Chapter 3
Messages at the Cova da Iria
The six apparitions of Our Lady were preceded by three visits of an angel to the
children and the purpose of the visits was to prepare the children for the forthcoming visits of the Blessed Virgin.
The apparitions in which Our Lady spoke to the three children all took place on a small parcel of land near the
home of Lucia where the children pastured the family sheep. The parcel of land, called The Cova da Iria, was located
in the mountainous region of the Sierra da Aire about 80 miles north of Lisbon, Portugal.1 As with the visits from the angel, it is Lucy with whom Our Lady
spoke.
In presenting the messages of Our Lord and Our Lady, the format will be such that the responses of The Blessed
Virgin and of Our Lord will appear in bold face while the responses of the children will appear in italics. Descriptions
of the circumstances accompanying a visitation or an apparition as well as remarks will appear in ordinary type.
The First Apparition of Our Lady, May 13, 1917. 2
The three children had been tending their sheep high on a slope of the Cova da Iria. Because a thunder and lightning
storm seemed imminent, the children began to hurry home. While doing so, a sudden flash of lightning revealed a
lady all dressed in white just above the top of a small holm oak tree only a few feet from them.
The Lady said to them:
"Do not be afraid. I will do you no harm."
Lucy said:
"Where does your grace come from?"
Our Lady replied:
"I am of Heaven."
Lucy said:
"What does your Grace want of me?"
Our Lady replied:
"I have come to ask you to come here for six months in succession,
on the 13th day, at this same hour. Later on, I will tell you who
I am and what I want. Afterwards, I will return here yet a seventh time."
Lucy asked:
"Shall I go to Heaven too?
Our Lady responded:
"Yes, you will."
Lucy then said:
"And Jacinta?"
Our Lady replied:
"She will also."
Lucy continues:
"And Francisco"
Our Lady responds:
"He will go there too, but he will have to say many Rosaries."
Remark:
This is a truly remarkable conversation as it contains admissions by God, through His emissary the Blessed Virgin,
that indeed the souls of these children are destined to be forever with Him in heaven! It boggles the imagination
to realize what it would be like to know, while still alive and here on earth, that one’s soul will be in heaven
forever with God! However, today’s conciliar Church would consider such knowledge as irrelevant since the present
non-conversion ecumenical efforts clearly imply most, if not all, are saved.
Lucy then remembered to ask about two girls who had recently died. The girls were friends of hers and used to come
to her home to learn weaving from her eldest sister.
"Is Maria das Neves in Heaven?"
Our Lady answered:
"Yes, she is."
Lucy asks about the other girl:
"And Amelia?
And Our Lady answers:
"She will be Purgatory until the end of the world."
Our Lady continues:
"Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the
sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the
sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the
conversion of sinners?"
Lucy responds:
"Yes. We are willing."
Our Lady continues:
"Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God
will be your comfort."
The children also had a Vision in God which Lucy described as: "As She pronounced these last words, ‘the grace of God will be your comfort’, Our Lady opened Her hands for the first time, communicating to us a light so intense that as it streamed from Her hands, its rays penetrated our hearts, making us see ourselves in God, Who was that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors." Then, moved by an inner impulse that was communicated to us, we fell to our knees, repeating in our hearts:
"O Most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, My God, I love you in
the most Blessed Sacrament!"
After a few moments Our Lady spoke again saying:
"Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the
world, and the end of the war."
[It is 1917 and Our Lady is referring to World war I]
Lucy says:
"Can you tell me if the war will go on a long time, or will it end soon?"
Our Lady answers:
"I cannot tell you that yet, because I have not yet said what I want."
With that The Blessed Virgin rose in an easterly direction and disappeared.
Remark:
There is much about this conversation between Lucy and Our Lady that sharply contrasts with the modernist post
Vatican Council II teachings of today. Among them are:
1. The fact Purgatory actually exists and people do go there and some remain there for a long time. Our Lady’s
reply to Lucy’s question, "And Amelia?" confirms the existence of Purgatory and that it is not empty.
The reply also confirms Purgatory will exist until the end of the world and, by inference, confirms Purgatory will
cease existing at the time of the end of the world. In today’s Church the non-existence of both Purgatory and our
soul is emphasized by the simple tactic of rarely mentioning either. Consequently, the very existence of purgatory
as well as the notion that a soul would have to spend any time, let alone a long time, in Purgatory is completely
foreign to most modern day Catholics.
2. The actual existence of personal sin and the necessity to suffer in order to make reparation for sinners. The
children understood the word ‘sin’ as used by Our Lady to mean personal sin, not unequal social, political and/or
economic conditions which are the usual, if not the only, ‘sins’ so frequently discussed in the sermons of today.
Today’s sermons seldom, if ever, include the far more important necessity of avoiding personal sin nor do they
include the need for doing reparation for the sins of others. Similarly, the sacrament of penance, now renamed
the sacrament of reconciliation, is only infrequently a sermon topic and hence again, the word ‘reparation’ is
rarely mentioned. Finally the continual repetition of such phrases as "God loves you", "God is a
caring God", etc. absent any mention of what is necessary for one to receive God’s love, reinforces the notion
personal sin is not important and certainly reparation is not needed for our sins, and most certainly suffering
for the reparation of the sins of others is not needed.
3. The plea by Our Lady to say the Rosary in order to obtain peace and also to make acts of reparation for our
sins as well as the sins of others. In the pre-conciliar Church, the praying of the Rosary at any time was encouraged,
even during the celebration of the Holy Mass. As Sister Lucy said the praying of the Rosary during Mass is pleasing
to Our Lord. However, in the conciliar Church of today, the praying of the Rosary during a Novus Ordo liturgy is
discouraged. Praying the Rosary at other times is surely not encouraged by referring to such praying as "bead
counting" or some similar derogatory label. For such reasons it is not surprising that today most of the faithful
rarely pray the Rosary. Today, the conciliar Church prefers to accommodate a climate of political correctness and
emphasize social, economic and political action leaving personal prayer, particularly praying the Rosary, for the
rigorists and traditionalists.
4. Our Lady’s response to Lucy’s question asking if Francisco will go to heaven implies passage to heaven is not
a given. It must be earned. This contradicts the conciliar church’s implicit teaching of universal salvation.
In keeping with Her messages to the children, Our Lady in Her wondrous mercy, offers a sure way for Francisco to
earn his passage to heaven and the way is to say ‘many Rosaries’. This reply is Our Lady’s way of telling the
Catholic faithful the tremendous salvific power of the Rosary. It is a joyful reply since the Catholic faithful
can readily use the frequent saying of the Rosary as an assured method of saving their souls in the midst of the
present confusion and disintegration of the conciliar Church. Today, increasing numbers of the faithful are unable
to fulfill their Sunday obligation due to the rapidly decreasing numbers of clergy in the conciliar Church available
to say the Sunday liturgy. Since this decrease is expected to continue, Our Lady’s reply is indeed most welcome
because it removes the despair of the faithful caused by their not being able to fulfill their Sunday obligation
and it offers them an assured way to save their immortal souls.
5. Our Lady asks the children if they are willing to bear all the suffering God will send them as an act of reparation
for the sins by which He is offended and for the conversion of sinners . The children respond they are
willing to bear such suffering. Our Lady then tells them they will have much to suffer. This conversation would
be completely foreign to today’s conciliar Church since it continually emphasizes that ‘God loves us’, ‘God is
good, all the time’, ‘God wants us to be happy on this earth’, ‘God is the God of love and peace’, etc. Such phrases
imply God exists to alleviate our temporal suffering, not to increase it. In today’s Post Vatican Council II Church
for God to ask us to bear more suffering than we presently are enduring and to do so just for the supplication
of sinners is anathema.
6. The children knelt in the presence of Our Lady. Since the modernists are now preventing the faithful from kneeling
before Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist when receiving Holy Communion, they certainly would not have knelt in the
presence of Our Lady.
7. The portion of the children’s prayer: "I love you in the most Blessed Sacrament" shows the intense
belief of the children in the presence of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. Since Our Lady could easily read their
hearts,
if Our Lord were not truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, She would immediately have corrected them. By not
correcting the children, Our Lady confirms the reality of Our Lord’s presence in the Holy Eucharist thus
contradicting the teachings of some modernist theologians who assert Our Lord is not present in the Holy Eucharist.
Our Lady’s lack of correction also contradicts the assertions of Cardinal Ratzinger denigrating the
visiting of a Church to pray in front of the tabernacle in which Our Lord is truly present.
8. Our Lady said: "Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world." Since Our Lady
is God’s emissary, this is a message from God Himself stating how to achieve world peace. Thus, one can only question
why the Holy Father, who has dedicated his papacy to our Lady and who has worked so diligently for world peace,
does not heed Our Lady’s words and vigorously promote the praying of the Rosary for the obtainment of world peace.
The Second Apparition of Our Lady, June 13, 1917.3
Lucy asks what Our Lady wants of her.
Our Lady replies:
"I wish you to come here on the 13th of next month, to pray the
Rosary each day, and to learn how to read. Later, I will tell you
what I want."
Lucy asks for the cure of a sick person.
Our Lady replies:
"If he is converted, he will be healed during the year."
Lucy says:
"I would like to ask you to take us to heaven."
Our Lady replies:
"Yes, I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon. But you are to stay
here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make Me
known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to My
Immaculate Heart. To whoever embraces this devotion I promise
salvation; these souls shall be dear to God, as flowers placed by
Me to adorn His throne."
Lucy then says in a sad tone:
"Am I to stay here alone?"
Our Lady replies:
"No, My daughter. Do you suffer a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I
will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge
and the way that will lead you to God."
Lucy then comments in her memoir,
‘As Our Lady said these words to the children, She opened Her
hands and communicated to us the rays of that immense light. We
saw ourselves in this light, as it were, immersed in God. Jacinta
and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light which rose
towards Heaven, and I in that part which was poured out on the
earth.’
Lucy has frequently stated Our Lady has faithfully kept Her promise as throughout her life
she has felt the presence of Our Lady whenever she truly needed Her.
In this second apparition, Our Lady’s message is truly a wonderful message. She reveals it is Jesus Himself who
desires devotion to Her most Immaculate Heart and that souls who embrace this devotion will be saved! Moreover,
those souls will occupy a special place in heaven as they "shall be dear to God, as flowers placed by Me to
adorn His throne." Our Lady emphasized the importance of Her wonderful promise by giving the children a preview
of the wonders of God in His heaven. She did this by creating an "immense light" which enabled the children
to have the rare privilege of "being immersed in God, as it were." This was a truly extraordinary phenomenon
and confirmed in the minds of the children, the tremendous gift God will grant to those who are devoted to the
Immaculate Heart of the Mother of His dearly beloved Son. Since Christ created His Church solely for the salvation
of souls it is diabolical that the conciliar Church continues to keep the faithful ignorant of this God granted
way to assure the salvation of their souls.
In Her reply: "If he is converted he will be saved", Our Lady emphasizes the importance of conversion.
The children could have understood this reply in two ways, each of which is in stark contrast to the teaching of
today’s conciliar church. Since in the first visit to the children, the Blessed Virgin used the phrase: "conversion
of sinners", the children could have understood Our Lady’s reply as requiring the man to convert from his
sinful ways, that is, cease his leading a life of sin. This understanding of the reply is in direct contrast to
the conciliar church which rarely, and then only most reluctantly, speaks of personal sin, let alone speaks of
the conversion from a life of personal sin as a necessity for the salvation of one’s soul.
The children could have also understood Mary’s reply as meaning conversion to the Catholic Faith since it is possible
the man whom Our Lady had been asked to cure was not a Catholic or had lost his Catholic Faith. With this understanding,
it is essential to note Our Lady was speaking of conversion to the Catholic Faith because this is the only faith
to which conversion would have been meaningful to the children. Our Lady is certainly not speaking of conversion
to any of those far Eastern or African religions praised so highly by both Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II and
which deny the divinity of her beloved son, Jesus, nor is She speaking of those many Protestant sects which deny
such Catholic teachings as the Virgin birth, the Real Presence, the need for sacraments, the reality of the Holy
Trinity, the primacy of the pope, the existence of original sin, etc. Her understanding of Conversion is in direct
opposition to the ecumenism practiced by the Church of today which deliberately discourages conversion to the Catholic
Faith. So ardently is non-conversion ecumenism advocated today in the conciliar Church that Our Lady’s insistence
upon conversion to the Catholic Church in order to be cured would now be considered as "insistent", "rigorist",
"elitist" and "unnecessary" because the conciliar Church no longer believes in the necessity
of being Catholic in order to save one’s soul. In fact, given the abandonment of souls by the conciliar Church,
it is questionable whether it believes that being Catholic is any more beneficial to the saving of one’s soul than
is being a member of any other sect.
As an example consider the words of the Holy Father in 1985 during a visit to Casablanca, Morocco when he told
a crowd of 60,000 Islamic students Moslems and Christians believe in the same God. His words were: 4
"Abraham is the same model of faith in God for us, a model of submitting to His will and of
confidence in His bounty. We believe in the same God, (my emphasis) the living God, the
God who creates worlds and brings its creatures to perfection."
The response by Hamish Fraser to this declaration of the Holy Father dramatically illustrates the tremendous change in Catholic teaching being attempted by the Holy Father:
"Our only comment is that when Congresses of World Religions were
convened in 1893 and 1900 in Chicago and Paris respectively, they
were anathematized by Rome. Need more be said!"
Further illumination of the Holy Father’s words in Casablanca was given in the pertinent and rather lengthy comments of Fr. Emmanuel De Traveau. The following is a portion of these comments:5
"No, Holy Father, we Catholics do not believe in the same God as do the young Muslims.
We believe in the God Who revealed Himself fully in Our Lord Jesus Christ, whereas Muslims
believe in a God Who, according to them, revealed Himself fully through Mohammed.
We believe in the triune God; Muslims reject the Holy trinity as a form of polytheism.
We believe in the God Whose second Person was incarnate in Our Lord Jesus Christ
for our redemption; Muslims reject the Incarnation and deny the necessity of Redemption."
"No, the God in whom Muslims believe is not the same God, Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
in Whom we Catholics believe....."
"Holy Father, you have expressed in the name of the Church what amounts to a favorable
appreciation of a religious tradition based on the vain imaginings of a fanatic, a religion
filled with error and which rejects Our Lord Jesus Christ, without Whom no one can be
saved, and His church, outside of which there is no salvation. You have thus confirmed
Muslims in their error. Moreover, you have given equal weighting to the spiritual tradition
of Islam and God’s revelation infallibly handed down to us by Peter and his successors....."
"The Catholic faith, contrary to what you seem to be saying, is not just a subjective belief of
Christians, but the one true faith, divinely revealed and easily distinguishable as such by
unmistakable signs by any unbiased person."
"Holy Father, we do not want to cast doubt on your faith, but we are forced to note that the
words that came from your lips at Casablanca do not express the faith of Peter, who did not
flinch from bearing witness to Jesus Christ Our Lord in the face of those who had just crucified
Him."
"What are we to say, then, of your actions at Togoville, Kara, Lome? (These are other villages or
towns in Africa visited by the Holy Father on the same trip.) On the outskirts of the last town, you
went with animist priests and their disciples to pray in the "sacred forest" of Be, where the "power
of the waters" and deified spirits of the ancestors are invoked. And twice, at Kara and Togoville --
at Kara this happened just before Holy Mass! -- you took a dry gourd and poured a libation of
water and maize flour onto the ground, a rite expressing a false religious belief.... Holy Father, it is
not for us to judge your intentions; as is right, we leave that to God....[but] your behavior in Africa
constitutes an encouragement to non-believers to persist in the errors and superstitious practices
of their false religion, and for Christians it is a cause for scandal."
"Your addresses at Casablanca, together with these actions, seems to represent a repudiation of
all the Catholic Church’s missionary activity as it has developed over two thousand years; a
disavowal of all those missionaries who, from the apostles down, followed the command of
Our Lord Jesus, preaching to unbelievers the necessity of Redemption."
In view of the previous comments by the Holy Father, one naturally asks why Our Lord wasted
his efforts to found a Church
or why He wasted His breath saying: "Go forth and evangelize" and "Go forth and teach all nations?"
One also asks was the martyrdom of missionaries and their many converts all in vain? Since the peoples who heard
the words of the Holy Father on this trip were not admonished to follow the teachings of Christ as presented in
the Magesterium of the Church, one has cause to wonder about the effect the Holy Father’s words had on their souls.
Sadly, the Holy Father’s actions in Africa can only serve to further encourage inculturation efforts which destroy
the reality that the Mass is a reenactment of the terrible death of Our Lord on Calvary. Thus, recently Archbishop
Buti Tihagale of Bloemfontein, South Africa is suggesting that blood libations from
slaughtered animals be incorporated into the Mass. This was reported by the ENI Daily News Service, Geneva on Oct.
20, 2000. The notion of animal sacrifice, a pagan rite, is truly subversive of the one true sacrifice of Christ
of which the Holy Mass is a re-enactment.
Our Lady also mentions the desire to establish world wide devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. Today, it is hardly
surprising that such a devotion is not well established, nor even known by most of the faithful, since devotion
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has virtually disappeared from the conciliar Church as has the ‘Forty Hours Devotion.’
In some churches even the Stations of the Cross which were always a reminder, particularly during the Lenten season,
of Our Lord’s horrible ordeal at Calvary, have now been banished and replaced by non-conversion ecumenical prayer
services. For over a thousand years prior to the Vatican Council II, devotions such as The Stations of the Cross,
were practiced throughout the Church, but since the advent of the council, in a great many parishes such devotions
have been discontinued and in some cases even prohibited. Hence, to repeat, it is not at all surprising that today
no mention is made about devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady and consequently Our Lady’s request goes
unheeded. What is particularly significant about the conciliar Church’s deliberate ignoring of this devotion, is
that in later apparitions to Lucy it was Our Lord Himself, who urged and requested the devotion to the Immaculate
Heart of His Blessed Mother. The near complete disappearance of such devotions from the life of the ordinary Catholic
is diabolical since the devotions were established as a means of giving grace to assist the faithful in the salvation
of their eternal souls. It is as if the modernists, in their great pride, feel they know far better than God Himself
what God requires for the salvation of the souls of the faithful.
The last portion of Our Lady’s message again confirms that the salvation of one’s soul is not easy and will require
suffering on the part of each of us. This contradicts the conciliar Church’s emphasis on joy, celebration, hope,
happiness, self fulfillment, etc.
The Third Apparition of Our Lady, July 13, 1917.6
Lucy asks:
"What does Your grace want of me?"
Our Lady responds:
"I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, and to continue praying the Rosary
every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and
the end of the war, because only she can help you."
Lucy then replies:
"I would like you to tell us who you are and to work a miracle so
that everybody will believe that you are appearing to us."
Our Lady responds;
"Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am
and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe."
Our Lady also said:
"Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some
sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation
for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary."
Remark:
In today’s conciliar church there are repeated prayers for world peace but a total absence of any urging of the
praying of the Rosary for world peace. Such an obvious omission is an implicit snub of God’s promise of peace if
the faithful would pray a Rosary everyday in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary. Again, Our Lady’s message stresses
the importance of making some sacrifice for the love of Jesus, for the conversion of sinners and for the reparation
of sins against Her Immaculate Heart. In dramatic contrast the Vatican hierarchy apparently believes world peace
can be achieved by apologizing to Jews, Muslims and other groups for alleged past sufferings the Church may possibly
have caused them. Such apologies to non-Catholic sects, by helping to confirm their mistaken beliefs, will in no
way bring true peace because the apologies will not benefit the souls of the people of those sects. In addition,
by not obeying the request for encouraging the praying of the Rosary for the reparation of sinners, the conciliar
popes prevent the members of these sects from enjoying world peace which the Blessed Virgin would follow from such
prayer.. Both Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II have addressed the United Nations and each has repeatedly proclaimed
the United Nations is the great hope of the world for peace. Thus, since both popes have deliberately refused Our
Lady’s prescription for obtaining world peace while proclaiming the United Nations, an atheistic organization,
is the great hope of world peace, it is obvious both popes have far more faith in an atheistic organization, than
they do in God’s will as expressed through His emissary the Blessed Virgin. Finally, the Blessed Virgin’s words:
"Only she can help you." are a blunt statement that peace can only be achieved by obeying Her requests
and the deliberate refusal of her requests cannot obtain peace despite all the machinations by the Vatican and
its bureaucrats. It appears the conciliar Church, led by its intellectual elites with their tremendous pride, believes
it knows far better how to obtain world peace than does God Himself!
The modernists are convinced they can achieve world peace by repeatedly urging support for the implementation of
social and economic programs which they have designed while brazenly ignoring Our Lady’s prescription for obtaining
world peace. As Our Lady’s message says, it is by daily praying the Rosary and making personal acts of reparation
for sinners that world peace can be achieved. Personal acts of reparation include acts of charity where acts of
charity are defined as acts which better enable the salvation of souls. One can truly say of God’s plan that by
offering a way of saving souls it also assures world peace. It is evident God’s plan for obtaining peace, as related
by Mary to the children, is just a rephrasing of words of Our Lord in St. Matthew 6:33.
THE VISION OF HELL7
(This is commonly referred to as the First Secret of Fatima.
Sister Lucy revealed it several years later in 1941}
As Our Lady spoke the preceding words, Lucy describes what then occurred.
"Our Lady opened her hands once more, as She had done during the two previous months.
The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged
in the 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 huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of
pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. [It must have been this sight
which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me] The demons could be distinguished
by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent
like burning coals." [The vision lasted only a moment.]
The children looked up to Our Lady who then said to them:
"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 reign of
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."
Remarks:
This terrible vision of hell together with Our Lady’s message to Jacinta in which Our Lady said: "the sins
which lead most people to hell are sins of the flesh" confirms in no uncertain terms the existence of hell
and the fact many souls do indeed go there. Now a prominent teaching of the modernists in the conciliar Church
is that hell does not exist, or if hell does exist, it is of no consequence. This teaching is implicitly supported
by the deliberations of Vatican Council II since in all of the many hundreds of pages of council documents the
word ‘hell’ is never once mentioned! Satan is mentioned by name only twice, the devil three times, the "evil
once" twice and "prince of this world" only once, a total of only eight references. In all fairness,
the phrase ‘eternal fire’ does appear in the documents, but only once. In addition, nowhere in the documents is
anything said about the doctrine of hell! Even Pope Paul VI, who presided over the last three of the four council
sessions, said: "the subject of hell is not heard about any more."8 This is amazing given the council repeatedly claimed it was a pastoral council. It is as if Satan
has struck from within the heart of the Church itself. Since the council declared itself to be a pastoral council
one would think the council would have been devoted to the care and salvation of souls and certainly the doctrine
of hell together with the fact hell exists, is an essential teaching for the salvation of souls. Most assuredly
God, through Our Lady, thought so by giving the children this terrible glimpse of hell and saying it is where the
souls of poor sinners go. In addition, Jesus did not hesitate to warn sinners of the horrible eternal consequences
of sin. Other evidence that the modernists are attempting to completely change the traditional Church teaching
concerning the doctrine of hell is the declaration of the French bishops, who as a body, asserted hell does not
exist. Mgr. Faireau, the auxiliary bishop of La Rochelle, France in a section on hell in the bishops’ document:
"Des eveque disent la foi de l’Elise" Paris, 1978, wrote:
"Hell is simply a manner of speaking Christ used when addressing people whose religious outlook
was somewhat primitive, we have developed farther since."9
This is a complete denial of what Our Lady told the children at Tuy and what She told Jacinta
in Her messages about the consequences of sins of the flesh. It is also demonstrates the tremendous ego of the
modernists as well as their confidence in their ignorance. Such well known theologians as Jacques Maritain and
Karl Rahner also denied the existence of hell. Rahner even went so far as to maintain that the denial of the eternity
of punishment and the assertion of universal salvation are a new development due to Vatican Council II and that
these new teachings constitute a milestone for the faith of the church.10 (They may be a milestone but they are actually a millstone around the neck of the souls of the people.)
Hans Kung, a leading conciliar modernist, tells the faithful the existence of hell and the eternity of its pains
are myths from which we must be delivered. That Kung, Maritain, Rahner and other conciliar modernist theologians
make such assertions when it has always been, and still is, a steadfast Church teaching that all revelation ceased
at the death of the last apostle, is further testimony of the validity of the old saying "ego and ignorance
is unbeatable." To again quote Frere Michel: "As for satan and the legions of devils, the theologian
of Tubingen sees only a <<mythological representation>>, which passed <<from Babylonian mythology
into primitive Judaism, and from there, into the New Testament>>."11 It is important to note these heretical teachings of the conciliar modernist theologians can be
very harmful to untold numbers of souls because the modernists are the teachers of the seminary professors who
in turn teach the future clergy and religious who in turn instruct the faithful. In this way errors infiltrate
the Church from the top down and seriously endanger the salvation of souls of all the ‘little ones’. It is not
without import to note that both Rahner,
and particularly Maritain, were quite influential in the formation of the theology of Pope John Paul II.
The modernist denial of the existence of hell also contradicts the message of Our Lady to Sister Lucy on Dec. 10,
1925. In that message Our Lady offered the faithful a devotion that would assure the salvation of their souls if
the devotion were carried out according to her instructions. The devotion was the Five First Saturdays’ devotion
and is described below in chapter 4. So desirous was God that this devotion be made available to assist the faithful
in saving their eternal souls that God had his only Son, Our Lord, appear several times to Sister Lucy to emphasize
the great value of the devotion for the welfare of souls. By deliberately ignoring the pleas of Our Lord to promote
the devotion, the modernists have effectively prevented the faithful from becoming aware of His very generous offer
to assist in the salvation of their eternal souls. The failure to obey the wishes of Our Lord and the failure to
inform the faithful of the existence of personal sin and its consequences, are each deliberate modernist actions
which confirm modernists are not the least bit concerned with the salvation of souls. Thus, there is a complete
contradiction between the teachings of Our Lord and Our Lady at Fatima and the present teachings of many in today’s
conciliar Church.
The first sentence of Our Lady’s message, coupled with Her giving the children a vison of hell, in no uncertain
terms emphasizes Her desire to impress upon the children and the world that hell truly does exist, that the souls
of sinners do indeed go there and when there endure terrible torture and punishment. What is more, such souls remain
there forever! To give the faithful the impression hell is of no consequence, modernist theologians use the technique
of omission which is a favorite technique of the father of lies. Thus, they simply do not mention hell, the fact
that the souls of unrepentant sinners actually do go there and that in addition to being deprived of the beatific
vision of God, the souls suffer painful agonies for all eternity. As Frere Michel writes; "The greatest victory
of the devil is to succeed in making his existence forgotten, so that nobody fears the chastisements of hell any
more." The venerable Pope Pius IX told the priests of Rome "that the devil feared most those priests
who preach about hell."12 Padre
Pio, the noted confessor priest, and St. John Vianney who is the patron saint of priests each frequently spoke
of hell and its consequences because of the great benefit to the welfare of souls--the most miserable as well as
the most perfect -- and because it made the people who heard them grow in horror and hatred of sin. Even a cursory
reading of the sermons of St. John Vianney reveals his reliance on the fear of hell to induce his parishioners
to so conduct their lives as to save their eternal souls. His outstanding success in saving souls was attested
by Satan himself who is claimed to have revealed to the saint that if their were just three priests like him in
the world his task of luring souls to his lair would be impossible.
It is pertinent to note that many saints were afraid they were going to hell. Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Alphonsus
Liguori, Saint John Vianney, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Theresa of the Infant Jesus, and Saint Simon Stock are
just a few of the more noted saints who were afraid they would go to hell. Finally, as a direct consequence of
the many messages from both Our Lord and Our Lady, Sister Lucy felt her most important mission was to proclaim
the very real existence of hell and the fact many souls do indeed go there. The message of Fatima has been concisely
summed up by Fr. Marcel Nault as: Hell exists, Hell is eternal and we will all go to hell if we die in the state
of mortal sin. "What is the use to gain the whole world if you lose your eternal soul?" Sister Lucy described
her mission in a letter to Father Fuentes on December 26, 1957 as:
"My mission is not to announce to the world the material chastisements which will surely
come if the world does not pray and do penance. No! My mission is to indicate to everyone
the imminent danger we are in of losing our souls forever if we remain obstinate in sin."13
This statement by Sister Lucy is of utmost importance since she is the only person in the
entire history of the Catholic Church for whom God, through His emissaries Our Lord and Our Lady, has so frequently
stated His great concern for the welfare of souls. Thus, the conciliar church’s effective denial of the existence
of hell by continually preaching , "God loves us", "God is merciful", etc. without ever once
mentioning that Christ said the way we must show our love for Him is by keeping His commandments is a complete
denial of God’s intent in giving the children the vision of hell. Furthermore by giving sermons which advise the
faithful , "they should not have a hang-up over scruples", "they should enjoy themselves and celebrate
life", "the ten commandments are merely a laundry list of laws", (The author has personally heard
each of these phrases.) etc., the faithful are being implicitly urged to ignore one or more of the commandments.
Since the clergy and the episcopacy are well aware of the teachings of Our Lord and Our Lady at Fatima, it is difficult
to not conclude such modernist teaching is deliberate and is intended to cause the loss of souls.
In an April 10, 2001 ZENIT Internet post Cardinal Ratzinger defined hell as the absence of God. Approximately a
year before, on July 28, 2000, in an EWTN Internet News Brief, Pope John Paul II was quoted as emphasizing the
reality of hell. However, in this same message the Pope severely mitigated the effectiveness of his message as
a force for getting sinners to avoid sinful acts by including a statement intended to minimize the fear of hell
and the use of such fear as a means of getting the faithful to avoid sin. He said:
"The reality of hell should not ... be a cause of anxiety or despair for believers. Rather it is a
necessary and healthy reminder that human freedom has to be conformed to the example of
Jesus, who always said ‘yes’ to God, who conquered satan and who gave us His Spirit so that
we too could call God ‘Father’."
This statement says absolutely nothing about hell being a real punishment for sins. It merely says hell is a reminder on what type of human freedom should exist. By using the phrase "human freedom" rather than "human behavior", the Holy Father implies his concern is for the temporal welfare of man rather than for the eternal welfare of the soul of man. In the absence of any reference to personal sin and its relation to hell, the faithful can interpret the phrase "conformed to the example of Jesus" in any number of ways each having little or nothing to do with refraining from personal sin. Thus, the statement is a good example of Vatican "ambiguous speak." Another, far more serious example of "ambiguous speak" which could also be described as "contradiction speak" was given by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Redemptor Dominus, No. 13, where he said:
"We are dealing with each man, for each one is included in the mystery of the Redemption
and with each one Christ has united himself forever through this mystery. (My emphasis)
Such a statement implies that Christ will be with one’s soul even if one’s soul is in hell. This is a direct contradiction of the pope’s statement that:
"More than a physical place, hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate
themselves from God."
This statement appeared on the Vatican website (http://www.vatican.va) and was quoted in the August 20, 1999 issue of The Detroit News. The following example of Pope John Paul’s’s ambiguous writing not only permits a denial of the traditional Church teaching concerning hell but also strongly hints at universal salvation. The pope words are taken from a talk he gave at a retreat when he was a cardinal and they may be found on page 160 of the book "Sign of Contradiction" published by The Seabury Press, N. Y. His words were:
"According to the worlds statistics, thousands die every hour . . . But in this same reality, in this
dimension of every dying person — be he a centenarian or two-day old infant — there remains
present ‘the promise, the guarantee of our inheritance’, given to us in Christ, and in some way
‘mysteriously contained’, in the new life, which in human and world history, began with Christ . . .
And this ‘making new’, this new life, takes place in man. Every man . . . finally every man has
inherent in him the mystery of a new life which Christ has brought and which he has grafted on
to humanity. Every human death without exception has this dimension. As all men are sanctified
‘in Christ Jesus’ their death means a prolongation of this life ‘in Christ’ ."
In keeping with the false irenicism of the Post Vatican Council II Church, whenever he speaks
of hell, Pope John Paul II avoids any mention of the terrible suffering of souls condemned to hell. This omission
suggests a deliberate avoidance of using the fear of the punishments of hell as a means of discouraging sinful
behavior. Certainly God’s beatific vision is overwhelming and therefore its unavailability to souls in Hell will
be almost unbearable. However, it is difficult for the ordinary person to appreciate. In contrast, the ordinary
person can well understand an environment of hell which is characterized by continual fire along with suffering
far worse than at Auschwitz or the Gulag archipelago. Consequently, the desire to avoid an eternal existence in
such an environment provides a very effective motivation to avoid sin. The Holy Father’s reluctance to use the
fear of hell to prevent sin is in sharp contrast to St. John Vianney whose heavy reliance on instilling a fear
of hell in sinners was responsible for the salvation of a great many souls. In fact, so strong is Pope John Paul
II’s commitment to irenicism, that when listing the spiritual works of mercy in item #2447 of his ‘Catechism of
the Catholic Church’, he omitted the third spiritual work of mercy which is "to admonish sinners"! Thus,
while the irenical attitude of today’s conciliar Church may be irenical for the temporal welfare of man, the attitude
is anything but irenical for his eternal soul.
The irenical teachings of hell by both Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger are directly contradicted by the
teachings of past councils, popes and saints. For example, in Chapter 3 of Session 6 on Justification, the Holy
Council of Trent taught: "yet do not receive the benefit of His death, but those
only to whom the merit of His passion is communicated." Pope Benedict solemnly
defined: "Moreover we define that according to the common arrangement of God,
the souls of those who depart in actual mortal sin immediately after their death, descend to Hell where they are
tortured by infernal punishments." (Denzinger 531) St. Anthony says the strongest
desire of those in Hell will be to die. "Men shall seek death and shall not
find it. And they shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them." Apoc.
9.6
The Holy Father’s behavior at Fatima when he beatified Jacinta and Francisco is another example of his ignoring
the words of Our Lady to the detriment of souls. It has been reported (CRC, June 2000.) that the Holy Father did
not even mention the Immaculate Heart of Mary while at Fatima let alone call for the establishment of a devotion
to Her Immaculate Heart. Such an omission is absolutely inexcusable given the Blessed Virgin’s words:
"To save them (poor sinners) God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My
Immaculate Heart."
Sermons in the conciliar Church, are distinguished by their absence of any mention of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is a deliberate refusal of Our Lord’s specific command that Her Immaculate Heart
be honored equally with His Sacred Heart. As a result of this silence, the souls of many of the faithful are denied
graces which would have flowed to them from the practice of honoring His Blessed Mother. Of course it could be
argued that, since the Sacred Heart of Our Lord is rarely honored today, by not honoring the Immaculate of Mary,
the conciliar Church is being consistent in its devotion to the temporal.
As a direct consequence of the children seeing the terrible suffering of souls in hell, from that moment on the
children devoted themselves to prayer and sacrifice and did their utmost to avoid sin and to get others to avoid
sin. Thus, Our Lady by using anxiety and fear as a means of demonstrating the consequences of sin accomplished
Her objective of assuring the children would avoid sin and also pray and sacrifice for the sins of others. Because
the vision of hell was anything but irenical, it indicated Our Lady’s real concern for the welfare of souls and
that it is necessary to act so as to avoid hell by all means. As stated previously both St John Vianney and Padre
Pio, each of whom were noted for their many conversions of sinners, had absolutely no reluctance in making frequent
use of the fear and anxiety of hell in their conversion efforts. They recognized the great salvific power of this
fear and anxiety and made frequent use of it.
Pope John Paul II also states:
"Hell is not a punishment imposed externally by God, but the condition resulting from attitudes
and actions which people adopt in this life."
This statement shows the reluctance of the Holy Father to forthrightly state that hell is
a punishment for our personal sins and that one can avoid having one’s soul go to hell by not committing sin. The
phrase "condition resulting from attitudes and actions which people adopt in this life" is a contortion
to avoid using the word ‘sin’. Since the banishing to hell for all eternity is such a terrible and horrible act,
the Holy Father should use clear and unambiguous language to emphasize the necessity of people acting so as to
avoid having their souls go to hell. The phrase "resulting from attitudes and actions" is typical of
language associated with the temporal world. By using such irenical language the Holy Father is severely limiting
his ability to save souls which is the only reason for the existence of the Church of which he is the earthly head.
Subsequent messages of Our Lady stressed the importance of prayer, sacrifice and the need to make reparation for
our sins as well as the sins of others, thus further contradicting the present Holy Father’s irenical teaching
on hell.
Concerning the light referred to by Our Lady in this message, one should note the message was delivered in 1917
and WWI had not yet ended. P. 665 -- of Vol. 2 of Frere Michel’s trilogy provides a detailed description of the
great unknown light mentioned above by Our Lady. The light appeared on the night of January 25, 1938. Frere Michele
writes:
"An aurora borealis of exceptional size furrowed the sky of Western Europe last night; it
caused an uproar in a number of departments, which at first believed it to be a gigantic fire."
In the entire region of the Alps, the population was very much intrigued by this strange spectacle.
The sky was ablaze like an immense moving furnace, provoking a very strong blood-red glow.
The edge of the furnace was white, as if the sun was about to come up. It was undoubtedly
an aurora borealis, but an exceptional vast one, according to Professor Pers, of the faculty of
sciences at Grenoble."
With regard to this event, in her third memoir dated August 31, 1941 14, Sister Lucy said to her bishop:
"Your excellency is not unaware that, a few years ago, God manifested that sign, which
astronomers chose to call an aurora borealis. I don’t know for certain, but I think if they
investigated the matter, they would discover that, in the form in which it appeared, it could
not possibly have been an aurora borealis. Be that as it may, God made use of this to make
me understand that His justice was about to strike the guilty nations. . ."
Lucy’s statement is noteworthy in its use of prudent expressions confirming her desire not
to impose her opinion, but only to express it. In contrast, when Lucy related the messages of Our Lady and of Our
Lord she was emphatic and specific in relating the messages in clear and explicit terms with an absence of any
qualms about the intent and content of the messages. Her comments concerning the events in the sky were used by
the Fatima adversaries to assert that Sister Lucy was surely in error since to them "it was obvious"
that the stellar display "was nothing but a very bright and extensive aurora borealis". However, their
assertion is open to serious question, since to this day, there remains among astronomers sincere disagreement
concerning the character of this stellar display.15
Our Lady continues:
"To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of
Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and 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 will be converted, and a certain
period of peace will be granted to the world."
"In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc
(sic). Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell
him."
Recall that only one month previously Our Lady ordered Lucy to learn to read. Thus, Lucy,
at the time of this second apparition was ignorant of Russia and the events surrounding the 1917 revolution in
that country.
Our Lady continues:
"When you say the Rosary, say after each mystery:
‘O My Jesus, forgive us,
save us from the fire of hell.
Lead all souls to Heaven,
especially those who are most in need’."
Lucy then asked:
"Is there anything you want of me?"
Our Lady responded:
"No, I do not want anything more of you today."
Remark:
In this portion of Her message Our Lady issues a two fold warning of great significance for the welfare of souls.
The first warning is explicit and bluntly states that if the consecration of Russia is not accomplished, Russia
will spread her errors throughout the world causing persecution of the Church and worldwide suffering. The second
warning is implicit because, by inference, it states that if the consecration is not effected, then the dogma of
the faith may be lost in countries other than Portugal.
In considering the first part of this portion of Her message, it is necessary to know what is meant by the of errors
of Russia that Our Lady is referring to. The errors can be readily identified by recalling that the primary concern
of Our Lady is always the salvation of souls because the greater the number of souls saved, the more pleased is
her beloved Son and His Holy Father. Consequently by the errors of Russia, Our Lady means those teachings and actions
which, if practiced and adhered to will result in the loss of many souls. Typical of such errors are hatred of
God, abortion, divorce, injustice, torture, loss of respect for life, sodomy, despotism, etc. After the 1917 Bolshevik
revolution, which led to a communist form of government, these and similar errors were spread by the government
throughout Russia and its satellite countries.
The existence of the errors of Russia is due to the communist government’s establishment of a Godless society.
A Godless society, having absolutely no moral basis, permits, and in many cases even forces, its members to engage
in many practices which are contrary to the teachings of Christ, thus causing the members to truly endanger their
eternal souls. For example, Russia has far and away the highest abortion rate in the world. The Catholic World
News of Nov. 30, 1998 stated the Russian News agency Interfax reported from Moscow that seven out of every ten
pregnancies, that is, 70% of pregnancies, end in abortion. This implies there are more than two abortions for every
birth! In addition, its divorce rate is among the highest in the world, and may actually be the highest because
the government had made it exceedingly easy to obtain a divorce. All one had to do was to simply fill out a postcard
and drop it in a mailbox and if, in thirty days, there were no objections, the divorce was granted. This procedure
may no longer be in effect. However the divorce rate is still abnormally high. Abortion and divorce definitely
endanger souls because abortion is murder, which is one of the four sins calling for the vengeance of God, and
divorce is a sin of the flesh and so belongs to the class of sins which Our Lady said caused more people to go
to hell than any other type of sin.
Many of the sins listed above have now become prevalent throughout the world. Abortion, contraception and sterilization
are common in China because of the government imposed population control program which is so draconian that it
includes infanticide. Of course, western countries, particularly the United States, also permit infanticide but
in their egotistical attempt to gloss over the terrible sin, call it ‘third term abortion’. Western countries have
also enthusiastically joined in the spread of these errors as is noted by their vigorous efforts to export population
control programs to third world countries. Such efforts are particularly evil because the western countries, knowing
full well the prevalence of deep poverty in these countries, are insidiously blackmailing poverty stricken countries
by threatening to deny them economic benefits in order to force their submission to population control programs.
As reported in both a recent EWTN and a Vatican Internet news item, the population controllers are so fanatical
in their obsession with population control that they even took advantage of the terrible and devastating conditions
of the refugees of the NATO-Yugoslavia war to impose their population control methods on the refugees. Thus the
NATO countries are not only endangering the souls of their own people but they also have been hard at work endangering
the souls of defenseless poor people caught in the deadly crossfire of a war NATO itself induced. Hence, because
of this blackmailing it is the souls of those in the western countries which are in far greater danger. Divorce
is another of the sins in this class and it is everywhere in the formerly Christian world. It is so prevalent in
the United States that there are almost as many divorces each year as there are marriages. In addition, increasing
numbers of couples are living together without the benefit of marriage. Western countries are also participating
in and encouraging the spread of pornography, pedophilia and sodomy. The last named sin is another of the sins
crying out to God for His vengeance.
Because of the harmful effects on the children of divorced parents are becoming more obvious
there is beginning to be a discussion of curbing divorce or at least making it more difficult to obtain. The elitists
who are discussing the issue are concerned because the children of divorced and single-parent families are far
more prone to committing crimes which threaten the elitists and also cost money in higher taxes which they do not
like to pay. However the elitists non-belief in God prevents their taking that action which would truly improve
the situaiton. It is relevant to note that many years ago, when it was difficult to obtain a divorce, the elitists
were vigorously arguing for the relaxation of the divorce laws to enable them to more readily obtain a divorce.
Now the consequences of their action has come back to affect them, they are reconsidering the issue. Hypocrisy
has always been the strong suit of the elitists. The elitist-favored legislation of easy divorce coupled with virtually
no restriction on sexual behavior is a good example ''of the truism that "whenever man changes God's law in
an attempt to build "cult of man" defined as temporal heaven, man comes one more step closer to building
his own hell here on earth."
Another error of Russia, which is being spread worldwide, is the very serious sin of ‘defrauding the worker of
a just wage’.
So serious is this sin, that the Catholic Church has always taught this too was one of the four sins crying out
to heaven for vengeance. In Russia, after the bolshevik revolution, slave labor was widely enforced and the vast
majority of the people were severely under paid and lived very harsh lives. In sharp contrast the ruling class,
that is the Nomenclatura, enjoyed an extravagant and opulent lifestyle. Since the recent fall of the communist
government in the Soviet Union, the obscenely wide gap in incomes between the Nomenclatura and the ordinary Russian
citizen has been exacerbated by the sharp increase in crime. Crime particularly corrupts the souls of the poor
since much crime promotes pornography, drugs and prostitution. The sin of paying an unfair wage has always been
prevalent throughout third world and Asian countries. Today however, many western countries are eagerly committing
the same sin as they ship their manufacturing to these countries and/or contract work out to them in order to take
advantage of the excessively low wages paid to the laborers. In many of these countries this sin is made even more
grave because of the foreign governments’ enforced slave like working conditions. For example in China the government
of the United States and other governments in the western world are attempting to negotiate trade agreements to
take further economic advantage of both child labor and enforced slavelike working conditions. The magnitude of
this worldwide exploitation of children can be judged by the May 3, 1999 Vatican ZENIT Internet News Agency Bulletin
that reported there are over 250 million child laborers throughout the world, a number only slightly smaller than
the population of the entire United States. Some of the children are as young as three years old!
Perhaps the greatest loss of souls in Russia is and was due to Marxism’s and Leninism’s insane hatred of the Christian
faith, particularly the Roman Catholic Faith. This hatred manifested itself in the destruction of hundreds of churches
and imprisonment, terror, torture, murder, etc. to force Christians to give up their faith. The Russian government’s
use of these methods against their very own citizens is relatively well known and has been documented in many books.
What is not so well known is just how viciously these methods were used against Catholics by the communists in
their attempted revolution in Spain in the 1930's. Almost twenty-thousand Catholic churches were destroyed or completely
looted by the Bolsheviks in their losing attempt to overthrow the Catholic government of Spain and so destroy the
Church. Clergy and religious were hunted down with dogs, followed over mountain ranges and relentlessly tracked
to be put to death on the spot without a trial. Their only crime was that they were clergy or religious in the
Catholic Church. Over three hundred thousand lay Catholics were similarly killed and for the same reason. In the
city of Madrid alone, in a single three month period, over twenty thousand Catholics were assassinated. After the
war ended it was determined the number of clergy and religious who suffered martyrdom for their faith were 13 bishops,
4,317 secular priests, 2,489 religious, 283 nuns and 249 seminarians.16 Soon after the conclusion of the war, with the defeat of the Bolsheviks, the remaining episcopate
in Spain sent a letter to the Vatican. The following quotations from that letter express in real terms the insane
fury of Marxism-Leninism against the Catholic Church.
"We do not believe in the whole history of Christianity, and in so few weeks time, has there
been such an explosion of hatred against Jesus Christ and His holy religion....."
"The martyrs are numbered in the thousands; the witness they gave is a source of hope for
our poor homeland; but in the Roman Martyrology we perhaps would not find one form of
martyrdom not employed by the communists, not excepting crucifixion......" "The hatred
against Jesus Christ and Our Lady has reached the point of paroxysm. One can imagine
the hatred of hell becoming incarnate in our unfortunate communists by the hundreds of
mutilated crucifixes, by the images of Our Lady profaned in bestial fashion, by the posters
of Bilbao which blasphemed sacrilegiously against the Mother of God, by the infamous
literature of the entrenched reds, where the divine mysteries are ridiculed by the repeated
profanation of the Eucharist. ....." "The forms of profanation have been so incredible that
they cannot be conceived of without presupposing a diabolical suggestion."17
A typical example of the insane hatred of the Catholic Church by the bolsheviks was the
cruel martyrdom of Msgr. Budkiewicz on Holy Thursday of 1923 in Moscow.18 His martyrdom followed soon after his banishment to the icy prisons in Solowski on the Black Sea.
In these prisons many clergy, religious and Catholic laity were forced to undergo all types of sadistic torments.19 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn in his encyclopedic work,
"The Gulag Archipelago," describes in detail the suffering and torture of the many thousands of Christians,
who for no reason other than their faith in Christ, were banished to the slave labor prison camps during the Stalinist
era in the Soviet Union. Is it any wonder then that God had His emissary, the Blessed Virgin, ask for prayers for
the cessation of the spread of Russian errors?
Lest one think the errors of Russia are not still being spread today, consider the profanations of Our Lord and
Our lady which are now occurring in the west. Examples are the depicting of Christ on a cross imbedded in a bottle
of urine and the depiction of the Blessed Virgin with a great big pipe entering Her Vagina. The former occurred
in the United States and the latter in Australia and both were sponsored by the respective governments. Such profanities
continue unabated and many are funded by the respectivegovernments. The Russian error of killing and persecuting
Christians has been extended world wide. It is now in Africa and in many far east countries where there is increasing
persecution and killing of Christians of all faiths. The Chinese communist government has stepped up its persecution
of Christians, particularly those belonging to the underground Catholic Church. The government is torturing and
imprisoning many such members for merely attempting to live their faith. By the year 2000, there had been imprisoned
at least eight bishops together with hundreds of members of the underground Church. In the islands of the far East,
Muslims are attempting to exterminate Christians and using torture to get Christians to deny their Faith. Even
though such wanton killing and persecution is well known, today it is rare that a request to pray for the souls
of these victims is mentioned in the list of items to pray for that is read at every Sunday liturgy. Rather the
list is usually restricted to requests for prayer for worldly goods, better behavior of governments and parishioners
who are sick or who have recently passed away. That the Vatican is even more complicit in the ignoring of the welfare
of the souls of the hundreds of thousands of Christians killed in these persecutions is shown by the fact that
nearly all Vatican Internet posts describing the persecutions fail to mention the welfare of the souls of the persecuted
and the necessity to pray for them.
The second portion of Our Lady’s message is addressed to the real danger to the souls of the Catholic Faithful
caused by a loss of their fundamental Catholic beliefs. She states: "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will
always be preserved." It is significant She used the phrase ‘dogma of the Faith’ rather than the word ‘Faith’
itself because there is an important difference between ‘faith’ and ‘the dogma of the faith’. Faith refers to ‘a
belief in’ or ‘a fidelity to’ whereas the phrase ‘dogma of the faith’ refers to the creed or set of tenets in which
one has faith or fidelity. The loss of the dogma of the Faith is far more serious than is the loss of Faith since
the existence of a Faith requires a dogma in which to have faith. Consequently, if the dogma of the Faith is lost,
people will not be able to know in what to have faith in order to save their immortal souls. Her use of the phrase
is also significant since it confirms there is a specific dogma in which one must believe and that dogma is the
dogma of the traditional Magesterium of the Holy Roman Catholic Church as it was taught and safeguarded in the
pre-conciliar church.
Our Lady, by specifically naming Portugal and not mentioning any other country, is implying that, in countries
other than Portugal, the creed or set of tenets of the Catholic religion may be changed, lost or even denied. Evidence
such changes or denials of the traditional teachings of the faith have indeed occurred in many countries, are the
assertions by theologians, clergy, religious and hierarchy in these countries that Jesus is not present completely
and entirely in the Holy Eucharist, abortion and contraception are no longer sins, the Blessed Virgin was not a
virgin, Jesus had other brothers and sisters, etc. Some theologians have gone so far as to even deny the divinity
of Our Lord. As of Oct. 16, 2000, an EWTN Internet News Brief reported that Catholic Church officials met in Montreal
to discuss gender neutral terms for the use of "Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit" in baptismal rites.
One suggestion was "You are baptized in the name of God, source of love, in the name of Jesus Christ, Love’s
power, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, Loves’s power." Still another suggestion asserted "the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit were one God, Mother of us All." Admittedly the Vatican has issued condemnations
of such assertions but they are blithely ignored by the conciliar modernists and so the faithful continue to be
taught false doctrine which endangers their immortal souls. In addition, the condemnations are obviously meant
to be ignored by the ordinary Catholic because rarely, if ever, are the condemnations enforced and, in addition,
those responsible for the false teachings are able to continue their false teachings as they are permitted to retain
their positions of power and authority in the Church. Hence, despite many denials, as far as the ordinary Catholic
layman is concerned, there has indeed been significant changes in the traditional dogma of the Church. Moreover,
even when the Vatican does issue a condemnation of an invalid practice or teaching it frequently caves in and rescinds
the condemnation as it did with communion in the hand and the issue of altar girls. Such vacillating behavior on
the part of the Vatican encourages the faithful to believe that sooner or later, after an invalid practice or teaching
has existed for a sufficient time and spread sufficiently far, it will be approved by Rome. Furthermore, the Vatican
bears yet more guilt in this spreading of false doctrine by permitting professors who espouse heretical teachings
to remain in their positions in Catholic universities and seminaries which train clergy and religious who will
then further corrupt the faithful by passing on the heretical teachings. Confirmation some heretical teachings
may even be favored by the Vatican is the incident in Switzerland that was reported in the news section of Mother
Angelica’s EWTN web site on Oct. 6, 1997. The incident concerned a group of Catholic laity and priests who had
persuaded the Swiss government to request the authorities in the Vatican to remove the local bishop because he
was insisting on upholding true Church dogma banning abortion. As incredible as it seems, the Vatican after appointing
the bishop, caved in and removed the bishop thus further convincing the faithful that in the conciliar Church,
actions once considered to gravely endanger souls, are no longer considered to endanger souls. The inevitable consequence
of such
changes of traditional Catholic dogma is a complete loss of the true faith by the ordinary lay Catholic. The recent
and continuing precipitous drop in Catholic Church attendance throughout the world attests to this. It as if the
modernist theologians, enslaved by their intellectual pride, are playing sophist games with the faith and could
care less about the consequences to the eternal souls of the faithful. In fact modernist inspired changes have
been so numerous and have now become so entrenched that most non Catholics, as well as many former Catholics, dismiss
the Catholic religion of today as just another sect whose beliefs change with the times. Prior to Vatican Council
II the pre-conciliar Church was known and admired for the steadfastness of its beliefs and its vigorous opposition
to situation ethics.
When challenged about the consequent tremendous loss in belief in the fundamental dogma of the Church, the ‘change
advocates’ vehemently deny their teachings are in any way responsible for this loss. However, in late 1999, a Synod
of European bishops was held for the express purpose of addressing the increasing loss of faith throughout Europe.
Some of the bishops even had the temerity to suggest that possibly, just possibly, the real lack of reverence induced
by the Novus Ordo liturgy should be corrected! Nevertheless, the majority of bishops in favor of the changes and
enamored with modernism and political correctness, effectively denied this assertion by suggesting yet more changes
are necessary! As stated previously the Vatican makes little or no effective attempt to halt such teachings. Moreover
these teachings are not even effectively refuted and are the only teachings which the faithful hears in the Sunday
sermons. The teachings are advanced with persuasion in nearly all official diocesan newspapers and in many of the
national Catholic publications. Consequently, in the real world of the faithful outside the walls of the Vatican,
the basic dogmas of the Church have indeed changed and are continuing to change.
The changes began soon after Vatican Council II, when they were promoted in Church sermons and Catholic publications.
The changes were usually accompanied by such caveats as ‘while these teachings may appear to contradict traditional
Catholic belief, they actually do not", "this new change is justified by the new Spirit of Vatican II",
"new insights have revealed", etc. Caveats such as these were immediately followed by some rationale
like, ‘the reasons for this change are sophisticated and complicated and require deep theological justification
by learned theologians who have the necessary expertise’ or ‘theologians making use of new modern biblical advances
enabling a clearer understanding of past teachings have now concluded . . .’, etc. This sophistry had the desired
result of giving the impression that we, the ordinary lay Catholics, would not be able to understand the reasoning
behind the changes and so further explanation was not given nor was it really needed. Furthermore, changes have
so permeated the Church of today that the clergy no longer attempt to define what it means to be a Catholic. In
fact, so deeply ingrained is this desire to not have to specify just what it means to be a Catholic that the word
‘dogma’ is now scorned.
Further contributing to the abstaining of discussing Catholic dogma is the primacy presently given to non-conversion
ecumenism. It is now taboo to talk about the differences between Catholic beliefs and the beliefs of other religions.
Moreover, ecumenism as practiced in today’s conciliar Church deliberately shuns conversion to the Catholic Faith
and so emphasizes the similarities in all religions. To the ordinary person, the obvious implication of such ecumenical
efforts is that one religion is as good as another and so why not join a church having just a few or no restrictions
on personal behavior, or easier yet, just stop going to Church. Many Catholics have acted on this implication by
leaving the Church and the number of such defections is not decreasing. Those who have defected do not raise their
children to be Catholics so the number of Catholics shrinks even more. The totality of these defections is a tremendous
loss of souls. Nevertheless, so important does the Vatican consider non-conversion ecumenism that Catholic missionary
efforts have completely changed. Catholic missionaries used to devote their efforts to the conversion of non-Catholics
to the Catholic Faith and the missionaries abetted these efforts by addressing the social and economic concerns
of the people. Such efforts were a sign of the Church militant. Today however, non-conversion ecumenism concentrates
on addressing the social, political and economic welfare of the ‘separated brethren’ to the exclusion of their
spiritual welfare. Consequently, any conversion efforts have essentially ceased with the result there is no longer
a Church militant. The Maryknoll missionaries, whose order was founded to convert people to the Catholic Faith,
and who were startlingly effective in doing so, have now completely halted such conversion efforts. It is Christ’s
dictum, "Go forth and teach all nations" which has been abandoned and so again, it is eternal souls which
are endangered. All of these changes in both Catholic dogma and Catholic pastoral practices, to say nothing of
numerous changes which have not been mentioned, can only serve to support Our Lady’s warning concerning the loss
of the dogma of the faith.
Frere Michel gives an excellent summary of the import of Our Lady’s messages. One might say they contained some
good news and some bad news. There are two parts to the good news. The first part said World War I would end and
it did. The second part concerns the eternal souls of the faithful and says if Her requests are heeded many souls
will be saved and Russia will be converted enabling millions of additional souls to be saved. The bad news portion
is the terrible warning that if Her requests are not heeded, another more frightful war will break out during the
reign of Pius XI. Since Her requests were not heeded, World War II did breakout during the reign of Pius XI and
indeed it was a more frightful war. Thus, the predictions of Our Lady were verified in no uncertain terms. Despite
this, by the year 2001 there is still no consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in accord with
Her instructions! The horror of World War II, the increasing number of small but very deadly wars, the planned
and systematic extermination and massacre of thousands of innocent people throughout the world, the development
of deadly biological and chemical agents of war, the almost complete loss of morality and the present confused
state of the Church makes one shudder to imagine what chastisement lies in wait for us if the requests of Our Lady
continue to be deliberately ignored.
Some have falsely argued World War II did not break out during the reign of Pius XI but rather started during the
reign of his successor Pius XII and therefore the predictions of Our Lady are false. However, most military historians
recognize the real beginning of any war usually occurs long before the onset of actual hostilities because war
is politics by another means. In 1936 Hitler had broken the pact of Locarno by suddenly advancing his troops into
the Rhineland which had been demilitarized by agreement. Thus, even though no outright hostilities or bloodshed
had occurred, the war had actually begun. The military historian Gabriel Louis-Jaray sets March 7, 1936 as the
probable agreed upon date of the true start of World War II. Pius XI was then pope and he died in office in 1939.20
Modernists have questioned why Our Lady did not ask for the consecration of Germany rather than Russia since they
claim Germany was responsible for the horror of World War II. Frere Michel on p.754 of volume II of his trilogy
gives several reasons for Her requesting the consecration of Russia. Three of the most important are, (1) God knew
the threat of Germany was temporary while the threat of Russia was far more permanent, (2) the communist threat
to souls was far greater than the Nazi threat and (3) the fanatical and enforced disavowal of God and His Church
in Russia was also espoused by many outside of Russia who were infiltrating the church and were in control of the
media and the educational systems. In fact, it was the total control of the press by liberals who were sympathetic
to the communist cause and opposed to Catholicism which gave the world the impression the Bolshevik revolution
in Spain was a fight against fascism rather than a fight to resist Bolshevik control of Spain. In other words the
number of sympathizers world wide who spread Russia’s errors was vastly greater and more effective than were the
number of Nazi sympathizers spreading the errors of German Nazism. Moreover, even now the errors of Russia are
still being vigorously spread throughout the world as many professors in universities and colleges are attempting
to justify the need for the communist governments to have killed and continue to kill, so many innocent people.
In addition, in some South American countries the clergy have been actively spreading the errors of Russia in their
attempts to promulgate liberation theology! Finally, in order to defect the public mind from the errors of Russia,
the media as well as religious authorities, continually focus on the errors of Nazism while purposefully ignoring
the errors of Russia. The Church’s policy of Ostpolitic and the continued enforcement of Pope John XXIII’s promise
to not denounce communism in order to persuade the Russian government to send representatives to Vatican Council
II have been largely responsible for the near total silence toward the evils of communism by the conciliar Church.
The recent book, "The Black Book of Communism" written by a group of French historians, provides conclusive
evidence of the vast numbers of peoples wantonly slaughtered and murdered throughout the world as a direct result
of the spread of the errors of Russia. The authors estimate that upwards of 100 million innocents were killed as
a direct result of the errors as opposed to the less than 15 million innocents killed as a consequence of the errors
of Nazism. Despite such a hideous record, the pagan elites, both inside and outside of Russia, continue to minimize
the insane behavior of communist governments by alleging their behavior had a more rational objective than had
the behavior of the Nazis governments! Typical of such attempts is one which appeared as the last sentence in a
recent review of the aforementioned book. The sentence reads, "There is a difference
between regimes that exterminate people in the inhuman pursuit of an arbitrary objective and those whose objective
is extermination itself." This statement shows the extreme to which the ‘useful
idiots’ will go in their attempts to excuse and to minimize the consequences of the communist system of Russian
errors. Both Communism and Nazism are rooted in naturalism which is the philosophy of freemasonry. The Communist
Manifesto was based upon the godless philosophy of naturalism and assumed world wide importance after the Russian
revolution in 1917. Nazism, also based on the same godless philosophy, assumed importance in the early 1930's upon
Adolph Hitler’s ascent to power. Since each form of government is based upon a godless philosophy, it is hardly
surprising that each gave rise to governments characterized by the wanton murder of tens of millions of innocent
people. No amount of sophistry by the learned elites can mask this fact.
The overriding reason God asked for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was the fact God
has given Mary the charge to combat the devil and his work. Now the system of errors established in Russia was
put into place by two men. One of them, Karl Marx, indulged himself in satanism and the other man, Vladimir Ilyich
Lenin had an insane hatred of God. Each of these two individuals were devoted to removing any trace of God from
society by establishing man as god in a humanistic and atheistic society. The system of errors they established
is called communism or Marxism and/or Leninism. Karl Marx said:
"Communism begins with atheism — atheism is the first principle of communism" 20a
Marx’s total hatred of God and his fiendish desire to be with the father of lies is revealed by what he wrote in a poem:
"Thus, heaven I’ve forfeited. I know it full well. My soul, once true to God, is chosen for hell." 20b
In the phrase, "My soul, once true to God" Marx is referring to his being raised in Judaism and the fact that in his youth he had flirted with Lutheranism and wrote many ‘touching poems to Christ as his savior. However, it was at the University of Berlin that he became infatuated with satanism and its rituals and this infatuation remained with him all of his life and was responsible for his totally godless philosophy. Thus, in a poem entitled: "The Prayer", written about this time, Marx wrote:
"The hellish vapors rise and fill the brain, till I go mad and my heart is utterly changed. See this sword?
The prince of darkness sold it to me. For me he beats the time and gives the signs. Ever more boldly
I play the dance of death." 20c
V. I. Lenin, the other individual most responsible for the system of errors in Russia, demonstrated his hatred
of God by writing:
"Every religious idea, every idea of a god, even flirting with the idea of god, is unutterable vileness
of the most dangerous kind, a disease of the most abominable kind. Millions of sins, filthy deeds,
acts of violence and physical contagions are far less dangerous than the subtle, spiritual idea of
a God ..."
Joseph Stalin, who firmly established the system of "errors of Russia", said:
"Kill the eunuch priests and you kill the Christ." 21
As late as 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed:
"I am a communist, a convinced communist. We [Marxists] do not conceal our attitude
toward the religious mind. We look down on it as deficient because it is non materialistic
and unscientific." 22
The Nobel prize winning author and philosopher Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote:
"within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology,
hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than their political and economic
pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy; it is
not a side effect, but the central pivot. To achieve its diabolical ends Communism needs to
control a population devoid of religious and national feeling, and this entails the destruction
of faith and nationhood. Communists proclaim both of these objectives openly, and just as
openly go about carrying them out."
In chapter 1 of the book entitled: "The Divine Impatience," Fr. Nicholas Gruner points out that the Ten Commandments of God were each opposed by commandments
of Marxism. For example, in opposition to the Eighth Commandment, Thou shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy
Neighbor" Lenin asserted"The lie is sacred." God’s Seventh Commandment says:"Thou Shalt Not
Steal." Marx teaches that no one has a right to private property and hence orders his followers to "Steal
anything you can." Since abortion is institutionalized in Marxist Russia the Fifth commandment, Thou Shalt
Not Kill" is violated many times daily.
In the late 1980's the Russian empire established by Marx and Lenin began to collapse and today many of the former
satellite countries are now independent. However, the system of errors they established in Russia in 1917, the
same year as the Fatima revelations, still exists and is being vigorously spread throughout the world. Humanistic
and atheistic ideas are becoming more and more the basis for the conduct of society throughout the world. These
ideas are also beginning to be entrenched in the conciliar Church of today as it continues its drive to build the
‘cult of man’. In the United States the large number of advocates of abortion and so-called mercy killing, joined
by many who despise Christianity, are beginning to openly call for its banishment since it is Christians who oppose
such heinous crimes and ideas. The banishment of Christianity was one of the major errors of Russia and so the
open calls for the banishing of Christianity in the United States is a good example of the spread of an error of
Russia. There are different reasons for the spread of these errors making the prevention of their spread difficult.
It is to halt the spread of these errors, no matter what the rationalization used to support the errors, that God
through Our Lady, asked for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Another important inference from this message of Our Lady is that Our Lady’s use of the phrase "dogma of the
Faith" confirms the Holy Roman Catholic Faith is indeed the one true faith that Her Beloved son, Jesus Christ,
founded and established here on this earth. God, through Our Lady, is surely telling Vatican modernists His Church
must be devoted to the conversion of all people to the one Church whose dogma of the faith He defined. Consequently,
Vatican inspired non-conversion ecumenical efforts such as the joint prayer meetings of religious at Assis and
at Tokyo, are in direct contradiction to Our Lady’s implicit assertions of the existence of the one true faith.
Her message implies that ecumenical efforts should not be devoted to the altering of the teaching of the faith
in order to "accommodate our separated brethren" nor should the efforts be such as to "not unnecessarily
upset our separated brethren" as was stated in Vatican Council II. It is relevant to note that the excuse
offered during Vatican Council II for not having a separate chapter devoted to Our Lady was the reason of "not
unnecessarily upsetting our separated brethren!"
Another message from Our Lady on June 13, 1917.
23
Lucy asked for the healing of John, the crippled son of Maria Carreira, and Our Lady responded:
"He will be not be healed and he will remain poor. But he must recite the Rosary every
day with his family and he will be able to make a living."
John Carreira remained crippled and became a sacristan of the "Capelhina" enabling
him to spend his entire and long life near the sanctuary of Our Lady. Thus, rather than curing him of his infirmities,
Our Lady chose for him a life full of suffering, prayer and service thereby enabling him to assure the salvation
of his eternal soul and the souls of others. A similar choice was also given by God in His permitting Padre Pio
to suffer the stigmata for almost fifty years. The incredibly beneficial effect on the welfare of souls of his
suffering was the primary reason for his beatification so soon after his death.
Remark:
By the standards of today’s conciliar Church this response by Our Lady is not in keeping with the ‘cult of man’
since her response demonstrates insensitive, non-caring, non-loving and callous behavior. However, if one
recognizes that the concern of Our Lady is the eternal welfare of John’s soul, Her response was indeed the most
kind, loving, caring and charitable of responses. By enabling John to spend his entire life near the sanctuary
of Our Lady, God dramatically demonstrated just how much He wants to save eternal souls.
[Valinhos is a small pasture adjacent to the Cove da Iria.]
The Fourth Apparition of Our Lady, Sunday, August 19, 1917, after Mass.24
As always Lucy asks:
"What do you want of me?"
Our Lady answers:
"I want you to continue going to the Cova da Iria on the 13th, and to continue praying
the Rosary every day. In the last month, I will work a miracle so that all may believe.
If you had not been taken away to the City, the miracle would have been even greater."
[Here Our Lady is referring to the fact that due to the increasing interest of the citizentry
in
the children's actions, the atheistic local government officials were becoming very alarmed.
Consequently, they had the three children arrested and held in jail on August 13, the agreed
upon day of the month Our Lady would appear at the Cova da Iria. On Sunday, August 19,
upon their release from jail the children went to Mass and then to the Cova da Iria. This is
the reason for Our Lady appearing on the 19th rather than on the promised 13th of August]
Our Lady continues.
"Saint Joseph will come with the Child Jesus, to give peace to the world. Our
Lord will come to bless the people."
Lucy then asked:
"What do you want done with the money that the people leave in the Cova da Iria?"
[Here Lucy is referring to the money left at the Cova da Iria by the people who believed
in the apparitions.]
Our Lady answered:
"Have two litters made. One is to be carried by you, and Jacinta and two other girls
dressed in white; the other one is to be carried by Francisco and three other boys.
The money from the litters is for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and what is
left over will help towards the construction of a chapel that is to be built here."
Lucy then said:
"I would like to ask you to cure some sick persons."
Our Lady said:
"Yes, I will cure some of them during the year."
Then looking sad, Our lady said:
"Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell because
there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them."
Remark:
Again the Blessed Virgin demonstrates the importance of prayer, particularly the daily saying of the Rosary. As
is usual, She concludes Her message by stressing the need for making sacrifice for sinners so they might save their
souls. The offering of prayers and sacrifices to enable others to save their souls is an act of great charity since
it is a direct response to God’s desire for all to be with him forever. The emphasis of the conciliar Church on
praying and making acts of sacrifices for the welfare of individuals in this temporary world is worthwhile, laudable
and needed, but such emphasis is as nothing compared to emphases urging sinners to repent and alter their lives
so as to enable their souls to be forever with God. Furthermore it is Our Lord himself who said: "Seek first
the kingdom of God and his justice, and these things shall be given you besides." (Matt. 6, 23-33)
The Fifth Apparition of Our Lady, September 13.25
Lucy asks:
"What do you want of me?"
Our Lady replies:
"Continue to say the Rosary to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will
come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Carmel. Saint Joseph will
appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world."
"God is pleased with your sacrifices. He does not want you to sleep with the rope
on but only wear it during the daytime."
[In response to Our Lady’s previous request for sacrifice, both Lucy and Jacinta began
wearing a rope. The wearing of a rope was, and still is, a common method of undergoing
sacrifice and suffering for the sake of sinners.]
Lucy says:
"I was told to ask You many things, the cure of some sick people, of a deaf mute ......"
Our Lady responds:
"Yes, I will cure some, but not others, because Our Lord does not trust them."
Lucy says:
"The people would like to have a chapel here."
Our Lady responds:
"With half the money make litters to be carried in procession on the feast of Our Lady
of the Rosary; the other half is for the chapel."
Lucy offers some things to Our Lady and asks Our Lady if She wants them.
Our Lady responds:
"Those are not needed in Heaven."
Our Lady reiterates:
"In October, I will perform a miracle so that all may believe."
Remark:
In describing the miracle to take place on October 13 Our Lady’s makes the statements: "Saint Joseph will
come with the Child Jesus, to bless the world." and "Our Lord will appear as well as Our Lady of Sorrows
and Our Lady of Carmel." These statements are truly unusual since they announce a description of a miracle
before its occurrence. This is the first time in world history that a miracle has been announced prior to its occurrence.
Indeed the child Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Carmel all did appear at the great miracle on October
13. Since Our Lord is God by virtue of His being the second person of the Holy Trinity, the fulfillment of this
prophecy on October 13 proves the appearances of Our Lady at Fatima are the manifestations of God’s will and Her
messages are in accord with God’s wishes. Thus, the Fatima events were indeed a reality despite the contrary opinions
of some modernist theologians. The significance of Our Lady’s message is that it further substantiated the historical
uniqueness of the Fatima events and their importance for the Church and the world.
The Blessed Virgin again reveals she is doing the work of Our Lord, Himself. This is yet more confirmation that
Her appearances and Her messages are indeed manifestations of the work of God. Furthermore, the message is distinguished
by Our Lady revealing that God Himself is pleased with the sacrifices of the children. In fact, apparently God
is so pleased He says the children should no longer make the sacrifice of sleeping with a rope but they need only
wear it during the day. Given that God expressed such great pleasure for the sacrifices of the three small children,
one wonders how many of the hierarchy, religious and clergy of the conciliar Church would make such a sacrifice
as wearing a rope? The fact that God is pleased with the sacrifices of the children emphasizes the tremendous importance
that He attaches to the making of sacrifices for sinners and the making of reparation for sins. It is difficult
to imagine what more God could do to encourage the making of sacrifices by all of the faithful particularly since
sacrifices are necessary for the salvation of one’s eternal soul. Would that the conciliar Church obey God’s wish
and vigorously promote the making of sacrifices for such intentions, but of course in today’s "cult of man’
Church such sacrifices would be considered as non-loving, uncaring, insensitive and not at all politically correct.
Also noteworthy in this message is the refusal of Our Lady to cure some individuals because Her beloved Son does
not trust them. This demonstrates that Our Lord does not bestow His favors just because they are asked for. Since
eternal salvation is by far the greatest gift God can bestow, this implication of Our Lady’s message is a denial
of the teaching of many Protestant sects that one is saved by merely believing in God. More importantly the message
is also a denial of universal salvation. To obtain a gift from our Lord, one must have lived in such a manner as
to deserve the gift. By analogy then, it is evident one cannot save one’s eternal soul by merely asking God to
save it or relying solely on God’s love. The salvation of one’s soul requires God’s love and the obedience of both
God’s commandments and the Magesterium of His Church. The salvation of one’s soul is not like "a one-way street";
rather it is like ‘a two way street.’ One direction of the street corresponds to God’s love for us and He has assured
us that direction of the street is always open. However the other direction of the street corresponds to our demonstrating
our love for God by obeying His commandments and it is our, not His, responsibility to assure that direction of
the street remains open.
Finally, in this message the Blessed Virgin reveals the close connection between the events at Fatima and the events
at
The Sixth Apparition of Our Lady, October 13, 1917.26
This is the last message of Our Lady to the three children at the Cova da Iria. However it is not the last message
of Our Lady to the children as they will receive other messages throughout their lives from both Our Lord and
Our Lady.
As usual, Lucy asks:
"What does Your Grace want of me?"
Our Lady replies:
"I want a chapel to be built here in My honor. I am Our Lady of the Rosary. Continue
to say the Rosary every day. The war {WW I} will end soon and the soldiers will return
to their homes."
Lucy replies:
"I have many things to ask of you; to heal some sick people and to convert some sinners, etc."
Our Lady replies:
"Some., yes; others, no. People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins . . ."
Then growing sadder, Our Lady continues:
"They must not offend Our Lord any more for He is already too much offended."
Lucy says:
"Do You want anything more?"
Our Lady replies:
"Nothing more."
Lucy responds:
"Then neither will I ask anything more of You."
The Miracle of the Sun then took place. The rain suddenly stopped, the clouds disappeared and the sun began to gyrate wildly in space, coming close to the earth and then receding back to its normal place. This dancing of the sun lasted for about 12 minutes during which time the intensity of the sun‘s light was reduced to such an extent that the crowd of about 70,000 people could look directly at the sun without the slightest pain to their eyes. Perhaps just as astounding as the sun dancing in the sky was the very sudden drying of the ground and the clothes of everyone present. It had been raining hard for many hours. There were puddles and rivulets of water everywhere and the soil had been turned into deep mud. The clothes of the people were thoroughly drenched. However, within a few moments all traces of the water and its effects had disappeared. The mud had dried up to resume its usual state of being plain dry dirt and the drenched clothing of the people became dry. A physician present at the Miracle of the Sun wrote:
‘It continues to rain so strongly that in spite of our umbrellas, nobody has a stitch of dry clothing
left . . . The rain suddenly stops, the clouds split open, and the sun is visible in all its splendor.
Our clothes are wet and our bodies cold. I still remember the delicious sensation that this warm
caress of the sun gave me . . And after mentioning the dance of the sun, he continues: Although
it is true that the luminosity of the sun was diminished, its warmth lost none of its power. [During
the phenomenon of the dancing of the sun, the luminosity of the sun was actually diminished so
that the witnesses were able to look directly at the sun for long periods.] I feel my clothes almost
dry now, although they were all wet only a few moments ago.’ 27
Remark:
A fact that has not been sufficiently appreciated is the sudden drying of both the water soaked ground and the
thoroughly drenched clothing. This phenomenon is just as significant a miracle as was the miracle of the sun dancing
in the sky because one could argue (as some diehard opponents of the events at Fatima have argued) that mass hypnosis
took place and that is why all present say they saw the dance of the sun while others in lands far removed did
not see the dancing of the sun. But there is no possible or conceivable scientific explanation for the sudden,
within a period of at most a few moments, complete drying up of the water soaked mud and the clothes of the people.
This is particularly so because at the termination of the "dance of the sun’, the sun immediately disappeared
behind the clouds and a chilly climate returned.
The great miracle of the sun and the sudden drying of both the environment and the clothes of the witnesses were
God’s dramatic confirmation of His messages and the events at Fatima. No other events in modern history have been
so dramatically confirmed.
In a later locution to Lucy Our Lady declared a much greater miracle would have been performed had not the town
officials prevented Lucy and the other two children from coming here at the appointed date of August 13, 1917.
The town officials being atheists and infected with the errors of Russia were attempting to halt the increasing
devotion of the populace to the Church and to the events at Fatima. This apparition occurred in the latter part
of 1917 and just as Our Lady said, the war, World War I, did end early in the following year. Thus, the reality
of the Fatima events and the validity of the Fatima messages were further confirmed.
Note that in this and in all the previous apparitions, Our Lady always emphasizes the need to pray, particularly
the daily Rosary. Our Lady again stressed the need to make sacrifices, and do penance for our sins and the sins
of others. As the author has repeatedly stated, such an admonition is in striking contrast to the content of present
teachings of the Church. Today the mention of sin has all but been banished from sermons giving the strong and
false impression personal sin no longer exists. Since sin no longer exists, the need for penance and sacrifice
for sinners no longer exists and thus is not mentioned. Such omissions, coupled with the continual preaching "God
loves us" with no mention of the real obedience His love must entail from us, (such as obedience of the ten
commandments, etc,) can only confirm in the minds of the faithful the impression they may do whatever they wish
in this life regardless of any teaching of God to the contrary. In the church attended by author this impression
was reinforced when, in a sermon, the Ten Commandments were referred to by the scathing phrase, "a laundry
list of laws". It is almost as if we are to be happy in this world doing whatever makes us happy and then
God’s great love assures us we will also be happy with Him in the next world. The conciliar Church appears to be
in complete denial of the implications for souls of Our Lord’s horribly painful death at Calvary.
These messages of Our Lady concentrated on the importance people to ask for pardon for their sins and to amend
their lives by ceasing to offend Our Lord. The closing phrase: "He is already too much offended" is a
warning the justice of God may soon be unleashed. The messages contained no mention of social, political or economic
issues; rather they were concerned only with the cessation of offenses against Her beloved Son and the salvation
of souls. Thus, Our Lady is clearly emphasizing the reason for the existence of the Catholic Church is the saving
of souls and that the Church should devote all of its efforts to saving as many souls as is possible. If the Church
would so exert its efforts, the social, economic and political problems of the world would be greatly alleviated.
The effort of the conciliar Church to build a ‘cult of man’ by concentrating on social, political and economic
issues and totally neglecting the salvation of souls, is only exacerbating the very issues it is attempting to
alleviate!
Go to Chapter FOUR
Go to MAIN Page
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References
1. The Whole Truth About Fatima. Vol. I, p. 110.
2. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 109.
3. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 158.
4. The Remnant. Vol. 32, No.2. Feb.4, 1999. p. 6.
5. Ibid. p. 6.
6. The Whole Truth About Fatima. Vol I, p. 180.
7. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 182, Vol. II, p. 281.
8. Roman Amerio, Iota Unum, A Study of Changes in the Catholic
Church in the XXth Century. Sarto House, 1996. p. 695.
9. Ibid. p. 696.
10. Ibid. p. 697
11. The Whole Truth About Fatima. Vol. II, p. 28.
12. Ibid Vol. II, p. 46.
13. Ibid. Vol. II, p. 48.
14. Ibid. Vol. II, p. 666.
15. Ibid. Vol. II, p. 670, p. 704.
16. Ibid. Vol. II, p. 652.
17. Ibid. Vol. II, p.651.
18. Ibid. Vol. II, p. 576.
19. Ibid. Vol. II, p. 577.
20. Ibid. Vol. II, p. 696.
20a. Fr. Nicholas Gruner, World Enslavement or Peace . . .It’s Up
To The Pope. The Fatima Crusader, 1989. p. xxii.
20b. Ibid. p. xx.
20c. Ibid p. xx.
21. Malachi Martin, The Keys of This Blood. Simon
and Schuster, 1990. p. 416.
22. Ibid. p. 454.
23. The Whole Truth About Fatima. Vol. I, p. 299.
24. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 233.
25. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 258.
26. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 291.
27. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 334, p. 341.