Fatima

• Fatima Secret: Evil Does not Have the Last Word
• Third Fatima Secret and Interpretation - June 25, 2000
• Third Fatima Secret: Theological Commentary - June 25, 2000

ZENIT, June 26, 2000 - DAILY DOSSIER/FEATURES - The World Seen
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VATICAN DOSSIER
* Fatima Secret: Evil Does not Have the Last Word
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FATIMA SECRET: "EVIL DOES NOT HAVE LAST WORD"
Cardinal Ratzinger Answers Questions on Mary's Revelations

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 26 (ZENIT.org).- "A careful reading of the
text of the so-called third  secret' of Fatima, published here in
its entirety long after the fact and by the decision of the Holy
Father, will probably prove disappointing or surprising after all
the speculation it has stirred," Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger says
at the beginning of the his commentary on the content of Mary's
revelations, which was published today.

Since 1960, Catholics all over the world have been speculating
about the contents of that secret, which John XXIII decided not
to make public. The interest in the visions has led to a
proliferation of fanciful "recreations" of the secret, none of
which correspond to the simplicity of the message revealed today.
The complete English text is included in today's issue. Images of
the original Portuguese text in Lucia's handwriting are available
on the Vatican web page:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/img/Fotogtr.gif ,

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/img/Fotohtr.gif ,

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/img/Fotoitr.gif ,

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/img/Fotojtr.gif .

The essence of the third secret is a vision that the three little
shepherds of Fatima received after their vision of Hell and the
prediction of World War II. An angel shouted out, "Penance,
Penance, Penance!" and the children saw a mountain topped by a
cross. A bishop dressed in white, whom the children identified as
the Pope, led a group of bishops, priests, religious, and lay
people up a steep mountain. Along the way, he prayed for the
dead. Upon reaching the cross at the summit, he was shot down.
Angels came down to sprinkle the blood of the martyrs on the
souls going up to heaven.

In commenting on the "secret," the German Cardinal answers the
most common questions that have been circulating for decades on
the Fatima apparitions.

Cardinal Ratzinger first makes a distinction between "public
Revelation" and "private revelations." The term 'public
Revelation' refers to the revealing action of God directed to
humanity as a whole and which finds its literary expression in
the two parts of the Bible: the Old and New Testaments. It is a
revelation of God and, therefore, it is a matter of faith for
Christians. However, the Holy See presents the message of Fatima
as "private revelation," "which refers to all the visions and
revelations that have taken place since the completion of the New
Testament."

"Private revelation is a help to this faith," explained the
Cardinal, "and shows its credibility precisely by leading me back
to the definitive public Revelation... The Flemish theologian E.
Dhanis, an eminent scholar in this field, states succinctly that
ecclesiastical approval of a private revelation has three
elements: the message contains nothing contrary to faith or
morals; it is lawful to make it public; and the faithful are
authorized to accept it with prudence. Such a message can be a
genuine help understanding the Gospel and living it better at a
particular moment in time; therefore, it should not be
disregarded. It is a help that is offered, but which one is not
obliged to use."

In the first two secrets, the means offered to save souls was
devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Cardinal Ratzinger
explained that "in biblical language, the  heart' indicates the
center of human life, the point where reason, will, temperament,
and sensitivity converge, where the person finds his unity and
his interior orientation.  According to Matthew 5:8, the
'immaculate heart' is a heart that, with God's grace, has come to
perfect interior unity and, therefore,  sees God.' To be
 devoted' to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means, therefore, to
embrace this attitude of heart, which makes the fiat --  your
will be done' -- the defining center of one's whole life."

In the actual text of the third secret, Cardinal Ratzinger noted
that "the Pope seems to precede the others, trembling and
suffering because of all the horrors around him. Not only do the
houses of the city lie half in ruins, but he makes his way among
the corpses of the dead. The Church's path is thus described as a
Via Crucis, as a journey through a time of violence, destruction,
and persecution. The history of an entire century can be seen
represented in this image."

Thus, the Pope in the vision becomes an image for all of the
Popes of this century, each of whom had to carry a heavy cross.
"Here it would be appropriate to mention a phrase from the letter
that Sister Lucia wrote to the Holy Father on May 12, 1982,"
continued the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith. "  The third part of the  secret' refers to Our Lady's
words:  If not, [Russia] 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 vision, the Pope too is killed along with the martyrs.
When, after the attempted assassination on May 13, 1981, the Holy
Father had the text of the third part of the  secret' brought to
him, it was all but inevitable that he should see in it his own
fate. In fact John Paul II said at that time, "It was a mother's
hand that guided the bullet's path, and in his throes the Pope
halted at the threshold of death."

The concluding part of the secret is a consoling vision, which
seeks to open a history of blood and tears to the healing power
of God. Beneath the arms of the cross angels gather up the blood
of the martyrs, and with it they give life to the souls making
their way to God.

Finally, the Cardinal cleared up some misconceptions. He denied
the idea that Ali Acga was a mere instrument of God in the
assassination attempt. The Turkish national has been making
statements of this sort since Cardinal Angelo Sodano revealed the
first bits of the third secret on May 13.

"Those who expect exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end
of the world or the future course of history are bound to be
disappointed," concluded Cardinal Ratzinger. "Fatima does not
satisfy our curiosity in this way, just as Christian faith in
general cannot be reduced to an object of mere curiosity. What
remains was already evident when we began our reflections on the
text of the  secret': the exhortation to prayer as the path of
 salvation for souls' and, likewise, the summons to penance and
conversion."
ZE00062605


THEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

A careful reading of the text of the so-called third "secret" of
Fatima, published here in its entirety long after the fact and by
decision of the Holy Father, will probably prove disappointing or
surprising after all the speculation it has stirred. No great
mystery is revealed; nor is the future unveiled. We see the
Church of the martyrs of the century which has just passed
represented in a scene described in a language which is symbolic
and not easy to decipher. Is this what the Mother of the Lord
wished to communicate to Christianity and to humanity at a time
of great difficulty and distress? Is it of any help to us at the
beginning of the new millennium? Or are these only projections of
the inner world of children, brought up in a climate of profound
piety but shaken at the same time by the tempests which
threatened their own time? How should we understand the vision?
What are we to make of it?

Public Revelation and Private Revelations -- Their Theological
Status
Before attempting an interpretation, the main lines of which can
be found in the statement read by Cardinal Sodano on 13 May of
this year at the end of the Mass celebrated by the Holy Father in
Fatima, there is a need for some basic clarification of the way
in which, according to Church teaching, phenomena such as Fatima
are to be understood within the life of faith. The teaching of
the Church distinguishes between "public Revelation" and "private
revelations". The two realities differ not only in degree but
also in essence. The term "public Revelation" refers to the
revealing action of God directed to humanity as a whole and which
finds its literary expression in the two parts of the Bible: the
Old and New Testaments. It is called "Revelation" because in it
God gradually made himself known to men, to the point of becoming
man himself, in order to draw to himself the whole world and
unite it with himself through his Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. It
is not a matter therefore of intellectual communication, but of a
life-giving process in which God comes to meet man. At the same
time this process naturally produces data pertaining to the mind
and to the understanding of the mystery of God. It is a process
which involves man in his entirety and therefore reason as well,
but not reason alone. Because God is one, history, which he
shares with humanity, is also one. It is valid for all time, and
it has reached its fulfilment in the life, death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has said everything, that is, he
has revealed himself completely, and therefore Revelation came to
an end with the fulfilment of the mystery of Christ as enunciated
in the New Testament. To explain the finality and completeness of
Revelation, the Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes a text of
Saint John of the Cross: "In giving us his Son, his only Word
(for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in
this sole Word -- and he has no more to say... because what he
spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at
once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning
God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not
only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not
fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the
desire for some other novelty" (No. 65; Saint John of the
Cross,The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 22).

Because the single Revelation of God addressed to all peoples
comes to completion with Christ and the witness borne to him in
the books of the New Testament, the Church is tied to this unique
event of sacred history and to the word of the Bible, which
guarantees and interprets it. But this does not mean that the
Church can now look only to the past and that she is condemned to
sterile repetition. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in
this regard: "...even if Revelation is already complete, it has
not been made fully explicit; it remains for Christian faith
gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the
centuries" (No. 66). The way in which the Church is bound to both
the uniqueness of the event and progress in understanding it is
very well illustrated in the farewell discourse of the Lord when,
taking leave of his disciples, he says: "I have yet many things
to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of
truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will
not speak on his own authority... He will glorify me, for he will
take what is mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:12-14). On the
one hand, the Spirit acts as a guide who discloses a knowledge
previously unreachable because the premise was missing -- this is
the boundless breadth and depth of Christian faith. On the other
hand, to be guided by the Spirit is also "to draw from" the
riches of Jesus Christ himself, the inexhaustible depths of which
appear in the way the Spirit leads. In this regard, the Catechism
cites profound words of Pope Gregory the Great: "The sacred
Scriptures grow with the one who reads them" (No. 94; Gregory the
Great,Homilia in Ezechielem I, 7, 8). The Second Vatican Council
notes three essential ways in which the Spirit guides in the
Church, and therefore three ways in which "the word grows":
through the meditation and study of the faithful, through the
deep understanding which comes from spiritual experience, and
through the preaching of "those who, in the succession of the
episcopate, have received the sure charism of truth" (Dei Verbum,
8).

In this context, it now becomes possible to understand rightly
the concept of "private revelation", which refers to all the
visions and revelations which have taken place since the
completion of the New Testament. This is the category to which we
must assign the message of Fatima. In this respect, let us listen
once again to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Throughout
the ages, there have been so-called  private' revelations, some
of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church...
It is not their role to complete Christ's definitive Revelation,
but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history"
(No. 67). This clarifies two things:

1. The authority of private revelations is essentially different
from that of the definitive public Revelation. The latter demands
faith; in it in fact God himself speaks to us through human words
and the mediation of the living community of the Church. Faith in
God and in his word is different from any other human faith,
trust or opinion. The certainty that it is God who is speaking
gives me the assurance that I am in touch with truth itself. It
gives me a certitude which is beyond verification by any human
way of knowing. It is the certitude upon which I build my life
and to which I entrust myself in dying.

2. Private revelation is a help to this faith, and shows its
credibility precisely by leading me back to the definitive public
Revelation. In this regard, Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, the
future Pope Benedict XIV, says in his classic treatise, which
later became normative for beatifications and canonizations: "An
assent of Catholic faith is not due to revelations approved in
this way; it is not even possible. These revelations seek rather
an assent of human faith in keeping with the requirements of
prudence, which puts them before us as probable and credible to
piety". The Flemish theologian E. Dhanis, an eminent scholar in
this field, states succinctly that ecclesiastical approval of a
private revelation has three elements: the message contains
nothing contrary to faith or morals; it is lawful to make it
public; and the faithful are authorized to accept it with
prudence (E. Dhanis,Sguardo su Fatima e bilancio di una
discussione, in La Civiltà Cattolica 104 [1953], II, 392-406, in
particular 397). Such a message can be a genuine help in
understanding the Gospel and living it better at a particular
moment in time; therefore it should not be disregarded. It is a
help which is offered, but which one is not obliged to use.

The criterion for the truth and value of a private revelation is
therefore its orientation to Christ himself. When it leads us
away from him, when it becomes independent of him or even
presents itself as another and better plan of salvation, more
important than the Gospel, then it certainly does not come from
the Holy Spirit, who guides us more deeply into the Gospel and
not away from it. This does not mean that a private revelation
will not offer new emphases or give rise to new devotional forms,
or deepen and spread older forms. But in all of this there must
be a nurturing of faith, hope and love, which are the unchanging
path to salvation for everyone. We might add that private
revelations often spring from popular piety and leave their stamp
on it, giving it a new impulse and opening the way for new forms
of it. Nor does this exclude that they will have an effect even
on the liturgy, as we see for instance in the feasts of Corpus
Christi and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. From one point of view,
the relationship between Revelation and private revelations
appears in the relationship between the liturgy and popular
piety: the liturgy is the criterion, it is the living form of the
Church as a whole, fed directly by the Gospel. Popular piety is a
sign that the faith is spreading its roots into the heart of a
people in such a way that it reaches into daily life. Popular
religiosity is the first and fundamental mode of "inculturation"
of the faith. While it must always take its lead and direction
from the liturgy, it in turn enriches the faith by involving the
heart.

We have thus moved from the somewhat negative clarifications,
initially needed, to a positive definition of private
revelations. How can they be classified correctly in relation to
Scripture? To which theological category do they belong? The
oldest letter of Saint Paul which has been preserved, perhaps the
oldest of the New Testament texts, the First Letter to the
Thessalonians, seems to me to point the way. The Apostle says:
"Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test
everything, holding fast to what is good" (5:19-21). In every age
the Church has received the charism of prophecy, which must be
scrutinized but not scorned. On this point, it should be kept in
mind that prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean to predict
the future but to explain the will of God for the present, and
therefore show the right path to take for the future. A person
who foretells what is going to happen responds to the curiosity
of the mind, which wants to draw back the veil on the future. The
prophet speaks to the blindness of will and of reason, and
declares the will of God as an indication and demand for the
present time. In this case, prediction of the future is of
secondary importance. What is essential is the actualization of
the definitive Revelation, which concerns me at the deepest
level. The prophetic word is a warning or a consolation, or both
together. In this sense there is a link between the charism of
prophecy and the category of "the signs of the times", which
Vatican II brought to light anew: "You know how to interpret the
appearance of earth and sky; why then do you not know how to
interpret the present time?" (Lk 12:56). In this saying of Jesus,
the "signs of the times" must be understood as the path he was
taking, indeed it must be understood as Jesus himself. To
interpret the signs of the times in the light of faith means to
recognize the presence of Christ in every age. In the private
revelations approved by the Church -- and therefore also in
Fatima -- this is the point: they help us to understand the signs
of the times and to respond to them rightly in faith.

The Anthropological Structure of Private Revelations
In these reflections we have sought so far to identify the
theological status of private revelations. Before undertaking an
interpretation of the message of Fatima, we must still attempt
briefly to offer some clarification of their anthropological
(psychological) character. In this field, theological
anthropology distinguishes three forms of perception or "vision":
vision with the senses, and hence exterior bodily perception,
interior perception, and spiritual vision (visio sensibilis -
imaginativa - intellectualis). It is clear that in the visions of
Lourdes, Fatima and other places it is not a question of normal
exterior perception of the senses: the images and forms which are
seen are not located spatially, as is the case for example with a
tree or a house. This is perfectly obvious, for instance, as
regards the vision of hell (described in the first part of the
Fatima "secret") or even the vision described in the third part
of the "secret". But the same can be very easily shown with
regard to other visions, especially since not everybody present
saw them, but only the "visionaries".

It is also clear that it is not a matter of a "vision" in the
mind, without images, as occurs at the higher levels of
mysticism. Therefore we are dealing with the middle category,
interior perception. For the visionary, this perception certainly
has the force of a presence, equivalent for that person to an
external manifestation to the senses.

Interior vision does not mean fantasy, which would be no more
than an expression of the subjective imagination. It means rather
that the soul is touched by something real, even if beyond the
senses. It is rendered capable of seeing that which is beyond the
senses, that which cannot be seen -- seeing by means of the
"interior senses". It involves true "objects", which touch the
soul, even if these "objects" do not belong to our habitual
sensory world. This is why there is a need for an interior
vigilance of the heart, which is usually precluded by the intense
pressure of external reality and of the images and thoughts which
fill the soul. The person is led beyond pure exteriority and is
touched by deeper dimensions of reality, which become visible to
him. Perhaps this explains why children tend to be the ones to
receive these apparitions: their souls are as yet little
disturbed, their interior powers of perception are still not
impaired. "On the lips of children and of babes you have found
praise", replies Jesus with a phrase of Psalm 8 (v. 3) to the
criticism of the High Priests and elders, who had judged the
children's cries of "hosanna" inappropriate (cf. Mt 21:16).

"Interior vision" is not fantasy but, as we have said, a true and
valid means of verification. But it also has its limitations.
Even in exterior vision the subjective element is always present.
We do not see the pure object, but it comes to us through the
filter of our senses, which carry out a work of translation. This
is still more evident in the case of interior vision, especially
when it involves realities which in themselves transcend our
horizon. The subject, the visionary, is still more powerfully
involved. He sees insofar as he is able, in the modes of
representation and consciousness available to him. In the case of
interior vision, the process of translation is even more
extensive than in exterior vision, for the subject shares in an
essential way in the formation of the image of what appears. He
can arrive  at the image only within the bounds of his capacities
and possibilities. Such visions therefore are never simple
"photographs" of the other world, but are influenced by the
potentialities and limitations of the perceiving subject.

This can be demonstrated in all the great visions of the saints;
and naturally it is also true of the visions of the children at
Fatima. The images described by them are by no means a simple
expression of their fantasy, but the result of a real perception
of a higher and interior origin. But neither should they be
thought of as if for a moment the veil of the other world were
drawn back, with heaven appearing in its pure essence, as one day
we hope to see it in our definitive union with God. Rather the
images are, in a manner of speaking, a synthesis of the impulse
coming from on high and the capacity to receive this impulse in
the visionaries, that is, the children. For this reason, the
figurative language of the visions is symbolic. In this regard,
Cardinal Sodano stated: "[they] do not describe photographically
the details of future events, but synthesize and compress against
a single background facts which extend through time in an
unspecified succession and duration". This compression of time
and place in a single image is typical of such visions, which for
the most part can be deciphered only in retrospect. Not every
element of the vision has to have a specific historical sense. It
is the vision as a whole that matters, and the details must be
understood on the basis of the images taken in their entirety.
The central element of the image is revealed where it coincides
with what is the focal point of Christian "prophecy" itself: the
centre is found where the vision becomes a summons and a guide to
the will of God.

An Attempt to Interpret the "Secret" of Fatima
The first and second parts of the "secret" of Fatima have already
been so amply discussed in the relative literature that there is
no need to deal with them again here. I would just like to recall
briefly the most significant point. For one terrible moment, the
children were given a vision of hell. They saw the fall of "the
souls of poor sinners". And now they are told why they have been
exposed to this moment: "in order to save souls" -- to show the
way to salvation. The words of the First Letter of Peter come to
mind: "As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of
your souls" (1:9). To reach this goal, the way indicated --
surprisingly for people from the Anglo-Saxon and German cultural
world -- is devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A brief
comment may suffice to explain this. In biblical language, the
"heart" indicates the centre of human life, the point where
reason, will, temperament and sensitivity converge, where the
person finds his unity and his interior orientation. According to
Matthew 5:8, the "immaculate heart" is a heart which, with God's
grace, has come to perfect interior unity and therefore "sees
God". To be "devoted" to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means
therefore to embrace this attitude of heart, which makes the fiat
-- "your will be done" -- the defining centre of one's whole
life. It might be objected that we should not place a human being
between ourselves and Christ. But then we remember that Paul did
not hesitate to say to his communities: "imitate me" (1 Cor 4:16;
Phil 3:17; 1 Th 1:6; 2 Th 3:7, 9). In the Apostle they could see
concretely what it meant to follow Christ. But from whom might we
better learn in every age than from the Mother of the Lord?

Thus we come finally to the third part of the "secret" of Fatima
which for the first time is being published in its entirety. As
is clear from the documentation presented here, the
interpretation offered by Cardinal Sodano in his statement of 13
May was first put personally to Sister Lucia. Sister Lucia
responded by pointing out that she had received the vision but
not its interpretation. The interpretation, she said, belonged
not to the visionary but to the Church. After reading the text,
however, she said that this interpretation corresponded to what
she had experienced and that on her part she thought the
interpretation correct. In what follows, therefore, we can only
attempt to provide a deeper foundation for this interpretation,
on the basis of the criteria already considered.

"To save souls" has emerged as the key word of the first and
second parts of the "secret", and the key word of this third part
is the threefold cry: "Penance, Penance, Penance!" The beginning
of the Gospel comes to mind: "Repent and believe the Good News"
(Mk 1:15). To understand the signs of the times means to accept
the urgency of penance  of conversion  of faith. This is the
correct response to this moment of history, characterized by the
grave perils outlined in the images that follow. Allow me to add
here a personal recollection: in a conversation with me Sister
Lucia said that it appeared ever more clearly to her that the
purpose of all the apparitions was to help people to grow more
and more in faith, hope and love -- everything else was intended
to lead to this.

Let us now examine more closely the single images. The angel with
the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls
similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the
threat of judgement which looms over the world. Today the
prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of
fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his
inventions, has forged the flaming sword. The vision then shows
the power which stands opposed to the force of destruction -- the
splendour of the Mother of God and, stemming from this in a
certain way, the summons to penance. In this way, the importance
of human freedom is underlined: the future is not in fact
unchangeably set, and the image which the children saw is in no
way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed.
Indeed, the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto
the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction. The
purpose of the vision is not to show a film of an irrevocably
fixed future. Its meaning is exactly the opposite: it is meant to
mobilize the forces of change in the right direction. Therefore
we must totally discount fatalistic explanations of the "secret",
such as, for example, the claim that the would-be assassin of 13
May 1981 was merely an instrument of the divine plan guided by
Providence and could not therefore have acted freely, or other
similar ideas in circulation. Rather, the vision speaks of
dangers and how we might be saved from them.

The next phrases of the text show very clearly once again the
symbolic character of the vision: God remains immeasurable, and
is the light which surpasses every vision of ours. Human persons
appear as in a mirror. We must always keep in mind the limits in
the vision itself, which here are indicated visually. The future
appears only "in a mirror dimly" (1 Cor 13:12). Let us now
consider the individual images which follow in the text of the
"secret". The place of the action is described in three symbols:
a steep mountain, a great city reduced to ruins and finally a
large rough-hewn cross. The mountain and city symbolize the arena
of human history: history as an arduous ascent to the summit,
history as the arena of human creativity and social harmony, but
at the same time a place of destruction, where man actually
destroys the fruits of his own work. The city can be the place of
communion and progress, but also of danger and the most extreme
menace. On the mountain stands the cross -- the goal and guide of
history. The cross transforms destruction into salvation; it
stands as a sign of history's misery but also as a promise for
history.

At this point human persons appear: the Bishop dressed in white
("we had the impression that it was the Holy Father"), other
Bishops, priests, men and women Religious, and men and women of
different ranks and social positions. The Pope seems to precede
the others, trembling and suffering because of all the horrors
around him. Not only do the houses of the city lie half in ruins,
but he makes his way among the corpses of the dead. The Church's
path is thus described as a Via Crucis, as a journey through a
time of violence, destruction and persecution. The history of an
entire century can be seen represented in this image. Just as the
places of the earth are synthetically described in the two images
of the mountain and the city, and are directed towards the cross,
so too time is presented in a compressed way. In the vision we
can recognize the last century as a century of martyrs, a century
of suffering and persecution for the Church, a century of World
Wars and the many local wars which filled the last fifty years
and have inflicted unprecedented forms of cruelty. In the
"mirror" of this vision we see passing before us the witnesses of
the faith decade by decade. Here it would be appropriate to
mention a phrase from the letter which Sister Lucia wrote to the
Holy Father on 12 May 1982: "The third part of the  secret'
refers to Our Lady's words:  If not, [Russia] 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 Via Crucis of an entire century, the figure of the Pope
has a special role. In his arduous ascent of the mountain we can
undoubtedly see a convergence of different Popes. Beginning from
Pius X up to the present Pope, they all shared the sufferings of
the century and strove to go forward through all the anguish
along the path which leads to the Cross. In the vision, the Pope
too is killed along with the martyrs. When, after the attempted
assassination on 13 May 1981, the Holy Father had the text of the
third part of the "secret" brought to him, was it not inevitable
that he should see in it his own fate? He had been very close to
death, and he himself explained his survival in the following
words: "... it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path
and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death" (13
May 1994). That here "a mother's hand" had deflected the fateful
bullet only shows once more that there is no immutable destiny,
that faith and prayer are forces which can influence history and
that in the end prayer is more powerful than bullets and faith
more powerful than armies.

The concluding part of the "secret" uses images which Lucia may
have seen in devotional books and which draw their inspiration
from long-standing intuitions of faith. It is a consoling vision,
which seeks to open a history of blood and tears to the healing
power of God. Beneath the arms of the cross angels gather up the
blood of the martyrs, and with it they give life to the souls
making their way to God. Here, the blood of Christ and the blood
of the martyrs are considered as one: the blood of the martyrs
runs down from the arms of the cross. The martyrs die in
communion with the Passion of Christ, and their death becomes one
with his. For the sake of the body of Christ, they complete what
is still lacking in his afflictions (cf. Col 1:24). Their life
has itself become a Eucharist, part of the mystery of the grain
of wheat which in dying yields abundant fruit. The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of Christians, said Tertullian. As from
Christ's death, from his wounded side, the Church was born, so
the death of the witnesses is fruitful for the future life of the
Church. Therefore, the vision of the third part of the "secret",
so distressing at first, concludes with an image of hope: no
suffering is in vain, and it is a suffering Church, a Church of
martyrs, which becomes a sign-post for man in his search for God.
The loving arms of God welcome not only those who suffer like
Lazarus, who found great solace there and mysteriously represents
Christ, who wished to become for us the poor Lazarus. There is
something more: from the suffering of the witnesses there comes a
purifying and renewing power, because their suffering is the
actualization of the suffering of Christ himself and a
communication in the here and now of its saving effect.

And so we come to the final question: What is the meaning of the
"secret" of Fatima as a whole (in its three parts)? What does it
say to us? First of all we must affirm with Cardinal Sodano: "...
the events to which the third part of the  secret' of Fatima
refers now seem part of the past". Insofar as individual events
are described, they belong to the past. Those who expected
exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or
the future course of history are bound to be disappointed. Fatima
does not satisfy our curiosity in this way, just as Christian
faith in general cannot be reduced to an object of mere
curiosity. What remains was already evident when we began our
reflections on the text of the "secret": the exhortation to
prayer as the path of "salvation for souls" and, likewise, the
summons to penance and conversion.

I would like finally to mention another key expression of the
"secret" which has become justly famous: "my Immaculate Heart
will triumph". What does this mean? The Heart open to God,
purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and
weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart,
has changed the history of the world, because it brought the
Saviour into the world -- because, thanks to her Yes, God could
become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One
has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he
has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away
from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus
steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose
evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word
that prevails is this: "In the world you will have tribulation,
but take heart; I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33). The
message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.

                                           Joseph Card. Ratzinger
                                     Prefect of the Congregation
                                  for the Doctrine of the Faith

--------------------------------------------------------
NOTES

(1) From the diary of John XXIII, 17 August 1959: "Audiences:
Father Philippe, Commissary of the Holy Office, who brought me
the letter containing the third part of the secrets of Fatima. I
intend to read it with my Confessor".

(2) The Holy Father's comment at the General Audience of 14
October 1981 on "What happened in May: A Great Divine Trial"
should be recalled: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, IV, 2
(Vatican City, 1981), 409-412.

(3) Radio message during the Ceremony of Veneration, Thanksgiving
and Entrustment to the Virgin Mary Theotokos in the Basilica of
Saint Mary Major: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, IV, 1
(Vatican City, 1981), 1246.

(4) On the Jubilee Day for Families, the Pope entrusted
individuals and nations to Our Lady: Insegnamenti di Giovanni
Paolo II, VII, 1 (Vatican City, 1984), 775-777.

(5) [Graphic of the text]

(6) In the "Fourth Memoir" of 8 December 1941 Sister Lucia
writes: "I shall begin then my new task, and thus fulfil the
commands received from Your Excellency as well as the desires of
Dr Galamba. With the exception of that part of the Secret which I
am not permitted to reveal at present, I shall say everything. I
shall not knowingly omit anything, though I suppose I may forget
just a few small details of minor importance".

(7) In the "Fourth Memoir" Sister Lucia adds: "In Portugal, the
dogma of the faith will always be preserved, etc. ...".

(8) In the translation, the original text has been respected,
even as regards the imprecise punctuation, which nevertheless
does not impede an understanding of what the visionary wished to
say.
(Official Translation)
ZE00062620

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ZENIT, June 26, 2000 - FATIMA SECRET 1 - The World Seen From Rome
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DOCUMENTS
* Third Fatima Secret and Interpretation - June 25, 2000
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DOCUMENTS
--------------------------------------------------------

THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

INTRODUCTION

As the second millennium gives way to the third, Pope John Paul
II has decided to publish the text of the third part of the
"secret of Fatima".

The twentieth century was one of the most crucial in human
history, with its tragic and cruel events culminating in the
assassination attempt on the "sweet Christ on earth". Now a veil
is drawn back on a series of events which make history and
interpret it in depth, in a spiritual perspective alien to
present-day attitudes, often tainted with rationalism.

Throughout history there have been supernatural apparitions and
signs which go to the heart of human events and which, to the
surprise of believers and non-believers alike, play their part in
the unfolding of history. These manifestations can never
contradict the content of faith, and must therefore have their
focus in the core of Christ's proclamation: the Father's love
which leads men and women to conversion and bestows the grace
required to abandon oneself to him with filial devotion. This too
is the message of Fatima which, with its urgent call to
conversion and penance, draws us to the heart of the Gospel.

Fatima is undoubtedly the most prophetic of modern apparitions.
The first and second parts of the "secret" -- which are here
published in sequence so as to complete the documentation --
refer especially to the frightening vision of hell, devotion to
the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Second World War, and finally
the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to
humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing
Communist totalitarianism.

In 1917 no one could have imagined all this: the three
 pastorinhos' of Fatima see, listen and remember, and Lucia, the
surviving witness, commits it all to paper when ordered to do so
by the Bishop of Leiria and with Our Lady's permission.

For the account of the first two parts of the "secret", which
have already been published and are therefore known, we have
chosen the text written by Sister Lucia in the Third Memoir of 31
August 1941; some annotations were added in the Fourth Memoir of
8 December 1941.

The third part of the "secret" was written "by order of His
Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and the Most Holy Mother..." on 3
January 1944.

There is only one manuscript, which is here reproduced
photostatically. The sealed envelope was initially in the custody
of the Bishop of Leiria. To ensure better protection for the
"secret" the envelope was placed in the Secret Archives of the
Holy Office on 4 April 1957. The Bishop of Leiria informed Sister
Lucia of this.  According to the records of the Archives, the
Commissary of the Holy Office, Father Pierre Paul Philippe, OP,
with the agreement of Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, brought the
envelopecontaining the third part of the "secret of Fatima" to
Pope John XXIII on 17 August 1959. "After some hesitation", His
Holiness said: "We shall wait. I shall pray. I shall let you know
what I decide".(1)

In fact Pope John XXIII decided to return the sealed envelope to
the Holy Office and not to reveal the third part of the "secret".

Paul VI read the contents with the Substitute, Archbishop Angelo
Dell'Acqua, on 27 March 1965, and returned the envelope to the
Archives of the Holy Office, deciding not to publish the text.
John Paul II, for his part, asked for the envelope containing the
third part of the "secret" following the assassination attempt on
13 May 1981. On 18 July 1981 Cardinal Franjo Seper, Prefect of
the Congregation, gave two envelopes to Archbishop Eduardo
Martínez Somalo, Substitute of the Secretariat of State: one
white envelope, containing Sister Lucia's original text in
Portuguese; the other orange, with the Italian translation of the
"secret". On the following 11 August, Archbishop Martínez
returned the two envelopes to the Archives of the Holy Office.(2)

As is well known, Pope John Paul II immediately thought of
consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and he
himself composed a prayer for what he called an "Act of
Entrustment", which was to be celebrated in the Basilica of Saint
Mary Major on 7 June 1981, the Solemnity of Pentecost, the day
chosen to commemorate the 1600th anniversary of the First Council
of Constantinople and the 1550th anniversary of the Council of
Ephesus. Since the Pope was unable to be present, his recorded
Address was broadcast. The following is the part which refers
specifically to the Act of Entrustment:

"Mother of all individuals and peoples, you know all their
sufferings and hopes. In your motherly heart you feel all the
struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, that
convulse the world: accept the plea which we make in the Holy
Spirit directly to your heart, and embrace with the love of the
Mother and Handmaid of the Lord those who most await this
embrace, and also those whose act of entrustment you too await in
a particular way. Take under your motherly protection the whole
human family, which with affectionate love we entrust to you, O
Mother. May there dawn for everyone the time of peace and
freedom, the time of truth, of justice and of hope".(3)

In order to respond more fully to the requests of "Our Lady", the
Holy Father desired to make more explicit during the Holy Year of
the Redemption the Act of Entrustment of 7 May 1981, which had
been repeated in Fatima on 13 May 1982. On 25 March 1984 in Saint
Peter's Square, while recalling the fiat uttered by Mary at the
Annunciation, the Holy Father, in spiritual union with the
Bishops of the world, who had been "convoked" beforehand,
entrusted all men and women and all peoples to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, in terms which recalled the heartfelt words spoken
in 1981:

"O Mother of all men and women, and of all peoples, you who know
all their sufferings and their hopes, you who have a mother's
awareness of all the struggles between good and evil, between
light and darkness, which afflict the modern world, accept the
cry which we, moved by the Holy Spirit, address directly to your
Heart. Embrace with the love of the Mother and Handmaid of the
Lord, this human world of ours, which we entrust and consecrate
to you, for we are full of concern for the earthly and eternal
destiny of individuals and peoples.

In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those
individuals and nations which particularly need to be thus
entrusted and consecrated.

 We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God!'
Despise not our petitions in our necessities".

The Pope then continued more forcefully and with more specific
references, as though commenting on the Message of Fatima in its
sorrowful fulfilment:

"Behold, as we stand before you, Mother of Christ, before your
Immaculate Heart, we desire, together with the whole Church, to
unite ourselves with the consecration which, for love of us, your
Son made of himself to the Father:  For their sake', he said,  I
consecrate myself that they also may be consecrated in the truth'
(Jn 17:19). We wish to unite ourselves with our Redeemer in this
his consecration for the world and for the human race, which, in
his divine Heart, has the power to obtain pardon and to secure
reparation.

The power of this consecration lasts for all time and embraces
all individuals, peoples and nations. It overcomes every evil
that the spirit of darkness is able to awaken, and has in fact
awakened in our times, in the heart of man and in his history.

How deeply we feel the need for the consecration of humanity and
the world -- our modern world -- in union with Christ himself!
For the redeeming work of Christ must be shared in by the world
through the Church.

The present Year of the Redemption shows this: the special
Jubilee of the whole Church.

Above all creatures, may you be blessed, you, the Handmaid of the
Lord, who in the fullest way obeyed the divine call!

Hail to you, who are wholly united to the redeeming consecration
of your Son!

Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God along the paths
of faith, hope, and love! Enlighten especially the peoples whose
consecration and entrustment by us you are awaiting. Help us to
live in the truth of the consecration of     Christ for the
entire human family of the modern world.

In entrusting to you, O Mother, the world, all individuals and
peoples, we also entrust to you this very consecration of the
world, placing it in your motherly Heart.

Immaculate Heart! Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so
easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose
immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and
seem to block the paths towards the future!

From famine and war, deliver us.

From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every
kind of war, deliver us.

From sins against the life of man from its very beginning,
deliver us.

From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children
of God, deliver us.

From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both
national and international, deliver us.

From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.
From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God,
deliver us.

From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.

From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us.

Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of
all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole
societies.

Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin:
individual sin and the  sin of the world', sin in all its
manifestations.

Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the
infinite saving power of the Redemption: the power of merciful
Love! May it put a stop to evil! May it transform consciences!
May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of Hope!".(4)

Sister Lucia personally confirmed that this solemn and universal
act of consecration corresponded to what Our Lady wished ("Sim,
està feita, tal como Nossa Senhora a pediu, desde o dia 25 de
Março de 1984": "Yes it has been done just as Our Lady asked, on
25 March 1984": Letter of 8 November 1989). Hence any further
discussion or request is without basis.

In the documentation presented here four other texts have been
added to the manuscripts of Sister Lucia: 1) the Holy Father's
letter of 19 April 2000 to Sister Lucia; 2) an account of the
conversation of 27 April 2000 with Sister Lucia; 3) the statement
which the Holy Father appointed Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary
of State, to read on 13 May 2000; 4) the theological commentary
by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith.

Sister Lucia had already given an indication for interpreting the
third part of the "secret" in a letter to the Holy Father, dated
12 May 1982:

"The third part of the secret refers to Our Lady's words:  If not
[Russia] 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' (13-VII-1917).

The third part of the secret is a symbolic revelation, referring
to this part of the Message, conditioned by whether we accept or
not what the Message itself asks of us:  If my requests are
heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if
not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, etc.'.

Since we did not heed this appeal of the Message, we see that it
has been fulfilled, Russia has invaded the world with her errors.
And if we have not yet seen the complete fulfilment of the final
part of this prophecy, we are going towards it little by little
with great strides. If we do not reject the path of sin, hatred,
revenge, injustice, violations of the rights of the human person,
immorality and violence, etc.

And let us not say that it is God who is punishing us in this
way; on the contrary it is people themselves who are preparing
their own punishment. In his kindness God warns us and calls us
to the right path, while respecting the freedom he has given us;
hence people are responsible".(5)

The decision of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to make public the
third part of the "secret" of Fatima brings to an end a period of
history marked by tragic human lust for power and evil, yet
pervaded by the merciful love of God and the watchful care of the
Mother of Jesus and of the Church.

The action of God, the Lord of history, and the co-responsibility
of man in the drama of his creative freedom, are the two pillars
upon which human history is built.

Our Lady, who appeared at Fatima, recalls these forgotten values.
She reminds us that man's future is in God, and that we are
active and responsible partners in creating that future.

                                           Tarcisio Bertone, SDB
                                 Archbishop Emeritus of Vercelli
    Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
--------------------------------------------------------

THE "SECRET" OF FATIMA
FIRST AND SECOND PART OF THE "SECRET"
According to the Version Presented by Sister Lucia
In the "Third Memoir" of 31 August 1941 for the Bishop of Leiria-
Fatima(6)

... This will entail my speaking about the secret, and thus
answering the first question.

What is the secret? It seems to me that I can reveal it, since I
already have permission from Heaven to do so. God's
representatives on earth have authorized me to do this several
times and in various letters, one of which, I believe, is in your
keeping. This letter is from Father José Bernardo Gonçalves, and
in it he advises me to write to the Holy Father, suggesting,
among other things, that I should reveal the secret. I did say
something about it. But in order not to make my letter too long,
since I was told to keep it short, I confined myself to the
essentials, leaving it to God to provide another more favorable
opportunity.

In my second account I have already described in detail the doubt
which tormented me from 13 June until 13 July, and how it
disappeared completely during the Apparition on that day.

Well, the secret is made up of three distinct parts, two of which
I am now going to reveal.

The first part is the vision of hell.

Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under
the earth. Plunged in this 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 a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid
shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and
made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by
their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown
animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an
instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly
Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first
Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would
have died of fear and terror.

We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so
sadly:

"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 Pontificate 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. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the
consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the 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 shall be
converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the
world".(7)
--------------------------------------------------------

THIRD PART OF THE "SECRET"(8)

"J.M.J.

The third part of the secret revealed at the Cova da Iria-Fatima,
on 13 July 1917.

I write in obedience to you, my God, who command me to do so
through his Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your Most
Holy Mother and mine.

After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left
of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming
sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked
as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in
contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him
from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand,
the Angel cried out in a loud voice:  Penance, Penance,
Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God:  something
similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front
of it' a Bishop dressed in White  we had the impression that it
was the Holy Father'. 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; having reached the top of the
mountain, 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. Beneath the two arms of the Cross
there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his
hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with
it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.

                        Tuy-3-1-1944".
--------------------------------------------------------

INTERPRETATION OF THE "SECRET"

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II TO SISTER LUCIA

To the Reverend Sister Maria Lucia of the Convent of Coimbra

In the great joy of Easter, I greet you with the words the Risen
Jesus spoke to the disciples: "Peace be with you"!

I will be happy to be able to meet you on the long-awaited day of
the Beatification of Francisco and Jacinta, which, please God, I
will celebrate on 13 May of this year.

Since on that day there will be time only for a brief greeting
and not a conversation, I am sending His Excellency Archbishop
Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, to speak with you. This is the Congregation which
works most closely with the Pope in defending the true Catholic
faith, and which since 1957, as you know, has kept your
hand-written letter containing the third part of the "secret"
revealed on 13 July 1917 at Cova da Iria, Fatima.

Archbishop Bertone, accompanied by the Bishop of Leiria, His
Excellency Bishop Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva, will come in
my name to ask certain questions about the interpretation of "the
third part of the secret".

Sister Maria Lucia, you may speak openly and candidly to
Archbishop Bertone, who will report your answers directly to me.

I pray fervently to the Mother of the Risen Lord for you,
Reverend Sister, for the Community of Coimbra and for the whole
Church. May Mary, Mother of pilgrim humanity, keep us always
united to Jesus, her beloved Son and our brother, the Lord of
life and glory.

With my special Apostolic Blessing.
IOANNES PAULUS PP. II
From the Vatican, 19 April 2000.
--------------------------------------------------------

CONVERSATION WITH SISTER MARIA LUCIA OF JESUS AND THE IMMACULATE
HEART

The meeting between Sister Lucia, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone,
Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, sent
by the Holy Father, and Bishop Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva,
Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, took place on Thursday, 27 April 2000,
in the Carmel of Saint Teresa in Coimbra.

Sister Lucia was lucid and at ease; she was very happy that the
Holy Father was going to Fatima for the Beatification of
Francisco and Jacinta, something she had looked forward to for a
long time.

The Bishop of Leiria-Fatima read the autograph letter of the Holy
Father, which explained the reasons for the visit. Sister Lucia
felt honoured by this and reread the letter herself,
contemplating it in own her hands. She said that she was prepared
to answer all questions frankly.

At this point, Archbishop Bertone presented two envelopes to her:
the first containing the second, which held the third part of the
"secret" of Fatima. Immediately, touching it with her fingers,
she said: "This is my letter", and then while reading it: "This
is my writing".

The original text, in Portuguese, was read and interpreted with
the help of the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima. Sister Lucia agreed with
the interpretation that the third part of the "secret" was a
prophetic vision, similar to those in sacred history. She
repeated her conviction that the vision of Fatima concerns above
all the struggle of atheistic Communism against the Church and
against Christians, and describes the terrible sufferings of the
victims of the faith in the twentieth century.

When asked: "Is the principal figure in the vision the Pope?",
Sister Lucia replied at once that it was. She recalled that the
three children were very sad about the suffering of the Pope, and
that Jacinta kept saying: "Coitadinho do Santo Padre, tenho muita
pena dos pecadores!" ("Poor Holy Father, I am very sad for
sinners!"). Sister Lucia continued: "We did not know the name of
the Pope; Our Lady did not tell us the name of the Pope; we did
not know whether it was Benedict XV or Pius XII or Paul VI or
John Paul II; but it was the Pope who was suffering and that made
us suffer too".

As regards the passage about the Bishop dressed in white, that
is, the Holy Father -- as the children immediately realized
during the "vision" -- who is struck dead and falls to the
ground, Sister Lucia was in full agreement with the Pope's claim
that "it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path and in
his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death" (Pope John
Paul II, Meditation from the Policlinico Gemelli to the Italian
Bishops, 13 May 1994).

Before giving the sealed envelope containing the third part of
the "secret" to the then Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, Sister Lucia
wrote on the outside envelope that it could be opened only after
1960, either by the Patriarch of Lisbon or the Bishop of Leiria.
Archbishop Bertone therefore asked: "Why only after 1960? Was it
Our Lady who fixed that date?" Sister Lucia replied: "It was not
Our Lady. I fixed the date because I had the intuition that
before 1960 it would not be understood, but that only later would
it be understood. Now it can be better understood. I wrote down
what I saw;   however it was not for me to interpret it, but for
the Pope.

Finally, mention was made of the unpublished manuscript which
Sister Lucia has prepared as a reply to the many letters that
come from Marian devotees and from pilgrims. The work is called
Os apelos da Mensagem de Fatima, and it gathers together in the
style of catechesis and exhortation thoughts and reflections
which express Sister Lucia's feelings and her clear and
unaffected spirituality. She was asked if she would be happy to
have it published, and she replied: "If the Holy Father agrees,
then I am happy, otherwise I obey whatever the Holy Father
decides". Sister Lucia wants to present the text for
ecclesiastical approval, and she hopes that what she has written
will help to guide men and women of good will along the path that
leads to God, the final goal of every human longing.The
conversation ends with an exchange of rosaries. Sister Lucia is
given a rosary sent by the Holy Father, and she in turn offers a
number of rosaries made by herself.

The meeting concludes with the blessing imparted in the name of
the Holy Father.
--------------------------------------------------------

ANNOUNCEMENT MADE BY CARDINAL ANGELO SODANO SECRETARY OF STATE

At the end of the Mass presided over by the Holy Father at
Fatima, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Secretary of State,
made this announcement in Portuguese, which is given here in
English translation:

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord!

At the conclusion of this solemn celebration, I feel bound to
offer our beloved Holy Father Pope John Paul II, on behalf of all
present, heartfelt good wishes for his approaching 80th Birthday
and to thank him for his vital pastoral ministry for the good of
all God's Holy Church; we present the heartfelt wishes of the
whole Church.

On this solemn occasion of his visit to Fatima, His Holiness has
directed me to make an announcement to you. As you know, the
purpose of his visit to Fatima has been to beatify the two
"little shepherds". Nevertheless he also wishes his pilgrimage to
be a renewed gesture of gratitude to Our Lady for her protection
during these years of his papacy. This protection seems also to
be linked to the so-called third part of the "secret" of Fatima.
That text contains a prophetic vision similar to those found in
Sacred Scripture, which do not describe photographically the
details of future events, but synthesize and compress against a
single background facts which extend through time in an
unspecified succession and duration. As a result, the text must
be interpreted in a symbolic key.

The vision of Fatima concerns above all the war waged by
atheistic systems against the Church and Christians, and it
describes the immense suffering endured by the witnesses of the
faith in the last century of the second millennium. It is an
interminable Way of the Cross led by the Popes of the twentieth
century.

According to the interpretation of the "little shepherds", which
was also confirmed recently by Sister Lucia, "the Bishop clothed
in white" who prays for all the faithful is the Pope. As he makes
his way with great difficulty towards the Cross amid the corpses
of those who were martyred (Bishops, priests, men and women
Religious and many lay people), he too falls to the ground,
apparently dead, under a hail of gunfire.

After the assassination attempt of 13 May 1981, it appeared
evident that it was "a mother's hand that guided the bullet's
path", enabling "the Pope in his throes" to halt "at the
threshold of death" (Pope John Paul II, Meditation from the
Policlinico Gemelli to the Italian Bishops, Insegnamenti, XVII, 1
[1994], 1061). On the occasion of a visit to Rome by the then
Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, the Pope decided to give him the bullet
which had remained in the jeep after the assassination attempt,
so that it might be kept in the shrine. By the Bishop's decision,
the bullet was later set in the crown of the statue of Our Lady
of Fatima.

The successive events of 1989 led, both in the Soviet Union and
in a number of countries of Eastern Europe, to the fall of the
Communist regimes which promoted atheism. For this too His
Holiness offers heartfelt thanks to the Most Holy Virgin. In
other parts of the world, however, attacks against the Church and
against Christians, with the burden of suffering they bring,
tragically continue. Even if the events to which the third part
of the "secret" of Fatima refers now seem part of the past, Our
Lady's call to conversion and penance, issued at the start of the
twentieth century, remains timely and urgent today. "The Lady of
the message seems to read the signs of the times -- the signs of
our time -- with special insight... The insistent invitation of
Mary Most Holy to penance is nothing but the manifestation of her
maternal concern for the fate of the human family, in need of
conversion and forgiveness" (Pope John Paul II, Message for the
1997 World Day of the Sick, No. 1, Insegnamenti, XIX, 2 [1996],
561).

In order that the faithful may better receive the message of Our
Lady of Fatima, the Pope has charged the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith with making public the third part of the
"secret", after the preparation of an appropriate commentary.

Brothers and sisters, let us thank Our Lady of Fatima for her
protection. To her maternal intercession let us entrust the
Church of the Third Millennium.

Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genetrix! Intercede
pro Ecclesia. Intercede pro Papa nostro Ioanne Paulo II. Amen.

Fatima, 13 May 2000

THEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

A careful reading of the text of the so-called third "secret" of
Fatima, published here in its entirety long after the fact and by
decision of the Holy Father, will probably prove disappointing or
surprising after all the speculation it has stirred. No great
mystery is revealed; nor is the future unveiled. We see the
Church of the martyrs of the century which has just passed
represented in a scene described in a language which is symbolic
and not easy to decipher. Is this what the Mother of the Lord
wished to communicate to Christianity and to humanity at a time
of great difficulty and distress? Is it of any help to us at the
beginning of the new millennium? Or are these only projections of
the inner world of children, brought up in a climate of profound
piety but shaken at the same time by the tempests which
threatened their own time? How should we understand the vision?
What are we to make of it?

Public Revelation and Private Revelations -- Their Theological
Status
Before attempting an interpretation, the main lines of which can
be found in the statement read by Cardinal Sodano on 13 May of
this year at the end of the Mass celebrated by the Holy Father in
Fatima, there is a need for some basic clarification of the way
in which, according to Church teaching, phenomena such as Fatima
are to be understood within the life of faith. The teaching of
the Church distinguishes between "public Revelation" and "private
revelations". The two realities differ not only in degree but
also in essence. The term "public Revelation" refers to the
revealing action of God directed to humanity as a whole and which
finds its literary expression in the two parts of the Bible: the
Old and New Testaments. It is called "Revelation" because in it
God gradually made himself known to men, to the point of becoming
man himself, in order to draw to himself the whole world and
unite it with himself through his Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. It
is not a matter therefore of intellectual communication, but of a
life-giving process in which God comes to meet man. At the same
time this process naturally produces data pertaining to the mind
and to the understanding of the mystery of God. It is a process
which involves man in his entirety and therefore reason as well,
but not reason alone. Because God is one, history, which he
shares with humanity, is also one. It is valid for all time, and
it has reached its fulfilment in the life, death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has said everything, that is, he
has revealed himself completely, and therefore Revelation came to
an end with the fulfilment of the mystery of Christ as enunciated
in the New Testament. To explain the finality and completeness of
Revelation, the Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes a text of
Saint John of the Cross: "In giving us his Son, his only Word
(for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in
this sole Word -- and he has no more to say... because what he
spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at
once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning
God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not
only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not
fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the
desire for some other novelty" (No. 65; Saint John of the
Cross,The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 22).

Because the single Revelation of God addressed to all peoples
comes to completion with Christ and the witness borne to him in
the books of the New Testament, the Church is tied to this unique
event of sacred history and to the word of the Bible, which
guarantees and interprets it. But this does not mean that the
Church can now look only to the past and that she is condemned to
sterile repetition. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in
this regard: "...even if Revelation is already complete, it has
not been made fully explicit; it remains for Christian faith
gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the
centuries" (No. 66). The way in which the Church is bound to both
the uniqueness of the event and progress in understanding it is
very well illustrated in the farewell discourse of the Lord when,
taking leave of his disciples, he says: "I have yet many things
to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of
truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will
not speak on his own authority... He will glorify me, for he will
take what is mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:12-14). On the
one hand, the Spirit acts as a guide who discloses a knowledge
previously unreachable because the premise was missing -- this is
the boundless breadth and depth of Christian faith. On the other
hand, to be guided by the Spirit is also "to draw from" the
riches of Jesus Christ himself, the inexhaustible depths of which
appear in the way the Spirit leads. In this regard, the Catechism
cites profound words of Pope Gregory the Great: "The sacred
Scriptures grow with the one who reads them" (No. 94; Gregory the
Great,Homilia in Ezechielem I, 7, 8). The Second Vatican Council
notes three essential ways in which the Spirit guides in the
Church, and therefore three ways in which "the word grows":
through the meditation and study of the faithful, through the
deep understanding which comes from spiritual experience, and
through the preaching of "those who, in the succession of the
episcopate, have received the sure charism of truth" (Dei Verbum,
8).

In this context, it now becomes possible to understand rightly
the concept of "private revelation", which refers to all the
visions and revelations which have taken place since the
completion of the New Testament. This is the category to which we
must assign the message of Fatima. In this respect, let us listen
once again to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Throughout
the ages, there have been so-called  private' revelations, some
of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church...
It is not their role to complete Christ's definitive Revelation,
but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history"
(No. 67). This clarifies two things:

1. The authority of private revelations is essentially different
from that of the definitive public Revelation. The latter demands
faith; in it in fact God himself speaks to us through human words
and the mediation of the living community of the Church. Faith in
God and in his word is different from any other human faith,
trust or opinion. The certainty that it is God who is speaking
gives me the assurance that I am in touch with truth itself. It
gives me a certitude which is beyond verification by any human
way of knowing. It is the certitude upon which I build my life
and to which I entrust myself in dying.

2. Private revelation is a help to this faith, and shows its
credibility precisely by leading me back to the definitive public
Revelation. In this regard, Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, the
future Pope Benedict XIV, says in his classic treatise, which
later became normative for beatifications and canonizations: "An
assent of Catholic faith is not due to revelations approved in
this way; it is not even possible. These revelations seek rather
an assent of human faith in keeping with the requirements of
prudence, which puts them before us as probable and credible to
piety". The Flemish theologian E. Dhanis, an eminent scholar in
this field, states succinctly that ecclesiastical approval of a
private revelation has three elements: the message contains
nothing contrary to faith or morals; it is lawful to make it
public; and the faithful are authorized to accept it with
prudence (E. Dhanis,Sguardo su Fatima e bilancio di una
discussione, in La Civiltà Cattolica 104 [1953], II, 392-406, in
particular 397). Such a message can be a genuine help in
understanding the Gospel and living it better at a particular
moment in time; therefore it should not be disregarded. It is a
help which is offered, but which one is not obliged to use.

The criterion for the truth and value of a private revelation is
therefore its orientation to Christ himself. When it leads us
away from him, when it becomes independent of him or even
presents itself as another and better plan of salvation, more
important than the Gospel, then it certainly does not come from
the Holy Spirit, who guides us more deeply into the Gospel and
not away from it. This does not mean that a private revelation
will not offer new emphases or give rise to new devotional forms,
or deepen and spread older forms. But in all of this there must
be a nurturing of faith, hope and love, which are the unchanging
path to salvation for everyone. We might add that private
revelations often spring from popular piety and leave their stamp
on it, giving it a new impulse and opening the way for new forms
of it. Nor does this exclude that they will have an effect even
on the liturgy, as we see for instance in the feasts of Corpus
Christi and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. From one point of view,
the relationship between Revelation and private revelations
appears in the relationship between the liturgy and popular
piety: the liturgy is the criterion, it is the living form of the
Church as a whole, fed directly by the Gospel. Popular piety is a
sign that the faith is spreading its roots into the heart of a
people in such a way that it reaches into daily life. Popular
religiosity is the first and fundamental mode of "inculturation"
of the faith. While it must always take its lead and direction
from the liturgy, it in turn enriches the faith by involving the
heart.

We have thus moved from the somewhat negative clarifications,
initially needed, to a positive definition of private
revelations. How can they be classified correctly in relation to
Scripture? To which theological category do they belong? The
oldest letter of Saint Paul which has been preserved, perhaps the
oldest of the New Testament texts, the First Letter to the
Thessalonians, seems to me to point the way. The Apostle says:
"Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test
everything, holding fast to what is good" (5:19-21). In every age
the Church has received the charism of prophecy, which must be
scrutinized but not scorned. On this point, it should be kept in
mind that prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean to predict
the future but to explain the will of God for the present, and
therefore show the right path to take for the future. A person
who foretells what is going to happen responds to the curiosity
of the mind, which wants to draw back the veil on the future. The
prophet speaks to the blindness of will and of reason, and
declares the will of God as an indication and demand for the
present time. In this case, prediction of the future is of
secondary importance. What is essential is the actualization of
the definitive Revelation, which concerns me at the deepest
level. The prophetic word is a warning or a consolation, or both
together. In this sense there is a link between the charism of
prophecy and the category of "the signs of the times", which
Vatican II brought to light anew: "You know how to interpret the
appearance of earth and sky; why then do you not know how to
interpret the present time?" (Lk 12:56). In this saying of Jesus,
the "signs of the times" must be understood as the path he was
taking, indeed it must be understood as Jesus himself. To
interpret the signs of the times in the light of faith means to
recognize the presence of Christ in every age. In the private
revelations approved by the Church -- and therefore also in
Fatima -- this is the point: they help us to understand the signs
of the times and to respond to them rightly in faith.

The Anthropological Structure of Private Revelations
In these reflections we have sought so far to identify the
theological status of private revelations. Before undertaking an
interpretation of the message of Fatima, we must still attempt
briefly to offer some clarification of their anthropological
(psychological) character. In this field, theological
anthropology distinguishes three forms of perception or "vision":
vision with the senses, and hence exterior bodily perception,
interior perception, and spiritual vision (visio sensibilis -
imaginativa - intellectualis). It is clear that in the visions of
Lourdes, Fatima and other places it is not a question of normal
exterior perception of the senses: the images and forms which are
seen are not located spatially, as is the case for example with a
tree or a house. This is perfectly obvious, for instance, as
regards the vision of hell (described in the first part of the
Fatima "secret") or even the vision described in the third part
of the "secret". But the same can be very easily shown with
regard to other visions, especially since not everybody present
saw them, but only the "visionaries".

It is also clear that it is not a matter of a "vision" in the
mind, without images, as occurs at the higher levels of
mysticism. Therefore we are dealing with the middle category,
interior perception. For the visionary, this perception certainly
has the force of a presence, equivalent for that person to an
external manifestation to the senses.

Interior vision does not mean fantasy, which would be no more
than an expression of the subjective imagination. It means rather
that the soul is touched by something real, even if beyond the
senses. It is rendered capable of seeing that which is beyond the
senses, that which cannot be seen -- seeing by means of the
"interior senses". It involves true "objects", which touch the
soul, even if these "objects" do not belong to our habitual
sensory world. This is why there is a need for an interior
vigilance of the heart, which is usually precluded by the intense
pressure of external reality and of the images and thoughts which
fill the soul. The person is led beyond pure exteriority and is
touched by deeper dimensions of reality, which become visible to
him. Perhaps this explains why children tend to be the ones to
receive these apparitions: their souls are as yet little
disturbed, their interior powers of perception are still not
impaired. "On the lips of children and of babes you have found
praise", replies Jesus with a phrase of Psalm 8 (v. 3) to the
criticism of the High Priests and elders, who had judged the
children's cries of "hosanna" inappropriate (cf. Mt 21:16).

"Interior vision" is not fantasy but, as we have said, a true and
valid means of verification. But it also has its limitations.
Even in exterior vision the subjective element is always present.
We do not see the pure object, but it comes to us through the
filter of our senses, which carry out a work of translation. This
is still more evident in the case of interior vision, especially
when it involves realities which in themselves transcend our
horizon. The subject, the visionary, is still more powerfully
involved. He sees insofar as he is able, in the modes of
representation and consciousness available to him. In the case of
interior vision, the process of translation is even more
extensive than in exterior vision, for the subject shares in an
essential way in the formation of the image of what appears. He
can arrive  at the image only within the bounds of his capacities
and possibilities. Such visions therefore are never simple
"photographs" of the other world, but are influenced by the
potentialities and limitations of the perceiving subject.

This can be demonstrated in all the great visions of the saints;
and naturally it is also true of the visions of the children at
Fatima. The images described by them are by no means a simple
expression of their fantasy, but the result of a real perception
of a higher and interior origin. But neither should they be
thought of as if for a moment the veil of the other world were
drawn back, with heaven appearing in its pure essence, as one day
we hope to see it in our definitive union with God. Rather the
images are, in a manner of speaking, a synthesis of the impulse
coming from on high and the capacity to receive this impulse in
the visionaries, that is, the children. For this reason, the
figurative language of the visions is symbolic. In this regard,
Cardinal Sodano stated: "[they] do not describe photographically
the details of future events, but synthesize and compress against
a single background facts which extend through time in an
unspecified succession and duration". This compression of time
and place in a single image is typical of such visions, which for
the most part can be deciphered only in retrospect. Not every
element of the vision has to have a specific historical sense. It
is the vision as a whole that matters, and the details must be
understood on the basis of the images taken in their entirety.
The central element of the image is revealed where it coincides
with what is the focal point of Christian "prophecy" itself: the
centre is found where the vision becomes a summons and a guide to
the will of God.

An Attempt to Interpret the "Secret" of Fatima
The first and second parts of the "secret" of Fatima have already
been so amply discussed in the relative literature that there is
no need to deal with them again here. I would just like to recall
briefly the most significant point. For one terrible moment, the
children were given a vision of hell. They saw the fall of "the
souls of poor sinners". And now they are told why they have been
exposed to this moment: "in order to save souls" -- to show the
way to salvation. The words of the First Letter of Peter come to
mind: "As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of
your souls" (1:9). To reach this goal, the way indicated --
surprisingly for people from the Anglo-Saxon and German cultural
world -- is devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A brief
comment may suffice to explain this. In biblical language, the
"heart" indicates the centre of human life, the point where
reason, will, temperament and sensitivity converge, where the
person finds his unity and his interior orientation. According to
Matthew 5:8, the "immaculate heart" is a heart which, with God's
grace, has come to perfect interior unity and therefore "sees
God". To be "devoted" to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means
therefore to embrace this attitude of heart, which makes the fiat
-- "your will be done" -- the defining centre of one's whole
life. It might be objected that we should not place a human being
between ourselves and Christ. But then we remember that Paul did
not hesitate to say to his communities: "imitate me" (1 Cor 4:16;
Phil 3:17; 1 Th 1:6; 2 Th 3:7, 9). In the Apostle they could see
concretely what it meant to follow Christ. But from whom might we
better learn in every age than from the Mother of the Lord?

Thus we come finally to the third part of the "secret" of Fatima
which for the first time is being published in its entirety. As
is clear from the documentation presented here, the
interpretation offered by Cardinal Sodano in his statement of 13
May was first put personally to Sister Lucia. Sister Lucia
responded by pointing out that she had received the vision but
not its interpretation. The interpretation, she said, belonged
not to the visionary but to the Church. After reading the text,
however, she said that this interpretation corresponded to what
she had experienced and that on her part she thought the
interpretation correct. In what follows, therefore, we can only
attempt to provide a deeper foundation for this interpretation,
on the basis of the criteria already considered.

"To save souls" has emerged as the key word of the first and
second parts of the "secret", and the key word of this third part
is the threefold cry: "Penance, Penance, Penance!" The beginning
of the Gospel comes to mind: "Repent and believe the Good News"
(Mk 1:15). To understand the signs of the times means to accept
the urgency of penance  of conversion  of faith. This is the
correct response to this moment of history, characterized by the
grave perils outlined in the images that follow. Allow me to add
here a personal recollection: in a conversation with me Sister
Lucia said that it appeared ever more clearly to her that the
purpose of all the apparitions was to help people to grow more
and more in faith, hope and love -- everything else was intended
to lead to this.

Let us now examine more closely the single images. The angel with
the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls
similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the
threat of judgement which looms over the world. Today the
prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of
fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his
inventions, has forged the flaming sword. The vision then shows
the power which stands opposed to the force of destruction -- the
splendour of the Mother of God and, stemming from this in a
certain way, the summons to penance. In this way, the importance
of human freedom is underlined: the future is not in fact
unchangeably set, and the image which the children saw is in no
way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed.
Indeed, the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto
the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction. The
purpose of the vision is not to show a film of an irrevocably
fixed future. Its meaning is exactly the opposite: it is meant to
mobilize the forces of change in the right direction. Therefore
we must totally discount fatalistic explanations of the "secret",
such as, for example, the claim that the would-be assassin of 13
May 1981 was merely an instrument of the divine plan guided by
Providence and could not therefore have acted freely, or other
similar ideas in circulation. Rather, the vision speaks of
dangers and how we might be saved from them.

The next phrases of the text show very clearly once again the
symbolic character of the vision: God remains immeasurable, and
is the light which surpasses every vision of ours. Human persons
appear as in a mirror. We must always keep in mind the limits in
the vision itself, which here are indicated visually. The future
appears only "in a mirror dimly" (1 Cor 13:12). Let us now
consider the individual images which follow in the text of the
"secret". The place of the action is described in three symbols:
a steep mountain, a great city reduced to ruins and finally a
large rough-hewn cross. The mountain and city symbolize the arena
of human history: history as an arduous ascent to the summit,
history as the arena of human creativity and social harmony, but
at the same time a place of destruction, where man actually
destroys the fruits of his own work. The city can be the place of
communion and progress, but also of danger and the most extreme
menace. On the mountain stands the cross -- the goal and guide of
history. The cross transforms destruction into salvation; it
stands as a sign of history's misery but also as a promise for
history.

At this point human persons appear: the Bishop dressed in white
("we had the impression that it was the Holy Father"), other
Bishops, priests, men and women Religious, and men and women of
different ranks and social positions. The Pope seems to precede
the others, trembling and suffering because of all the horrors
around him. Not only do the houses of the city lie half in ruins,
but he makes his way among the corpses of the dead. The Church's
path is thus described as a Via Crucis, as a journey through a
time of violence, destruction and persecution. The history of an
entire century can be seen represented in this image. Just as the
places of the earth are synthetically described in the two images
of the mountain and the city, and are directed towards the cross,
so too time is presented in a compressed way. In the vision we
can recognize the last century as a century of martyrs, a century
of suffering and persecution for the Church, a century of World
Wars and the many local wars which filled the last fifty years
and have inflicted unprecedented forms of cruelty. In the
"mirror" of this vision we see passing before us the witnesses of
the faith decade by decade. Here it would be appropriate to
mention a phrase from the letter which Sister Lucia wrote to the
Holy Father on 12 May 1982: "The third part of the  secret'
refers to Our Lady's words:  If not, [Russia] 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 Via Crucis of an entire century, the figure of the Pope
has a special role. In his arduous ascent of the mountain we can
undoubtedly see a convergence of different Popes. Beginning from
Pius X up to the present Pope, they all shared the sufferings of
the century and strove to go forward through all the anguish
along the path which leads to the Cross. In the vision, the Pope
too is killed along with the martyrs. When, after the attempted
assassination on 13 May 1981, the Holy Father had the text of the
third part of the "secret" brought to him, was it not inevitable
that he should see in it his own fate? He had been very close to
death, and he himself explained his survival in the following
words: "... it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path
and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death" (13
May 1994). That here "a mother's hand" had deflected the fateful
bullet only shows once more that there is no immutable destiny,
that faith and prayer are forces which can influence history and
that in the end prayer is more powerful than bullets and faith
more powerful than armies.

The concluding part of the "secret" uses images which Lucia may
have seen in devotional books and which draw their inspiration
from long-standing intuitions of faith. It is a consoling vision,
which seeks to open a history of blood and tears to the healing
power of God. Beneath the arms of the cross angels gather up the
blood of the martyrs, and with it they give life to the souls
making their way to God. Here, the blood of Christ and the blood
of the martyrs are considered as one: the blood of the martyrs
runs down from the arms of the cross. The martyrs die in
communion with the Passion of Christ, and their death becomes one
with his. For the sake of the body of Christ, they complete what
is still lacking in his afflictions (cf. Col 1:24). Their life
has itself become a Eucharist, part of the mystery of the grain
of wheat which in dying yields abundant fruit. The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of Christians, said Tertullian. As from
Christ's death, from his wounded side, the Church was born, so
the death of the witnesses is fruitful for the future life of the
Church. Therefore, the vision of the third part of the "secret",
so distressing at first, concludes with an image of hope: no
suffering is in vain, and it is a suffering Church, a Church of
martyrs, which becomes a sign-post for man in his search for God.
The loving arms of God welcome not only those who suffer like
Lazarus, who found great solace there and mysteriously represents
Christ, who wished to become for us the poor Lazarus. There is
something more: from the suffering of the witnesses there comes a
purifying and renewing power, because their suffering is the
actualization of the suffering of Christ himself and a
communication in the here and now of its saving effect.

And so we come to the final question: What is the meaning of the
"secret" of Fatima as a whole (in its three parts)? What does it
say to us? First of all we must affirm with Cardinal Sodano: "...
the events to which the third part of the  secret' of Fatima
refers now seem part of the past". Insofar as individual events
are described, they belong to the past. Those who expected
exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or
the future course of history are bound to be disappointed. Fatima
does not satisfy our curiosity in this way, just as Christian
faith in general cannot be reduced to an object of mere
curiosity. What remains was already evident when we began our
reflections on the text of the "secret": the exhortation to
prayer as the path of "salvation for souls" and, likewise, the
summons to penance and conversion.

I would like finally to mention another key expression of the
"secret" which has become justly famous: "my Immaculate Heart
will triumph". What does this mean? The Heart open to God,
purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and
weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart,
has changed the history of the world, because it brought the
Saviour into the world -- because, thanks to her Yes, God could
become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One
has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he
has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away
from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus
steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose
evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word
that prevails is this: "In the world you will have tribulation,
but take heart; I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33). The
message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.

                                           Joseph Card. Ratzinger
                                     Prefect of the Congregation
                                  for the Doctrine of the Faith

--------------------------------------------------------
NOTES

(1) From the diary of John XXIII, 17 August 1959: "Audiences:
Father Philippe, Commissary of the Holy Office, who brought me
the letter containing the third part of the secrets of Fatima. I
intend to read it with my Confessor".

(2) The Holy Father's comment at the General Audience of 14
October 1981 on "What happened in May: A Great Divine Trial"
should be recalled: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, IV, 2
(Vatican City, 1981), 409-412.

(3) Radio message during the Ceremony of Veneration, Thanksgiving
and Entrustment to the Virgin Mary Theotokos in the Basilica of
Saint Mary Major: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, IV, 1
(Vatican City, 1981), 1246.

(4) On the Jubilee Day for Families, the Pope entrusted
individuals and nations to Our Lady: Insegnamenti di Giovanni
Paolo II, VII, 1 (Vatican City, 1984), 775-777.

(5) [Graphic of the text]

(6) In the "Fourth Memoir" of 8 December 1941 Sister Lucia
writes: "I shall begin then my new task, and thus fulfil the
commands received from Your Excellency as well as the desires of
Dr Galamba. With the exception of that part of the Secret which I
am not permitted to reveal at present, I shall say everything. I
shall not knowingly omit anything, though I suppose I may forget
just a few small details of minor importance".

(7) In the "Fourth Memoir" Sister Lucia adds: "In Portugal, the
dogma of the faith will always be preserved, etc. ...".

(8) In the translation, the original text has been respected,
even as regards the imprecise punctuation, which nevertheless
does not impede an understanding of what the visionary wished to
say.
(Official Translation)
ZE00062620

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ZENIT, June 26, 2000 - FATIMA SECRET 2 - The World Seen From Rome
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DOCUMENTS
* Third Fatima Secret: Theological Commentary - June 25, 2000
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DOCUMENTS
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THEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

A careful reading of the text of the so-called third "secret" of
Fatima, published here in its entirety long after the fact and by
decision of the Holy Father, will probably prove disappointing or
surprising after all the speculation it has stirred. No great
mystery is revealed; nor is the future unveiled. We see the
Church of the martyrs of the century which has just passed
represented in a scene described in a language which is symbolic
and not easy to decipher. Is this what the Mother of the Lord
wished to communicate to Christianity and to humanity at a time
of great difficulty and distress? Is it of any help to us at the
beginning of the new millennium? Or are these only projections of
the inner world of children, brought up in a climate of profound
piety but shaken at the same time by the tempests which
threatened their own time? How should we understand the vision?
What are we to make of it?

Public Revelation and Private Revelations -- Their Theological
Status
Before attempting an interpretation, the main lines of which can
be found in the statement read by Cardinal Sodano on 13 May of
this year at the end of the Mass celebrated by the Holy Father in
Fatima, there is a need for some basic clarification of the way
in which, according to Church teaching, phenomena such as Fatima
are to be understood within the life of faith. The teaching of
the Church distinguishes between "public Revelation" and "private
revelations". The two realities differ not only in degree but
also in essence. The term "public Revelation" refers to the
revealing action of God directed to humanity as a whole and which
finds its literary expression in the two parts of the Bible: the
Old and New Testaments. It is called "Revelation" because in it
God gradually made himself known to men, to the point of becoming
man himself, in order to draw to himself the whole world and
unite it with himself through his Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. It
is not a matter therefore of intellectual communication, but of a
life-giving process in which God comes to meet man. At the same
time this process naturally produces data pertaining to the mind
and to the understanding of the mystery of God. It is a process
which involves man in his entirety and therefore reason as well,
but not reason alone. Because God is one, history, which he
shares with humanity, is also one. It is valid for all time, and
it has reached its fulfilment in the life, death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has said everything, that is, he
has revealed himself completely, and therefore Revelation came to
an end with the fulfilment of the mystery of Christ as enunciated
in the New Testament. To explain the finality and completeness of
Revelation, the Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes a text of
Saint John of the Cross: "In giving us his Son, his only Word
(for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in
this sole Word -- and he has no more to say... because what he
spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at
once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning
God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not
only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not
fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the
desire for some other novelty" (No. 65; Saint John of the
Cross,The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 22).

Because the single Revelation of God addressed to all peoples
comes to completion with Christ and the witness borne to him in
the books of the New Testament, the Church is tied to this unique
event of sacred history and to the word of the Bible, which
guarantees and interprets it. But this does not mean that the
Church can now look only to the past and that she is condemned to
sterile repetition. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in
this regard: "...even if Revelation is already complete, it has
not been made fully explicit; it remains for Christian faith
gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the
centuries" (No. 66). The way in which the Church is bound to both
the uniqueness of the event and progress in understanding it is
very well illustrated in the farewell discourse of the Lord when,
taking leave of his disciples, he says: "I have yet many things
to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of
truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will
not speak on his own authority... He will glorify me, for he will
take what is mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:12-14). On the
one hand, the Spirit acts as a guide who discloses a knowledge
previously unreachable because the premise was missing -- this is
the boundless breadth and depth of Christian faith. On the other
hand, to be guided by the Spirit is also "to draw from" the
riches of Jesus Christ himself, the inexhaustible depths of which
appear in the way the Spirit leads. In this regard, the Catechism
cites profound words of Pope Gregory the Great: "The sacred
Scriptures grow with the one who reads them" (No. 94; Gregory the
Great,Homilia in Ezechielem I, 7, 8). The Second Vatican Council
notes three essential ways in which the Spirit guides in the
Church, and therefore three ways in which "the word grows":
through the meditation and study of the faithful, through the
deep understanding which comes from spiritual experience, and
through the preaching of "those who, in the succession of the
episcopate, have received the sure charism of truth" (Dei Verbum,
8).

In this context, it now becomes possible to understand rightly
the concept of "private revelation", which refers to all the
visions and revelations which have taken place since the
completion of the New Testament. This is the category to which we
must assign the message of Fatima. In this respect, let us listen
once again to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Throughout
the ages, there have been so-called  private' revelations, some
of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church...
It is not their role to complete Christ's definitive Revelation,
but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history"
(No. 67). This clarifies two things:

1. The authority of private revelations is essentially different
from that of the definitive public Revelation. The latter demands
faith; in it in fact God himself speaks to us through human words
and the mediation of the living community of the Church. Faith in
God and in his word is different from any other human faith,
trust or opinion. The certainty that it is God who is speaking
gives me the assurance that I am in touch with truth itself. It
gives me a certitude which is beyond verification by any human
way of knowing. It is the certitude upon which I build my life
and to which I entrust myself in dying.

2. Private revelation is a help to this faith, and shows its
credibility precisely by leading me back to the definitive public
Revelation. In this regard, Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, the
future Pope Benedict XIV, says in his classic treatise, which
later became normative for beatifications and canonizations: "An
assent of Catholic faith is not due to revelations approved in
this way; it is not even possible. These revelations seek rather
an assent of human faith in keeping with the requirements of
prudence, which puts them before us as probable and credible to
piety". The Flemish theologian E. Dhanis, an eminent scholar in
this field, states succinctly that ecclesiastical approval of a
private revelation has three elements: the message contains
nothing contrary to faith or morals; it is lawful to make it
public; and the faithful are authorized to accept it with
prudence (E. Dhanis,Sguardo su Fatima e bilancio di una
discussione, in La Civiltà Cattolica 104 [1953], II, 392-406, in
particular 397). Such a message can be a genuine help in
understanding the Gospel and living it better at a particular
moment in time; therefore it should not be disregarded. It is a
help which is offered, but which one is not obliged to use.

The criterion for the truth and value of a private revelation is
therefore its orientation to Christ himself. When it leads us
away from him, when it becomes independent of him or even
presents itself as another and better plan of salvation, more
important than the Gospel, then it certainly does not come from
the Holy Spirit, who guides us more deeply into the Gospel and
not away from it. This does not mean that a private revelation
will not offer new emphases or give rise to new devotional forms,
or deepen and spread older forms. But in all of this there must
be a nurturing of faith, hope and love, which are the unchanging
path to salvation for everyone. We might add that private
revelations often spring from popular piety and leave their stamp
on it, giving it a new impulse and opening the way for new forms
of it. Nor does this exclude that they will have an effect even
on the liturgy, as we see for instance in the feasts of Corpus
Christi and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. From one point of view,
the relationship between Revelation and private revelations
appears in the relationship between the liturgy and popular
piety: the liturgy is the criterion, it is the living form of the
Church as a whole, fed directly by the Gospel. Popular piety is a
sign that the faith is spreading its roots into the heart of a
people in such a way that it reaches into daily life. Popular
religiosity is the first and fundamental mode of "inculturation"
of the faith. While it must always take its lead and direction
from the liturgy, it in turn enriches the faith by involving the
heart.

We have thus moved from the somewhat negative clarifications,
initially needed, to a positive definition of private
revelations. How can they be classified correctly in relation to
Scripture? To which theological category do they belong? The
oldest letter of Saint Paul which has been preserved, perhaps the
oldest of the New Testament texts, the First Letter to the
Thessalonians, seems to me to point the way. The Apostle says:
"Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test
everything, holding fast to what is good" (5:19-21). In every age
the Church has received the charism of prophecy, which must be
scrutinized but not scorned. On this point, it should be kept in
mind that prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean to predict
the future but to explain the will of God for the present, and
therefore show the right path to take for the future. A person
who foretells what is going to happen responds to the curiosity
of the mind, which wants to draw back the veil on the future. The
prophet speaks to the blindness of will and of reason, and
declares the will of God as an indication and demand for the
present time. In this case, prediction of the future is of
secondary importance. What is essential is the actualization of
the definitive Revelation, which concerns me at the deepest
level. The prophetic word is a warning or a consolation, or both
together. In this sense there is a link between the charism of
prophecy and the category of "the signs of the times", which
Vatican II brought to light anew: "You know how to interpret the
appearance of earth and sky; why then do you not know how to
interpret the present time?" (Lk 12:56). In this saying of Jesus,
the "signs of the times" must be understood as the path he was
taking, indeed it must be understood as Jesus himself. To
interpret the signs of the times in the light of faith means to
recognize the presence of Christ in every age. In the private
revelations approved by the Church -- and therefore also in
Fatima -- this is the point: they help us to understand the signs
of the times and to respond to them rightly in faith.

The Anthropological Structure of Private Revelations
In these reflections we have sought so far to identify the
theological status of private revelations. Before undertaking an
interpretation of the message of Fatima, we must still attempt
briefly to offer some clarification of their anthropological
(psychological) character. In this field, theological
anthropology distinguishes three forms of perception or "vision":
vision with the senses, and hence exterior bodily perception,
interior perception, and spiritual vision (visio sensibilis -
imaginativa - intellectualis). It is clear that in the visions of
Lourdes, Fatima and other places it is not a question of normal
exterior perception of the senses: the images and forms which are
seen are not located spatially, as is the case for example with a
tree or a house. This is perfectly obvious, for instance, as
regards the vision of hell (described in the first part of the
Fatima "secret") or even the vision described in the third part
of the "secret". But the same can be very easily shown with
regard to other visions, especially since not everybody present
saw them, but only the "visionaries".

It is also clear that it is not a matter of a "vision" in the
mind, without images, as occurs at the higher levels of
mysticism. Therefore we are dealing with the middle category,
interior perception. For the visionary, this perception certainly
has the force of a presence, equivalent for that person to an
external manifestation to the senses.

Interior vision does not mean fantasy, which would be no more
than an expression of the subjective imagination. It means rather
that the soul is touched by something real, even if beyond the
senses. It is rendered capable of seeing that which is beyond the
senses, that which cannot be seen -- seeing by means of the
"interior senses". It involves true "objects", which touch the
soul, even if these "objects" do not belong to our habitual
sensory world. This is why there is a need for an interior
vigilance of the heart, which is usually precluded by the intense
pressure of external reality and of the images and thoughts which
fill the soul. The person is led beyond pure exteriority and is
touched by deeper dimensions of reality, which become visible to
him. Perhaps this explains why children tend to be the ones to
receive these apparitions: their souls are as yet little
disturbed, their interior powers of perception are still not
impaired. "On the lips of children and of babes you have found
praise", replies Jesus with a phrase of Psalm 8 (v. 3) to the
criticism of the High Priests and elders, who had judged the
children's cries of "hosanna" inappropriate (cf. Mt 21:16).

"Interior vision" is not fantasy but, as we have said, a true and
valid means of verification. But it also has its limitations.
Even in exterior vision the subjective element is always present.
We do not see the pure object, but it comes to us through the
filter of our senses, which carry out a work of translation. This
is still more evident in the case of interior vision, especially
when it involves realities which in themselves transcend our
horizon. The subject, the visionary, is still more powerfully
involved. He sees insofar as he is able, in the modes of
representation and consciousness available to him. In the case of
interior vision, the process of translation is even more
extensive than in exterior vision, for the subject shares in an
essential way in the formation of the image of what appears. He
can arrive  at the image only within the bounds of his capacities
and possibilities. Such visions therefore are never simple
"photographs" of the other world, but are influenced by the
potentialities and limitations of the perceiving subject.

This can be demonstrated in all the great visions of the saints;
and naturally it is also true of the visions of the children at
Fatima. The images described by them are by no means a simple
expression of their fantasy, but the result of a real perception
of a higher and interior origin. But neither should they be
thought of as if for a moment the veil of the other world were
drawn back, with heaven appearing in its pure essence, as one day
we hope to see it in our definitive union with God. Rather the
images are, in a manner of speaking, a synthesis of the impulse
coming from on high and the capacity to receive this impulse in
the visionaries, that is, the children. For this reason, the
figurative language of the visions is symbolic. In this regard,
Cardinal Sodano stated: "[they] do not describe photographically
the details of future events, but synthesize and compress against
a single background facts which extend through time in an
unspecified succession and duration". This compression of time
and place in a single image is typical of such visions, which for
the most part can be deciphered only in retrospect. Not every
element of the vision has to have a specific historical sense. It
is the vision as a whole that matters, and the details must be
understood on the basis of the images taken in their entirety.
The central element of the image is revealed where it coincides
with what is the focal point of Christian "prophecy" itself: the
centre is found where the vision becomes a summons and a guide to
the will of God.

An Attempt to Interpret the "Secret" of Fatima
The first and second parts of the "secret" of Fatima have already
been so amply discussed in the relative literature that there is
no need to deal with them again here. I would just like to recall
briefly the most significant point. For one terrible moment, the
children were given a vision of hell. They saw the fall of "the
souls of poor sinners". And now they are told why they have been
exposed to this moment: "in order to save souls" -- to show the
way to salvation. The words of the First Letter of Peter come to
mind: "As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of
your souls" (1:9). To reach this goal, the way indicated --
surprisingly for people from the Anglo-Saxon and German cultural
world -- is devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A brief
comment may suffice to explain this. In biblical language, the
"heart" indicates the centre of human life, the point where
reason, will, temperament and sensitivity converge, where the
person finds his unity and his interior orientation. According to
Matthew 5:8, the "immaculate heart" is a heart which, with God's
grace, has come to perfect interior unity and therefore "sees
God". To be "devoted" to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means
therefore to embrace this attitude of heart, which makes the fiat
-- "your will be done" -- the defining centre of one's whole
life. It might be objected that we should not place a human being
between ourselves and Christ. But then we remember that Paul did
not hesitate to say to his communities: "imitate me" (1 Cor 4:16;
Phil 3:17; 1 Th 1:6; 2 Th 3:7, 9). In the Apostle they could see
concretely what it meant to follow Christ. But from whom might we
better learn in every age than from the Mother of the Lord?

Thus we come finally to the third part of the "secret" of Fatima
which for the first time is being published in its entirety. As
is clear from the documentation presented here, the
interpretation offered by Cardinal Sodano in his statement of 13
May was first put personally to Sister Lucia. Sister Lucia
responded by pointing out that she had received the vision but
not its interpretation. The interpretation, she said, belonged
not to the visionary but to the Church. After reading the text,
however, she said that this interpretation corresponded to what
she had experienced and that on her part she thought the
interpretation correct. In what follows, therefore, we can only
attempt to provide a deeper foundation for this interpretation,
on the basis of the criteria already considered.

"To save souls" has emerged as the key word of the first and
second parts of the "secret", and the key word of this third part
is the threefold cry: "Penance, Penance, Penance!" The beginning
of the Gospel comes to mind: "Repent and believe the Good News"
(Mk 1:15). To understand the signs of the times means to accept
the urgency of penance  of conversion  of faith. This is the
correct response to this moment of history, characterized by the
grave perils outlined in the images that follow. Allow me to add
here a personal recollection: in a conversation with me Sister
Lucia said that it appeared ever more clearly to her that the
purpose of all the apparitions was to help people to grow more
and more in faith, hope and love -- everything else was intended
to lead to this.

Let us now examine more closely the single images. The angel with
the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls
similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the
threat of judgement which looms over the world. Today the
prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of
fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his
inventions, has forged the flaming sword. The vision then shows
the power which stands opposed to the force of destruction -- the
splendour of the Mother of God and, stemming from this in a
certain way, the summons to penance. In this way, the importance
of human freedom is underlined: the future is not in fact
unchangeably set, and the image which the children saw is in no
way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed.
Indeed, the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto
the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction. The
purpose of the vision is not to show a film of an irrevocably
fixed future. Its meaning is exactly the opposite: it is meant to
mobilize the forces of change in the right direction. Therefore
we must totally discount fatalistic explanations of the "secret",
such as, for example, the claim that the would-be assassin of 13
May 1981 was merely an instrument of the divine plan guided by
Providence and could not therefore have acted freely, or other
similar ideas in circulation. Rather, the vision speaks of
dangers and how we might be saved from them.

The next phrases of the text show very clearly once again the
symbolic character of the vision: God remains immeasurable, and
is the light which surpasses every vision of ours. Human persons
appear as in a mirror. We must always keep in mind the limits in
the vision itself, which here are indicated visually. The future
appears only "in a mirror dimly" (1 Cor 13:12). Let us now
consider the individual images which follow in the text of the
"secret". The place of the action is described in three symbols:
a steep mountain, a great city reduced to ruins and finally a
large rough-hewn cross. The mountain and city symbolize the arena
of human history: history as an arduous ascent to the summit,
history as the arena of human creativity and social harmony, but
at the same time a place of destruction, where man actually
destroys the fruits of his own work. The city can be the place of
communion and progress, but also of danger and the most extreme
menace. On the mountain stands the cross -- the goal and guide of
history. The cross transforms destruction into salvation; it
stands as a sign of history's misery but also as a promise for
history.

At this point human persons appear: the Bishop dressed in white
("we had the impression that it was the Holy Father"), other
Bishops, priests, men and women Religious, and men and women of
different ranks and social positions. The Pope seems to precede
the others, trembling and suffering because of all the horrors
around him. Not only do the houses of the city lie half in ruins,
but he makes his way among the corpses of the dead. The Church's
path is thus described as a Via Crucis, as a journey through a
time of violence, destruction and persecution. The history of an
entire century can be seen represented in this image. Just as the
places of the earth are synthetically described in the two images
of the mountain and the city, and are directed towards the cross,
so too time is presented in a compressed way. In the vision we
can recognize the last century as a century of martyrs, a century
of suffering and persecution for the Church, a century of World
Wars and the many local wars which filled the last fifty years
and have inflicted unprecedented forms of cruelty. In the
"mirror" of this vision we see passing before us the witnesses of
the faith decade by decade. Here it would be appropriate to
mention a phrase from the letter which Sister Lucia wrote to the
Holy Father on 12 May 1982: "The third part of the  secret'
refers to Our Lady's words:  If not, [Russia] 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 Via Crucis of an entire century, the figure of the Pope
has a special role. In his arduous ascent of the mountain we can
undoubtedly see a convergence of different Popes. Beginning from
Pius X up to the present Pope, they all shared the sufferings of
the century and strove to go forward through all the anguish
along the path which leads to the Cross. In the vision, the Pope
too is killed along with the martyrs. When, after the attempted
assassination on 13 May 1981, the Holy Father had the text of the
third part of the "secret" brought to him, was it not inevitable
that he should see in it his own fate? He had been very close to
death, and he himself explained his survival in the following
words: "... it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path
and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death" (13
May 1994). That here "a mother's hand" had deflected the fateful
bullet only shows once more that there is no immutable destiny,
that faith and prayer are forces which can influence history and
that in the end prayer is more powerful than bullets and faith
more powerful than armies.

The concluding part of the "secret" uses images which Lucia may
have seen in devotional books and which draw their inspiration
from long-standing intuitions of faith. It is a consoling vision,
which seeks to open a history of blood and tears to the healing
power of God. Beneath the arms of the cross angels gather up the
blood of the martyrs, and with it they give life to the souls
making their way to God. Here, the blood of Christ and the blood
of the martyrs are considered as one: the blood of the martyrs
runs down from the arms of the cross. The martyrs die in
communion with the Passion of Christ, and their death becomes one
with his. For the sake of the body of Christ, they complete what
is still lacking in his afflictions (cf. Col 1:24). Their life
has itself become a Eucharist, part of the mystery of the grain
of wheat which in dying yields abundant fruit. The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of Christians, said Tertullian. As from
Christ's death, from his wounded side, the Church was born, so
the death of the witnesses is fruitful for the future life of the
Church. Therefore, the vision of the third part of the "secret",
so distressing at first, concludes with an image of hope: no
suffering is in vain, and it is a suffering Church, a Church of
martyrs, which becomes a sign-post for man in his search for God.
The loving arms of God welcome not only those who suffer like
Lazarus, who found great solace there and mysteriously represents
Christ, who wished to become for us the poor Lazarus. There is
something more: from the suffering of the witnesses there comes a
purifying and renewing power, because their suffering is the
actualization of the suffering of Christ himself and a
communication in the here and now of its saving effect.

And so we come to the final question: What is the meaning of the
"secret" of Fatima as a whole (in its three parts)? What does it
say to us? First of all we must affirm with Cardinal Sodano: "...
the events to which the third part of the  secret' of Fatima
refers now seem part of the past". Insofar as individual events
are described, they belong to the past. Those who expected
exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or
the future course of history are bound to be disappointed. Fatima
does not satisfy our curiosity in this way, just as Christian
faith in general cannot be reduced to an object of mere
curiosity. What remains was already evident when we began our
reflections on the text of the "secret": the exhortation to
prayer as the path of "salvation for souls" and, likewise, the
summons to penance and conversion.

I would like finally to mention another key expression of the
"secret" which has become justly famous: "my Immaculate Heart
will triumph". What does this mean? The Heart open to God,
purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and
weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart,
has changed the history of the world, because it brought the
Saviour into the world -- because, thanks to her Yes, God could
become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One
has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he
has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away
from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus
steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose
evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word
that prevails is this: "In the world you will have tribulation,
but take heart; I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33). The
message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.

                                           Joseph Card. Ratzinger
                                     Prefect of the Congregation
                                  for the Doctrine of the Faith

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NOTES

(1) From the diary of John XXIII, 17 August 1959: "Audiences:
Father Philippe, Commissary of the Holy Office, who brought me
the letter containing the third part of the secrets of Fatima. I
intend to read it with my Confessor".

(2) The Holy Father's comment at the General Audience of 14
October 1981 on "What happened in May: A Great Divine Trial"
should be recalled: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, IV, 2
(Vatican City, 1981), 409-412.

(3) Radio message during the Ceremony of Veneration, Thanksgiving
and Entrustment to the Virgin Mary Theotokos in the Basilica of
Saint Mary Major: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, IV, 1
(Vatican City, 1981), 1246.

(4) On the Jubilee Day for Families, the Pope entrusted
individuals and nations to Our Lady: Insegnamenti di Giovanni
Paolo II, VII, 1 (Vatican City, 1984), 775-777.

(5) [Graphic of the text]

(6) In the "Fourth Memoir" of 8 December 1941 Sister Lucia
writes: "I shall begin then my new task, and thus fulfil the
commands received from Your Excellency as well as the desires of
Dr Galamba. With the exception of that part of the Secret which I
am not permitted to reveal at present, I shall say everything. I
shall not knowingly omit anything, though I suppose I may forget
just a few small details of minor importance".

(7) In the "Fourth Memoir" Sister Lucia adds: "In Portugal, the
dogma of the faith will always be preserved, etc. ...".

(8) In the translation, the original text has been respected,
even as regards the imprecise punctuation, which nevertheless
does not impede an understanding of what the visionary wished to
say.
(Official Translation)