with 16 lines on each page. Sister Lucia wrote the Secret at the insistence of the Bishop of Leiria when she was gravely ill as we have already mentioned in the Introduction to this work.
In a letter dated 9 January, Sister Lucy communicated to the prelate that the text was ready and at his disposition in a sealed envelope just as he had specified.
On 17 June, at the request of the Bishop of Leiria, the titular Bishop of Gurza, The Rt. Rev. Manuel Maria Ferreira da Silva, went to Valença, a Portuguese city on the border with Tuy, next to the Minho river. There, in the Fonseca retirement home, he received the precious document from Sister Lucia who had also gone there for that purpose. That same afternoon he gave it to the Bishop of Leiria at Quinta da Formigueira, the latter's country home near Braga, Portugal.
In Leiria, Bishop Correia da Silva placed it in a larger envelope, which was also sealed, and placed in the diocesan safe. On the outside of the larger envelope, he wrote: "This envelope with its contents will be given to His Eminence Cardinal Manuel Cerejeira, Patriarch of Lisbon, after my death. Leiria, 8 December 1945. José, Bishop of Leira".
The document was only taken out of the diocesan safe on rare occasions, merely to be seen by some privileged persons. The famous photo of the Bishop of Leiria with the sealed envelope was taken on one of these occasions. The prelate had agreed to be photographed by Life magazine who published it on 3 January 1949.
When sending the sealed envelope to the Bishop of Leiria, Sister Lucia wrote, on the outside of the envelope, that it could only be opened after 1960 by the Patriarch of Lisbon or by the Bishop of Leiria.
At the beginning of 1957, the Sacred Congregation for the Holy Office (presently the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) asked the Bishop of Leiria to send the envelope containing the Secret to Rome. The auxiliary Bishop of Leiria, The Rt. Rev. João Pereira Venâncio took it to the Apostolic Nunciature in Lisbon. From Lisbon, the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop (later Cardinal Cento) Fernando Cento, took it to the Vatican where it was entered into the Secret Archive of the Holy Office on 4 April 1957.
It is not known whether Pius XII, who died on 9 October 1958, read the secret. Fr. Leiber, an intimate friend of this Pontiff, said that the rumour according to which the pope supposedly cried or even fainted upon reading the Secret "is entirely gratuitous; nothing of the sort occurred".
Naturally, as the year 1960 drew near, curiosity worldwide regarding the Secret gradually increased.
On 8 February 1960, a press release distributed by the Agência Nacional de Informação of Portugal stated that it was "very probable that the Secret of Fatima would be kept totally secret forever". It based its declarations on "highly reputable Vatican sources". And added: "These same sources said that the Vatican had been pressured by some to open the letter and reveal its content to the world; and by others not to reveal it, supposing the letter to contain alarming revelations. In view of this the Vatican had decided that the text of Sister Lucia's letter would not be revealed and will continue to be maintained in strictest secrecy."
What actually happened? On 17 August 1959, Pope John XXIII received the envelope containing the Secret from Fr. Pierre Paul Philippe, OP, then the Commissary of the Holy Office and later a cardinal. He read it a few days later with the help of a Portuguese translator of the Secretariat of State, Mgr. Paulo José (later Bishop of Macau), decided not to publish it and gave it back to the Holy Office.
Pope Paul VI also read it on 27 March 1965 and took the same decision.
On 11 February 1967, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, then Secretary of the Holy Office, gave a speech - which became famous - in the solemn hall of the International Pontifical Marian Academy in Rome as part of the preparations for the fiftieth anniversary of the Fatima apparitions. He said that he had been with Sister Lucia in the Carmel at Coimbra in May 1955 and had asked the seer what was the significance of the date 1960 for the revelation of the Secret. "Because then it would be clearer", the seer responded. The Cardinal commented: "This makes me think that the message was of a prophetic nature, because the nature of prophecy, as one can see in Sacred Scripture, is covered with a mysterious veil. They are not generally expressed in an open, clear and understandable language to everyone."
We now come to the pontificate of John Paul II whose interest in Fatima is not recent, but rather gradually grew in intensity after the sacrilegious assassination attempt on 13 May 1981. On 18 July of that year, he asked that the envelope with the Secret be brought to him. He immediately identified himself with the figure of the "Bishop dressed in white" of whom the text speaks. In this regard, he later expressed his conviction "it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death".
He did not, nevertheless, decide on its immediate publication. Only more recently did His Holiness declare, "since the times seemed ripe, did I deem it opportune to make public the content of the so-called third part of the Secret".
On 13 May 2000, on the esplanade of the Sanctuary of Fatima, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State, was asked by Pope John Paul II to announce the historic decision. It became the background to the announcement of the beatification of the seers Francisco and Jacinta that the Holy Father was doing that very day, having come especially from Rome for this purpose.
The publication of the Secret was to be accompanied by an "adequate commentary", according to the words of Cardinal Sodano, from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. On 26 June 2000, this Congregation published the document The Message of Fatima and distributed it with great publicity in the Sala Stampa of the Vatican and over the internet. It was published in six languages: German, Spanish, French, English, Italian and Portuguese. The press conference in the Sala Stampa was presided over by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger himself, Prefect of the Congregation, and accompanied by Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop-emeritus of Vercelli and Secretary of the Congregation. It was transmitted live by the Italian State television and other TV stations from around the world.
The document - from which we have extracted several of the aforementioned historical data - contains several very important parts:
a) a general "Introduction" by Archbishop Bertone;
b) the facsimile of Sister Lucia's manuscripts of the three parts of the Secret of Fatima (used to describe the folio format of the sheets containing the third Secret), as well as its typewritten format;
c) letter of 19 April 2000 from Pope John Paul II to Sister Lucy requesting her to answer "openly and candidly" the questions regarding the interpretation of the Secret what the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was to make in the Pontiff's name;
d) report of Archbishop Bertone's and the Bishop of Leiria's conversation with Sister Lucia in the Carmel of Coimbra on 7 April 2000;
e) Cardinal Sodano's announcement in Fatima on 12 May 2000;
f) and, finally, the "Theological Commentary", made and signed by Cardinal Ratzinger, containing a substantive and concise explanation regarding the "theological status" of public and private revelations in the Church. This was followed by "an attempt to interpret the 'Secret' of Fatima".

Cardinal Ratzinger, in the press conference in the Sala Stampa emphatically affirmed that the Holy See had no intention of imposing its interpretation. We may understand this to mean that scholars may attempt to study the matter and even to offer insights into its interpretation. It is superfluous to add that this should be done with utmost prudence and circumspection.

This is what we attempted to do unpretentiously in our commentary included in this work. We also added concepts of Montfortian spirituality (of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort), as well as enriching it with concepts coming from the eminent Brazilian Catholic thinker and man of action Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, who died in 1995. Excerpts from two of his articles have been included. One from 1958 is this work's postface. The other, from 1953, can be found on the back cover. Although published over four decades ago, they are veritable comments on the third Secret.
As the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, The Rt. Rev. Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva pointed out, with "the official publication of the Secret", it is obvious that Fatima - without ceasing to be a private revelation - has become more important in the eyes of the faithful, especially when we consider it was done by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It also increased in timeliness as the aforementioned bishop said when answering another question in the same interview:
"Do you believe that the 20th century has somehow come to a close with the publishing of the Secret?"
"I would not say that something has been closed, but rather that a window of hope has been opened for this century. I refer to a hope of personal conversion for each one of us, of the whole of mankind so that finally peace may be found".
It will be the Great Return of humanity to God to which we referred in our commentary on the final scene of the third Secret.

The Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
On 13 June 1929, Sister Lucia had a sublime vision of the Holy Trinity and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in which the consecration of Russia was requested.
"I had asked," Sister Lucia wrote, "and obtained permission from my superiors and my confessor to make the Holy Hour on Thursdays from eleven o'clock until midnight. Being alone one night, I knelt between the balustrades in the middle of the chapel and prostrated myself to say the prayers of the angel. I grew tired, so I rose to a kneeling position and continued saying the prayers with my arms outstretched in the form of a cross.
"The only light was that of the sanctuary lamp. Suddenly the whole chapel was illuminated with a supernatural light, and a cross of light that reached to the ceiling appeared over the altar. A man [the Eternal Father] could be seen from the waist up in the midst of a brighter light on the upper part of the cross. He had a dove of light [the Holy Ghost] at his chest. The body of another man [Our Lord Jesus Christ] was nailed to the cross. Suspended in the air just below His waist was a chalice and a large host on which fell some drops of blood from the face and the wound in the side of the Crucified. These drops ran down the host into the chalice. Our Lady was under the right arm of the cross [it was Our Lady of Fatima, who held her Immaculate Heart in her left hand, without a sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames]. Under the left arm, large letters that seemed to be made of crystal-clear water running onto the altar formed these words: 'Grace and Mercy'.
"I understood I was being shown the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and I received lights about this mystery that I am not permitted to reveal.
"Then Our Lady said to me: 'The moment has arrived wherein God is asking the Holy Father to consecrate Russia to my Immaculate Heart in union with all the bishops of the world. He promises to save it by this means. The souls whom the justice of God condemns for sins committed against me are so many that I have come to ask for reparation. Do penance for this intention and pray.'"
Through her confessors and the Bishop of Leiria, the seer sent this request of Our Lady to Pope Pius XI that same year. The pontiff promised to take it into consideration.
In a letter to her confessor, Father José Bemardo Gonçalves, S.J., dated 29 May 1930, Sister Lucia explained that Our Lord made her feel His divine presence in the depth of her heart and urged her to ask the Holy Father for the approval of the reparative devotion of the first Saturdays. These are the words of the seer: "If I am not mistaken, the good Lord promises to put an end to the persecution in Russia if the Holy Father deigns to make a solemn and public act of reparation and consecration of Russia to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and orders all the bishops of the Catholic world to do the same. The Holy Father must also promise to approve and recommend the reparative devotion already indicated in return for the ceasing of this persecution".
Later, through another interior communication, Our Lord complained to Sister Lucia that the consecration of Russia had not been made. "They did not want to heed My request. They will repent like the king of France and will make it, but it will be too late. Russia will already have spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer."
On 21 January 1935, in another letter to Father José Bernardo Gonçalves, S.J., Sister Lucia stated that "Our Lord was quite displeased because His request had not been carried out".
Writing to the same priest on 18 May 1936, Sister Lucia explained: "About the other question - as to whether or not it would be appropriate to insist in order to obtain the consecration of Russia - my reply is almost the same as my previous ones: I regret it has not been done yet, but the same God who requested it is the one who has so permitted this…. Whether it is appropriate to insist or not, I do not know. It seems to me that if the Holy Father did it right now, God would accept it and would fulfil His promise, and, in so doing, the Holy Father would no doubt gladden Our Lord and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
"I have spoken to Our Lord inwardly about the subject, and not too long ago I asked Him why He would not convert Russia without the Holy Father making that consecration.
" 'Because I want My whole Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so as to subsequently extend the devotion to it and place it alongside the devotion to My Sacred Heart.'
" 'But, my God, the Holy Father will not believe me unless You move him with a special inspiration.'
"'The Holy Father! Pray very much for the Holy Father! He will do it, but it will be late. Nevertheless, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will save Russia, which has been entrusted to it.'"
Again writing to Father Gonçalves, on 24 April 1940, she says: "If He wanted to, He could hasten that cause. But He will let it go slowly to punish the world. His justice, provoked by our sins, demands it thus. Sometimes He becomes annoyed not only at grave sins, but also at our laxity and negligence in heeding His requests…. Sins are many, but, above all, the negligence of souls whom He expected to serve Him with ardour is much greater today. The number of souls who are with Him is very small."
Sister Lucia returned to the same thoughts in a letter - also to Father Gonçalves - on 18 August 1940, writing:
"I suppose it pleases Our Lord that there is someone who is concerned about His vicar on earth fulfilling His wishes. But the Holy Father will not comply with them now. He doubts they are real, and explicably so. Our good Lord could show clearly through some prodigy that it is He who is asking, but He takes this opportunity to punish the world with His justice for so many crimes and to prepare it for a more complete return to Him. The proof that He gives us is the special protection the Immaculate Heart of Mary affords Portugal in view of the consecration made to it.

"The people you tell me about have good reason to be frightened. All that would also have happened to us had our prelates not heeded the requests of our good Lord nor so earnestly implored His mercy and the protection of the Immaculate Heart of our good heavenly Mother. But in our country there are still many crimes and sins, and, since now is the hour of God's justice upon the world, it is necessary to continue praying. For this reason, I deem it good to instil in people not only a great confidence in the mercy of our good Lord and in the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but also the awareness of the necessity of prayer accompanied by sacrifice, especially that which must be made in order to avoid sin."
In a letter dated 2 December 1940, Sister Lucia addressed herself directly to Pope Pius XII in obedience to her spiritual directors, asking him to bestow his blessing upon the devotion of the first Saturdays and to extend its practice all over the world, adding:
"In 1929, during another apparition, Our Lady asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, promising its conversion and to prevent the propagation of its errors by this means…. In several interior communications. Our Lord has not ceased to insist on this request, recently promising to shorten the days of tribulation with which He has determined to punish the nations for their crimes - through war, famine, and persecutions of Holy Church and Your Holiness - if Your Holiness deigns to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with special mention of Russia, and orders all the bishops of the world to do the same simultaneously in union with Your Holiness."
On 31 October 1942, in a radio message to Portugal on the occasion of the closing of the jubilee year of the apparitions of Fatima, Pius XII consecrated the Church and the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In 1943, Sister Lucia had another revelation from Our Lord, which she related to Father Gonçalves in a letter dated 4 May of that same year.
"By order of His Excellency (The Rt. Rev. Manuel Maria Ferreira da Silva, titular Bishop of Gurza), I had to communicate a brief message from Our Lord for the bishops here in Spain to the Archbishop of Valladolid and another for the bishops of Portugal. Let us hope they all hear the voice of the good Lord. He wishes that the bishops of Spain gather in a retreat and draw up a plan of reform for the people, clergy, and religious orders. Because some convents!.,. And many members of others!... Do you understand? He wishes that it be made clear to souls that the true penance He now desires and demands is, before anything else, the sacrifice that each one must endeavour to make in order to fulfil his own religious and temporal duties. Because of the act of consecration made by His Holiness, He promises that the war will end shortly. But since it was incomplete, the conversion of Russia will be postponed. If the bishops of Spain do not heed His wishes, it [Russia] will be once again the scourge with which God will punish them."
On 7 July 1952, in the Apostolic letter Sacro Vergente Anno, Pius XII consecrated the peoples of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in an apostolic letter.
At the Second Vatican Council, 510 archbishops and bishops from seventy-eight countries signed a petition entreating the vicar of Christ to consecrate the entire world - especially and explicitly Russia and the other nations dominated by communism - to the Immaculate Heart. The petition also requested that he order all the bishops of the Catholic world to join with him in this act on the same day. The document was presented personally to the Holy Father Pope Paul VI by The Most Rev. Geraldo de Proença Sigaud, Archbishop of Diamantina, Brazil, during a private audience on 3 February 1964.
Pope Paul VI, in closing the third session of Vatican II on 21 November 1964, "confided the human race" to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the same act in which, to a standing ovation of the Council Fathers, he proclaimed Our Lady "Mater Ecclesiae."
John Paul II made two consecrations of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, one in Fatima on 13 May 1982, and the other in Rome on 25 March 1984. Both consecrations were preceded by the Pontiff's invitation to the bishops to unite with him in these acts. There is, however, no positive information to evaluate to what extent the bishops of the whole world carried out the consecration in union with the Pope, either in 1982 or in 1984. Moreover, Russia was not mentioned by name in either of these consecrations.
Consequently, Sister Lucia always insisted until about mid-1989 that neither of these consecrations had been "valid" (taking the word in the sense of heeding the requirements Our Lady indicated to the seer). Since then, however, Sister Lucia has been recognising the validity of the consecration that John Paul II made on 25 March 1984.
Fatima experts are now divided over Sister Lucia's position, some adhering to the new one and others preferring to hold to her former pronouncements.
The matter is too complex for us to resolve here. For the moment it is enough to note that on giving her view about a possible relation between the consecration and the spectacular events that occurred in Eastern Europe, mainly in the second semester of 1989, with the apparent collapse of communism - a relation that seems to be at the root of the change in the seer's position - Sister Lucia makes it clear that she is expressing a personal opinion and not transmitting a supernatural revelation.
We are preparing a study of this interesting question to be brought out in due time.

* * *

To complete this analysis, it is useful to clarify two questions that frequently arise in the present circumstances:

FIRST QUESTION: If the Secret "was only this", why did the Holy See take so long to reveal it?

To one who refers to the third part of the Secret as being "only this", I answer that he certainly was unable to penetrate the mysterious and profound meaning of the Secret's metaphors. This is not surprising because Cardinal Ratzinger himself felt this difficulty when he emphasised, at the beginning of his "Theological Commentary", that the vision was "a scene described in a language which is symbolic and not easy to decipher".
Further conjecture lies within the realm of hypothesis and is beyond the subject matter of this work.

SECOND QUESTION: What does the third part of the Secret contain that would become "more clear" after 1960 as Sister Lucia declared when setting a date after which the text could be published?

We believe the key to deciphering the third part of the Secret is mankind's response to Our Lady's appeal at Fatima for penance and amendment of life. The fact that mankind has gone further and further away from the ways of virtue since the 1960s is notorious. We need only mention the cultural revolution that spread quickly throughout the world since the Sorbonne student revolt in 1968. Here, once again, we come across the errors of Russia that undeniably permeated this revolutionary movement. And, within the Church, we have the post-Conciliar crisis that brought in its wake a crisis of the Faith. By its very nature, a crisis of Faith implies a rejection of God, of Revelation and of the Magisterium of the Church. This can be of varying degrees, but has become widespread throughout the Christian world. (See footnote 23 Chap. 2, Concerning crisis in the Church)
Thus, both the temporal and spiritual order are in disarray. This can only be put right by means of an extraordinary intervention of Providence accompanied by a special regime of graces for humanity as described by the third part of the Secret. This whole disarray only became more apparent to everyone in the mid-60s, which confirms Sister Lucia's prophetic intuition.

POSTFACE

THE FIRST SIGNS OF A
COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY REBIRTH

The following excerpts are taken from an article written for the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady in Lourdes and was published in the monthly magazine Catolicismo (no. 86, February 1958). Here the worthy Brazilian Catholic leader and thinker Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira analyses the mission of Mary Most Holy in the restoration of Christian Civilisation and the defeat of the Revolution. We use this word as it is used by this same author in his masterly work Revolution and Counter-Revolution. In this work the word 'Revolution' means a centuries-long process during which the Western world has deviated from Christian principles.

His commentaries regarding humanity's state of unease due to sin and the profound yearnings it has for something different are intimately related to the third part of the Secret of Fatima published four decades after this article.

After referring to the proclamation of the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and of Papal Infallibility, as well as to St. Pius X's steps to encourage frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira writes:

The enemy is stronger than ever

But, one could ask, what has come as a result of this for the fight of the Church against its external enemies? Could one not say that the enemy is stronger than ever, and that the age the illuminati of days gone by dreamed of is upon us? Are we not indeed in an age of stark and total scientific naturalism that is dominated by materialistic technology? Are we not in an age of a ferociously egalitarian universal republic that has a somewhat philanthropic and humanitarian inspiration and from which will be swept all remnants of supernatural religion? Is this not in fact communism? Is it not also here that lies the danger by which Western society, supposedly anticommunist, will slip towards the realisation of this "ideal"?

The whole world groans in darkness and in pain

Yes. And this danger is closer than is usually imagined. However, no one pays attention to a fact of primordial importance: as the world is modelled according to this sinister design, a profound, an immense, an indescribable uneasiness is overwhelming it. Sometimes this uneasiness is subconscious and, even when conscious, is still vague and ill defined. In any case, no one contests its existence. One would say that humanity is being violently forced into a mould that is not according to its nature and against which all the fibres of its existence writhe and resist.

Humanity also yearns longingly for something else it does not yet know how to define. This may be a new phenomenon since the decline of Christian civilisation began in the 15th Century. The whole world now groans in darkness and pain just like the prodigal son when he reached the depths of shame and misery far from the paternal home. At the very moment when iniquity seems to triumph, there is something frustrated in its apparent victory.

Experience shows us that from discontent such as this emerge the great surprises of History. As the writhing increases, so does the unease. Who can tell what magnificent surprises may result?

Many times the hour of divine mercy comes for the sinner when at the extreme limits of sin and pain.

Now this healthy and promising uneasiness is, in my view, the fruit of a resurrection of the Catholic fibre coming from the great events mentioned above. This resurrection has had favourable repercussions over what was left of life and sanity in the cultured areas of the world.

The great conversion

It certainly was a great moment in the life of the prodigal son when his spirit, immersed in vice, once again acquired new life and his will new vigour, as he meditated upon his miserable state and the turpitude of all the errors that had lead him far from the paternal home. Touched by grace, he found himself, more clearly than ever, in face of the great alternative: either to repent and return, or to remain in error and accept the tragic consequences. Everything a good education had taught him was as if marvellously reborn at this providential moment; while, on the other hand, the tyranny of his bad habits affirmed themselves possibly even more terribly than ever. The internal struggle had begun. He chose the good. And we know the rest of the Gospel story.

Are we not possibly close to this moment?

The teaching of Lourdes

Only God knows the future. However, it is licit for us to make conjectures in the light of probabilities.

We are living in a terrible hour of chastisements. But this hour can be one of admirable mercy as long as we look to Mary, Star of the Sea, who guides us through the tempests.

For a hundred years Our Lady, moved with compassion for sinful humanity, has obtained the most stupendous miracles for us. Has this compassion now exhausted? Will the mercies of a mother, the best of all mothers, come to an end? Who would dare to affirm this? If someone had any doubts, Lourdes is an admirable lesson of confidence. Our Lady will come to our aid.

Lourdes and Fatima

She will come to our aid. This expression is partly true and partly false, because, in reality, she has already begun to help us. The definition of the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and of Papal Infallibility, as well as the renewal of Eucharistic devotion had their continuation in the supernatural Marian events after St. Pius X's pontificate. Our Lady appeared in Fatima under Benedict XV. The first apparition took place on 13 May 1917, the very day Pius XII was consecrated a bishop. During the reign of Pius XI, the message of Fatima slowly but surely spread throughout the world. On this same occasion, the 75th anniversary of the apparitions of Lourdes was celebrated with great joy by the Holy Father, who sent the then Cardinal Pacelli as his representative for the festivities. The pontificate of Pius XII was memorable for the definition of the dogma of the Assumption and for the Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of the World. During this pontificate, His Eminence Cardinal Masella, so dear to Brazilians, crowned the statue of the Most Holy Virgin in Fatima in the name of Pope Pius XII.

These are lights that constitute a brilliant sequence originating from the grotto of Massabielle and ending at the Cova da Iria.

The Reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

And this article ends with Fatima. Our Lady outlined the alternative very clearly in her apparitions. We either convert, or a tremendous chastisement will come; but, in the end, the Reign of the Immaculate Heart will establish itself in the world.

In other words, no matter in what way, with more suffering for mankind or less, the Heart of Mary will triumph.

This means that, according to the message of Fatima, the days during which impiety dominates are numbered.

Bibliography
Alonso, Fr. Joaquín María, C.M.F., La verdad sobre el secreto de Fátima, Fátima sin mitos, Cor Mariae Centrum, Madrid, 1976;
-Doctrina y espiritualidad del Mensaje de Fátima, Arias Montano Editores, Madrid, 1990.
Ayres da Fonseca, S.J., Rev. Luiz Gonzaga. Nossa Senhora de Fdtima. 5th edn. Petropolis, Brazil: Editora Vozes, 1954.
Chautard, O.C.S.O., Dom Jean-Baptiste. The Soul of the Apostolate. Trappist, Kentucky: Abbey of Gethsemani, 1946.
Corrêa de Oliveira, Plinio. Revolution and Counter-Revolution. 3rd edn. York PA.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), 1993.
De Marchi, LM.C., Rev. John. Era uma Senhora mais brilhante que o sol.... 3rd edn. Cova da Iria, Portugal: Seminario das Missoes de N. Sra. de Fatima.
-The Crusade of Fatima: The Lady More Brilliant than the Sun. 3rd printing. Adapted by Fathers Asdrubal Castello Branco and Philip C. M. Kelly, C.S.C. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1948. Except where otherwise stated, references are from the Portuguese edition.
De Montfort, Saint Louis-Marie Grignion. True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 5th edn. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1909.
Documentação Crítica de Fátima, Serviço de Estudos e Difusão do Santuário de Fátima, coordinated by Fr. José Geraldes Freire; definitive texts, introductions and notes by Fr. Luciano Coelho Cristino, Margarida Amaral Santos and Fr. José Geraldes Freire; Santuário de Fátima, Vol. I, 1992; Vol. II 1999.
Fazenda, S.J., Rev. Antonio de Almeida. Meditações dos primeiros sábados. 2nd edn. Braga, Portugal: Mensageiro do Coração de Jesus, 1953.
Freire, Rev. José Geraldes, O Segrêdo de Fátima: a terceira parte é sobre Portugal?, Santuário de Fátima, 1977.
Galamba de Oliveira, Most Rev. José. "História das Aparições." In Fátima, Altar do Mundo, vol. II, pp. 21-160. Porto, Portugal: Ocidental Editora, 1954.
Leite, Rev. Fernando, S.J., Francisco de Fátima, Editorial A.O., Braga 4th edn., 1986.
Mariz, S.J., Rev. Luiz Gonzaga. Fátima, onde o céu tocou a terra. 2nd edn. Salvador, Brazil: Editora Mensageiro da Fé, 1954.
Martins, Rev. Antonio Maria, S.J., Novos documentos de Fátima, Edições Loyola, 1984.
Memórias e Cartas da Irmã Lúcia. Introduction, English translation, and notes by Father Antonio Maria Martins. Porto, Portugal: Simão Guimarães, Filhos, 1973. Facsimile edition of the manuscripts of Sister Lucia. Portuguese text also in type, with English and French translations included. Two other editions were made of the Portuguese text, one in Brazil (0 Segrêdo de Fátima nas memórias e cartas da Irmã Lúcia, Edições Loyola, São Paulo, 1974), and the other in Portugal (O Segrêdo de Fátima e o futuro de Portugal nos escritos da Irmã Lúcia, L.E., Porto, 1974). Except where otherwise stated, references are from the facsimile edition.
Neves, Rev. Moreira das. "As grandes jomadas de Fatima." In Fátima, Altar do Mundo, vol. II, pp. 205-303. Porto, Portugal: Ocidental Editora, 1954.
Reis, Rev. Sebastião Martins dos. A Vidente de Fátima dialoga e responde pelas Aparições. Braga, Portugal: Tip. Editorial Franciscana, 1970.
-Síntese crítica de Fatima: Incidências e Repercussões. Evora, Portugal: Edição do Autor, 1967.
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Rendeiro, O.P, Friar Francisco. "A consagração pela Igreja do culto de Nossa Senhora de Fatima." In Fátima, Altar do Mundo, vol. II, pp. 163-198. Porto, Portugal: Ocidental Editora, 1954.
Sainte Trinité, Bro. Michel de la, Toute la vérité sur Fátima, La Contre-Réforme Catholique, Saint-Parres-Les-Vaudes, Vol. III, Le troisième secret, 1985.
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O BACKCOVER

I
n the early part of this century, that is, until 1914, human society seemed to shine brilliantly. There was undeniable progress in every field. Life had reached an unprecedented economic prosperity. Social life was easy and attractive. Humanity seemed to be heading for a golden era.

On the other hand, symptoms of deep trouble contrasted with this rosy picture. Both material and moral misery existed, but few people gave this matter the importance it warranted. Almost everyone expected that science and progress would put an end to all the problems. World War I came and shattered these expectations. In the war's aftermath, difficulties of all kinds steadily increased until 1939 when World War II broke out. All this has brought us to the present situation, where it could be said that no country has remained unscathed by the grave crises that touch almost every aspect of life.

Every nation is beset by agitation, disorder, the unrestrained appetites and ambitions, the undermining of values, in short, if not by total anarchy, at least by a state of affairs that closely resembles it. And no statesman has yet come forth to offer a remedy in proportion to this morbid universal process.

The essence of the messages of the Angel of Portugal and Our Lady is to open our eyes to the gravity of this situation, to explain it in light of the plans of Divine Providence, and to point out what is necessary in order to prevent the catastrophe. Our Lady is thus teaching us the history of our epoch and, more than this, its future.

The Roman Empire of the West closed with a catastrophe illuminated and analysed by the genius of a great doctor. Saint Augustine. The great prophet Saint Vincent Ferrer foresaw the waning of the Middle Ages. Saint Louis de Montfort, another great prophet and teacher, foresaw the French Revolution. However, our times, which seem about to close with a new catastrophe, have an even greater privilege: Our Lady herself came to speak to us.

Saint Augustine could only explain for posterity what caused the tragedy he witnessed. Saint Vincent Ferrer and Saint Louis de Montfort laboured in vain to turn aside the tempests - men would not listen to them. Our Lady explained the reasons for the crisis and pointed out the remedy, predicting catastrophes if she were not heeded.

From every point of view, by the nature of their content as well as the dignity of her who brought them, the revelations of Fatima surpass all other times when Providence has revealed to man the imminence of the great tempests of history.

Hence, we can affirm, without fear of contradiction, that the apparitions of Our Lady and of the angel at Fatima constitute the most important and most striking event of the 20th century.