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Cardinal Sodano Reads A Text on the "Third
Secret"
VATICAN CITY, MAY 13, 2000
(VIS) - This morning at the end of Mass at the Shrine of Fatima, Portugal,
during which the Pope beatified the shepherd children Jacinta and Francisco,
Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano read out, in Portuguese, a text
concerning the third secret of Fatima. The text is given in full below:
 "At the
conclusion of this solemn celebration, I feel bound to offer to our beloved
Holy Father John Paul II, on behalf of all present, heartfelt good wishes for
his approaching eightieth birthday and to thank him for his significant
pastoral ministry for the good of all God's Holy Church.
"On the solemn
occasion of his visit to Fatima, His Holiness has directed me to make an
announcement to you. As you know, the purpose of his visit to Fatima has been
to beatify the two 'little shepherds'. Nevertheless he also wishes his
pilgrimage to be a renewed gesture of gratitude to Our Lady for her protection
during these years of his papacy. This protection seems also to be linked to
the so-called 'third part' of the secret of Fatima.
"That text contains a
prophetic vision similar to those found in Sacred Scripture, which do not
describe with photographic clarity the details of future events, but rather
synthesize and condense against a unified background events spread out over
time in a succession and a duration which are not specified. As a result, the
text must be interpreted in a symbolic key.
"The vision of Fatima concerns above all the
war waged by atheist systems against the Church and Christians, and it
describes the immense suffering endured by the witnesses to the faith in the
last century of the second millennium. It is an interminable Way of the Cross
led by the Popes of the twentieth century.
"According to the interpretation of the
'little shepherds,' which was also recently confirmed by Sister Lucia, the
'bishop clothed in white' who prays for all the faithful is the Pope. As he
makes his way with great effort towards the Cross amid the corpses of those who
were martyred (bishops, priests, men and women religious and many lay persons),
he too falls to the ground, apparently dead, under a burst of gunfire.
"After the
assassination attempt of May 13 1981, it appeared evident to His Holiness that
it was 'a motherly hand which guided the bullet's path,' enabling the 'dying
Pope' to halt 'at the threshold of death.' On the occasion of a visit to Rome
by the then bishop of Leiria-Fatima, the Pope decided to give him the bullet
which had remained in the jeep after the assassination attempt, so that it
might be kept in the Shrine. At the behest of the bishop, the bullet was later
set in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima.
"The successive
events of 1989 led, both in the Soviet Union and in a number of countries of
Eastern Europe, to the fall of the Communist regime which promoted atheism. For
this too His Holiness offers heartfelt thanks to the Most Holy Virgin. In other
parts of the world, however, attacks against the Church and against Christians,
together with the burden of suffering which they involve, tragically continue.
Even if the events to which the third part of the Secret of Fatima refers now
seem part of the past, Our Lady's call to conversion and penance, issued at the
beginning of the twentieth century, remains timely and urgent today. 'The Lady
of the message seems to read the signs of the times - the signs of our
time - with special insight... The insistent invitation of Mary Most Holy to
penance is nothing but the manifestation of Her maternal concern for the fate
of the human family, in need of conversion and forgiveness.'
"In order that
the faithful may better receive the message of Our Lady of Fatima, the Pope has
charged the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with making public the
third part of the secret, after the preparation of an appropriate commentary.
"Let us
thank Our Lady of Fatima for Her protection. To Her maternal intercession let
us entrust the Church of the Third Millennium.
"'Sub tuum
praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genetrix!.'
"Intercede pro Ecclesia Dei! Intercede pro
Sancto Patre Iohanne Paolo II! Amen."
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