Did the True Secret of Fatima Die with Sister Lucy?

Fatima Center Asks

Fort Erie: February 14, 2005

While the Fatima Center mourns the death of Sister Lucy, the lone surviving seer of Fatima, it also asks if the true Secret of Fatima has died with her. For 45 years, she had been forbidden by the Vatican to speak of the mysterious Secret, and died under this imposition of silence.

The Secret was supposed to be released in 1960, but Pope John XXIII decided to keep it hidden. On June 26, 2000, the Vatican’s Cardinal Ratzinger released a part of the Third Secret containing the vision of a "bishop clothed in white" who is killed by gunfire from a group of soldiers. In the same vision, many bishops, priests and lay people are also killed by these soldiers.

According to the Vatican interpretation, the Third Secret is nothing more than a prediction of the May 13, 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II by the lone gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca.

Both Catholic and non-Catholic sources questioned the authenticity of this interpretation. Even the July 1, 2000 Washington Post, challenged the Vatican’s interpretation of the Secret as it did not correspond to the reported vision. On May 13, 1981, the Pope was not killed, no one else was killed, and there were no soldiers shooting at anyone.

Father Nicholas Gruner, Director of the Fatima Center, is a world-renowned expert on Fatima. He has spent more than 27 years of his priesthood devoted to publishing the Message of Fatima through his journal The Fatima Crusader, as well as through television, radio and the Internet (www.fatima.org). He argues, "Our Blessed Mother wished the full Third Secret to be released. Yet everything indicates that the complete Secret has yet to be revealed."

The contents of the Vatican’s published vision does not jibe with statements of those who had read the Third Secret. Cardinal Mario Ciappi, the Papal Theologian, said in 1995, "In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top." In 1984, Cardinal Ratzinger said the Secret contained warnings against the "dangers to the Faith, the life of the Christian, and therefore the life of the world ", but in 2000, he made no allusions to these facets of the Secret. Pope John Paul II in Fulda, 1980, alluded to the Secret containing the prophecy "that the oceans will entirely flood certain parts of the earth, that from moment to moment, millions of people will die." This aspect of the Secret also was found nowhere in Vatican June 2000 release.

Sister Lucy had been forbidden by the Vatican to speak publicly on Fatima and the Third Secret. Father Gruner comments, "Sister Lucy was the only Catholic in the world who was not allowed to speak publicly on the Message and the Third Secret without prior permission from the Vatican. Every Catholic in the Church, since the change of Canon Law in 1966, has been free to speak and to publish on the Fatima Message, except the only one whom God chose to deliver the message to mankind."

Sister Lucy, in fact, had been under a gag order from the Vatican since 1960. Her last interview published without pre-authorization of the Vatican was in 1957. For the past 15 years, the Fatima Center has campaigned to free Sister Lucy from this imposition of silence. It has repeatedly asked the Vatican to allow her to publicly affirm or deny the various statements attributed to her regarding the Third Secret and the Fatima Message. This permission was never granted.

The Fatima Center will carry on its work in promoting the full Message of Fatima and will continue to campaign for the release of the full Third Secret.

Contact: The Fatima Center, Coralie Graham. Day hours: 905-871-7607. After hours: 905-993-2560. Email: fatimanews@lastmilenet.ca A comprehensive treatment of the Third Secret controversy is found in The Devil’s Final Battle. See the Fatima Center’s web site: www.fatima.org

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