Three Secrets of Fatima

From May to October, 1917, three young Portuguese shepherds, Lucia Abobora dos Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, claimed to have witnessed an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On July 13 Mary is supposed to have entrusted three secrets - in the form of prophecies - to the young visionaries. Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in a document written by Lucia to assist with the canonization of her cousins, while the third was to remain secret, although the bishop of Leiria commanded Lucia to put it in writing and to present it to the Pope. Lucia herself chose the 1960 date for the secret to be revealed, because she said she thought "by that time it will be more clearly understood".

Speculation on other documents

There are several indicators of what that alleged text not yet released may have contained. The first piece of evidence stems from Fr. Schweigl's testimony: "Logically, (it) would have to be the continuation of the words: 'In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved'.

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Siser Lucia said this herself in 1957, just before the Secret was to be released: "Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. And the devil knows what it is that most offends God and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus, the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way, the devil will succeed in leaving souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them."

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Father Joaquin Alonso, the official archivist of Fatima, who had a great deal of access to talk to Sister Lucia, said this of the Third Secret: "If ?in Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,? ... it can be clearly deduced from this that in other parts of the Church these dogmas are going to become obscure or even lost altogether."

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Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger said in 1984 that the Third Secret pertained to "... the dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian, and therefore of the world. And then the importance of the 'novissimi' (the last events at the end of time)."

Related Topics:
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger - 1984

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The Bishop of Fatima, Cosme do Amaral said in 1984: "Its content concerns only our faith. To identify the Secret with catastrophic announcements or with a nuclear holocaust is to deform the meaning of the message. The loss of faith of a continent is worse than the annihilation of a nation; and it is true that faith is continually diminishing in Europe."

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Mario Cardinal Ciappi, papal theologian under Paul VI and John Paul II wrote this: "In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top."

Related Topics:
Mario Cardinal Ciappi - Apostasy

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Pope John Paul II went on record in 1980 that his predecessors did not release the secret "so as not to encourage the world power of Communism to make certain moves." He criticized people who wished to know the secret out of mere curiosity and sensationalism without wanting -- or feeling it would do any good -- to take action themselves against evil. Taking up a rosary he concluded: "Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray, and ask for nothing more. Leave everything else to the Mother of God."

Related Topics:
Pope John Paul II - 1980 - Communism - Rosary

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Some conclude from the above testimony that the Third Secret speaks of the loss of faith and what Sister Lucia has elsewhere called "the diabolical disorientation of the upper hierarchy".

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