Pope reveals the third secret of Fatima
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Sister Lucia dos Santos,the lone survivor of the three children who saw visions of the Madonna in 1917,kisses the Pope's hand at Fatima yesterday |
BRUCE JOHNSTON and IAN COBAIN
One of the most closely guarded mysteries of the Roman Catholic
Church was made public yesterday, when the Pope revealed the Third Secret
of Fatima. After half a century of Vatican silence, and endless speculation
about what the secret foretold, aides of Pope John Paul II said it predicted
the failed attempt on his life exactly 19 years ago. Three secrets were said
to have been given by the Virgin Mary to three children in a series of visions
as they tended sheep near Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Details have long been
known about the first two, which are said to relate to the last century's
wars and the spread of Communism. But successive popes have refused to disclose
the third. The Pontiff's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, said
yesterday that the final secret concerned "martyrdom and suffering",
including that of a "bishop clothed in white who falls to the ground, apparently
dead, under a burst of gunfire" John Paul II narrowly escaped with his life
after a Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, shot him twice in St Peter's Square
on May 13, 1981 - the 64th anniversary of the first Fatima apparition. Cardinal
Sodano said that after the attempt, "it appeared evident to his Holiness
that it was a motherly hand which guided the bullets past, enabling the dying
Pope to halt at the threshold of death" The Cardinal added that .all the
details of the vision would be made public after "appropriate" preparation
for the faithful. How the present Pope reacted when he first read the Third
Secret can only be guessed at. As the prophecy is cast in such vague terms,
however, he cannot have been convinced of his imminent martyrdom and certainly
did not hide in the Vatican. Yesterday an estimated 600,000 people gathered
at a shrine near Fatima for a Mass in which the Pope beatified two of the
three children said to have received the secrets in visions that they described
as "brighter than the Sun" Jacinta Marto and her brother Francisco died of
pneumonia two years after the apparitions, but the third child, their cousin
Lucia dos Santos, survived and became a Carmelite nun. She is now 93. She
says the first secret offered a hellish vision with a message to repent -
often interpreted as a reference to the two World Wars - while the second
issued a warning that Russia, then undergoing the Bolshevik revolution, would
"spread her errors through the world" unless she reverted to Christianity.
Few people knew the third secret before yesterday. Sister Lucia wrote it
down in 1944 when she feared she was dying, and sent it to the Vatican 13
years later.
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Secret messages: In 1917 ,the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to Lucia dos Santos (centre),Jacinta (left) and Francisco Marto at Fatima in Portugal Fatima |
Jonathan Petre
Many Catholics assumed the third prophecy of Fatima foretold
a worldwide catastrophe such as nuclear war.The truth,which emerged during
the Pope's visit,is at once prosaic and dramatic.
It is not the end of the world, but it could shake it
nevertheless. For half a century, the Third Secret of Fatima has been one
of the most closely guarded, and most speculated about, enigmas of the Roman
Catholic Church. When a vision of the Virgin Mary appeared above an oak tree
to three Portuguese children as they tended sheep near the town of Fatima
in May 1917, she was said to have given them three prophecies. While two
of the prophecies apparently predicting another world war and the rise and
fall of Communism - were later disclosed, the third was not, until now. It
has been kept in a drawer in the Vatican since the 1950s and only successive
popes and a few trusted advisers have been allowed access to it. The secrecy
has enthralled generations of Roman Catholics, and prompted fevered speculation,
particularly in the run-up to the
Millennium. Why
did successive popes refuse to divulge it? Was the prophecy so dreadful that
they feared mass hysteria if it were released? Many Catholics assumed that
it must foretell a world wide catastrophe such as nuclear war, if not
Armageddon. The truth, which emerged yesterday
after Vatican officials disclosed at least part of the Third Secret, has
turned out to be at once prosaic and dramatic. According to Cardinal Angelo
Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, part of the Third Secret speaks
of a "bishop clothed in white" who "falls to the ground, apparently dead,
under a burst of gunfire" The fact that it apparently refers to an event
that has already happened - the assassination attempt on pope John Paul II
in 1981 - will disappoint the hardline Fatima devotees and conspiracy theorists.
They fervently believed - and will, no doubt, go on believing, whatever the
Vatican says - that the Third Secret discloses that the contemporary Church
is riddled with apostasy and corruption. For traditionalist Catholics, it
is exciting that the Vatican is using the language of mystery and miracle
in the era of the liberal, collaborative Church that followed the reforming
Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. And the revelations further explain
the Pope's personal attraction to the village of Fatima in Portugal, which
he has visited three times. The story of the Fatima visions has been a source
of strong fascination for Catholics for almost a century. Believers hold
that after Sunday Mass on May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared before Francisco
and Jacinta Marto, aged seven and nine, and their cousin, Lucia dos Santos,
10. The children, who were initially disbelieved, told their parents that
they had seen six visions over a five-month period, which they described
as "brighter than the sun" Francisco and Jacinta died within three years,
the victims of an influenza epidemic.
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Lucia dos Santos-Sister Santa Maria Lucia- is now 93: her cousins Jacinta and Francisco have been beatified |
The prophecies were written down in 1944 by Sister Lucia,
who is now a 93-year-old Carmelite nun, and passed to the Vatican in 1957
in a sealed envelope, with the instruction that the Third Secret was not
to be opened until 1960 or after her death. at the discretion of the Holy
See. Since then, successive popes have read the Third Secret - Pius XII,
John XXIII. Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II - and at least one of them
reportedly turned white when he had finished. How the present Pope reacted
when he first read the Third Secret can only be guessed at.As the prophecy
is cast in such vague terms, however, he cannot have been convinced of his
imminent martyrdom and it certainly did not cause him to hide in the Vatican.
Though none of the Secrets has been officially published, Sister Lucia chose
to disclose the contents of the first two. The first offered a vision of
hell - said to be a reference to the world wars - and called for repentance
to avoid another. The second said that Russia, then undergoing the revolution,
would "spread her errors through the world. causing wars and persecution"
but that ultimate disaster would be averted if Russia reverted to
Christianity.
[This could be construed as blackmail
to try to get communist atheists to believe church propaganda. -LB]
Many believed that Pope Paul VI had divulged at least part
of the Third Secret during a visit to Fatima, when spoke of an internal crisis
the Church and the threat another world war. The Vatican has, however,
consistently predicted an apocalypse. Three years ago, Mgr Loris Francesco
Capovilla, the former secretary to Pope John XXIII, said in a interview that
there was "no deadline of doom" , but he refused to reveal its contents.
Over the years, speculation about the Third Secret has ranged wildly.One
nun claimed it would reveal that Christ would return as a Muslim. Others
believed it herald the end of Christianity.
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Brush with death: the third secret foretold the 1981 attempt by Mehmet Ali Agca to assassinate the Pope in St Peter's Square |
In 1981, an Australian former Trappist monk hijacked an Aer
Lingus jet and demanded, unsuccessfully, that the Secret be revealed. During
one of Pope John Paul II's visits to Fatima,he was attacked by a man wielding
a bayonet. Perhaps the most mysterious twist to the story, particularly in
the light of the new revelations, also came in 1981, when the Pope was nearly
assassinated by a Turkish gunman in St Peter' s Square in Rome. The date
of the assassination attempt, May 13,was the exact anniversary of the first
reports of the visions in Fatima. The Pope glimpsed a poster of Our Lady
of Fatima in the crowd and was convinced that she had saved him. The bullet
that hit him is now in the golden crown that adorns the Virgin's statue at
Fatima. The revelations will no doubt lead to a new wave of interest in the
shrine at Fatima, which has always existed in the shadows of the larger and
more respectable Lourdes in southern France. It is no coincidence that the
Pope, who is exceptionally confident about his own divine mission to restore
the Church and in the guiding role of the Virgin Mary has allowed the contents
of the Third Secret to be known in 2000, which he believes could herald a
rebirth of the Church The revelation will no doubt also add to his own charisma:
the fact that an event in his life was apparently foretold by the mother
of Christ will increase his already considerable kudos and authority. Bishop
Thomas McMahon. the Catholic bishop of Brentwood, said yesterday: "Ever since
his election, he has had his eyes on 2000 and the Great Jubilee. He very
much wants to proclaim the truth of the faith at this time. What effect will
the disclosures about the Third Secret have on believers? While traditionalists
will revel in the return to the language of miracles, many Catholics in this
country will feel vaguely embarrassed about the event. For them, the story
of Fatima and its like is too exotic. The Archbishop of Liverpool, the Most
Rev Patrick Kelly, said he did not believe that people in Britain would become
overly excited by the revelations. He said there was much evidence of people
predicting the future, but , "the ultimate test of all these things is whether
they deepen people's faith and understanding" . However, Piers Paul Read,
a Catholic novelist, described the disclosures as very significant. "They
may disappoint some, because they are not as exciting as the end of the
world, but they don't disappoint me," he said. "If this prophecy was
shown to have been fulfilled by what happened, then it validates the other
visions. We must now go back and examine them. It is extremely powerful and
it should give people pause for thought."
Why do people believe this rubbish?
And why is it published in a mainstream newspaper as if it had any credibility?
The future cannot be foretold.Much less by religious kooks who have no
understanding of the physical world. Portugal is notoriously steeped in this
kind of silliness,and Rome and the Vatican continue to spread their noxious
stupidity around the world instilling ignorance and lies into poor and
ill-educated people in order to maintain the myth that the Pope is a demigod.The
fact that he was subject to a shooting only proves he is just as human as
everyone else,and holds no special place in the universe. The capacity for
belief in superstitious nonsense is here seemingly maintained and lent
credibility by the Telegraph.We can quite tell the nature of the apocalyptic
thought via the comment of Paul Read who explains that those who accept such
prophecies are disappointed it's not the end of the world,presumably,such
people were hoping for a new world order where their silly superstitions
are held in regard,as they witness an age of the return of Christ or the
fall of what they perceive to be regimes that are "evil". No doubt this is
why communism and Russia were mentioned.
The gullible will be taken for another ride and the ground swell of religious
madness will be fostered by revelation after revelation,pulled from some
dusty closet and rendered forth to the inadequate as a
magical portent,and time after time they'll fall
to their knees in wonderment at the "accuracy" of the prophecy,even though
as the article states the prophecy is stated in vague terms.Of course it
is! They always are! It's the same rouse used by
astrologers and other
tricksters. If you are sufficiently vague about
a prediction or state the obvious then you're bound to be correct.The editor
ought to be ashamed that this kind of rubbish gets printed in a newspaper.No
doubt it is justified on the strength of it affecting so many people and
thus is "news".It might be called "news" if Uri Geller starts a million watches
working all at the same time too,but that doesn't render the event of
significance or more to the point: of sufficient "truth" value to warrant
reporting.
In reporting such stories there is an undercurrent of acceptance that A)
There is a God and that God rendered Jesus via Mary and that Mary's "spirit"
can visit someone,and B) That Prophecy renders valid and usable information.
The report never questions these things,it just accepts them as being true,even
though there is a great deal of evidence and thought to suppose they are
not.At the very least,it seems the writers are not aware of the type of arguments
that shed grave doubt on both prophecy and belief in a deity,and in printing
a story which fails to address these issues, creates the effect of assuming
the negation to be true.
I note that the children were "initially disbelieved" and so they should
have been. When,if ever has any of this been subject to testing to find out
if there is anything to it? Such reports create the effect of saying "It
could be,couldn't it?" The answer in no uncertain terms is "No it can't be,
because it's utter ill-thought out garbage"; if people actually "paused for
thought" instead of believing,perhaps rubbish like this would never get printed
as it would be thought absurd.
I'll make a prediction: At 93,Sister Lucia,won't last much longer - I must
be psychic mustn't I? -LB
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