Fatima, Portugal, May 9, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- This is part two of a two-part series. Part one covered the historical context, contents of the apparitions, and Miracle of the Sun.
The secrets of Fatima
While Mary revealed what came to be known as The Great Secret of Fatima during her third apparition to the shepherd children, it was kept from the public for quite some time, according to instructions from Mary. Sr. Lucia revealed the first two secrets in a memoir in 1941, which had been written at the request of the local bishop at the time. Lucia wrote six memoirs during her lifetime – the first four were written between 1935 and 1941; the English translation was published under the name Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words.
The first secret was the vision of hell that Mary had allowed the children to see.
As Sr. Lucia wrote in her memoir: “Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.”
The second secret was a statement that World War I would end, and a prediction of another war that would start during the reign of Pius XI, if people continued to offend God and if Russia were not consecrated to her Immaculate Heart.
As Sr. Lucia recalled in her memoirs, Our Lady said: “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pope Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”
Sr. Lucia believed that an aurora borealis, which appeared in the sky on January 25, 1938, was the “unknown light” to which Mary had referred. The celestial phenomenon could be seen throughout Europe and as far south as Australia, and across the Atlantic to Bermuda and parts of the United States.
Shortly thereafter, Germany annexed Austria, and Japan had already invaded China in 1937. While the European portion of World War II is generally held by Western scholars to have officially started on September 1, 1939, under the reign of Venerable Pius XII, in many ways it was already begun under the reign of Pius XI, as Mary predicted.
Sr. Lucia did not record the third part of the secret in her 1941 memoirs, because she said that Mary had not yet permitted her to reveal it to the world.
However, Sr. Lucia fell seriously ill in 1943. Fearing her death before the third part of the secret was ever revealed, the local bishop asked that she write it down, which she did out of obedience. Sr. Lucia wrote the secret in January 1944, put it in an envelope and sealed it, asking that it not be opened until 1960, at which time she believed the meaning of the message would be clearer, or until she died, whichever came first.
The envelope remained at the bishop’s office until 1957, at which time it was delivered to the Vatican, despite Lucia’s requests that it remain with the bishop.
The secret was not revealed until the year 2000 – 40 years after Sr. Lucia thought it might be released – under the direction of the Holy See.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, then the Vatican Secretary of State, announced that on May 13, 2000, 83 years after the first apparition, the Third Secret would finally be published. He said the secret referred to the 20th century persecution of Christians and the failed assassination attempt on St. John Paul II on May 13, 1981, the 64th anniversary of the first apparition.
The text of the third secret was published by the Vatican on June 26, 2000:
“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!’. 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. 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.”
The controversial third secret
A century after the Fatima apparitions, controversies remain. The two biggest involve whether or not the full and authentic text of the third secret has been revealed, and whether or not Russia has been adequately consecrated to Mary.
In 1960, the year Sr. Lucia intended the third secret to be published, the Vatican issued a press release stating that it was “most probable the Secret would remain, forever, under absolute seal.” Widespread speculation ensued about what this meant for the content of the secret, ranging from “worldwide nuclear annihilation to deep rifts in the Roman Catholic Church that lead to rival papacies,” according to the New York Times.
St. John XXIII and Bl. Paul VI both reportedly read the secret, but decided not to release it to the public.
During the papacy of St. John Paul II, the questions regarding the third Fatima secret intensified. In an interview with German magazine Stimme des Glaubens, published in October 1981, John Paul II was pressed explicitly about the third secret.
He said: “Because of the seriousness of its contents, in order not to encourage the world wide power of Communism to carry out certain coups, my predecessors in the chair of Peter have diplomatically preferred to withhold its publication.”
He added that it would be unhelpful to publish the secret if it led Christians to believe that there were a predicted catastrophe against which they were helpless.
Holding up his rosary, the Pope declared: “Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray and ask for nothing else. Put everything in the hands of the Mother of God.”
On May 2, 1981, an Australian named Laurence James Downey, who claimed to be a defrocked French Trappist monk, hijacked an airplane and demanded that St. John Paul II reveal the Third Secret of Fatima. The man was believed to be armed with a bomb, but the incident was resolved without any injuries to passengers onboard.
In 1984, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that “if [the Third Secret] is not published … it is to avoid confusing religious prophecy with sensationalism. But the things contained in the Third Secret correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and are confirmed by many other Marian apparitions.”
Widespread speculation and concern led to the secret’s publishing in 2000 by the Vatican. The late release angered many who read the secret and didn’t understand what was so controversial about it that delayed publication by decades.
Conspirators questioned whether the authentic secret, or the secret in full, had actually been revealed. The Vatican version, which is claimed to be a photocopy of the original handwritten note from Sr. Lucia, took up four pages, while some allege that Sr. Lucia had actually written the third secret on just one page.
Some skeptics are also suspicious about the third secret because it does not contain any words directly from Mary, unlike the other secrets.
Some also question the content of the secret, because it does not directly speak of the apocalypse, as was expected from interviews of Sr. Lucia.
Others are also suspicious of Sr. Lucia’s transfer from the Dorothean Sisters, where she initially entered, to a cloistered Carmelite convent, the order she transferred to with permission in 1948. The move to the Carmelite order, which has strict rules about communication with the outside world, is seen by some as part of a larger conspiracy effort to censor her visions and the third secret.
On the other hand, Sr. Lucia herself confirmed several times that the third secret as published by the Vatican is in full and correct. Specifically in a November 17, 2001 statement to the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, she confirmed that the Fatima secret has been totally revealed by the Vatican, and Russia has already been consecrated as Mary requested.
Those who affirm that the secret has been fully revealed say that to question the secret’s authenticity is to question the original visionary’s credibility.
The authenticity of the third secret has also been confirmed by the Popes and other Vatican officials.
When the secret was published, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that “The events to which the third part of the ‘secret’ of Fatima refers now seem part of the past. […] Those who expected exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or the future course of history are bound to be disappointed.”
In 2016, an article on Catholic blog One Peter Five included an interview with a German priest who claimed to recall a conversation in which Pope Benedict XVI told him that the third secret had not been fully revealed. In a response on May 21, 2016, the Vatican released a statement from Pope Benedict XVI declaring that any claims that the third secret had not been fully revealed were “pure inventions, absolutely untrue.”
The other controversy: The consecration of Russia
As Mary promised in the second secret, she came back to ask for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. On June 13, 1929, Mary reappeared to Sr. Lucia, who was with the Sisters of St. Dorothy at the time, asking for the consecration of Russia, “promising its conversion through this means the hindering of the propagation of its errors.”
There were three “conditions” of the consecration, explained by Mary in the second part of the secret: The Pope must consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with a special mention of Russia, in union with the bishops of the whole world.
At an unknown date after this apparition, Sr. Lucia made the request for consecration known to Pius XI. In 1938, the Portuguese bishops asked Pius XI to make the consecration, but no action was taken. Upon the election of Venerable Pius XII in 1939, several clergy repeated the request to the Pope.
In December 1940, with World War II well underway in Europe, Sr. Lucia wrote a letter to Pius XII, requesting the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary “with a special mention for Russia, and order that all the bishops of the world do the same in union with Your Holiness.”
More than a year later, on October 31, 1942, Venerable Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, though without the involvement of the bishops of the world. War made communications difficult, and many bishops had been imprisoned or even killed. Sr. Lucia said that though this consecration was imperfect, Jesus revealed to her that it was enough to bring a quicker end to World War II, sparing many lives.
In July 1952, Venerable Pius XII consecrated the people of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but again, because it was done privately and not in conjunction with the bishops of the world, the consecration was incomplete. At least once during his papacy, Blessed Paul VI renewed the Russia consecration, although it did not fulfill the requirements of being in union with the bishops of the world.
Ongoing, dedication political relations with Russia made a consecration that specifically called out the country difficult.
“It’s not that the Church forgot about what the Madonna said about Russia, it’s not that Russia was forgotten, absolutely no,” said Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
“For what regards the consecration of Russia to the heart of Mary, the Church did this, but with an extraordinarily unique diplomatic skill. But she did it.”
According to Sr. Lucia, the consecration was complete during the pontificate of St. John Paul II, who several times attempted to fulfill the requirements of the Russia consecration.
It was finally considered fully complete after the consecration he made on March 25, 1984, as confirmed by Sr. Lucia.
St. John Paul II, “united with all the pastors of the Church in a particular bond whereby we constitute a body and a college,” consecrates “the whole world, especially the peoples for which by reason of their situation you have particular love and solicitude,” he said in the consecration.
“Because the Church…if she would have consecrated Russia to the heart of Mary and nothing else, it would have provoked a terrible reaction on the part of Russia,” Cardinal Martins explained.
“The Pope realized this. It was something, from the standpoint of Russia, completely unacceptable…It certainly would have had extraordinary consequences…But the Church fulfilled what the Madonna asked by consecrating not Russia in particular, but the world; I underline the world, and Russia is part of the world. So was Russia also consecrated to Our Lady’s heart or not? Russia was consecrated. If I consecrate the world to Russia, I also consecrate Italy, the United States, to the heart of Mary. They are part of the world consecrated to the heart of Mary.”
Both St. John Paul II and Sr. Lucia initially seemed uncertain that the consecration has been fulfilled in 1984, but shortly thereafter Sr. Lucia told the papal nuncio to Portugal that the Consecration had been fulfilled. She also confirmed this in a letter to one of her sisters in 1989, and again in a letter to a priest in 1990, as well as in her statement to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in 2001.
A warning against “sensationalism”
Despite Vatican attempts to quell rumors and hearsay, the Fatima conspiracy theories still persist.
But Benedict XVI several times warned against this “sensationalism” that he says Mary would not have intended as the fruit of her apparitions.
Four years before the third secret’s release, in a 1996 interview with Portugal’s main Catholic radio station, Cardinal Ratzinger, who had already read the secret, issued this warning: “To all curious people, I would say I am certain that the Virgin does not engage in sensationalism; she does not act in order to instigate fear. She does not present apocalyptic visions, but guides people to her Son. And this is what is essential.”
Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, and visited the apparition site as Pope in 2010.
During a press conference for the visit, he reminded the faithful that the message of Fatima is not about conspiracy theories regarding the end of the world, but about the faithful’s response in “ongoing conversion, penance, prayer, and the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity.”
“This is our response, we are realists in expecting that evil always attacks, attacks from within and without, yet that the forces of good are also ever present and that, in the end, the Lord is more powerful than evil and Our Lady is for us the visible, motherly guarantee of God’s goodness, which is always the last word in history,” he said.
Vatican recognition and papal trips to Fatima
In 1930, Bishop Dom Jose Aleves Correia da Silva of the Diocese of Leiria (now Leiria-Fatima) declared that, based on the results of the investigative commission, the apparitions at Fatima were “worthy of belief.”
Since then, the Fatima apparitions have received significant recognition on the part of the Vatican, and Pius XI granted a special indulgence to those who visited the newly-built Fatima shrine.
Venerable Pius XII encouraged devotion to Our Lady of Fatima so much so that he became known as “the Pope of Fatima.”
He is reported to have said: “The time for doubting Fatima has passed, the time for action is now.” He was the first Pope to consecrate the world, and then Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Moreover, it was during his papacy, in 1944, that the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was extended to the entire Roman rite, to be celebrated on Aug. 22, the octave day of the Assumption.
Bl. Paul VI visited the shrine of Fatima, on May 13, 1967, as did Cardinal Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice – who was elected Pope in 1978.
St. John Paul II visited the Fatima shrine three times – in 1982, 1991 and 2000. During his 2000 visit, he beatified the two deceased visionaries, Jacinta and Francisco. He also added the feast of Our Lady of Fatima to the General Roman Calendar, to be celebrated May 13.
The Polish Pope had a particularly strong devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. After a close shave with death during an assassination attempt on his life on the 64th anniversary of the first apparitions – May 13, 1981 – the Pope credited his survival to Our Lady of Fatima’s miraculous intervention. As a sign of his gratitude, he placed the bullet from the failed assassination in her crown.
As a cardinal, Benedict XVI had a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima which extended to his papacy, when he visited the Fatima shrine from May 11-14, 2010. In 2008, he waived the typical five-year waiting period in order to open Sr. Lucia’s cause for canonization. The local Church in February 2017 finished collecting documents to examine her heroic virtue.
Pope Francis as well has a strong devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, and consecrated his papacy to her on May 13, 2013.
What happened to the visionaries after the apparitions?
As foretold in the apparitions, the sibling pair of Francisco and Jacinta would only live a short while after the apparitions were completed.
Convicted by Mary’s requests and the vision of hell, both children lived lives of prayer and penance after the apparitions, offering themselves for sinners as Mary had asked. Francisco was known for his devotion to the Eucharist and his strict physical mortifications, while Jacinta was especially known for having a heart for the poor and the suffering.
Both children fell victim to the influenza epidemic of 1918 that swept through Europe. In October 1918, Mary again appeared to the sick siblings and promised to take them to heaven soon. On April 3, 1919, Francisco declined hospital treatment for influenza and died the next day, at the age of 11.
Jacinta was given hospital treatment in hopes of prolonging her life, but she knew that she would soon join Francisco in heaven. On February 19, 1920, Jacinta asked the hospital chaplain who heard her confession to bring her Holy Communion and administer the last rites, because she was going to die “the next night.” But the priest said that her condition was not that serious and that he would return the next day. The next day Jacinta was found dead – she had died in her sleep at 10 years old.
As for Lucia, she outlived her cousins by many years, as Mary had predicted. Shortly after the deaths of her cousins, at 14 years old, she was sent to the Dorothean Sisters of Villar for school, and in 1928 became a sister of St. Dorothy. In 1946, she transferred to the convent of the Carmelite Sisters of Coimbra, Portugal and took the name Sister Maria Lucia of the Immaculate Heart.
She received visions and messages from Mary and Jesus on several more occasions throughout her life, including the visions in 1925 that led to the Five First Saturday devotions, which include saying the rosary, receiving communion and confession, and meditation during the first Saturday of five consecutive months.
Besides the four memoirs she wrote between 1935 and 1941, Sr. Lucia had an additional book published in 2001, known as Calls from the Message of Fatima or Appeals of the Fatima Message. She visited the Fatima shrine during Bl. Paul VI’s visit in 1967, and during all three of St. John Paul II’s visits.
Aside from her memoirs and letters to clergy regarding Fatima, she had limited communication with the outside world, per her Carmelite vows.
Sr. Lucia died in 2005 at the age of 97, at the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she had lived since 1948.
The canonization of Francisco and Jacinta
Popularity of the Fatima apparitions spread, and the cause for canonization of Francisco and Jacinta was opened in 1946. Much of what is known about their life and holiness is known through Lucia’s memoirs.
“People may ask: ‘These children died so young, what do we know about them and their lives of faith?’ But a lot was related by Sr. Lucia and the witnesses of the apparitions. Francisco had a devotion to the Eucharist, and Jacinta wanted to help those who were suffering, that was her charism or focus after the apparition. Those are details most of us don’t really know about,” O’Neill said.
Francisco and Jacinta became the youngest non-martyr children to be beatified, on May 13, 2000, the 83rd anniversary of the first apparition. St. John Paul II presided over the Mass.
Pope Francis will canonize Francisco and Jacinta during his trip to Fatima on May 13, 2017 during a Mass at the shrine.
[…]
Um, I have a question, Jorge.
What about Rupnik?
Why stop there?
The language of northern Belgium is Flemish (Vlaams). As in Vlaams Belang and Nieuw Vlaams Alliantie (N-VA), two of the political parties.
Little Sisters of the Poor are humbly serving the last, the least, and the lost. May the selfless servers and those served be blessed with joy and happiness.
Why should the Church be ashamed when Bergoglio is not ashamed? Here is the list of the sexual abusers he has and is protecting:https://opentabernacle.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/list-of-sexual-predators-protected-by-pope-francis-grows-and-grows/
Why not praise him for the flack he is taking by standing firm on abortion, no women priests, not accepting homosexuality and trans genderism ? Even the secular media is covering this. Give the man credit when credit is due! By the way he should be addressed as Pope Francis.
Probably because the article is about the Pope’s speech saying the Church should be ashamed of clerical abuse, not about everything he’s ever done.
Touché Amanda.
Bergoglio has continuously in word and deed promoted homosexuality and transgenderism, the heretical agenda of his Synod on women priests, and the raft of pro-abortion “experts” he has appointed just last week to his ruined Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. These are all matters of public record for the past 11 years. If Bergoglio acted and spoke as pope, he could be addressed as pope, but he does not. In fact, serious doubts must be entertained of whether he is pope and not an apostate and heretical anti-pope. Again, these are issues that have been routinely addressed on the public record for the past 11 years.
James Connor: He has never been “firm” on any of those matters. Check again. Early in his pontificate, he even condemned being “obsessed” over abortion, and he has knowingly been praising the work of some of the world’s most notorious abortionists ever since under the pretest of environmentalism. He restructured the Pontifical Academy for Life from a pro-life think tank to an abortion advocacy cesspool. An all-male priesthood was solved definitively by JPII, yet Francis, the politician, keeps finding cynical ways to revive it. And he clearly supports the legitimization of homosexuality.
From no other than Bridget Bardot today —
On Bergoglio: “I have no admiration whatsoever for what Pope Francis says and does. I wrote to the Pope twice, happy to know that he was taking the name of Francis and convinced that he would do something for animals. I never received a reply.”
https://gloria.tv/post/iQwEUxRhkeDk4Zs6txEp1Ds3Z
I too, James, am saddened because those who attack Pope Francis are, like me, sinners and ingrates.
I would only like to add and remember, regarding abortion and euthanasia—topics that are very close to my heart, as they represent the foremost and principal abuses of the apostate Western ‘civilization,’ once Christian and now neo-pagan (let it not be said, as was reproached to the Pope in Belgium for paying homage to King Baldwin, that we have returned to the Middle Ages—we are the ones who change, becoming worse, we have become barbaric, but God and His holy law do not change!)—that King Philippe, precisely ten years ago, abdicated.
Not formally from his power, but essentially from his role. A role that, particularly as a Catholic, required him to serve all his subjects, especially the least among them, in obedience to the famous Gospel paradox which demands that the greatest make themselves small and place themselves at the service of the most defenseless. And who are the most defenseless if not children?
Yet Philippe, forgetful of his *munus* and the responsibilities it entails, signed into law the bill extending euthanasia to minors without any age limit, a law approved by Parliament on February 13, 2014.
The 210,000 signatures collected from every corner of the world and addressed to him, urging him to deny his assent and shield the children of his people with his crown, were in vain. Two hundred and ten thousand signatures to stop a single one. These signatures were gathered not because there was a true belief that without the monarch’s approval, the law would not pass, but because Philippe’s ‘No’ would have embodied the ‘No’ of hundreds of thousands of citizens who do not identify with a Belgium that has taken on the guise of Herod. That ‘No’ would have signified that the word of one man, precisely because he is King, holds far greater weight than parliamentary majorities and political calculations.
None of those issues are relevant to the article. Francis has actively, intentionally, and repeatedly failed to properly discipline and laicize members of the church hierarchy who are guilty of sexual abuse and assault. His behavior is inexcusable and totally unacceptable. I’ll start referring to him as pope when he starts acting like one.
Athanasius, your comment inspired me to revisit the words of Saint Catherine of Siena, who played a pivotal role in the history of the Church. She was instrumental in bringing Pope Gregory XI back to Rome from Avignon. Later, she was summoned by Pope Urban VI to address the cardinals and remained in Rome as his advisor. The challenges faced by the Popes and the Church during Saint Catherine’s time may not mirror our own, but they were nonetheless significant, causing widespread disaffection, especially towards Urban VI. In fact, even those who remained loyal to the Pope and opposed the Antipope were plotting his assassination, blaming him for the Church’s woes. Catherine suffered deeply from this and was tormented by the thought of what she called a potential “parricide.” She not only prayed but asked the Lord to let her bear all the suffering so that the Church might be spared. And the Lord listened to her.
I offer this context because we must always look at the Pope with the eyes of faith. With that very same vision of faith, Saint Catherine wrote: “I urge and desire that you love Christ on earth” (Letter 177, to Cardinal Pietro of Porto). She also requested that her spiritual children offer “a special daily prayer for the Holy Church and for the Pope” (Letter 324, to Stefano Maconi, the future founder of the Certosa of Pavia).
Here is one of Saint Catherine’s prayers for the Pope. It can be recited daily as a tangible expression of our love for the Church, offering it just a minute of our time:
“O eternal God and sweetest charity, I pray and beg your most holy clemency that you purify your vicar, so that his heart may burn with holy desire to recover the lost members of the holy Church. And if his negligence displeases you, O eternal love, punish my body for it, which I offer and return to you, so that you may afflict and destroy it with your scourges, if it pleases you so. I pray that he always does your will, does not heed the counsel of the flesh, and does not cower in the face of any adversity, for truly all things fall away except you, the highest God. Therefore, O eternal mercy, make your vicar a devourer of the food of souls, burning with holy desire for your honor, and uniting himself only with you, because you are supreme and eternal goodness, purify our infirmities for your sake, and restore your bride with his salutary counsel and virtuous deeds. Amen.”
In a letter to Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan, after reminding him that “the sweet Word, Son of God, has placed His blood in the body of the holy Church and wills that it be administered by the hands of His vicar,” she wrote: “Therefore, it is foolish for anyone to turn away and act against this vicar who holds the keys to the blood of Christ crucified. Even if he were a demon incarnate, I must not raise my head against him but always humble myself, asking for mercy through the blood, for there is no other way to obtain it, nor can you share in the fruit of the blood in any other way. I implore you, for the love of Christ crucified, not to act against your head” (Letter 28).
As you may have noticed, Athanasius, I haven’t engaged directly with the content of the debate. But I hope I have helped you love the Pope, who remains the Vicar of Christ, and encouraged you to pray for both him and the Church. The Lord will bless you abundantly.
To the staff of the CNA, and CWR readers:
Here is a photo of the Pontiff Francis on the fateful night after his election:
https://www.tldm.org/news41/francis-danneels.jpg
The man at the right of the photo is Cardinal Godfreed Daneels (who as the article admits, was the “protector” of his friend the nephew-raping-pederast-pedophile Bishop Roger Vangelhue), and who (in league with his fellow sociopath Cardinal Theodore McCarrick) helped engineer the campaign to elect Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to the papacy.
And consistent with the Pontiff Francis’ continuing very deep personal esteem and eternal protection of his friend the sociopath sex abuser Rupnik, following upon similar protections and favors the Pontiff Francis has doled out to other sociopath sex abusers like his Argentinian friend bishop Zanchetta, etc, etc, we should all keep in mind that in his prior role as Archbishop of Buenos Aries and head if the Argentine Bishops Conference, then-Cardinal Bergoglio orchestrated a multi-million dollar secret legal campaign to defend his friend “Rev.” Julio Grassi, the most notorious sex abuser in Argentina, who was tried and convicted of raping orphans in his “orphanage charity organization.”
CNA might consider the option of facing reality of what it means that The Pontiff Francis and the late Cardinal Danneels and the former Cardinal McCarrick are of one mind.
I submit to CNA and all that their “one mind” is NOT THE MIND OF CHRIST.
Thank you Paul and Chris for this information and the devastating links. The Church is being attacked from the inside it seems. May God help the Church. I had heard of this before but had attributed it to de enemies of the Church. Then after checking your links I went and found other links:
ps://www.yahoo.com › news › swiss-guards-39-gay-mafia-104500440–politics.html
The Swiss Guards’ Gay Mafia – Yahoo
January 24, 2014. The Swiss Guards’ Gay Mafia. For more than a year now, there has been ample talk around Rome about a powerful gay lobby at work inside the Vatican. When Pope Benedict XVI ..
Yes, Michel Foucault, the patron saint of post-modernism and liberated sex (he had his own boy) would have been very proud of Danneels.
A possible cover-up by the Belgian Catholic hierarchy of a vast scandal of sex abuse of minors by priests and bishops is likely to be less shocking to a group of parents who spent years trying, with no success, to have a graphically sexually explicit “catechism” textbook withdrawn from Catholic schools.
On June 24, the very day police were raiding the offices of the Archdiocese of Brussels and the home of Cardinal Godfreed Danneels, an article appeared in the Brussels Journal detailing the cardinal’s opposition to efforts to stop the catechism that had been written and approved by Belgian Catholic authorities.
Alexandra Colen, a Catholic member of the Belgian parliament, wrote that because of this “perverted little catechism,” “Hundreds of children who were not raped physically were molested spiritually during the catechism lessons.”
They really were ahead of their times when you think about the content of books now found in school libraries.
Many are so blinded by the resentment they harbor against the Church that they believe it capable of committing the gravest monstrosities imaginable. The concept they have formed of the Church is that it is a criminal organization.
However, this is not the first time in history that some have thought this way. Others before have said, from different perspectives, that the Pope and the ecclesiastical hierarchy are inventions of the Antichrist.
But we need to bring the issue to its core.
The behavior of priests (or rather, we should say: of some priests) is not the object of my faith. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ, God made man, who for each of us is ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6).
Of course, hearing criticism of the Church always causes sorrow, because it is as if we were hearing our mother being criticized: it is the Church, in fact, that gave birth to our faith, and it is in the Church that we nurture our faith. Our mothers eventually leave us. And yet, once we are adults, we can manage on our own.
But this is not the case with the Church. We absolutely need it always, until the very end, because it is through the Church that we encounter Christ. We meet Him primarily in the sacraments.
When I go to confession, it is Christ I want to meet. I am interested in His forgiveness. I care about His grace.
When I am at Mass, it is Christ’s sacrifice that I seek.
His blood is my only treasure, that blood which has a voice more eloquent than that of Abel (Hebrews 12:24). I seek Him for myself, for the Church, for all humanity, even for those who are scandalized by the behavior of some men within the Church.
As you see, Chris, I am not trying to contrast the immense good that exists in the Church with the evil committed by some of its ministers.
Because the object of our faith is Christ. It is Him we follow.
Certainly, the witness of the Church is important. Because through its life and its word, it proclaims Christ. And yet, not even the Church—even if it were composed solely of saints—is our God.
Christ, and Christ alone, is ‘our great God and Savior’ (Titus 2:13).
Only Christ is ‘He who is over all, God blessed forever’ (Romans 9:5).
In the nascent Church, Jesus also co-opted Judas. He knew well that Judas would betray Him and that his behavior would cast a shadow over the Twelve.
Why did He do this?
St. Augustine says that Jesus wanted to use even Judas. He tolerated being betrayed by him to redeem us.
Well, even today, Christ uses those who do harm within the Church to spur others to redouble their zeal.
But even without resorting to Judas, not even the Twelve could boast of their faithfulness.
With this in mind, the Church is called to remain humble, with its head bowed, to play the low notes, as the humble—let me emphasize that word—Francis does continuously.
Despite its infinite merits, the Church must not glory in itself.
Its mission is not to proclaim itself, but Christ.
We must be certain that the Lord did not make a mistake in presenting Himself to the world with such a fragile face as that of the Church.
It must be clear to everyone that its preaching is so marvelous, and its action so transformative, not because of the skill of its men but because of the virtue of Christ that is in it.
Just as St. Paul once said: ‘But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us’ (2 Corinthians 4:7).
Seeing the Church suffer from all these scandals, amplified by the social media, instead of discouraging us, reminds us that the object of our proclamation and our faith is our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
I understand your passion, Paolo, but, what are we to say and do when corruption exists? Nothing. Maybe turning over the tables in the temple is also following Jesus. The thing is sexual abuse by (a few) clergy does, has and is causing people to give up, and even more so when those people go to the Church for help and get rejected. Does not the reality of around 50% of clergy not believing that chastity is integral to their celibacy not bother you? Yes, I know you will question that figure: based on research and experience, I don’t doubt it for a minute anymore. The scandals and depressed morale aren’t due to us highlighting the existence (ever-present- yes) of evil within the church and even ourselves, it’s because of those evils themselves. So, don’t shoot the messenger, man, turn over some of the tables in the temple, while maintaining your deep faith. Maybe doing so is part of the faith. But, you’re the better man: I’ve given up (because of abuse but more so because of my Bishop’s response to me and others I know), so, yeah, I suppose you can, therefore, reject everything I say. We all have points to make, though and together maybe we come closer to reality.
Paolo. Read this response second. Just after I read your comment and replied to it, I received an email from a woman I have come to know who has been deeply harmed by a forced adoption within the RC Church. He husband was also a victim of child sexual abuse. Both after trying to deal with the fallout through the Church have decided to leave, the husband even going so far as to be officially ‘de-baptised’. Here is a short section from her email:
“Ironic is it not? That the very people who profess to be “so-called Christians” but rather acted very non-Christian and became like judge and jury by punishing and condemning innocent children and adults (like myself, husband’s name redacted, and thousands of others) were the ones who turned me against the churches and Christianity in general”.
“I believe, however, that I am a spiritual being within a human physical body (for now). My spirituality resides more in nature. In a universal. divine. all-knowing presence”.
So, unless Francis and his Bishops and religious OPrder leaders can/will actually do something for the many hundreds of thousands of people like this couple (and others I am assisting – and encouraging to keep their faith), as well as fully enact a truly zero-tolerance, nothing will ‘get better’ for the Church nor for the society it could and should be really being a light.
Well, that’s how I see it for now. Maybe I haven’t given up, but at present I also just can’t be part of the Body, and I do miss it.
“Many are so blinded by the resentment they harbor against the Church that they believe it capable of committing the gravest monstrosities imaginable. The concept they have formed of the Church is that it is a criminal organization.”
People have good cause, and plenty of evidence, to support these beliefs. Given Francis’ repeated refusal to properly and decisively address this and hold people accountable, it’s perfectly understandable that the church’s reputation has been tarnished. People aren’t stupid.
I continue to have an objection to the Bishop of Rome fashioning himself as a Head of State and meeting with his counterparts like the King and Queen of Belgium.
This globetrotting activity of the modern day papacy began with Paul VI and went on steroids during Pope John Paul’s tenure. There was less of it under Benedict. We live in an age of superstars, stadiums filled with screaming fans and a hypercommercialism of just about everything which now includes the person of the Bishop of Rome. If the Church were to be truly collegial, it would leave shepherding to the the bishop of each diocese.
I would make this applicable to WYDs and all the globetrotting and expense that yhose events involve. Wouldn’t it make sense to have Diocesan Youth Days when bishops meet with the youth of their individual dioceses, have Mass and conferences for youth to attend and then do a Billy Graham-style altar call for all the young willing to engage in missions of evangelizelization? I think the days of Church-as-Rock-Concert and globetrotting Popes should end.
I’m not a fan of altar calls in the Catholic Church (I mean, besides the entire Mass). I’m not sure about the globetrotting. Popes have been involved in diplomacy since approximately the time of Constantine. For some at least it was probably the right call.
But it would be nice for bishops to be more visible in their dioceses. I suspect most people only see him at their Confirmation, and some don’t even see him then. There are some large dioceses in the US, that take a day (or more) to drive across. Just to have the bishop come to a few regional parishes in a year (so that most people could make it without needing to pay for a hotel), say Mass, and give a conference or two, would probably make a world of difference in the relationship between bishop and people, without requiring him to visit each parish every year.
The appropriate position is for The Church to be ashamed of and shun the Pontiff Francis for his lifelong allegiance to clerical and episcopal sex abusers and sex abuse coverup hierarchs.
The key word in the headline is indeed,’should’. But he/they have an out – ‘the church is both holy and sinful’, the same ‘excuse so many abusers of children AND adults use, like the Salesian who was interrupted while raping a boy and who responded; “Well, God made me this way”. Or like the abusers who sexually harm then go to confession, often to other clerical sex abusers, as ex-Fr Kevin Lee explained in a video shortly before he ‘died’ see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVhYXLNvlw . No, Francis, words are cheap and will only have value when you deal seriously with the offenders you already know about, such as Punik, for one.
Sorry, typo – not Punik…Rupnik, but I suspect most would know who I meant. By the way, if anyone would like a copy of Kevin Lee’s book, “Unholy Silence: Covering up the sins of the fathers”, I’m pretty sure you can’t get it anymore since his death but I am happy to send anyone a copy.
Sorry, typo – not Punik…Rupnik, but I suspect most would know who I meant. By the way, if anyone would like a copy of Kevin Lee’s book, “Unholy Silence: Covering up the sins of the fathers”, I’m pretty sure you can’t get it anymore since his death but I am happy to send anyone a copy. Email me.
I wish there was an edit button here. I meant to include an article about Foucault, who it wouldn’t be beyond reasonable doubt, to think that Danneels and much of the modern Catholic Church would uphold as a guru of some sort: Read it and weep: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/4/16/reckoning-with-foucaults-sexual-abuse-of-boys-in-tunisia. Of course many scholars try to explain this away – they have to, he is one of the main foundational theorists for current thinking about sex and sexuality. For him to be a ‘true paedophile’ would shake their self-righteous certainties to the ground. Interesting that Foucoult was raised Catholic. So many of our revolutionaries were. One has to ask: was he ‘abused’? There is so, so much more to this issue, it’s not just about a mere sin of the flesh. For example, see http://www.awrsipe.com/click_and_learn/2008-10-preliminary_considerations.html.
Ive heard the rumors about Foucault but is there actually evidence?
Thank you.
Hmmm….
National Catholic Register had this: https://www.ncregister.com/news/abuse-commission-of-church-in-germany-defends-citing-michel-foucault
NCR’s article explained that Germany’s RCC abuse Commission cited Foucault (I don’t know in what way), in a report in January 2021. At the end of March 2021, an American writer alleged Foucault’ abuse of minors. Foucault died in 1984.
This is too big a can of worms for me to find any clarity in it—-the report by Gremany’s abuse commission was intended for the Synod. The darkness increases by the day!
Unknown to me until today in searching for Foucault and RCC, this site intrigued me: https://catholiccritique.com/2024/09/08/from-creation-and-family-to-the-petri-dish/
Thank you so much meiron, I’ll look at those links a little later.
Foucault’s not my hero but I have heard that the evidence for his misdeeds wasn’t clear.
I have a fantasy dream now and again, it comes from the alternative history genre. I imagine the power for good the Church would be if abuse in its ranks didn’t exist since all had taken their calling seriously! What a lovely vision!!!
Sexual abuse of whatever kind isn’t just a «Catholic» matter, although the secularists would have you believe that to be the case.
In a land whose law allows «euthanasia» for young children the shock and horror from Belgium rings like a cracked bell.
The Holy Father deserves praise for actually setting foot in the country.
My dear friend, I thank you sincerely for the warm, honest, and deeply heartfelt tone of your comment. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Your humility is undoubtedly the result of a special grace.
Just this morning, I too received a “confession” from an elderly person about a tragic case of abuse by a laywoman, the head of a boarding school, and unfortunately, it wasn’t an isolated case.
I see a bright aspect in your spiritual life (“I haven’t completely given up”), and I am convinced that your prayer is a particularly precious good work.
Even though priests are endowed with a special holiness by virtue of the character imprinted on their souls on the day of their ordination, they are not immune to the temptations of the evil one. When Saint Thomas Aquinas asks why Jesus allowed Himself to be tempted, he replies that He did so “for our instruction: so that no one, no matter how holy, should believe they are secure or immune from temptation. And for this reason, He wanted to be tempted right after baptism: because, as He says to Saint Hilary, ‘the devil launches his attacks especially against the saints, for a victory over them is more coveted'” (In Mt 3).
That’s why the Holy Scriptures tell us: “My child, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation” (Sirach 2:1) (Summa Theologica, III, 41, 1).
Alexis Carrel, a Nobel Prize-winning doctor who converted to Christianity after witnessing a miraculous event at Lourdes, once said that “prayer is the most powerful form of energy we can generate.”
After yet another scandal involving priests—something you document in your comment in such a timely and painful way—may the Lord stir in you the desire to pray for them! It is the Lord who “works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).
By responding to this call, it is as if you are opening the door to the Lord, who then enters your life once again. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus was right when she said that one well-received grace is followed by many others.
There are many types of temptations that priests face. I will mention just one: the danger of becoming desensitized to what they do. Priests, accustomed to being in church and moving around the altar, can sometimes lose the sense of the greatness of their mission.
I am part of a Padre Pio prayer group, to whom I am devoted, and whose feast day we celebrated on September 23. Here are some of the instructions Padre Pio gave to one of his spiritual daughters: “Enter the church in silence and with great respect, considering yourself unworthy to appear before the Majesty of the Lord.”
Priests enter the church continuously for many reasons. The risk is that they may not even think about standing in the presence of the Majesty of the Lord.
Padre Pio also wrote to the same person: “When leaving the church, have a calm and collected demeanor: first, greet Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, ask Him for forgiveness for the failings committed in His divine presence, and do not leave Him until you have asked for His fatherly blessing.”
Entering and exiting continuously, a priest may be tempted to forget the profound significance of those moments both for himself and for the faithful entrusted to him. If a priest lives in this awareness, his life becomes a continuous blessing from the Lord for him and a blessing from him to his people.
In a letter sent to his spiritual director, Padre Pio wrote: “Pietrelcina, April 7, 1913. My dearest father, on Friday morning I was still in bed when Jesus appeared to me. He was all battered and disfigured. He showed me a great multitude of regular and secular priests, among whom were several ecclesiastical dignitaries. Some were celebrating, some were vesting, and some were unvesting from their sacred garments. The sight of Jesus in such agony caused me great sorrow, and I wanted to ask Him why He was suffering so much. I received no answer. Instead, His gaze turned toward those priests; but shortly afterward, almost horrified and as if tired of looking, He withdrew His gaze. When He raised His eyes back to me, with great horror, I noticed two tears running down His cheeks. He turned away from that crowd of priests with an expression of great disgust on His face, and shouted: ‘Butchers!’
And then, turning to me, He said: ‘My son, do not think that My agony lasted for three hours, no; I shall be in agony until the end of the world because of the souls I have benefitted most, and they repay me with ingratitude. During the time of My agony, My son, one must not sleep. My soul seeks some consolation from human pity, but alas, I am left alone under the weight of indifference. The ingratitude and slumber of My ministers make My agony even heavier. Oh, how poorly they respond to My love! What afflicts Me most is that they add their disdain and disbelief to their indifference. Many times I was ready to strike them down, but I was held back by the angels and by the souls who love Me. Write to your spiritual father and tell him what you have seen and heard from Me this morning. Ask him to show your letter to the Provincial Father.’”
This vision of Padre Pio is truly dramatic and gives much to reflect on. Let us continue—or begin—to pray fervently for priests so that they may be fully aware of their vocation and of the holy realities they are ministers of.
In proportion to our prayers, the Lord will bless us more and more. I thank you deeply because I know you will include me—a poor sinner—in your prayers. I wish you all the best!
Thank you Paolo. I appreciate your response.