The poignant Secret of Sister Lucy
by
A. Daniele
Pope Pius XII was aware of the crucial hour mankind was approaching concerning the integrity of the spiritual man, as he was created by God: "The dangers which weigh on mankind are such that We must never cease to sound our cry of alarm. The enemy is at the gates of the Church and threatens souls." (8 Dec. 53). The alarm of the Pope in the Fifties corresponded closely to what Sister Lucy had heard from Our Lady in that same period.
However, one need look no further than the “case” of Fr. Agostinho Fuentes, to realize how the alert about such risk of no return was completely dismissed by the new hierarchy.
In spite of the fact that the alert was recurrent in the Message of Fatima, its dismissing was done with the passive involvement of the Sister herself. In fact, there are sound reasons to believe that Lucy of Fatima, from 1958 onwards, was a victim of a deep moral grief due to the loathsome way the Message of Our Lady was dealt with, a course involving her conscience. This new phase began when she, very afflicted, received the prestigious Mexican Priest Agostinho Fuentes, postulator of the cause of canonization of the little shepherds of Fatima. The interview took place on December 26, 1957, in her cloistered convent of Coimbra. Sister Lucy received the Father communicating to him her meditated concerns on what Our Lady let her know about the crucial hour to come.
The Priest, impressed by her description of the imminent final attack against the Church by its eternal Enemy, went to the Bishop of Leiria in order to know if that apocalyptic prediction was to be published. Mgr. Venâncio had no doubt about authorizing it.
Upon his return to Mexico, with this authorization as well as that of his Archbishop of Hermosillo, the Priest gave a lecture on May 22, 1958, in which he spoke of his meeting with the seer of Fatima. His account of the interview later on was published in full in Spanish and in English and spread throughout the world with the above mentioned endorsement and every guarantee of authenticity. The priest related how Sister Lucy was extremely sad when she received him – she was thin and very troubled and spoke of her concerns as follows: "The Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one heeds her message, neither the good nor the bad… Father, the devil is carrying on a decisive battle with the Virgin Mary… He wants to get hold of consecrated souls… dragging many souls to Hell."
Sister Lucy continued: "Let us not expect the Holy Father to make a general summons to do penance, nor let us expect a general summons from our bishops and our religious superiors. Let each one begin with his own spiritual reform, a personal responsibility towards God.
In this report the Mexican priest also speaks about the personal sufferings of Pius XII, which may regard closely the Third Secret as a vision of the Pope’s “putting to death”: the symbolic end of Catholic papacy.
After Pius XII’s death, all pontifical warnings suddenly ceased when Angelo Roncalli assumed the nomenclature of pope in 1958, assuming the name of the antipope John XXIII. He called for the council Vatican II, inaugurated under the slogan: - lets be finished with “prophets of doom”! No wonder that the interview of Lucy with Fr. Fuentes was blamed for creating alarm about what would take place in 1960. At this point the Bishop of Coimbra intervened with an official statement which condemned the "campaign of prophecies which provoke a storm of ridicule" and imposed on Sister Lucy to recant publicly that interview.
The Fatima Seer, under a confused concept of obedience, recanted it but, considering the gravity of that issue, it is impossible not to imagine that such a submission has forever wounded her inner conscience.
A trait of false prophets: to dismiss the “prophets of doom”
The grief caused by the recantation of the Fatima Seer in 1959 also struck Fr. Fuentes who was dismissed from his function of postulator and, deeply mortified, died a few years later.
Yet the religious scene described in that interview soon proved to be only an outline of what was to actually happen: a transform¬ation of the Church after Pius XII which led the clerical life to a rapid and dreadful degeneration. Thousands of priests left the Church (80 thousand according to Cardinal Silvio Oddi, who was Prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy). For the Catholic conscience of persons like Sister Lucy commenced a Via Crucis of the veto imposed by the new “superiors” against traditional Catholic witness.
Examples of how the present Vatican employs its influence to erode the Catholic conscience abound - but for the sake of brevity let us recall but one instance.
In 1962, Father Bugnini, later to be disgraced as a mason, presented his schema for the reformed liturgy to the Liturgical Preparatory Commission. Its president, the old Cardinal Gaetano Cicognani, realizing the dangers implicit in certain passages, refused to approve it. Knowing that, without the cardinal’s signature, the schema would be doomed, Bugnini sought the assistance of John XXIII, who intervened. He called for Cardinal Amleto Cicognani, his Secretary of State and the younger brother of the President of that Commission, and told him to visit his brother and not return until the schema had been signed. The Cardinal complied with this order. His elder brother was almost in tears when forced to sign the schema against his conscience. Four days later he died!
In a short while the Catholic Mass was reduced to a Protestant reunion.
In a letter to Sister Lucy in 1998 I enumerated five stages of the abuse of authority to force her compliancy with the “new course”. The first was the described imposition on the Sister to recant what she had communicated to Fr. Fuentes at the end of 1957.
The second was to accept reverently the words of refusal with which John XXIII in 1959 put a final censorship on the Third Secret.
Thirdly, the acceptance of Paul VI’s refusal in 1967 to hear the Seer at Fatima regarding Our Lady’s requests. Paul VI had time for everybody, from members of Masonry to Lollobrigida, not for Lucy.
Fourth, the acceptance in 1988 of Vatican instructions to consider the consecration of the world made by John Paul II on March 25, 1984, as the demanded consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; an issue which for the Vatican has to be considered closed, in order “not to disturb the Pope any more”.
Fifth, the request addressed to Sister Lucy to recant what she had said in two interviews with cardinals in 1992/3 about the conversion of Mr. Gorbachev, who was reported to have knelt in front of John Paul II, asking pardon for his sins; something that only Wojtyla himself could have described on the occasion of his private reunion with Lucy at Fatima (May 13, 1991).
At this point I know as a fact that, connected or not with the questions exposed in my letter that have deeply troubled her, Sister Lucy reacted saying that she would not fall again into the forced recantation of the predictions of Our Lady communicated by her to Fr. Fuentes. In that occasion the old Sister refused to obey and ignored that request, convinced that it was up to the person who invented the conversion of the Soviet leader (and of Russia) to admit such a deceit.
Remains the fact that the previous obedience of Lucy, unmindful of the truth, is without virtue. Yet, above all, what Catholics must witness is that an “authority” which is not based on truth, not reverent to virtue nor respectful of consciences is not from God. The new hierarchy aims at applause and conciliation with the world, forgetting that: “Woe to you when men praise you; for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets!” (Lk. 6:26)
Appendix I
Prayer of St. Augustine at the death of his mother St. Monica
Laying aside for a while her good deeds, for which I give thanks to Thee, God of my heart, my praise and my life, I do now beseech Thee for the sins of my mother. Hearken unto me, I entreat Thee by the Healer of our wounds, Who hung upon the tree, and now sitting at Thy right hand, maketh intercession to Thee for us. I know that she dealt mercifully and from her heart and forgave her debtors their debts; do Thou also forgive her whatever she may contract in so many years since the water of salvation had cleansed her. Forgive her, Lord, forgive, I beseech Thee. Enter not into judgement with her. Let Thy mercy be exalted above Thy justice; for Thy words are true and Thou has promised mercy unto the merciful... (Confessions. Bk. IX, 10-13)
Appendix II
FATIMA (ASSEZ D’AGGIORNAMENTI)
Forts dans la Foi 35, S. 159 F.
trad. por Dr. Ambros Kocher, Staatsarchivar
Será famosa la tenacidad cómplice del silencio que en este tiempo carismático esfumó a la verdadera voz sobrenatural. Casi nadie que esté al corriente de los hechos sabe lo que Lucía de Fátima le dijo al Padre Agostino Fuentes, promotor en la cuestión de la beatificación de Jacinta y de Francisco, cuando en el año 1958 fue a Coimbra a interrogarla. A principio del año 1959 la revista española La Inmaculada, en el número de enero-febrero publica un informe de acuerdo con una carta del Padre Fuentes. A causa de esto, el Padre Fuentes fue en el acto apartado de su oficio. El texto literalmente es el siguiente: “Padre, la Virgen está muy descontenta, sobre todo, por que no se ha hecho ningún caso de su mensaje de 1913… me creo, Padre, que el Señor en breve va a castigar al mundo. Comunique esto Padre, diga que el Diablo está en la idea de dar la batalla decisiva contra la Virgen. Lo que al inmaculado Corazón de María y al Corazón de Jesús aflige, es la caída de las almas de los religiosos y de los sacerdotes. El sabe que los religiosos, los sacerdotes olvidaron su excelsa vocación y por ello arrastran muchas almas al infierno. Apenas tenemos tiempo para evitar el castigo del cielo. Dependen de nosotros dos medios eficaces para evitarlo: oración y sacrificio. El Diablo facilita mucho a nosotros la alegría a los fines de alejarnos de la oración, nosotros debemos protegernos o todos seremos condenados. Pero, Padre mío, es necesario declarar al mundo que no se debe confiar en un llamado a la mortificación y a la oración ni de los papas, ni de los obispos, ni de los sacerdotes, ni de los superiores: la hora se acerca para todos y para cada uno de nosotros incluso para tomar la iniciativa de realizar obras buenas y mejorar el modo de vivir a los fines de corresponder a las advertencias de la Virgen. –El Diablo quiere apoderarse de las almas consagradas : El intenta corromperlas a los fines de conducirnos a todos definitivamente a la impenitencia. El está provisto de toda la astucia, con ella el Diablo anda cómodo motivando a que la vida religiosa se adecue al sabor de los tiempos…> La Virgen ha dicho terminantemente: “Se nos acerca el último día” y a eso me lo ha repetido tres veces. La primera vez me dijo que el Diablo ha emprendido la lucha decisiva, es decir, su lucha final, en la que uno de los dos quedará como vencido o vencedor: O estamos con Dios o con el Diablo…La tercera vez me dijo, que después de que los otros remedios sean despreciados y agotados por los hombres, temblando nos dará a nosotros la última áncora de salvación, la propia bienaventurada Virgen nos dará el testimonio de su llanto y de sus mensajes dispersos por el mundo. La Virgen me dijo, que, cuando no se la escuche e incluso a continuación se la injurie, ningún perdón podremos ya encontrar. (La segunda vez me repitió el último remedio para el mundo: el Rosario y la adoración al Inmaculado Corazón de María. El ‘último’ significa que no hay ninguno mas.> “Padre, me dijo Lucía”, “es urgente, que nosotros nos demos cuenta de la horrible realidad. Después de que la bienaventurada Virgen le otorgara al Rosario tan grande eficacia, no existe ningún problema material o espiritual o de nivel nacional o internacional que no se pueda aliviar, con ayuda del Rosario y de nuestro sacrificio.”> (Einsicht Nr. 3, 5. Jahrgang vom August 1975, S. 152 f.)> (Einsicht Nr. 3, Año 5 Agosto de 1975, Página 152 f.)> XXXVII - 163 -> Einsicht Año 37, Número 5 Octubre 2007> Traducción del alemán: Hugo Enrique Córdoba Aliaga>
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