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Benedict XVI Confirms “Third Secret of Fatima” Released in Full, Says Vatican
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RPRPsych
Guest
And the protests, denials and innuendos begin! 
onepeterfive.com/on-fatima-story-pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-breaks-silence/
Quoth Donald Duck, “This is very, very…FUNNY.”
I’m waiting for someone to come up with “Benedict XVI has been replaced by an evil doppelganger” now. The comments on that “article” are pretty hilarious, and worth reading for anyone who wonders why the Vatican released this statement now:
“On some level I think Benedict is being abused within the Vatican walls.” (Gothic drama at its finest!)
“Remember what they did to Pope John Paul I and Roberto Calvi.” (Yeah, John Paul I died of natural causes. Remember?)
“Let Benedict XVI release an interview or a letter signed and read by his secretary. This settles nothing.” (They’ll say it was forged and signed by an autopen…)
If there was any doubt about who was sane and who was crazy (in the colloquial, not medical sense) in this sad story, this sort of settles it.
onepeterfive.com/on-fatima-story-pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-breaks-silence/
Quoth Donald Duck, “This is very, very…FUNNY.”
I’m waiting for someone to come up with “Benedict XVI has been replaced by an evil doppelganger” now. The comments on that “article” are pretty hilarious, and worth reading for anyone who wonders why the Vatican released this statement now:
“On some level I think Benedict is being abused within the Vatican walls.” (Gothic drama at its finest!)
“Remember what they did to Pope John Paul I and Roberto Calvi.” (Yeah, John Paul I died of natural causes. Remember?)
“Let Benedict XVI release an interview or a letter signed and read by his secretary. This settles nothing.” (They’ll say it was forged and signed by an autopen…)
If there was any doubt about who was sane and who was crazy (in the colloquial, not medical sense) in this sad story, this sort of settles it.
J
Justin_Swanton
Guest
The Third Secret text in itself is fascinating:Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way
I’m immediately reminded of Matthew 5:14:You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid
For me at least the ‘big city’ can only be the Church. Our Lady is revealing something to the children, and the world described as a half-ruined city would be nothing new. The Church is in a terribly dilapidated condition.
What are the ‘souls of the corpses’? The vision is an allegory. The cross is not a physical cross, nor the mountain or city a real mountain or city. The corpses are not real dead bodies, but those who are ***spiritually ***dead: either their Faith is dead, or they are dead in sin, or both.
I can’t think of a better image to describe the current state of the Church.on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions.
The message is clear - a widespread martyrdom, not just bloody, but also moral: ‘arrows’ in the Scriptures is often used in the sense of destructive words, or harm done in general. Not everyone dies from the persecution, but everyone suffers in one way or another.
I’m immediately reminded of Matthew 5:14:You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid
For me at least the ‘big city’ can only be the Church. Our Lady is revealing something to the children, and the world described as a half-ruined city would be nothing new. The Church is in a terribly dilapidated condition.
What are the ‘souls of the corpses’? The vision is an allegory. The cross is not a physical cross, nor the mountain or city a real mountain or city. The corpses are not real dead bodies, but those who are ***spiritually ***dead: either their Faith is dead, or they are dead in sin, or both.
I can’t think of a better image to describe the current state of the Church.on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions.
The message is clear - a widespread martyrdom, not just bloody, but also moral: ‘arrows’ in the Scriptures is often used in the sense of destructive words, or harm done in general. Not everyone dies from the persecution, but everyone suffers in one way or another.
C
commenter
Guest
I have no secret sources of information. (I was tempted to tell you my son’s old babysitter was the granddaughter of the guy who delivered pizza to the chief of the Swiss Guards, who learned from a very reliable source, on his deathbed, that the housekeeper saw through the keyhole the pope break tears when he read the secret, that it was tragic the liberals won’t allow this to be made public…)
My best guess is that, given the extreme attention given to the Fatima secret in 1960, the Vatican decided a public announcement (“this announcement is coming from the Vatican, folks”) at that point would distract from other things Pope John XXIII was trying to emphasize. In that climate it would have given a Private Revelation far more attention than it should have. In 1960 the crackpots were there, though they had not yet multiplied as today.
By the time the 3rd secret was made public, Fatima was far less prominent in the news. However crackpots are never lacking for raw material, they use whatever is available, and no matter how much gets released, they will always conjecture about what has been withheld (that housekeeper also saw that tiny *green *envelope inside the larger envelope, which Cardinal Conspiratora craftily palmed off into his pocket before the pope could see it, and as he sneaked it out of the room was heard muttering “this epistle will never be seen by anyone other than my fellow Masonic officers at the Lodge”).
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RPRPsych
Guest
Psst, my grandfather’s third cousin’s wife’s ex-boyfriend was a janitor in the Vatican. He somehow got hold of the secret and passed it on to his descendants, who incorporated it in a music video which you can see here:
youtube.com/watch?v=-_qMagfZtv8
On a more serious note, the comments on Fr. Z’s site are far less hysterical. Good!
wdtprs.com/blog/2016/05/benedict-xvi-says-he-never-told-anyone-the-publication-of-the-third-secret-of-fatima-was-incomplete/#comments
C
commenter
Guest
Fr. Z is credible, but a third of the comments on his site are off the wall.
On a more serious note, the comments on Fr. Z’s site are far less hysterical. Good!
wdtprs.com/blog/2016/05/benedict-xvi-says-he-never-told-anyone-the-publication-of-the-third-secret-of-fatima-was-incomplete/#comments
The Mass, and public revelation, is where we draw our “food”. Private revelation adds no nutritive value at all. It is comparable to a cook, who can prepare the plate the way we like, then present it in a way that looks and smells nice, then an attractive waitress greets us, makes us feel at home, and does everything to make us welcome. But the cook and waitress add no nutritional value at all.
If devotion to Fatima draws us closer to the Mass, to prayer, to obedience to the pope and bishops as part of learning and living out public revelation, Scripture and Tradition, then Fatima is helpful. If Fatima (or various renewal movements, etc) lead us to be suspicious of the Magisterium, to seek out our own mini magisteriums, for instance on the internet, to over rule the real Magisterium, then Fatima is bad.
If some cooks, and some waitresses, started saying forget the farmers, we can satisfy you in other ways besides food, that would be comparable to what some people are doing with Fatima. You can see why the Vatican, having learned lessons from (the bad guys abusing) Fatima, might be very very cautious about another place in Europe. It’s not Mary that they are worrying about.
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Cactus
Guest
An official Vatican response from Pope Emeritus Benedict is an extraordinarily rare thing. This happened very shortly after the original article. If we take it at face value, it would seem to call into question the truthfulness of some very respected Catholic scholars who have nothing to gain from this. It would seem that a nerve has been touched.
onepeterfive.com/on-fatima-story-pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-breaks-silence/
A brief excerpt:
This statement is received by us with filial respect and love for the Pope Emeritus. And yet, it presents a problem. It conflicts directly with statements we have reported, and accuses us of false “atrribution” and “invention.” It also flatly contradicts our source, Fr. Dollinger, not offering the possibility even of a misinterpretation, but rather, an accusation that the events he recounts are completely fabricated.
It is, in itself, a strangely perfunctory communique, and is presented in a way that prompts questions about its provenance and completeness. It is not a full, unabridged statement from Pope Emeritus Benedict; nor does it bear his signature. We are presented instead with pull quotes attributed to Benedict, and lacking the full context in which they originally appeared. Neither is it given to us to know who conducted this apparent interview with him, or how the questions were phrased.
onepeterfive.com/on-fatima-story-pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-breaks-silence/
A brief excerpt:
This statement is received by us with filial respect and love for the Pope Emeritus. And yet, it presents a problem. It conflicts directly with statements we have reported, and accuses us of false “atrribution” and “invention.” It also flatly contradicts our source, Fr. Dollinger, not offering the possibility even of a misinterpretation, but rather, an accusation that the events he recounts are completely fabricated.
It is, in itself, a strangely perfunctory communique, and is presented in a way that prompts questions about its provenance and completeness. It is not a full, unabridged statement from Pope Emeritus Benedict; nor does it bear his signature. We are presented instead with pull quotes attributed to Benedict, and lacking the full context in which they originally appeared. Neither is it given to us to know who conducted this apparent interview with him, or how the questions were phrased.
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RPRPsych
Guest
This is a very good comparison. Thank you.
(And yes, any approval of that “other place” would be catastrophic in the current circumstances…
)
C
commenter
Guest
There are 2 groups of people on this topic. Some individuals actually believe the paranoia coming off the internet. They also listen to late night radio shows that reveal the US government operates graveyards and prisons for aliens in Nevada, that OF COURSE Pope JP I was murdered, etc.
But there is a second group, who operate websites, who constantly sow seeds of doubt, indirectly hinting at evil and coverups in high places, anything to boost their website hits, and increase donations. If their rival website digs up dirt on bishops, they have to “keep up with the Joneses” by hitting harder, faster, and higher. It used to be they could make money by trashing the “men around the pope”, but now they generally have to trash the pope, or in this case, the pope emeritus. Anything less won’t bring in the donations.
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JosieN
Guest
Since I have been warned twice about infractions i will try to be very careful how I chose my words. If I get another, it will be my third, I do not know how many I am allowed.
What if bringing in the donations is not the reason for seeds of doubt? Could they sincerely believe all this stuff is true? A coverup around the Fatima secret has been discussed for many years. Does any one know why it was not released in 1960 as everyone expected?
C
commenter
Guest
All what stuff?
What I find amazing about this website, and Rorate, DICI, Remnant, Catholic Family News, etc, is not how skeptical they are, but how narrow their skepticism is. They find no reason to suspect anything bad going on at the White House, or the NY Times, CNN, World Council of Churches, Wall Street, or any State University, or European Union. All the evils of the planet are attributed to the Vatican, or bishops. It is astonishing they can never find any cover up anywhere else, except the Vatican!
If you were to add up the overall impact of these websites, as your only information, a reasonable person would conclude the entire Catholic hierarchy should be removed from any position of authority, and not replaced.
As far as why the secret was not released in 1960, well, I don’t know why the pope then decided not to. I do know the popes since then were very different from each other, yet for many years they came to the same conclusion, probably for reasons of prudence.
If you trust the Magisterium to guide you in which books are Scripture, which is far more important to you and me than Fatima, then it seems consistent to trust their judgement on Fatima. To put it another way, if you distrust the Magisterium’s exercise of prudence on when/whether to release information from a private revelation, then why should you trust their judgement on far more crucial matters such as the definition of the Trinity? What makes your opinion on the Trinity more reliable than that of the JW’s? – except the Magisterium.
Check out this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Monk
The Protestants had more vivid writing styles than today’s tabloid religious websites.
J
JimG
Guest
It’s not clear to me why the ‘third secret’ was not released in 1960. Sister Lucia said that it was not Our Lady who directed that this part of the message be delayed until 1960. Rather it was Sister Lucia’s own intuition that it would not be understood if released earlier. I paid a lot more attention to Fatima back then, and so was expecting it’s release in 1960. Yet several consecutive popes decided to delay its release. Based on the content of the vision released, I don’t really understand why the delay. But I haven’t paid much attention to it at all in the intervening decades.
The first two messages were a vision of hell, and a prediction of the second world war and that Russia would spread its errors throughout the world unless there was prayer and penance. The third secret, by contrast, was more ambiguous—a vision of a pope and bishops being killed while the Church suffered.
I don’t know that it would have been any better understood whether before or after 1960. Pope John Paul II seems to have thought that the third Fatima vision was fulfilled in the assassination attempt, but that is not clear. In the vision, the pope is killed. But JP II survived. So that interpretation of the vision may not be entirely correct.
The first two messages were a vision of hell, and a prediction of the second world war and that Russia would spread its errors throughout the world unless there was prayer and penance. The third secret, by contrast, was more ambiguous—a vision of a pope and bishops being killed while the Church suffered.
I don’t know that it would have been any better understood whether before or after 1960. Pope John Paul II seems to have thought that the third Fatima vision was fulfilled in the assassination attempt, but that is not clear. In the vision, the pope is killed. But JP II survived. So that interpretation of the vision may not be entirely correct.
J
JosieN
Guest
:thumbsup:Thanks
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JosieN
Guest
The stuff they talk about. I do not mention it as I have already too many infractions. I am avoiding negative comments that may seem disparaging to the pope.
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pnewton
Guest
Some of his followers sound more like a Jack Chick tract than a Catholic blog.
C
cornbread_r2
Guest
Old joke circulating in some places in the 1960s:
Q: What was the third secret of Fatima?
A: Hire Ara Parseghian.
Q: What was the third secret of Fatima?
A: Hire Ara Parseghian.
C
commenter
Guest
As far as why did the Vatican hold off on releasing the secret, the best answer is we don’t know. I have my own opinion, but it is just a guess. There are so many things that I am not devoting enough attention to - prayer, Scripture, the Catechism, spiritual and corporal works of mercy - that are far more important for me to do, than wonder about this. Since I trust the Vatican to identify which books are in the NT canon, the Catechism, to identify the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, my guess us that they made a prudent decision to do that. Whether they were right or wrong about postponing the release is less important than the things I referred to.
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GEddie
Guest
If everybody devoted the same time and effort to penance as they do to governmental and Vatican conspiracy beliefs, there would be no need for Purgatory!
ICXC NIKA
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RPRPsych
Guest
Absolutely.
Conspiratorial Fatima-Rapturism is the new anti-Catholicism. With friends like these, who needs enemies? I’m just praying that these folks don’t completely tip over into a new form of Montanism (yes, these things are as old as the hills!)
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Emperor_Markus
Guest
It took me a moment to figure out what you mean - am I correct? Is it the place that, when spelled, begins with Me-?
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