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Third Secret "Commentary" Raises Concerns
Over "Whitewash"
June 21, 2000, FORT ERIE, ONTARIO: After repeated delays, the
Vatican Press Office has officially announced that the Third Secret of Fatima
will be published on June 26, 2000 at a press conference to be held at 11:30
a.m. in the John Paul II Hall of the Press Office.
The announcement
came unexpectedly, after an article in La Repubblica on June 15
indicated that a commission presided over by Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the
Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), had met that
day and failed to agree on either a date for publication or the contents of the
accompanying “commentary,” and that publication would not occur until
the end of June or perhaps July.
Now it is announced that the Third Secret will be
published as part of a 40-page booklet which will include a photographic
reproduction of Sister Lucia’s original handwritten text of the Secret,
consisting of 25 lines. The remainder of the booklet will apparently be devoted
to 12 pages of commentary by Cardinal Ratzinger, and approximately 26 pages of
“historical context” prepared under the direction of Monsignor
Bertone, the CDF’s Secretary.
“The Vatican’s announcement that the Third
Secret will be published in its authentic handwritten original is wonderful
news, and a great blessing for the Church,” said Father Nicholas Gruner,
head of the Fatima Center, an international organization dedicated to promoting
the Message of Fatima in its entirety, including the Third Secret.
Regarding the commentary, Father Gruner added:
“We are grateful for publication of the Secret at last, but why do we need
12 pages of commentary from Cardinal Ratzinger and some 26 pages of
‘historical context’ for a mere 25 handwritten lines? Our Lady of
Fatima came to earth to speak to all the Faithful in simple language conveyed
to three shepherd children, ages 7, 9 and 10. The first two parts of the
Message of Fatima are crystal clear to any layman. Our Lady’s words in the
Third Secret ought not to require advanced commentary in order to be
understood. The Third Secret should speak for itself, like the first two
Secrets.”
Father Paul Kramer, another priest who works at the Fatima Center,
noted that on June 27 the Vatican will stage a press conference devoted to the
publication of the memoirs of the late Cardinal Casaroli, entitled “The
Martyrdom of Patience: 1963 to 1989.” Casaroli, as Vatican Secretary of
State, was the architect of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik (otherwise
known as the Vatican-Moscow Agreement), the longstanding Vatican policy of
non-condemnation of Soviet Communism. The June 27 press conference will be
attended by Mikhail Gorbachev.
Father Kramer added that “The timing of the June
27 press conference, only one day after publication of the Third Secret, raises
concern that the current apparatus of the Vatican Secretary of State may be
attempting to convey the message that Casaroli’s Ostpolitik, which
constrained the Church to silence in the face of Communist persecution of
Catholics, was a great success which brought about the ‘fall’ of
communism, and that this is the great fulfillment of the Fatima
Message.”
Father Kramer continued: “It would be outrageous if the
Vatican, only one day after publishing Our Lady’s words in the Third
Secret, would so closely link those words in time with the honoring of Mikhail
Gorbachev as the Vatican’s guest. Gorbachev’s globalist, one-world
foundation is promoting massive reduction of the world’s population
through contraception and abortion, and Gorbachev recently declared that he is
still a Leninist. Everything Gorbachev stands for is contrary to the Catholic
Faith and a gross insult to the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
Father Gruner
expressed concern that Ratzinger’s commentary and the ‘historical
context’ which will accompany publication of the Third Secret “may be
designed, along with the Gorbachev press conference, to persuade the world that
Fatima is finished, that Russia converted with the so-called ‘fall’
of communism, and that the Third Secret is now a thing of the past. If that is
the case, then what we may see on Monday is a great whitewashing of the Fatima
Message. Let us hope this does not happen and that the commentary is faithful
to the actual words of the Third Secret.”
Father Gruner
stated that after careful consideration, the Fatima Center will comment on both
the Secret and the accompanying commentary.
Father Gruner concluded: “We at the
Fatima Center express our thanks to the Holy Father for his courage and
perseverance in seeing to it that Our Lady’s actual words, as written down
by Sister Lucia in 1944, are photographically reproduced and provided to the
Faithful for study and contemplation. His Holiness has given a great gift to
the Church.”
Contact Father
Nicholas Gruner
The Fatima Center, 452 Kraft Road, Fort Erie, Ontario L2A
4M7
(905) 871-7607. Ext. 103.
The Fatima Center, home of
“The Fatima Crusader,” is the largest, worldwide Fatima apostolate
campaigning for the promotion of the full Message of Fatima, for the release of
the Third Secret and for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary. Its outreach includes the print media, Internet, radio and television.
For More information on the Third Secret, and on (1) What Pope John Paul II and
Cardinal Oddi said previously about its content, (2) Statements of Father
Joseph de Sainte-Marie and Bishop Graber on the obligation to obey the Fatima
Message, (3) An interview with Father Kramer that explains the necessity of
releasing a photographic reproduction of Sister Lucia’s original 1944
handwritten text of the Third Secret, (4) A factual account of the October 13,
1917, Miracle of the Sun --is on this website.
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