The Fatima

Timeline
 The Fatima Timeline
Introduction
What follows is a timeline that relates, in condensed fashion, key
events in the long saga that began with the apparitions of the Mother of
God at Fatima in 1917, when She confided to three shepherd children—
Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco—a profound message, a dire warning, and
a glorious promise to the Church and all of humanity. The saga of Fatima
continues today, and now appears to be entering its final chapter.
But why, one might ask, should anyone care about this so-called
“private apparition?” The answer is that it is not private, but rather
concerns every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. As Pope
John Paul II told us, the Message of Fatima “is addressed to every human
being.” (Homily at Fatima, May 13, 1982). Speaking also at Fatima, Pope
Benedict XVI declared in 2010: “He deceives himself who thinks that the
prophetic mission of Fatima is concluded.”
And what is this prophetic mission? Nothing less than the salvation
of millions of souls and the avoidance of a worldwide divine chastisement
whose results are seen in that part of the Third Secret of Fatima the
Vatican published in 2000: the vision of a future Pope being executed on
a hill outside a devastated city filled with corpses.
“If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will
be peace.” So the Blessed Virgin promised at Fatima if the Pope and the
bishops would consecrate that nation to Her Immaculate Heart. But, nearly
a hundred years later, this has yet to be done, and we face the consequences
of failing to heed the Virgin’s request: “if not, she [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.”
Various nations will be annihilated! Not merely conquered or ravaged
by war, which is bad enough, but rather wiped off the face of the earth.
Let no one think that the end of World War II meant the end of world
war. “Even today, after the second failure of another world war,” said
Pope Francis a year ago, “perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought

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piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction.”
But not even this constitutes the annihilation of nations, and many—
even non-believers—have recognized that the world seems to be on the
brink of just such a catastrophe.
Why should anyone care about the Message of Fatima? Pope John Paul
II, speaking at Fatima in 1982, gave the definitive answer to that question:
“Our Lady’s message at Fatima remains ever relevant. It is still more
relevant than it was 65 years ago. It is still more urgent.”
“The successor of Peter presents himself here also as a witness to the
immensity of human suffering, a witness to the almost apocalyptic menaces
looming over the nations and mankind as a whole.”
If you care about the fate of the world, your nation, your community,
your family, and yourself, then what follows is essential reading. As
the Mother of God herself declared at Fatima, it is only by heeding
Her request that the glorious
promise She made to the
Church and the world will be
fulfilled:
“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.”
In the end, yes, Our Lady’s
Immaculate Heart will triumph.
But whether the world avoids
the great chastisement of the
annihilation of nations depends
upon when Her request for
the Consecration of Russia is
“Make it known to My ministers that heeded in time.
given they follow the example of the
He does indeed deceive
King of France in delaying the execution
of My request, they will follow him into himself who thinks the
misfortune. It will never be too late to prophetic mission of Fatima is
have recourse to Jesus and Mary.” concluded.

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 The Fatima Timeline
(1916 – 2015)
1916: Heaven Prepares the Three Seers for the Apparitions of
Our Lady.

• The three shepherd children of Fatima—Lucia dos Santos and

her two cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto—are visited three
times by the Angel of Portugal, also identified as St. Michael, the
“Angel of Peace.”

1917: The Apparitions, including the Great Secret and Our

Lady’s Request for the Consecration of Russia.

• May 13: Our Lady appears to the three children at the Cova da
Iria, a large open field outside the village of Fatima, to ask that
they return for five months in succession, on the 13th day of each
month, at the same hour. At each apparition, Our Lady requested
that the Rosary be prayed every day to obtain peace in the world.
• June 13: Our Lady tells the children that God wishes to establish
in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. About fifty people
are present at the Cova da Iria at the time of this apparition.
• July 13: Our Lady, with approximately 5,000 people present in
the Cova, confides to the children a Great Secret in three parts:
o The first part is a vision of hell: “You have seen Hell, where the
souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wills to establish
in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart.”

o The second part is a detailed prophecy of events that will occur

if the Pope and the bishops of the world do not perform a
public and solemn ceremony of the Consecration of Russia to
the Immaculate Heart. Our Lady promises to return at a future
date to request this Act of Consecration and the Communion of
Reparation to Her Immaculate Heart.

o The prophesied events include: the Second World War (which

Our Lady warns will erupt during the reign of Pius XI, who had

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 not yet been elected), the spread of Russia’s errors throughout the
world (including communism, which had not yet been imposed
by the Bolsheviks), persecutions of the Church, the martyrdom
of the good, the suffering of the Holy Father, and ultimately the
annihilation of “various nations.”

o Our Lady promises, however, that if Her request is granted

Russia will be converted, many souls will be saved, “and a period
of peace will be granted to the world.” Ultimately, She further
promises, “the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me” and “My
Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

o The third part, commonly known as the Third Secret, involves

the vision of a post-apocalyptic world in which a future Pope is
executed on a hill before a cross outside a devastated city along
with priests, bishops, religious and members of the laity. [The
text concerning the vision would be published on June 26, 2000,
but the words of the Virgin explaining its precise meaning (as
She had explained the vision of Hell) and its historical context
have yet to be revealed. Sister Lucia’s Fourth memoir, however,
will reveal that the Virgin’s explanation begins with the words:
“In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,” to
which Lucia added “etc” in order to indicate the rest of a yet-to-
be-revealed prophecy concerning a crisis of Faith in the Church
outside of Portugal accompanied by the apocalyptic outcome
depicted in the vision.]

o On this occasion Our Lady promises Lucia that She will return in
October and, in answer to Lucia`s request, will perform a public
miracle in order to demonstrate the veracity of Her apparitions.

• October 13: After Her apparitions in August and September, Our

Lady returns to produce the promised miracle, along with this
warning: “People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their
sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more for He is already
too much offended.” She tells us to continue to pray the Rosary
every day. Some 70,000 people, gathered in the Cova during a
driving rain, witness the Miracle of the Sun: the rain suddenly stops;
the clouds disappear; and then the sun twirls in the sky, throws off
vivid colors, and plunges toward the terrified crowd, instantly drying
soaked clothing and the ankle deep mud covering the ground. Many
were cured of diseases on the spot, many more converted to the
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 A photograph of part of the 70,000 witnesses as they are actually
observing the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima on October 13, 1917.

Catholic Faith. Even atheists and anticlerical news reporters, present

to scoff at the event, admit that the miracle occurred. Nothing like
this miracle, announced in advance, has ever occurred in the history
of the world.

1925: Our Lady Returns to Announce the Five First Saturdays

• December 10: The Blessed Virgin Mary fulfills Her promise

to Lucia and returns in an apparition to Lucia in her convent
cell and requested the Communion of Reparation of the First
Saturdays. Our Lady said:

“... announce in My name that I promise to assist at the

moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salva-
tion, all those who, on the First Saturday of five consecutive
months shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five
decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen
minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Ro-
sary, with the intention of making Reparation to Me.”
• At the same time, the Child Jesus accompanies the Blessed
Virgin and pleads for us to make reparation to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary.

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Our Lady returned to Sister Lucy at Pontevedra on December 10, 1925 as She
promised at Fatima that She would. She came to ask for the Communion of
Reparation on the Five First Saturdays. She promised eternal salvation for
Catholics who fulfill Her Five First Saturday requests.
1926: A New Apparition of the Child Jesus

• February 15: While emptying a garbage can outside the convent

garden, Lucia sees the Child Jesus. Once she recognized that it was
Jesus, she said to Him:

“My Jesus! You know what my confessor said to me

in the letter I read You. He said that this vision had to be
repeated; there had to be facts permitting us to believe it,
and that the Mother Superior alone could not spread this
devotion.”

“It is true that the Mother Superior alone can do noth-

ing, but with My grace, she can do everything. It is enough
that your confessor gives you permission, and that your
superior announce this for it to be believed by the people,
even if they do not know to whom it was revealed.”

“But my confessor said in his letter that this devotion

already exists in the world, because many souls receive You
every first Saturday of the month in honor of Our Lady and
recite the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.”

“It is true, My daughter, that many souls begin, but

few persevere to the very end, and those who persevere do
it to receive the graces promised. The souls who make the
Five First Saturdays with fervor and to make Reparation
to the Heart of your Heavenly Mother, please Me more
than those who make fifteen, but are lukewarm and indif-
ferent.”

“My Jesus! Many souls find it difficult to confess on

Saturday. Will You allow a confession within eight days to
be valid?”

“Yes. It can even be made later on, provided that the

souls are in the state of grace when they receive Me on the

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 first Saturday, and that they have the intention of making
Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

“My Jesus! And those who forget to form this inten-

tion?”

“They can form it at the next confession, taking ad-

vantage of their first opportunity to go to confession.”

1929: Our Lady Returns to Request the Consecration of Russia

• June 13, in fulfillment of Her promise during the apparition of

July 13, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima appears to Sister Lucy at Tuy,
Spain, along with the visible presence of the Most Holy Trinity, and
tells Lucia: “The moment has come in which God asks of the Holy
Father to make, and to order that in union with him and at the same
time all the bishops of the world make, the consecration of Russia
to My Immaculate Heart,” promising to convert it because of this
day of prayer and worldwide reparation.

1931: Our Lord warns of the consequences of failing to perform

the Consecration.

• August: Jesus speaks to Sister Lucia and issues this warning to the
Church’s hierarchy regarding failure to perform the Consecration
of Russia that God Himself commanded through the Blessed Virgin
Mary two years earlier: “Make it known to My ministers, given
that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the
execution of My command, they will follow him into misfortune.”
Our Lord here refers to the execution of Louis XVI by the soldiers
of the French Revolution, following the century-long failure of
the French kings to heed His request (to Saint Margaret Mary
Alacoque) for the Consecration of France to His Sacred Heart. Our
Lord thus warns of a fate like the one depicted by the vision that
will be published in 2000 (but without the explanatory words of the
Virgin) in which a Pope, bishops, priests, religious and lay people
are likewise executed outside the devastated city.

1941: Sister Lucia records the Great Secret, including the

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 The Vision of Tuy, June 13, 1929

beginning of the third part (Third Secret) in her Memoirs.

• August 31: In Lucia’s Third Memoir she records the first two parts
of the Great Secret.
• December 8: In Lucia’s Fourth Memoir, the first two parts are
recorded again, with the addition of Our Lady’s mysterious
interrupted reference to Portugal and the dogma of the Faith, after
which Lucia writes, “Here begins the Third Secret.”

1942: Pius XII attempts to comply with Our Lady’s request for
the Consecration.

• October 31: Pope Pius XII, acting alone and on the basis of
inaccurate information about what Our Lady requested, consecrates

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 the world, but not Russia specifically, to the Immaculate Heart. The
bishops do not participate.
• December 8: Pius XII repeats the same ceremony, again without
the participation of the bishops. Our Lord tells Sister Lucy that
because of this World War II will be shortened, but that world peace
will not result as Russia has not been consecrated to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary and consequently converted. World peace is reserved
only to the proper Consecration of Russia.

1943: The Bishop of Fatima commands Lucia to write down the

Third Secret.

• October: After a month of prayer and reflection, the Bishop of

Fatima, His Excellency José da Silva, gives Sister Lucy a formal,
written order to write down the Third Secret. Sister Lucy tries to
obey immediately, but for over two months is mysteriously unable
to do so, evidently because the contents are so terrifying that she
cannot bear to commit them to paper.

1944: Our Lady directs Lucia to obey the Bishop’s command to

reveal the Secret.

• January 2: Our Lady appears to Sister Lucy in the convent

infirmary and bids her to write down the Third Secret. Our Lady
expressly orders that the Secret be revealed to the world not later
than 1960. When later asked why 1960, Sister Lucy states: “Because
the Blessed Virgin wishes it so,” and “It will be clearer then.”
• January 3: Our Lady speaks to Sister Lucia in the convent chapel
and directs her to write down part of the Secret on this day because
Sister Lucia did not know where to start. For more information
about this intervention of Our Lady, see the entry for August 17,
2014 on page 44.
• January 9: Sister Lucy commits two related texts of the Third
Secret to paper by this date. One text, spanning 62 lines on four
pages of notebook paper, presents the vision the Vatican will
publish in 2000. The other, comprising 25 lines on a single page, as
attested by Bishop Dom João Venancio, and much later by Cardinal
Ottaviani, has yet to be revealed. The Secret in toto is contained
in two sealed envelopes of differing dimensions, on each of which

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 Sister Lucia writes: “By express order of Our Lady, this envelope
can only be opened in 1960 by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon or
the Bishop of Leiria.”
• June 17: The entire Third Secret is personally delivered by Sister
Lucy to her confessor, the Bishop of Gurza, Dom Manuel María
Ferreira da Silva, as she would not let anyone but a fellow bishop
deliver it to the Bishop of Fatima. Bishop Ferreira da Silva delivers
the Third Secret on that same day to the Bishop of Fatima, Dom
José Correia da Silva.

1949: The Whole World Awaits the Third Secret

• January 3: A photograph of Bishop José da Silva posing in front

of the 25-line text of the Third Secret, which is enclosed in the
bishop’s own outer envelope, appears in Life magazine.

1952: Our Lady is Still Awaiting the Consecration; Pius XII tries
again.

• May: Our Lady appears to Sister Lucy saying: “Make it known

to the Holy Father that I am always awaiting the Consecration of
Russia to My Immaculate Heart. Without the Consecration, Russia
will not be able to convert, nor will the world have peace.”
• July 7: Pope Pius XII consecrates Russia specifically in an
apostolic letter called Sacro vergente anno, but only as a written
exhortation. He does not ask for all the bishops to join him
in keeping with Our Lady’s request for a public ceremony
conducted by the Pope in union with all the Catholic bishops of
the whole world.

1952: Pius XII’s emissary reveals the Secret has two parts.

• September 2: Pius XII sends Father Joseph Schweigl to

Coimbra, Portugal to interrogate Sister Lucy concerning the
Third Secret. Father Schweigl later confides to one of his
colleagues: “I cannot reveal anything of what I learned at Fatima
concerning the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts:
one concerns the Pope. The other, logically—although I must
say nothing—would have to be the continuation of the words: In
Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.” The

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 vision published in 2000 concerns the Pope, but it contains no
continuation of the Virgin’s words, nor any words of the Virgin
at all. Her words must, therefore, be found in the other text of 25
lines, which has yet to be published.

1957: Further revelations concerning the contents of the

Secret.

• March: Just before the Third Secret is transmitted to the Vatican

from Portugal on the orders of the Sacred Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith (the Holy Office), Bishop John Venancio
holds up to a strong light the outer envelope of Bishop da Silva
(photographed for Life magazine in 1949) containing an inner
envelope of Sister Lucy, inside of which he sees the paper upon
which is written the Third Secret. He carefully notes that the
Secret is about 25 lines long and is written on a single sheet of
paper with 3/4 centimeter margins on both sides.
• April 4: According to the “official” account published in 2000,
one of the texts pertaining to the Third Secret, the 62-line text
describing the vision of the “Bishop dressed in White,” is
delivered to the Vatican and kept in the Holy Office archives.
• April 16: The 25-line text of the Third Secret, sealed with wax
in its own original envelope within the Bishop of Fatima’s outer
envelope, is received at the Vatican, but this date of reception is not
noted in the “official” account. It is, however, reported by Fatima
scholar Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité in The Whole Truth About
Fatima. This second text is placed in a wooden safe in the papal
apartments (not in the Holy Office) as later shown by a photograph
published in the world-renowned magazine Paris-Match and
confirmed in the accompanying article by Robert Serrou quoting
the testimony of the Pope’s household manager, Mother Pasqualina,
who states that the Third Secret is inside the safe.
• December 26: Father Fuentes, Postulator of the Cause for
Beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto, interviews Sister
Lucy. In an allusion to the contents of the Third Secret, she tells him
of many nations disappearing from the face of the earth, the crisis
in the priesthood, and of many souls going to hell as a result of
ignoring Our Lady’s Fatima Message. The interview is published
with the Imprimatur of Archbishop Sanchez of Veracruz, Mexico

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 and with the approval of the Bishop of Leiria, John Venancio (it
was published in English by Father Ryan in Fatima Findings in
June 1959), is read widely, and no one questions its authenticity.
It will survive later attempts to discredit it.

1959: Pope John XXIII reads the text of the Secret kept in the
papal apartment.

• August 17: Pope John XXIII reads the 25-line text of the Third
Secret, which is now kept in an antique writing desk (called
“Barbarigo”) in his bedroom. He directs his personal secretary,
Msgr. Loris Capovilla, to write on the outer envelope the names
of the curial officials who have also read it and his decision to
“leave it to others to comment or decide.” This envelope has
never been produced by the Vatican.

1960: John XXIII suppresses the Third Secret.

• February 8: As the world anxiously awaits the full revelation of

the Third Secret in 1960, as Our Lady had directed, an unnamed
person close to the Pope authorizes the Portuguese press agency
A.N.I. to report that John XXIII has decided that the Third
Secret will not be revealed in 1960 and “would probably remain,
forever, under absolute seal.”
• Sister Lucy is officially forbidden to speak about the Third Secret
and not allowed to receive any visitors except close relatives and
people she has known for a long time. Her own confessor of many
years returns from Brazil and even he is not allowed to see her.
• Pope John XXIII reads the 62-line text of the vision of the Third
Secret, contained in another sealed envelope. Unlike the first text,
which he had read in 1959 but could not comprehend without an
Italian translation because of its difficult Portuguese idioms, this
text posed no difficulty for the Pope and he was able to read it in
its original Portuguese.

1962: The Vatican-Moscow Agreement silences the Second

Vatican Council regarding the evil of Communism.

• October: Just prior to the Council, the Vatican Secretariat of

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 State agrees with Moscow that the Council will not condemn
Soviet Russia or communism, in exchange for which two
Russian Orthodox observers attend the Council. This agreement
launches the policy of Ostpolitik (“policy towards the East”),
under which the Vatican adopts a conciliatory stance toward
communist regimes.

1963: Paul VI reads the text of the Secret lodged in the papal
apartments.

• June 27: Less than a week after becoming pope, Paul VI reads
the text of the Third Secret kept in the papal apartment after
the Substitute Secretary of State Msgr. Angelo Dell’Acqua
telephones Msgr. Capovilla, personal secretary to Pope John
XXIII, to inquire as to where to find it. Capovilla testifies to this
fact in his “certified note” of May 17, 1967. It is this text—the
one that contains Our Lady’s words—that is later identified by
Cardinal Ottaviani as being 25 lines in length.

1964: Paul VI consecrates the world, not Russia, to the

Immaculate Heart.

• November 21: On the last day of the third session of the

Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI consecrates the world
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with no mention of Russia.
The bishops look on but do not join in the act. The silence
concerning Russia is in keeping with the Vatican-Moscow
Agreement.

1965: Paul VI reads the other text of the Third Secret.

• March 27: Pope Paul VI reads the other text of the Third
Secret—the 62-line text of the vision. The “official” account
will claim that Paul VI read the Secret (meaning the vision only)
on this date. As Archbishop Capovilla’s “certified note” attests,
however, Paul VI read a text pertaining to the Third Secret
on June 27, 1963, two years earlier than the date given in the
“official” account.

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1967: Paul VI makes a pilgrimage to Fatima, refuses to speak
privately with Lucia, but hints at the contents of the
Third Secret.

• Sister Lucy’s memoirs are published, in which she reveals to the

public Our Lady’s 1929 request for the Consecration of Russia.
• May 13: Sister Lucy meets Pope Paul VI during his pilgrimage
to Fatima, but he refuses to speak with her privately regarding
the Third Secret, telling her to speak to her bishop instead.
During his sermon at Fatima, however, Pope Paul alludes to an
unprecedented crisis in the Church threatening “a dissolution
of her traditional and constitutive unity” on account of a
new theology “detached from the norms of the faith”—that
is, a dogmatic crisis like that referred to by the Virgin in Her
mysterious reference to the preservation of dogma in Portugal.
• May 13: On the very day of his sermon at Fatima, Pope Paul’s
apostolic exhortation Signum Magnum is published, wherein the
Pope links the Fatima message to the Book of the Apocalypse,
and especially to Chapter 12, verse 1—the Woman clothed with
the sun.

1975: Father Alonso’s revealing volumes on Fatima are

censored.

• Father Alonso, the official Fatima archivist, completes and

readies for publication a massive compendium of Fatima-related
documents, comprising 24 volumes of approximately 800 pages
each and containing 5,396 distinct documents. But the presses
are literally stopped by the new Bishop of Fatima, Dom Alberto
Cosme do Amaral, preventing Father Alonso’s ten years of
research from seeing the light of day. At least 11 of these 24
volumes are still under censorship as of September 2014, and the
13 volumes thus far published have been heavily edited. Each
of the first 8 volumes that has been published is only half its
original size.
• In the same year Father Alonso, based upon his study of the
Fatima archives he compiled, publicly declares that Father
Fuentes’ 1957 interview of Sister Lucy is a true and accurate
report of the seer’s description of what is contained in the Third

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 Secret, thus rehabilitating Father Fuentes and his explosive
account concerning the Secret.

1978: John Paul II reads a text of the Third Secret.

• October 16: Pope John Paul II is elected Pope, and within days
of his election reads a text of the Third Secret—the same 25-line
text that lodged in the papal apartments during the reigns of Pius
XII, John XXIII and Paul VI. This will be confirmed by papal
spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls in May 2000 (as reported
by Associated Press), only to be denied by Archishop Bertone,
whose “official” account maintains that John Paul II never read
the Secret until July 18, 1981. Tellingly, Navarro-Valls never
retracts his statement that the Pope read a text of the Secret three
years earlier, nor does Bertone ever address that statement.

1981: John Paul II reads another text of the Secret and attempts
to honor Our Lady’s request for the Consecration of
Russia.

• May 13: Pope John Paul II is nearly killed by an assassin.

• June 7: The Pope consecrates the world, but not Russia, to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
• July 18: According to Archbishop (now Cardinal) Bertone in his
document The Message of Fatima published on June 26, 2000,
Pope John Paul II reads the Third Secret for the first time, but
the text he reads is the 62-line text of the vision kept in the Holy
Office archives, not the one that has been kept in the writing
desk called “Barbarigo” in the papal apartments since the time
of Pius XII.

1982: Sister Lucia denies that the Consecration has been

accomplished; John Paul II tries again.

• March 21: Sister Lucy informs the Papal Nuncio to Portugal,

Archbishop Portalupi, of the requirements for a valid Consecration
of Russia according to the request of Our Lady of Fatima. Sister
Lucy’s informational commentary is not accurately transmitted
to the Pope. Following the suggestion of Bishop Dom Alberto
Cosme Amaral of Fatima, the Nuncio omits the requirement that

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 the world’s bishops participate in the ceremony.
• May 12: L’Osservatore Romano publishes an article by Father
Umberto Maria Pasquale, S.D.B., a prominent Salesian priest
who has known Sister Lucy since 1939 and had received over
150 letters from her. The article reveals that Sister Lucy clearly
and emphatically told him that Our Lady of Fatima never asked
for the consecration of the world but only the consecration of
Russia. Father Umberto also publishes a photographically-
reproduced copy of a handwritten note by Sister Lucy attesting
to her conversation with Father Pasquale on this point.
• May 13: Pope John Paul II yet again consecrates the world, but
not Russia, at Fatima. The bishops of the world do not participate.

1983: Sister Lucia again denies that the Consecration has been
done.

• March 19: Sister Lucy meets with the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop
Portalupi, again and confirms that the Consecration of Russia
was not effected because Russia was not clearly the object of
the consecration and the Catholic bishops of the world did not
participate.

1984: John Paul II tries yet again to perform the Consecration;

further revelations concerning the explosive contents
of the Third Secret.

• March 25: Before 250,000 people in Rome, John Paul

II performs yet another consecration of the world to the
Immaculate Heart. Immediately after he pronounces the words
of consecration, however, he departs from his prepared text and
addresses Our Lady with this petition: “Enlighten especially the
peoples of which You Yourself are awaiting our consecration
and confiding.” The Pope thus publicly acknowledges that Our
Lady of Fatima still awaits the Consecration of Russia.
• March 26: The Pope’s own newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano,
reports the exact words spoken by the Holy Father the day before.
• March 27: The Italian Catholic bishops’ newspaper Avvenire
reports that the Holy Father, on March 25 at 4:00 in the afternoon,
three hours after he consecrated the world, prays at St. Peter’s

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Pope John Paul II, kneeling before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, conse-
crates the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This statue was brought
for the occasion to Rome by the Bishop of Fatima himself.

that Our Lady will bless “those peoples for whom You Yourself
are awaiting our act of consecration and entrusting,” thus once
again acknowledging that he had not fulfilled that request on
March 25. The same remarks were reported in the Italian edition
of L’Osservatore Romano on March 26-27.
• September 10: Bishop Alberto Cosme do Amaral, the Bishop
of Fatima, declares during a question and answer session at
Technical University of Vienna, Austria: “Its [the Third Secret’s]
content concerns only our faith. To identify the Secret with
catastrophic announcements or with a nuclear holocaust is
to deform the meaning of the message. The loss of faith of a
continent is worse than the annihilation of a nation; and it is true
that faith is continually diminishing in Europe.”
• November 11: Jesus magazine publishes an interview with
Cardinal Ratzinger entitled “Here is Why the Faith is in Crisis,”
published with the Cardinal’s explicit permission. Cardinal
Ratzinger reveals that he has read the Third Secret and that it
refers to “dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian
and therefore [the life] of the world.” The Cardinal states in the

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 same interview that the Secret also refers to “the importance of
the Novissimi [the Last Times]” and “the absolute importance
of history” and that “the things contained in this “Third Secret”
correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and has
been said again and again in many other Marian apparitions, first
of all that of Fatima ...”

1985: Sister Lucia once more denies that the Consecration has
been done.

• September: In an interview in Sol de Fatima magazine, a

publication of friends of the Spanish Blue Army, Sister Lucy
affirms that the Consecration of Russia still has not been
done correctly because Russia was not the object of the 1984
ceremony and because all the Catholic bishops of the world did
not participate.

1987: Sister Lucia continues to insist that the Consecration

remains undone.

• July 20: Interviewed outside her convent while in the process of

obeying the command of her superiors to vote in the election then
taking place, Sister Lucy confirms to journalist Enrico Romero
that the Consecration of Russia has not been done.

1989-90: Vatican functionaries demand that Lucia and others

affirm that Russia has been consecrated; spurious
typewritten “letters from Lucia” appear.

• July (1989): Father Messias Coelho reveals that Sister Lucy

and others have received an anonymous “instruction” from
unidentified persons in the Vatican stating that she and they must
now affirm that the Consecration of Russia was accomplished on
March 25, 1984.
• August - November (1989): Three computer-generated and
typewritten notes and letters supposedly signed by Sister Lucy,
who has handwritten all her previous correspondence, suddenly
appear. These texts, purportedly contradicting her previous
statements that the Consecration of Russia has not been done,
are quickly proven to be fakes in analyses published throughout

22
 the Catholic world by the Fatima Center. Two more fake letters
appear between January and July 1990.
• October 11 (1990): Sister Lucy’s sister, Carolina, reveals that
Sister Lucy does not even know how to type and advises not to
pay attention to these bogus typed letters.

1991: John Paul II travels to Fatima to meet with Sister Lucia,

who does not change her testimony regarding the
failure to consecrate Russia.

• May 13: Pope John Paul II visits Fatima and meets with Sister
Lucia for thirty minutes. Tellingly, after the meeting neither she
nor the Pope makes any statement concerning the Consecration
of Russia, despite the ongoing controversy over whether or not it
has been accomplished.

1992: The Fatima Center exposes the forgery of the “letters

from Lucia” regarding the Consecration of Russia; the
accused fail to respond to the evidence.

• October: The Fatima Center holds a Bishops Conference in

Fatima attended by 65 bishops.
• October: The Rector of the Fatima Shrine, Father Luciano
Guerra, holds his own competing conference at which Frère
Francois de Marie des Anges presents himself to declare that the
five spurious letters attributed to Sister Lucy in 1989 and 1990
are blatant fakes. Furthermore, he accuses in public before many
witnesses Father Robert Fox, Father Luis Kondor and Father
Luciano Guerra of being all knowingly complicit in the creation
and/or circulation of these fake forged letters attributed to Sister
Lucy. Not one of them denies these accusations.

1995: Another revelation concerning the Third Secret:

apostasy “at the top.”

• In a personal communication to Professor Baumgartner in

Salzburg, Austria, Cardinal Mario Luigi Ciappi—the personal
theologian of John Paul II (and of the four popes before him)—
reveals that “In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things,
that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”

23
1998: Cardinal Ratzinger reveals the content of the Third
Secret: A divine chastisement of the Church and the
world as also foretold at Akita.

• Howard Dee, former Philippine ambassador to the Vatican,

reveals in an interview with Inside the Vatican magazine that
“Bishop John Shojiro Ito now deceased, of the diocese of Niigata
[where Akita is located] was certain Akita was an extension of
Fatima, and Cardinal Ratzinger personally confirmed to me that
these two messages, of Fatima and Akita, are essentially the
same.”
• At Akita, on October 13, 1973—the anniversary of the Miracle
of the Sun at Fatima—Our Lady warned that if men do not repent
and better themselves there would be a worldwide chastisement
for sins in which a great part of humanity would perish and
that those who survive would envy the dead. The chastisement
involves fire raining down from heaven, which is precisely what
is depicted in the vision of the Third Secret that will be published
two years later, but without the accompanying words of the
Virgin which explains it meaning and historical context.

2000: The vision of the Third Secret is published, but

without the Virgin’s explanation; Russia is declared
“consecrated,” but without mention of Russia.

• May 13: At the beatification ceremony of Jacinta and Francisco

Marto at Fatima, then Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano,
announces that the Third Secret of Fatima will be revealed, forty
years after its suppression by John XXIII. He also announces
what Antonio Socci has called the “preventative interpretation,”
according to which the future Pope who is executed by soldiers in
the vision falls “apparently dead,” so that Sodano can later claim
that the vision merely depicts 20th Century events culminating in
the failed attempt on the life of John Paul II in 1981.
• June 26: At a press conference, the Vatican publishes the 62-
line text of the vision of the “Bishop dressed in White.” The
accompanying commentary by Archbishop Bertone and Cardinal
Ratzinger, then Secretary and Prefect of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, respectively, presents the vision as the
entirety of the Secret, and follows Sodano’s “interpretation” that

24
 the vision merely depicts the 1981 assassination attempt. The
text of the vision standing alone contains none of the elements
of the Third Secret described by Cardinal Ratzinger in his 1984
interview in Jesus magazine or by any of the other witnesses
noted above. It is obviously incomplete.

o Regarding the “Bishop dressed in White,” Sister Lucia’s text

of the vision states that the seers only “had the impression
it was the Holy Father” with that phrase appearing between
internal quotation marks as if Sister Lucia were quoting from
another source. (While bishops in India, the Philippines and
other tropical countries wear white cassocks, no one would
have the “impression” that any of them is the Pope.) The same
text, however, later unambiguously refers to “the Holy Father”
as the one who is executed by a band of soldiers.

o Is Our Lady, then, referring to two different people: a bishop in

white who only appears to be the Pope and another, the Holy
Father, who is definitely executed? If the “Bishop dressed in
White” is certainly the Pope, why would Sister Lucia write that
the seers merely had the “impression” it was the Pope? The
only reasonable conclusion is that the Blessed Virgin answered
these questions in the related source from which Lucia appears
to be quoting, which is not the text of the vision itself.

o During the press conference at which the vision is published,

Archbishop Bertone also claims the Consecration of Russia
has been done. But, as proof of this assertion, he offers solely
a quotation from one of the five computer-generated letters
from 1989-90, long since exposed as fakes, even though Sister
Lucia herself is available to testify directly on the matter.
Tellingly, Lucia is not even asked to authenticate the letter
falsely attributed to her.

• October 8: With 1,500 bishops in St. Peter’s Square, Pope John

Paul II mentions the world, but not Russia, in an “entrustment”
of the world to Mary, failing yet again to consecrate Russia.
• November 30: A Cardinal described as “one of the Pope’s
closest advisors” (Cardinal Tomko) admits to the editor of Inside
the Vatican magazine (Robert Moynihan) that he advised Pope

25
 John Paul II not to mention Russia in any consecration ceremony
because it would offend the Russian Orthodox. Inside the Vatican
publishes this revelation in its issue of the same date.

2001: Facing growing skepticism regarding full disclosure of

the Third Secret and the Consecration of Russia, the
Secretary of State begins a “damage control” campaign.

• May 16: Reflecting the growing skepticism of millions of

Catholics, Mother Angelica states on her live television show
that she does not believe the Vatican has revealed the entirety of
the Third Secret: “As for the Secret, well I happen to be one of
those individuals who thinks we didn’t get the whole thing. I told
ya! I mean, you have the right to your own opinion, don’t you,
Father? There, you know, that’s my opinion. Because I think it’s
scary.” “Mother Angelica Live” as a live program is taken off the
air forever by December 2001.
• October 25: Cardinal Ratzinger admits to a “destabilizing [of]
the internal equilibrium of the Roman Curia” due to reports
(following the September 11th terrorist attack on New York
and the invasion of Afghanistan) of a recent letter from Sister
Lucy to the Pope concerning the Third Secret and dangers to
the world and the person of the Pope. Cardinal Ratzinger does
not explicitly deny the existence of this letter. This admission
indicates that widespread skepticism over the Vatican’s Fatima
disclosures apparently extends even into the Curia itself.
• November 17: Archbishop Bertone (later to become Cardinal
Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State) travels from Rome to
Coimbra, purportedly to interview Sister Lucy about the Third
Secret and the Consecration or Russia.
• December 20: L’Osservatore Romano publishes the November
17 “interview,” which is merely a communiqué about an alleged
conversation between Bertone and the seer. The communiqué
claims that Bertone interviewed Lucia for two hours, yet only
a few inconclusive phrases, totaling 44 words, are said to have
been uttered by her concerning the very subjects of the two-
hour interview (the Secret and the Consecration). There is no
audio or video recording, no transcript showing the context of
the isolated phrases, and no verification by any independent

26
 witness. Sister Lucia’s purported signature appears at the end
of the communiqué, but it is published only in Italian, which
Sister Lucia does not speak. No Portuguese version, signed or
unsigned, is ever published. It does not even appear that Lucia
had the benefit of a translator during the alleged “interview.”

2005: The death of Sister Lucia.

• February 13: Sister Lucy of Fatima dies less than two months
short of her 98th birthday. She is never allowed by the Vatican
to address the world directly in her own words concerning the
Consecration of Russia or the Third Secret. Access to the seer
is strictly limited until her death, and immediately thereafter her
cell in the convent at Coimbra is sealed off in the manner of a
crime scene. Two months later John Paul II dies on April 2, 2005.

27
2006: Antonio Socci accuses the Vatican of a cover-up of the
Third Secret.

• November 22: Renowned Italian Catholic commentator and

journalist Antonio Socci publishes his book, The Fourth Secret
of Fatima, which accuses Cardinal Bertone of covering up a
companion text of the vision published in 2000, wherein the
Virgin explains its meaning in Her own words.
• Fourth Secret cites the testimony of Archbishop Capovilla in
July 2006, to Fatima researcher Solideo Paolini, that there are
two different texts and two different envelopes pertaining to the
Third Secret, and that one of the envelopes with its contents is
the “Capovilla envelope,” whose exterior bears the names of
those who had read the contents and a notation of the decision of
Pope John XXIII to avoid rendering any judgment thereon.
• The “Capovilla envelope” was lodged in the papal apartment in
an antique writing desk called “Barbarigo” by Pope John’s bed,
not in the archives of the former Holy Office where the text of
the vision was lodged.
• Capovilla confirms that Paul VI read the contents the “Capovilla
envelope” on June 27, 1963, after retrieving it from the writing
desk—two years before the “official account” claims Paul VI
read the text of the vision (March 27, 1965).
• Following Socci’s publication of Capovilla’s testimony, the
Vatican offers no denial of the existence of the “Capovilla
envelope,” nor does it ever produce the envelope and its contents.

2007: The cover-up begins to unravel.

• May 10: Attempting to discredit Socci, Cardinal Bertone

publishes his own book, The Last Visionary of Fatima, written in
the form of an interview by a Vatican affairs reporter, Giuseppe
De Carli, who poses no challenging questions but rather avoids
all of the issues Socci has raised, especially Msgr. Capovilla’s
explosive testimony regarding the never-produced “Capovilla
envelope” containing a text of the Third Secret.
• May 12: Socci declares publicly (in the Italian journal Libero)
that his own book has been vindicated by the Cardinal’s complete
failure to answer it, which Socci calls a disturbing development

28
 as it means that there is indeed an ongoing cover-up on the part
of the Vatican Secretary of State.
• May 31: In a further attempt at damage control, Cardinal Bertone
appears by remote live feed on the very popular Italian TV talk
show Porta a Porta, purportedly to respond to Socci. The title
of the show is “The Fourth Secret Does Not Exist”—a clear
reference to the title of Socci’s book. But Socci is not invited to
participate, and the Cardinal’s appearance is conditioned on his
not being challenged by Socci.
o During this telecast Bertone displays not only the original text
of the vision on one sheet of paper but also two separate sealed
envelopes prepared by Sister Lucy, each bearing the explicit
statement in Sister Lucy’s own handwriting that “By express
order of Our Lady, this envelope can be opened in 1960 only
by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon or the Bishop of Leiria.”
Bertone thus destroys his own credibility by revealing the falsity
of his claim, over the previous seven years, that Sister Lucia had
“confessed” to him that the Virgin never linked disclosure of the
Secret to 1960, but rather Lucia had chosen that date herself.

o The two sealed envelopes, and other revelations by Cardinal

Bertone during the telecast, further confirm the existence of
two texts comprising the Third Secret in its entirety.

o Among these other revelations is that the dimensions of the

envelope containing the text of the vision, which Bertone
states on camera, do not match the dimensions of the envelope
containing the text of the Secret that Bishop da Silva examined
under the light and carefully measured before it was transmitted
to the Vatican in 1957.

o Bertone also confirms the “categorical” testimony of Cardinal

Ottaviani that the text of the Secret that Ottaviani read spanned
only 25 lines, as opposed to the 62 lines of the vision published
in 2000. Bertone offers a ludicrous “attempt at an explanation”
to the effect that Cardinal Ottaviani must have counted the
lines on only the first and fourth pages of the vision, which in
any event total 32 lines, not 25.

o During the telecast Bertone fails even to mention, much less

refute, the testimony of Archbishop Capovilla regarding the

29
 envelope containing a text of the Secret lodged in the papal
apartment, which Bertone has failed to produce despite the
undeniable evidence of its existence.

• June 2: Following the May 31 telecast, from which Socci was

excluded, Socci publishes his response in the daily paper Libero.
He declares that Bertone has not only failed to “give even one
answer” to Socci’s book, but “On the contrary, he did more: He
offered the proof that I am right” and “that as a matter of fact the
explosive part of the ‘Third Secret of Fatima’ exists yet is well
hidden …”
• September 21: In the face of his own failure to quell the
controversy over the apparent Vatican cover-up, Bertone stages
a second extraordinary television appearance, this time on the
Vatican Telepace TV station. The pretext for this event is the
supposed launching of his book-interview Last Visionary, which,
however, was already launched in May.

o The press are invited to attend and Socci, in his capacity as a

journalist, appears at the telecast location to question Cardinal
Bertone. Bertone avoids Socci by entering the auditorium
through a service entrance, while Socci is forcibly removed
from the premises by security guards, along with Solideo
Paolini, the witness to Archbishop Capovilla’s revelation
concerning the never-produced “Capovilla envelope.”

o Before his expulsion from the building, Socci plays for the
reporters assembled outside the auditorium an audio recording
obtained by Paolini in which Capovilla personally admits that
there was an “attachment” to the vision published in 2000,
which “attachment” has never been produced.

o During the Telepace telecast Bertone once again avoids any

discussion of the issues. Instead, he presents a heavily-edited
videotape of an interview of Archbishop Capovilla conducted
by Giuseppe De Carli, a partisan of Cardinal Bertone, in which
the Archbishop not only fails to deny or even mention the
testimony he gave to Paolini about the “Capovilla envelope,”
but rather fully confirms its existence and location in the papal
apartment, and the reading of its contents by Paul VI in 1963,

30
 not 1965 as the Bertone “official account” had claimed.

• September 22: The Italian daily Il Giornale reports that before

the guards removed Socci from the location of the telecast of
September 21, he was able to play the audiotape of Capovilla’s
statements to Paolini regarding the “attachment” to the vision
published in 2000. On the tape Capovilla is heard to state:
“Besides the four pages [of the vision of the “Bishop dressed in
white”] there was also something else, an attachment, yes.” As
the reporter from Il Giornale concludes, Capovilla’s statement
“would confirm the thesis of the existence of a second sheet
with the interpretation of the Secret”—namely, the words of the
Virgin following the “etc” in the Fourth Memoir.
• September 23: Socci again responds to Cardinal Bertone in his

31
 column in Libero, renewing his public accusation that Bertone is
concealing an integral part of the Third Secret wherein the Virgin
explains the significance of the vision that Bertone and Sodano
have purported to “interpret” for the Church and the world.

2008: A major exposé of the Vatican cover-up appears.

• January 25: Christopher A. Ferrara’s book, The Secret Still

Hidden, goes to press; 100,000 copies are printed. In this book,
the author gives the history of the Third Secret up to that time.
Developing the points raised by Socci and marshaling a vast
quantity of additional evidence, Ferrara demonstrates that there
is a second text, still hidden by the Vatican bureaucrats, which
contains the words of Our Lady following “In Portugal the
dogma of the will always be preserved etc.”
• The Italian-language version of Ferrara’s book is sent to 12,000
Italian priests in June 2008. Cardinal Bertone receives a copy by
August 2008. He acknowledges receipt of the book but refuses to
respond to Ferrara’s arguments.
• Ferrara’s expose will be read, and later endorsed by, the Papal
Nuncio to the United States, the late Archbishop Pietro Sambi,
whose endorsement will be published in Inside the Vatican
magazine after Sambi’s death.

2010: Pope Benedict negates the Secretary of State’s version

of the Third Secret, following major revelations during
the Fatima Center’s conference in Rome.

• May 4: Vatican journalist Giuseppe De Carli (in apparent good

health), co-author with Cardinal Bertone of The Last Visionary

32
 of Fatima, addresses the Fatima Center’s “Fatima Challenge”
conference at the Ergife Hotel in Rome.

o The appearance is extraordinary, given the Fatima Center’s

prominent role presenting the evidence of a Vatican cover-up
of the Third Secret, orchestrated by Bertone.

o The ostensible purpose of the address is to introduce a second

edition of The Last Visionary of Fatima, now entitled The
Last Secret of Fatima. This second edition contains revisions
clearly designed to attempt to repair the damage Bertone has
inflicted on the official account with his previous evasions and
inadvertent admissions and disclosures.

o After his presentation of Last Secret, De Carli unexpectedly

takes questions from the audience, despite having earlier
indicated that there would not be time for a Q & A.

o Fielding questions from Father Gruner and attorneys

Christopher Ferrara and John Salza for more than an hour, De
Carli is able to offer only grasping and futile explanations for
the many inconsistencies in the Secretary of State’s “official
account.”

o Especially devastating is De Carli’s admission under

questioning that in Last Secret, he and Bertone altered the
purported testimony of Sister Lucy, as recounted in Last
Visionary, during the undocumented November 17, 2001
interview with Bertone. In Last Visionary, Lucy is said to have
confirmed the authenticity of the pages of the Third Secret
presented before her: “Yes, these are my sheets (fogli) of
paper…. They are the sheets (fogli) that I used ...” But in Last
Secret the affirmation is revised to read: “Yes, yes, this is my
paper.”

o This adjustment was obviously made to agree with Bertone’s

revelation during the May 2007 telecast that the text of the
vision was written on a single sheet of paper folded over to
make four sides. Yet, according to Bertone’s account seven
years earlier, Lucia had “authenticated” sheets of paper.

33
 o In spite of this manipulation of the seer’s testimony, however,
the truth that the Third Secret involves multiple sheets of
paper remains glaringly evident even in the second edition of
Bertone’s book, since the generic letter of introduction written
by Pope Benedict (who avoids all elements of the controversy)
states that the Pope had prayed and meditated over “words of
the third part of the Secret of Fatima, contained in the sheets
[fogli!] written by Sister Lucia.”

o De Carli further admits that “they [the Vatican] could have tricked
me” regarding the Capovilla envelope, which has never been
produced, and that he had used his own personal photographer,
not the Vatican’s, to photograph the outer envelope Bertone had
displayed on camera (which was not the Capovilla envelope)
because he did not trust the Vatican photographer.

o The Fatima Center’s technical team detects Internet monitoring

of the conference proceedings from an IP address within
the Vatican. Hope mounts that the Pope himself will finally
respond to the mounting evidence that Cardinal Bertone’s
“official account” has been demolished.

• May 11: Exactly one week after De Carli’s televised appearance at

the “Fatima Challenge Conference,” Pope Benedict XVI, during
an unexpected pilgrimage to the Fatima Shrine in Portugal, stuns
the press and the Catholic world by distancing himself from
Bertone’s now thoroughly discredited “official account.”

o During the flight to Portugal the Pope answers a question

concerning the content of the Third Secret, which he selected
before the flight as one he particularly wished to address.
His answer is explosive: the Secret, he reveals, refers to
things “beyond this great vision of the suffering of the Pope,”
namely “future realities of the Church which are little by
little developing and revealing themselves …” The “official
account” relegating the Secret to a mere description of past
events is thus explicitly rejected by the Pope himself.

o Continuing with his answer, Benedict makes the further

explosive revelation that “beyond the moment indicated in
the vision, it is spoken, it is seen, the necessity of a passion

34
 of the Church,” which he describes in a manner not depicted
in the vision alone: “attacks on the Pope and the Church do
not come only from outside, but the sufferings of the Church
come precisely from within the Church, from sins that exist
in the Church. This has always been known, but today we see
it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the
Church does not come from enemies outside, but arises from
sin in the Church.” It is still to come.

o The Pope’s answer reveals elements of the Secret not seen in the
vision, standing alone, and thus must be found in the companion
text whose existence has already been demonstrated, wherein
the Virgin explains the meaning and historical context of the
vision in Her own words.

• May 13: Before 500,000 pilgrims, the Pope delivers a further

hammer blow to the “official account” when he declares that “He
who thinks that the prophetic mission of Fatima is concluded
deceives himself.”

35
 • May 13: On the same day as the Pope’s revelations, Antonio
Socci publishes a column under the provocative title “Why the
Pope Refutes Bertone.” “The Pope,” he writes “is engaged in a
great Operation Truth on Fatima, at the cost of contradicting the
version of the Secretaries of State.” Noting that the Secretary of
State has ignored the import of that warning while pretending that
the Secret “belongs to the past,” Socci calls this “only one of so
many anomalies in this fifty-year-old story that, unfortunately, is
filled with lies and silences, twisted interpretations and omissions
(as I have shown in my book).” The Pope himself, writes Socci,
has “reopened the file [on the Third Secret] in a way so precise
and dramatic that those who in recent years have paid homage to
the Curial version find themselves in a panic …” Socci concludes
that the Pope “knows more than us and holds that this [pedophilia]
scandal is only the tip of the iceberg in the Church … and he is
thinking of the great sin of apostasy in the Church.”
• July 13: Giuseppe De Carli, at the age of 57, dies unexpectedly
from throat cancer. It is the 93rd anniversary of the very day Our
Lady of Fatima imparted the Third Secret to the three shepherd
children.
• July 16: Antonio Socci publishes a second extraordinary article,
noting that the Pope has stated “the exact antithesis” of Bertone’s
account, that Bertone and his supporters in the press are now
engaged in “tragicomic backpedalling (without a mea culpa),”
and that Bertone would profit from “prayer and meditation on the
warnings and the maternal solicitude of the Queen of Heaven.”

2011: An American lawyer’s book-length investigation of the

Third Secret cover-up is republished in Italian, receiving
the endorsement of a Papal Nuncio.

• May 11: A second edition of Christopher Ferrara’s The Secret

Still Hidden is published in Italian (bringing the number of
copies in print in Italian to well over 20,000), citing Giuseppe De
Carli’s statements from the year before and addressing the second
edition of De Carli’s/Bertone’s book. The evidence presented in
this exhaustive study demonstrates conclusively that Bertone is
concealing the companion text of vision published eleven years
earlier.

36
 • August - September: Inside the Vatican magazine reveals recently
deceased Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who was Papal Nuncio to the
United States and thus a key attaché of the Vatican Secretariat of
State under Cardinal Bertone, had read and praised Ferrara’s book.
The endorsement came during a conversation reported by the
editor, Robert Moynihan, a personal friend of Sambi’s:

We [Sambi and Moynihan] were discussing the Third

Secret of Fatima, the allegations that the Vatican has not
published the entire text of the Third Secret as revealed to
Sister Lucia, and the response of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
the Vatican Secretary of State, in a book where Bertone
states that there is nothing more to be revealed.

Archbishop Sambi said, “Excuse me.” He got up, went

out of the room, and came back with a book. “Here,” he
said. “Do you know this book? You should read it.” It was
Christopher Ferrara’s The Secret Still Hidden. “Wait,” I
said. “You are the Pope’s representative in the US, and you
are urging me to read a book that questions what the Secre-
tary of State wrote?”

Sambi replied: “All I am saying is that there are inter-

esting things worth reading in this book. And in the end,
we are all after the truth, aren’t we? The truth is the im-
portant thing ...”

2012: European politicians respond to the urgency of the

Fatima Message.

• October 23: Father Nicholas Gruner and Christopher Ferrara

address the international press corps of the European Union
Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in support of a motion
sponsored by two Members of Parliament, the Honorable Mario
Borghezio and the Honorable Lorenzo Fontana, for a declaration
by the EU Parliament formally requesting that “His Holiness,
Pope Benedict XVI... fulfill the will of the Queen of Heaven”
by performing the Consecration of Russia in order to address the

37
 threat of “great danger at the present time to world peace and the
serenity of all European peoples.”
o The Parliament is informed that “the Blessed Virgin Mary has
promised a long period of prosperity and peace, if and only
if, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia in a solemn and
public manner, as precisely specified by Her in the Message
of Fatima.” Father Gruner’s remarks conclude: “I urge the
Members of Parliament and I urge the members of the Press
to bring this motion of the Parliament to the Pope, because he
wants to do this but he has many pressures against him not to
do the Consecration. He needs public support for doing the
Consecration of Russia in time, before it’s too late for all of
us.”

o The petition for this parliamentary motion is subsequently

approved by the Petitions Committee for presentation before
the full legislative body.

2013: Pope Benedict “resigns” the Papacy, but with a curious

qualification.

• February 11: In the wake of a rumored death threat (made public

in November by an Italian Cardinal) against Pope Benedict XVI
and amid concerns that, contrary to true justice, he will be forced
by secular powers to be brought to trial before the International
Criminal Court, Pope Benedict makes the stunning announcement
that he will abdicate from the Throne of Peter: “I declare that I
renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint
Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such
a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of
Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to
elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those
whose competence it is.”

o The Pope’s stated rationale for his abdication is that “in order
to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel,
both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which
in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent
that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately

38
 fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.” In subsequent months,
however, the Pope will reveal that he is in full possession of
his mental faculties, including the ability to deliver complex
extemporaneous addresses and that he is under no serious
physical disability.

o Various canonists, scholars, and Vatican officials express the

expectation that—in keeping with the rare historical precedents
for papal resignation—Benedict will once again take the name
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, as well as the black cassock and the
coat of arms that he used as a Cardinal, and that he will leave
the Vatican to reside in Bavaria or in a cloistered monastery,
because (as one spokesman puts it) “Otherwise, it will get very
confusing and I would imagine it will become troublesome.”

• February 14: The Pope tells the parish priests of Rome that
upon his resignation becoming effective he will remain “hidden
from the world.” In fact, he will not remain hidden from the
world but will continue to reside in the Vatican and will begin
appearing at public events alongside Pope Francis.
• February 26: To the amazement of canonists, the press, and
Catholics in general, two days before his resignation takes
effect, Pope Benedict announces that despite his “resignation”
he will retain the name “Pope Benedict XVI” (Emeritus), the title
“His Holiness,” the white papal cassock, the papal coat of arms
bearing the Keys of Peter, and that he will continue to live within
the Vatican. Canonists and commentators express the concern
that Benedict risks creating the impression that he will remain
Pope in some sense after the coming conclave, for which there is
no precedent in Church history.
• February 27: In his last public papal audience, Pope Benedict
announces: “I will no longer vest the power of the office for the
government of the Church, but … I am not returning to private
life ... [T]here is no return to the private sphere. My decision to
forgo the exercise of active ministry does not revoke this fact.”
In other words, Benedict suggests that under a certain (passive)
aspect he will remain Pope and that he has not renounced this
aspect of the papacy. This less-than-total renunciation of the
papacy likewise has no precedent in the entire history of the
Church.

39
• March - April: In the following months, Pope Benedict does
indeed continue to wear the white papal cassock (though without
the symbols of active government such as the pallium and the
papal ring), and he often leaves his residence next to St. Peter’s
in order to meet with Pope Francis, to receive guests, and to
participate in ceremonies. Speculation gathers apace as to what
Pope Benedict truly meant in his resignation speech: “I have
come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced
age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine
ministry. … For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of
this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry
of Bishop of Rome.”
o While initially offering the incredible explanation that he
retained the white papal cassock because there was nothing
else for him to wear, Benedict soon lets it be known through
both his Secretary, Georg Gänswein, and Pope Francis himself,
that he considers himself to be a “Pope Emeritus.” This is
something the Church has never seen before, but Francis will
declare it to be a new “institution” in the Church.

o Contrary to the prior explanation the he had resigned due to

mental and physical infirmity, Benedict will make various
appearances at public events conducted by Francis and will
continue to give addresses and receive people in audience.

• May 13: Exactly two months after Pope Francis’ election, at

the Pope’s repeated and insistent request, his pontificate is
consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima by Cardinal José Policarpo,
the Patriarch of Lisbon, at the Fatima Shrine in a collegial act in
union with all the bishops of Portugal.
• July 28: During an impromptu press conference on the flight
returning to Rome from his visit to Brazil, Francis reveals that
in discussing with Benedict the “Vatileaks” scandal, arising
from leaks to the press concerning rampant corruption in the
Vatican bureaucracy, Benedict presented him with a large box
and envelope containing the investigative material and report on
the scandal. Francis notes that Benedict “had it all in his head!
What intelligence! Everything memorized, everything! But no,
it didn’t frighten me, no. No, no. Though it is a big problem.”
Aside from revealing the extent of the scandal, Francis here

40
 also reveals Benedict’s full possession of his remarkable mental
faculties, thus calling into question the “official” explanation for
his unprecedented “renunciation” of the “active ministry” of the
papacy on grounds of weakness of mind as well as body.
• August 13: Pope Francis announces that he has invited the
Catholic bishops to accompany him in consecrating the world to
the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a solemn ceremony in Rome on
the coming October 13, 2013.
• October 11: Father Gruner is in Rome preparing for the
ceremonies, particularly by organizing the distribution of 200,000
copies of a 12-page newspaper explaining the true Message of
Fatima and Our Lady’s request for the Consecration of Russia
to Her Immaculate Heart by the Pope in union with all of the
Catholic bishops of the world. A similar four-page supplement is
also published in Il Tempo, the third largest daily newspaper in
Rome, with a readership of 225,000.
• October 12: While in the Vatican, the day before the ceremony
announced by Francis, Father Gruner is repeatedly detained and
harassed by Vatican Security officers, including Dr. Dominic
Giani, the head of Vatican Security. Though Giani admits to
Father Gruner that he does not believe Father poses any threat to
the Pope’s security, he is singled out and forbidden to approach
the Pope.
• October 13: Pope Francis officiates at the announced ceremony
with an uncharacteristic dour expression, as if he were annoyed
at the way the proceedings had been arranged. The promised
consecration to the Immaculate Heart turns out to be nothing
more than yet another vague act of “entrustment” in which
nothing is consecrated, not even the world is mentioned, there is
no reference at all to the Immaculate Heart. This represents the
weakest effort yet to carry out Our Lady’s specific request for
Russia’s consecration.

2014: “Two Popes?”; the alarming “Francis effect”; the world

on the brink; yet another revelation concerning the
Third Secret.

• February 20: At an “Extraordinary Consistory on the Family”

convened by Pope Francis, Cardinal Walter Kasper, with

41
 the Pope’s prior approval, proposes to permit divorced and
“remarried” Catholics to receive Holy Communion without any
commitment to cease their adulterous relations. The implications
for Catholic moral teaching are staggering, and numerous
Cardinals express their opposition.

o Kasper’s “revolutionary” proposal comes at the end of Francis’s

first year as Pope, during which the promising signs of Marian
piety and respect for the Message of Fatima have given way to a
“Francis effect” consisting of an astonishing series of radically
progressive and theologically dubious pronouncements made
at press conferences and during interviews with various
newspapers and magazines, beginning with his infamous “Who
am I to judge?” regarding homosexuals in the priesthood.

o By the beginning of 2014, Pope Francis has already been

hailed as a “revolutionary Pope” by all the world’s major media
outlets. In an unprecedented display of praise for a Roman
Pontiff by the hostile organs of world opinion, Francis is
named “Person of the Year” by Time magazine, which features
him on its cover, is also featured on the cover of Rolling Stone
magazine (the leading journal of degenerate “rock culture”),
which hails the Pope’s “gentle revolution,” and is even lauded
as “Person of the Year” by the Advocate, a magazine dedicated
to militant homosexualism and the “gay lifestyle,” whose
cover is likewise devoted to Francis.

• March: Russia accepts the will of 96% of the Crimean people

to rejoin Russia, and the threat of war with Ukraine looms large
as Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainians were fearing the non-
elected leader and policies of the Ukraine who takes over after
the coup d’état of February 21, 2014.
• May 28: The renowned “Vaticanist” Vittorio Messori joins
other prominent journalists, including Antonio Socci (author of
The Fourth Secret of Fatima) and Robert Moynihan (Editor of
Inside the Vatican), in recognizing a totally new situation in the
history arising from the curiously nuanced “resignation” by Pope
Benedict and his retention of the papal title as Pope Emeritus, the
papal garb, and the signs of the papal office.

42
 o Messori contends that there are presently, in effect, two Popes
acting in communion with and in recognition of each other,
having even co-authored an encyclical together, Lumen Fidei,
published the previous July.

o Messori cites as the theological basis for this “diarchy” the

recently published opinion of canonist Stefano Violi, a renowned
Professor of Canon Law at the Faculty of Theology in Bologna
and Lugano, who concludes that “Benedict XVI divested himself
of all the power of government and command inherent in his
office, without however, abandoning his service to the Church:
this continues through the exercise of the spiritual dimension of
the pontifical munus entrusted to him. This he did not intend
to renounce. He renounced not his duties, … but the concrete
execution of them.”

o Messori notes that “In the formula [of “resignation”] employed

by Benedict… there is a distinction between the munus (the
papal office) and the execution, that is the active exercise of the
office itself. … Benedict XVI did not intend to renounce the
munus … [but] only the ministerium, which is the exercise and
concrete administration of that office.”

o Other Catholics, however, recognize that this is a false distinction.

Regardless of what Pope Benedict may have meant by his
words, not even a Pope has the power or authority to change the
constitution of the Church established by Christ. There can only
be one Pope; the office, and the task of exercising the duties of
that office, can reside only in one and the same person.

o This utterly unprecedented situation calls to mind the vision of the

Third Secret, regarding which Lucia writes of the “Bishop dressed
in white” that “we had the impression it was the Holy Father.”

• July 8: Israel launches “Operation Protective Edge,” unleashing

devastating force against the Gaza strip and killing thousands
of Palestinians. Only days earlier Pope Francis had conducted a
patently useless and scandalous interreligious ceremony in the
Vatican gardens to “pray for peace” with Jewish and Muslim
representatives, including the planting of an olive tree. A Muslim
Imam intones a prayer calling for the defeat of the “infidels” (i.e.,
all non-Muslims, which would include Francis himself) which

43
 Vatican Radio censors from the transcript. This useless publicity
stunt is followed almost immediately by the worst outbreak of
violence in the Holy Land in many years.
• July-August: Muslim fanatics of the Islamic State organization
(ISIS) begin violent persecution of Christians in Iraq, including
beheadings, rapes, enslavement and the destruction of Christian
churches and shrines. Tens of thousands of Christians flee for their
lives.
• August 17: In an explosive column in Il Libero, Antonio Socci
reports that a new biography of Sister Lucia, prepared by the
nuns at the Carmelite Convent in Coimbra, reveals that during
the famous apparition of Our Lady in the convent chapel to Sister
Lucia on January 3, 1944, during which Our Lady directed her how
to write down the Secret, the Virgin said: “Be at peace, and write
what I have commanded you, but not, however, that which has
been given to you to understand its meaning,” that is, the meaning
of the vision published in 2000.

o That is, even after the first writing on January 3, a portion of

the Secret had yet to be committed to paper; but it obviously
would be at some point, as it would be nonsensical for Our Lady
to direct the seer to write down part of the Secret but then hide
forever the other part in which She explains its meaning.

o Accordingly, while the text of the vision was written and dated
January 3, 1944, it was not until January 9, 1944 that Lucia wrote
to her bishop to inform him that she had finally committed the
Third Secret to paper as he had commanded her. Lucia evidently
wrote a separate text giving the Virgin’s explanation of the
vision’s meaning (which, following the Virgin’s instructions,
Lucia had not written down on January 3).

o This new revelation, Socci notes, is yet another “confirmation

of the historical reconstruction according to which the Third
Secret is composed of two parts: one, the vision, was written
and sent first [to the Vatican], while the other—that which, in the
words of the Virgin, is “the meaning” of the vision—was written
and sent later.”

o Socci concludes that this later text is evidently “the famous and

44
 mysterious ‘attachment’ of which Capovilla hinted” in the audio
tape Socci played for his fellow reporters during Bertone’s
television event from which he was expelled in 2007. It is in
this text, “as yet unpublished,” writes Socci, “where presumably
resides the part that most frightened Sister Lucia. The same part
that frightened John XXIII (but also, before him, Pius XII) and
which Roncalli decided not to make public because—according to
him—it could be only a thought of Sister Lucia’s that did not have
a supernatural origin. And a part so explosive that its existence
continues officially to be denied. And the opening by Benedict
XVI in 2010 [see above], which led as well to the publication of
this volume, is today reopened.”

• September 13: Pope Francis declares that the Third World War
has already begun “piecemeal,” although he gives no sign that he
will take the measure Our Lady of Fatima prescribed as the only
means to avoid it: the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate
Heart.
• September 20: With tensions between the United States and
Russia over the situation in Ukraine at crisis levels, Russian
military planes enter United States airspace, and Air Force jets
“scramble” to intercept them. This is the latest incident in a
series of such incursions over the past five years, with Air Force
jets intercepting at least 50 Russian bombers in U.S. airspace.
• April 10, 2015: Faithful Catholics are increasingly aware of
how dire the situation in the Church and the world has become.
While the Church is disturbed and even scandalized by the words
and deeds of a “revolutionary Pope” like no other before him,
international crises threaten to spark a global conflagration at
any time.

“Let no one have illusions

that he can achieve
military superiority over
Russia. We will never
allow it. ... We realize all
this and know what we
need to do.”

45
 The Consequences We Face
“[W]e 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.”
—Sister Lucy, describing the vision part of the Secret

The Blessed Virgin’s explanation of that vision was not yet even
released by the Vatican—that is the 25-line writing of Sister Lucia
giving Our Lady’s words which explain the above vision was not given
yet. But to understand better what the Third Secret is about, let us
recall here below what Our Lady said in the second part of the Secret.

“[God] 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.”
—Our Lady of Fatima, July 13, 1917

46
 “As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the
Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be
a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have
seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of
humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful.
The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.
The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the
Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the
Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.
— Our Lady of Akita, October 13, 1973

47
 Saint Padre Pio
When enough of the lay Catholic faithful do what the
Mother of God asked at Fatima, then God will give
the graces for the Pope and the bishops to make the
Consecration of Russia to Our Lady`s Immaculate Heart.

The Fatima Center

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