"The
Lord is calling me 'out to the mountain' to devote more time to prayer and
meditation, but this does not mean I'm abandoning the Church."
--Pope Benedict XVI, in his final Sunday Angelus address as Pope, at
noon in St. Peter's Square, February 24, 2013
It was recently
announced that Benedict XVI will be "Pontiff emeritus [1]"
or "Pope emeritus", as Fr Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the
Holy See Press Office, reported in a press conference. He will keep the name of
"His Holiness, Benedict XVI" and will dress in a simple white
cassock.
Another report says it was suggested that he be called “Bishop Emeritus of Rome,” but adds that
Benedict XVI did not prefer that title. Despite the decision, it seems that the retired Pope
could be “a bishop dressed in white,” who was seen in “an immense light that is
God” during the Third Secret Vision at
Fatima. I’m not alone in that conjecture, since Mr. Robert Siscoe recently wrote
a short article on that very subject.
The Pope’s retirement has raised much speculation
about his “real” reasons, about who the next Pope will be or should be, and
loads of interjection about how we need a more liberal Pope – one who will
allow women priests, one who will redefine marriage, etc. As I wrote in my last
(blog) article, during all the media speculation over the Pope’s announcement, what
is not seriously considered is this one fact: Benedict XVI was the first and only pope to ascend the throne of
stewardship of the Catholic City already possessing full knowledge of the Third
Secret of Fatima. He has known this Secret for at least 29 years, if not
longer.
The Vatican website features this Third Secret Vision, including scanned graphics of
Lucia’s handwriting. After a somewhat lengthy introduction, including the
personal theological interpretations of what the Secret may mean (interpretations
which are not binding on the Church, as Cardinal Ratzinger also stated), the
document “The Message of Fatima” finally reaches the Third Secret, for which the
Church and the world long-awaited. However, a careful perusal of the Vatican document
reveals that a pertinent line is missing, which is the Virgin’s introductory
sentence to the Third Secret: “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always
be preserved, ETC.”
An
Immense Light that is God
By not including all that Our Lady said as She
revealed the Third Secret, what the Vatican ultimately released is only the description of what the three children
saw. In all of my articles, then, I inevitably refer to it as the Third Secret Vision. (To explain in the simplest of
terms: In an Apparition, the heavenly visitor speaks. In a Vision, something
supernatural is seen but no words are heard.) This alleged lack of the Virgin Mary’s
words, which would explain the Third Secret Vision, is the subject of ongoing debate.
For example, immediately following the Vision of Hell, Our Lady spoke of it, even though the
children grasped what they were seeing. In addition, Our Lady offered
a spiritual solution to help poor sinners avoid the fires of hell – and that
solution is devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.
It is therefore beyond the scope of reason to
accept that Our Lady did not further elucidate upon a very disturbing Vision of an
angel with a flaming sword, the lines of people from all walks of life
ascending a steep mountain, the half-ruined city, a bishop dressed in white
(who may or may not be a reigning pope), a cross made as of a cork-tree bark,
the soldiers with guns and arrows, etc.
Furthermore, the Virgin’s words about “the dogma of
the Faith” and Portugal (although evident in meaning) also need further
clarification, which had to be given in words since Sr. Lucia ended that
sentence with “etc.” The Third Secret Vision, in itself, does not qualify as a continuation,
and it is quite clear that something is missing from the following sentence
uttered by Our Lady: “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be
preserved, etc.”
With that said, the following is taken verbatim
from the English version on the Vatican website (all bolded words are my
emphasis):
“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. “
Is Pope Benedict XVI the one seen in the Third
Secret, “a bishop dressed in white”? This past Sunday, after Mass, my family
and I discussed this very topic. I freely admit I’ve always wondered at the
punctuation of this sentence, and I’ve discussed it with many people, including
other Catholic writers.
Since June 2000, I’ve seen this sentence published
with either quote marks or parentheses surrounding the words, as follows: “we thought it was the Holy Father” or [We
thought it was the Holy Father]. The Vatican translation has the sentence rendered
‘we had the impression it was the Holy Father’ as though it is a quote within a
quote. If that is the case, who is being quoted? Scholars like to point out that Lucia
sometimes made errors in punctuation, since she didn’t learn to read and write
until she was in her teens. Be that as it may, she did not make such glaring
errors when writing the first Two Secrets. In the Vatican's description of the Third
Secret Vision, the changing structure of punctuation (since its release in
2000) is definitely unusual, bringing questions to one’s mind. Why was the
punctuation changed over the years, using quotes inside quotes and other times
using parentheses? “Who” thought the bishop in white was the Holy Father? The
three shepherd children or a group of clerics who much later read this
description of the Third Secret Vision and added the sentence as their own note?
After all, Lucia and her cousins recognized the
Holy Father in their vision. By the time she wrote the Third Secret Vision (in
1944), there is good reason to believe that Sister Lucia definitely knew
whether or not “who” she saw as a 10
year old child was a bishop or the Holy Father. During the time of the Fatima
apparitions, the children did not know that the Holy Father was also called “Pope,”
until one day a priest taught them to pray for the Pope; it was then that they
learned “the Holy Father” and “the Pope” were one and the same person.
In addition, Blessed Jacinta was granted at least
two visions of “the Holy Father” which her cousin Lucia and her brother
Francisco did not see. Her visions, as later recorded by Lucia, are further
evidence that the children recognized a particular “Holy Father.” Jacinta’s
vision also proves that there are words to the Third Secret and that a future
Holy Father (who may or may not be the same person as “a bishop dressed in
white”) is a part of the Third Secret.
In her
memoirs (written under obedience), Sr. Lucia wrote:
One day we spent our siesta
down by my parents’ well. Jacinta sat on the stone slab on top of the well.
Francisco and I climbed up on a steep bank in search of wild honey among the
brambles in a nearby thicket. After a little while, Jacinta called out to me:
"Didn’t you see the Holy
Father?"
"No."
"I don’t know how it was, but I saw the Holy Father in a very big
house, kneeling by a table, with his heard buried in his hands, and he was
weeping. Outside the house, there were many people. Some of them were throwing
stones, others were cursing him and using bad language. Poor Holy Father, we
must pray very much for him."
In this letter to her bishop, Lucia
immediately continues:
“I have already told you how, one
day, two priests recommended to us to pray
for the Holy Father, and explained
to us who the Pope was. Afterwards,
Jacinta asked me:
"Is he the one I saw weeping, the one Our
Lady told us about in the secret? "
"Yes, he is," I answered.
"The Lady must surely have
shown him also to those priests. You see, I wasn’t mistaken. We need to pray a
lot for him."
At another time, we went to the cave
called Lapa do Cabeco. As soon as we got there, we prostrated on the ground,
saying the prayers the Angel taught us. After some time, Jacinta stood up and
called to me:
"Can’t you see all those highways
and roads and fields full of people, who are crying with hunger and have
nothing to eat? And the Holy Father in a church praying before the Immaculate
Heart of Mary? And so many people praying with him?"
Some days later, she asked me:
"Can I say that I saw the Holy Father and
all those people?"
"No. Don’t you see that’s part of the secret? If
you do, they’ll find out right away."
"All right! Then I’ll say
nothing at all."
The Third
Secret Vision
To return to the Third Secret Vision as the Vatican supplied it in 2000, nothing of what Jacinta later saw is mentioned or addressed in any way. Yet Lucia wrote, years ago in her memoirs, that Jacinta's vision - of highways, roads, and fields, all full of people crying with hunger, and the Holy Father praying in a church before the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with so many people praying with him - is "part of the secret." So, as we read the description, it must be realized that every word
of this vision is important, as are the missing text of Our Lady's words that clarified or explained it. Before any mention of a bishop dressed in white, it is
clear that some great devastation will occur. An angel appears with a flaming sword –
but that is usually overlooked. In the Holy Scriptures, a sword is a sign of
God’s justice. It is the sign of a chastisement, a punishment, to correct an
erring nation or the world. The Virgin Mary deflects him with light from her
right hand, and so he cries out, three times, in a loud voice (so like the
voices in the Apocalypse): “Penance! Penance! Penance!”
Recalling Pope St. Pius X’s prophecy about one of
his successors “by name,” one of my earlier (2008) articles Fatima and the Great Et Cetera: Traces of the Third Secret Message
already made the connection between the fate of a pope (possibly
Benedict XVI) and the Third Secret. After describing St. John Bosco’s famous
dream of a ship and two columns in the sea, my article continued:
“The fate of a future pope was also related by none other than Pope
St. Pius X: ‘I saw
one of my successors by name fleeing over the corpses of
his brethren. He will flee to a place for a short respite where he is unknown;
but he himself will die a cruel death.’ ”
“In the Third Secret Vision, the pope walks ‘half trembling and with halting step,’ indicating advanced age. As for Pope St. Pius X’s vision, it may be that a future pope will take the name of Pius, but there is another consideration, which may or may not be of significance: Pope St. Pius X’s baptismal name was Giuseppe Sarto; in Italian, Giuseppe means Joseph – the baptismal name of Pope Benedict XVI.’”
“In the Third Secret Vision, the pope walks ‘half trembling and with halting step,’ indicating advanced age. As for Pope St. Pius X’s vision, it may be that a future pope will take the name of Pius, but there is another consideration, which may or may not be of significance: Pope St. Pius X’s baptismal name was Giuseppe Sarto; in Italian, Giuseppe means Joseph – the baptismal name of Pope Benedict XVI.’”
“What I have seen is
terrifying! Will I be the one, or will it be a successor? What is certain is
that the Pope will leave Rome and, in leaving the Vatican, he will have to pass
over the dead bodies of his priests!”
As I stated earlier, it was announced a few days
ago that, after his formal abdication, Benedict XVI will dress in a white
cassock, which is part of the usual attire of a pope. He will, however, forego
the red shoes (sign of the martyred fisherman, St. Peter, the first pope). Now,
since Pope Benedict XVI is abdicating, Fatima – specifically, the Third Secret
of Fatima – is attracting some attention. But is it attracting the right kind
of attention?
It must be repeated: Pope Benedict XV knows “all”
of the unreleased details of
the Third Secret of Fatima. As Cardinal Ratzinger, he revealed the Six Themes ofthe Third Secret of Fatima.
When he became pope, he made a universal plea to pray for him so that he would not
flee from fear of wolves. In May 2010, the Pope momentarily revealed that the Third Secret is spoken, words that (for whatever reasons) the mainstream media in the U.S. mis-translated
from the original Italian report.
Since announcing his abdication, Benedict XVI has
made other remarks that make one wonder. In his final Sunday Angelus homily,
the Pope mentioned a “mountain” - “The Lord is calling me 'out to the mountain' to devote more time to prayer and meditation, but this does not mean
I'm abandoning the Church.”
These words seem almost
prophetic, considering that “a bishop dressed in white” makes his painful way
to the top of a mountain and there kneels before a great Cross, only to be killed;
however, before he even reaches this mountain, he was preceded by “[o]ther Bishops,
Priests, men and women Religious going up a
steep mountain.”
Specifically, many people from all walks of life were
ascending the mountain before “a
bishop dressed in white,” who is still making his way through the half-ruined
city. After he reaches the summit, he is killed by guns and arrows. Those who
were already ascending the mountain before
the bishop then die: “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.”
Sobering. That’s the only way to describe this Vision of the
Third Secret. In no way does it seem symbolic, as so many try to claim but rather, it seems literal. Everything else Our Lady of Fatima said (or showed) was literal and all of it (except the Third Secret Vision, which may include "the annihilation of nations") literally came to pass. Perhaps the reason why people are so fascinated by “a bishop
dressed in white” is because the Third Secret of Fatima still intrigues our minds.
Somehow we know that, despite all the claims to the contrary, Fatima is not finished.
It is not a matter of the past.
Pope Benedict XVI knows this to be true. After
all, he knows the entire Third Secret; it is he who said that Fatima’s
prophetic mission is not complete. Whatever the Third Secret fully reveals
might greatly contribute to the reason(s) that he is abdicating. We cannot be certain of that, just as we
cannot be certain that Benedict will be the bishop in white. However, we cannot
deny the coincidences: In the year 2013 (just four years before the centenary of
the Fatima apparitions), an aged pope who has long known the entire Third
Secret of Fatima, who shares with Pope St. Pius X the baptismal name of “Joseph,”
announced his retirement. He will remain in the Vatican, living a reclusive
life of prayer and sacrifice (which makes one think also of the spiritual
ascent of Mt. Carmel), and he will dress in white.
What we do know is that God is immutable – i.e., He doesn’t
change, and His Will and His decisions are unalterable. The same can be said of
His angels, which explains why Lucifer and the fallen angels can never again be
holy or reign with God in Heaven. Their places are forever lost but they are to
be filled up with human beings who live the life of saints. On the other hand, Hell
eagerly awaits us, wishing to take our souls which rightfully belong to God. It is the place “where poor sinners go,” as
Our Lady of Fatima said of it.
What the Fatima Virgin requested is the will of God. If those
requests are not heeded – if people do not stop offending God and repent of
their sins and stay on the “strait and narrow” path, if the future pope does
not obey Our Lady of Fatima by commanding the bishops to join him in the
collegial consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, if he does not
promulgate the Five First Saturdays of Reparation throughout the world - the
Third Secret Vision will become the reality of the very-near future.
[1] Retired and holding an honorary title. That’s the definition of “emeritus”
in my older copy of the Oxford American Dictionary.
