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.
[…]
Would that there were an abundance of German bishops the likes of layman Marc Frings.
Would that there were a pope like this layman.
Would that there would be more Catholics like the Pope.
Fr. Peter Morello:
My understanding is that there are quite a number of bishops in the German formerly Catholic Church who are *precisely* the ilk of layman Frings.
Like Herr Frings, these bishops dispute the ancient teachings of the Church, revering sterile, lifeless, orgasmo-centric homosexual practices, placing them on a par with the generative and sacred marriage act.
Please, Fr. Peter, could you explain for me why so many Catholic leaders who defy the Church’s teachings and who dispute the revealed word of God in scripture, feel compelled to present themselves as Catholics?
When it’s blatantly obvious that their real objective is to destroy the Catholic Church.
Brineyman I’m aware of the faithful German bishops, Stefan Oster Passau, Rainer Woelki Koln and others. Perhaps we can attribute the reason why the radicals control German Church politics to Vatican support of the kingpin of German radicalism Cardinal Reinhard Marx, and a growing lax practice of laity, the many who quit the Church due to the tax system. Oblique support by Pope Francis [letters of admonition have zero effect if not followed by action] of radical theologian and chairman German Bishops Conference Bishop Georg Bätzing who promotes the Synodal Way is a key.
We’re overshadowed in America by a cloud of apostasy promoted by a nucleus of key appointments to the cardinalate Tobin, Farrell, Cupich, Gregory, McElroy who possess political power directly from Rome promoting the Vatican secularist approach to the faith. Primarily it’s political control exerted from the Vatican.
Insofar as strong orthodox commitment to the faith there are the known nucleus of Cordileone, Naumann, Aquila, just a handful, the majority who express doctrinal orthodoxy are also weak and fearful of reprisal, preferring to remain token and comfortable. It all comes down to papal leadership, that leadership taking us in the opposite direction of Benedict and John Paul II.
It seems what’s occurring is a form of chastisement [ancient Israel was frequently permitted to degrade itself punished then restored] for overall laxity among Catholics.
I think you have misread Herr Fringes. He is actively supporting changing the catechism. Why would you want German bishops like him?
I had the same reaction and the same question. And, unfortunately, It seems that there is already an abundance of quisling German Bishops like Herr Frings.
Precisely, DUANE and Tom.
It seems that a huge number of Catholics — including bishops — don’t actually believe what the Catholic Church teaches.
With so many non-Catholic churches out there, why don’t these anti-Catholic Catholics just join another, more forward-thinking, now-a-go-go faith community?
I’m sure they could find one that preaches just about any gospel they like. Including the insemination of whatever body cavity they desire.
cc: Archbishop Wilton Gregory, Washington, D.C.
Why doesn’t the German Catholic Church get on with it and separate itself from the Catholic Church? It’s inevitable, so why belabor it?
Follow the money…
As long as the churchy tribe in Germania remains part of the Catholic Church it is eligible for the 7-8% surcharge on the annual personal income tax collected by the state and then sent to the German bishops’ conference. Therefore, now that the tribe has crossed the Rubicon in faith and morals, Rome should inform the Federal Republic of Germany that the tribe is no longer part of the universal Catholic Church.
Several consequences might follow:
1. Those fewer dioceses openly loyal to the universal Catholic Church would continue to receive the state-collected (and reduced, see #4) financial support, at least 13 judging from earlier synodal voting (Historically, it would be the ugly 1648 Peace of Westphalia all over again!)
2. Parishes loyal to the Church, but located in self-amputated dioceses, still could be identified as mission parishes attached to the nearest Catholic diocese, regardless of defunct diocesan boundaries.
3. Because the self-amputated dioceses are no longer part of the Church, Catholics who in the past have been automatically excommunicated (for refusing to be financially complicit in the betrayal of the Body of Christ) would find their excommunications either moot or lifted by Rome. (And loved ones who have been denied the sacrament of Catholic burial would receive justice from the restored and intact Church.)
4. Since the “indefensible” penalty (wording from the writings of emeritus Pope Benedict) has been removed, parishioners of Catholic dioceses and parishes could refuse the tax without penalty, and instead could contribute directly to the Church.
Yes, just a fantasy. And, more sober minds than mine surely will find a less risky exit strategy from today’s standoff, but follow the money.
Brilliant!
As background reading, we might consider what the International Theological Commission had to say about synods, compared to the synodal workbook. This language from the ITC (“Synodality in the life and mission of the Church,” 2018):
“…It is essential that, taken as a whole, the participants give a meaningful and balanced image of the local Church, reflecting different vocations, ministries, charisms, competencies, social status and geographical origin. The bishop, the successor of the apostles and shepherd of his flock who convokes and presides over the local Church synod, is called to exercise there the ministry of unity and leadership [!] with the authority which belongs to him [!].” (n. 79).
By comparison, the vademecum portrays the bishops—the successors of the apostles—not so much with authority or even leadership but, instead, “primarily as facilitators.” Beware, it warns, of the “scourge of clericalism.” What then of the apostolic Church?
From fully ten months ago and 5,000 miles away from Germania, here’s a CWR “opinion” piece on what has been abundantly obvious, from even a non-credential layman: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/10/02/opinion-making-sense-of-synodal-steps-during-precarious-times/
Thank God that our Good Lord having foreseen the evils of our times , has also given us the remedy – as the revelations of the Divine Will , as expalined in the enthusiatic words of Rev.Fr.Jim Blount –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vibJv58LMs
The Book of Heaven and related writings , to help deal with the spirit of apostacy as manifested in the unholy demands , from the blatant denial of the role of The Spirit Sanctifier in The Church and the world .. ( ? Russian money and envy also at the root .. )
Well meaning persons in the German Church , starting a process to immerse all those who have become afflicted with the spirits of confusion / envy / hatreds ,
to get to read the above volumes .. Church speeding up the process to update the volumes in a manner so that same can be more widely used – ? Lord allowing these drunken howlings in the ‘Field hospital ‘ for The Church as a whole to be led in haste to the healing waters ..good to hear how the Holy Father used the innovative measures of lasers and magnet therapy for healing of the knee fracture ..The Light of the Divine Will and the grace to cherish its truths to choose to live same – may same bring speedy enough healings into all the broken and wounded lives in the Field hospital .
FIAT !
God tests us to see if our faith is strong and resilient. Will it withstand attacks of evil and will it endure for the sake of the church? The church is worth fighting for. Unrepentant sinners (after being warned three times) must be put out of the church. God in His mercy shows us the path. We should continue to pray for them, yet they have no kinship with those who strive for godliness and look to Jesus to cleans us of our unrighteousness.Words are one matter, actions can be the opposite. God judges the hear, we must be in submission to Christ.
Excommunication is there for a reason. Sone may argue it might begin with Marx. Yet, he appears to be a Papa favourite, Papa declining his resignation. Others may argue that he has gone from awful to abhorrent and yet, will Papa do what is required?
2 Timothy 3:13 While evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Philippians 1:1-Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. …
Galatians 1:1-Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. …
2 Timothy 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
Blessings of discernment and honour.
“Defamatory and outdated statements of Church doctrine on sexuality and gender need to be revised on the basis of theological and human-scientific findings.”
This is the constant declarative statement made by the German Synod.
Where is the objective ‘outdatedness’ other than a desire to be in the constant and current culture?
And where are these ‘human-scientific findings’? The manipulative soft sciences of psychology and sociology?
Fear not. German Catholics opposed to the Bishops and groups who hijacked the German meetings, prepared a manifesto. Our Pope Francis arranged a public meeting with some of those who signed the manifesto thus showing a strong degree of papal support for this group. When the time comes, the views of the German Bishops and their backers in this attack against the Church, will be publicly rejected. This is why our Founder gave us this Rock and the Holy Spirit.
Can man error? Can those in exalted positions go astray? Censure has come from many quarters regarding Papa’s watch.
Jesus had his critics and He has is faithful followers. Hopefully we rebuke ourselves, and when our fellow man is admonished, it is an aid to his eternal soul. Loyalty is good, however fidelity to Christ is always best and expected from the born again Christian.
When we care for someone we pray for them that they may be guided aright. Let our prayers for Papa be constant, that he do all things according to Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:4 And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes’?
John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
1 Peter 1:23 Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
Titus 3:5 He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How do you read the words of our Lord?
Prayers and blessings as you walk honouring Christ.
The chastisement of the confusion that the German Church is facing , also allowed in aching patience by the Holy Father to manifest itself , ? from concern also for other cultures that face imbalances in male / female #s , brought on by other evils .
The Church still has the responsibility to take the Good News to such places too to help them to know The Truth that The Spirit as the Sanctifier has the Love and Power in Him to help do away with confusions such as in seeing lust as Love , that in The Heart of The Mother , there can be ever greater unity in The Spirit to Love God and others , with His Own Will and Love that ever multiplies and substitutes ..
the labor pains as fears and unholy demands allowed to be voiced out since these arguments could very well be fermenting in other cultures who could be attracted to the goodness that can be through The Church , yet afraid that it is an impossibilty to live in holiness ..
The Divine Will revelations and readings – given for our times for persons to grasp the richness and depth of what faith entails . The Church likely expecting same to get to be known better through various means , including from the concerns about the wounded in the field hospitals who are demanding anaesthetics / narcotics even when such can be deadly . Holy Father and The Church knows there are healthier choices – Light more powerful than Laser as the Flame of Love of The Mother to attract hearts with greater power than that of gravity to rise up in the Divine Will healed of fractures of hearts ,to live in the manner destined for the children .
FIAT !