TIA,

Here are five reasons I present in defense of the authenticity of the Third Secret revealed in April 2010:

1. Some who have read the Third Secret, like Cardinal Ciappi, said that it is about the "great apostasy [that] will begin at the top." Cardinal Oddi in March 1990 said "the Blessed Virgin was alerting us against apostasy in the Church." This recent Secret opens with the words, "Now I will reveal the third part of the secret; this part is the apostasy in the Church."

2. Father Schweigl, who had been entrusted by Pope Pius XII to see Sr. Lucy, questioned her on September 2, 1952. Fr. Schweigl later stated that the 3rd Secret has two parts: one is about the Pope and the other refers to the words, "In Portugal, the dogma of the faith will always be preserved." That sums up the Secret we are now examining: one part is about the Pope with "evil eyes" and the second concerns "the Dogma of faith [that] is not preserved in Rome, [and] its authority will be removed and given to Fatima," and the Truths of the Faith will remain intact there.

3. Pope John XXIII when he opened the Secret said that it "does not pertain to the years of my pontificate." He stated this precisely because there is a reference to another Pope (John Paul II) in the Secret and he could then dismiss it and leave it to another. Very likely he was looking for a reason to go ahead with the Council and relegate Fatima to the past.

As an important aside, this Secret has reference to a vision that Mary was showing the children at the time of its transmission: the cheering multitudes for the Pope with evil eyes and the subsequent image of a Church from hell. This completely conflicts with the vision that the Vatican declared in 2000 with a "bishop in white" being killed after scrambling past the corpses of the dead and going up to a cross on a hill overlooking a ruined city.

4. Along with others, I believe that in the Secret there is a vision interwoven with Our Lady's words, and the Secret from April 2010 has Mary's words plus a vision. This is exactly the same interior style as that of the vision of Hell which comprises the first Secret. Moreover, the recent Secret contains an authoritative and basic dignity that we associate with the other known parts; it is not the Vatican's complex, elaborately depicted version.

5. Though he did not do the Consecration to Russia as Our Lady specifically requested and did not choose to reveal the Secret, Pope John Paul II took its words seriously and actually had the cornerstone from Peter's tomb transferred to Fatima in March 2004.

     R.D.

TIA received from the "Fatima Movement" a good synopsis of facts surrounding the Third Secret of Fatima. We are posting the first part of it for our readers as a reference point to help them situate themselves in face of the recently released Third Secret. The subtitles are ours.

A.S. Guimarães, editor




On 8/31/41, Sr. Lucia wrote her 3rd memoir elucidating some details of Jacinta's life. In this 3rd memoir, Sr. Lucia for the 1st time mentioned that the Secret was in 3 distinct parts. She wrote,

"The Secret is composed of three distinct parts, and I shall disclose two of them."

The first is the vision of Hell and the designation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the supreme remedy offered by God to humanity for the salvation of souls. Our Lady said,

"In order to save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart."

The second is the great prophecy concerning a miraculous peace which God wishes to grant to the world through the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the practice of communions of reparation on the 1st Saturdays of the month.

"If people attend to my requests, Russia will be converted and the world will have peace."

And there is also the great announcement of terrible punishments if people persist in not obeying her requests. Sr. Lucia stated that at that time she was not permitted to reveal the 3rd part of the secret.

Prelates & the Vatican

Bishop da Silva was given permission to read the 3rd Secret, but he did not want the responsibility. He tried to get it to the Holy Office, but Rome refused to receive it. It was then agreed that if Bishop da Silva happened to die, the envelope would be entrusted to Cardinal Cerejeira, the Patriarch of Lisbon.

In 1957 the Holy Office demanded the text of the 3rd secret, which until then had been kept at the palace of the bishop of Leira. The auxiliary Bishop Venancio was entrusted with the delivery of the sealed document to Bishop Cento, then Apostolic Nuncio to Lisbon.

On 4/16/57, the sealed envelope arrived in Rome. It was placed in the office of Pope Pius XII, in a little chest bearing the note, "Secret of the Holy Office."

It appears that Pope Pius XII did not read the secret. According to Cardinal Ottaviani and Monsignor Capovilla, secretary of Pope John XXIII, the envelope was still sealed when Pope John XXIII opened it in 1959, one year after the death of Pope Pius XII. Pope Pius XII had apparently decided to wait until 1960. He died on October 8, 1958 without having read it.

Complaints of Our Lady

In 1957, Sr. Lucia confided to Fr. Fuentes: "The Most Holy Virgin has told me that the Devil is about to engage in a decisive battle against the Virgin... and the Devil knows what most offends God, and what will make him gain the most souls in the shortest possible time. He does everything to win consecrated souls from God, for in this manner he will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful defenseless, and so he will lay hold of them more easily."

On 12/25/57, Sr. Lucia told Fr. Fuentes, the Postulator of the beatification causes of Jacinta and Francisco:

"The Blessed Virgin is very sad, for no one attaches any importance to her message, neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on their way, but without paying attention to the message. I cannot give any other details, since it is still a secret. Only the Holy Father and His Excellency, the Bishop of Fatima would be able to know it in accordance with the will of the Blessed Virgin. But they haven't willed to know it as they did not want to be influenced."

In 1959 there was a great wave of devotion in all Italy to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. On September 13, 1959 all the bishops of Italy solemnly consecrated Italy to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Rejection of John XXIII & the Conciliar Popes

On 8/17/59 Pope John XXIII had the envelope brought to him at Castelgandolfo, by Msgr. Philippe, then an official of the Holy Office. Pope John XXIII did not immediately open the envelope but stated: "I am waiting to read it with my confessor."

The secret was read a few days later, according to Monsignor Capovilla. Assistance in reading the Portuguese was given by Monsignor Paulo Jose Tavarez of the Secretariat of State. Later John XXIII had it read by Cardinal Ottaviani, Prefect of the Holy Office.

On February 8, 1960 it was suddenly learned through a simple Portuguese press agency communiqué that the 3rd secret of Fatima would not be published, and that it probably never would be disclosed. The Vatican communiqué ended:

"Although the Church recognizes the Fatima apparitions, she does not desire to take the responsibility of guaranteeing the veracity of the words the three shepherd children said that the Virgin Mary had addressed to them."

Bishop Venancio, on his own initiative, decided to launch an appeal to all the bishops of the world and attempted to organize a world day of prayer and penance for the following October 13, but the Vatican turned a deaf ear to this proposal, and nothing was done. This did immense harm to the Fatima cause. It was from this date, after this public disregard for the 3rd secret, that devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin began to decrease in a perceptible and then alarming manner in the Church.

This fault was to have incalculable consequences. For by disregarding the prophecies and requests of Fatima, it was the Virgin Mary - it was God Himself - who had been disregarded, who had been ridiculed in front of the world. The conditional punishment announced through the maternal warning of Our Lady was in consequence destined to be accomplished tragically, inevitably by disobeying the message of the Virgin.

Cardinal Ottaviani related that Pope John XXIII placed the Secret, "in one of those archives which are like a very deep, dark well, at the bottom where papers fall and no one is able to see them anymore."

Pope Paul VI straightway adopted the same attitude toward the 3rd secret.

The Virgin had asked that the secret be made public in 1960 because, as Sr. Lucia told Cardinal Ottaviani, "in 1960, the Message will appear clearer." Other statements from Sr. Lucia have said that "the punishment predicted by Our Lady in the third secret has already begun."

We are now in the period of which the message speaks. We are now living through the 3rd secret. We are witnessing the events that it announces.

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