The document discusses the controversy around the undisclosed third secret of Fatima. It was revealed to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 by the Virgin Mary. Sr. Lucia later revealed there were three parts to the secret, but only two were disclosed. The third secret was said to foretell a crisis within the Catholic Church and a "terrible punishment" if its requests were not obeyed. Several popes since then have refused to reveal the full third secret, fueling ongoing debate and speculation about its contents.

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INFORMATION ON 3rd SECRET OF FATIMA
from TheWay Website
recovered through WayBackMachine Website
On 8/31/41, Sr Lucia wrote her 3rd memoir elucidating some details of Jacinta’s life. In
this 3rd memoir, Sr Lucia for the 1st time mentioned that the Secret was in 3 distinct
parts. She wrote,
"The Secret is composed of three distinct
parts, and I shall disclose two of them."
The first is the vision of hell and the designation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as
the supreme remedy offered by God to humanity for the salvation of souls. Our Lady
said,
"In order to save them, God wishes to
establish in the
world devotion to My Immaculate Heart."
The second is the great prophecy concerning a miraculous peace which God wishes
to grant to the world through the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary, and the practice of communions of reparation on the 1st Saturdays of the month.
"If people attend to my requests, Russia will
be converted
and the world will have peace."
And there is also the great announcement of terrible punishments if people persist in
not obeying her requests. Sr Lucia stated that at that time she was not permitted to
reveal the 3rd part of the secret.
Bishop da Silva was given permission to read it, but he did not want the responsibility.
He tried to get it to the Holy Office, but Rome refused to receive it. It was then agreed
that if Bishop da Silva happened to die, the envelope would be entrusted to Cardinal
Cerejeira, the Patriarch of Lisbon.
In 1957 the Holy Office demanded the text of the 3rd secret, which until then had been
kept at the palace of the bishop of Leira. The auxiliary Bishop Venanciowas entrusted
with the delivery of the sealed document to Bishop Cento, then Apostolic Nuncio to
Lisbon.
On 4/16/57, the sealed envelope arrived in Rome. It was placed in the office of Pope
Pius XII, in a little chest bearing the note, "Secret of the Holy Office".
It appears that Pope Pius XII did not read the secret. According to Cardinal
Ottaviani and Monsignor Capovilla, secretary of Pope John XXIII, the envelope was
still sealed when Pope John XXIII opened it in 1959, one year after the death of Pope
Pius XII. Pope Pius XII had apparently decided to wait until 1960. He died on 10/9/58
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without having read it.
In 1957, Sr Lucia confided to Fr Fuentes:
"The Most Holy Virgin has told me that the devil is about to engage in a
decisive battle against the Virgin... and the devil knows what most
offendsGod, and what will make him gain the most souls in the shortest
possible time, he does everything to win consecrated souls from God, for
in this manner he will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful
defenseless, and so he will lay hold of them more easily."
On 12/25/57, Sr Lucia told Fr Fuentes, the Postulator of the beatification causes of
Jacinta and Francisco:
"The Blessed Virgin is very sad, for no one attaches any importance to
her message. Neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on their
way, but without paying attention to the message. I cannot give any other
details, since it is still a secret. Only the Holy Father and His Excellency,
the Bishop of Fatima would be able to know it in accordance with the will
of the Blessed Virgin. But they haven’t willed to know it as they did not
want to be influenced."
In 1959 there was a great wave of devotion in all Italy to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
On 9/13/59 all the bishops of Italy solemnly consecrated Italy to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary.
On 8/17/59 Pope John XXIII had the envelope brought to him at Castelgandolfo,
by Mosignor Philippe, then an official of the Holy Office. Pope John XXIII did not
immediately open the envelope but stated:
"I am waiting to read it with my confessor."
The secret was read a few days later, according to Monsignor Capovilla. Assistance
in reading the Portuguese was given by Monsignor Paulo Jose Tavarezof the
Secretariat of State. Later John XXIII had it read by Cardinal Ottaviani, Prefect of the
Holy Office. On 2/8/60 it was suddenly learned through a simple Portuguese press
agency communiqué that the 3rd secret of Fatima would not be published, and that it
probably never would be disclosed. The Vaticancommuniqué ended:
"Although the Church recognizes the Fatima apparitions, She does not
desire to take the responsibility of guaranteeing the veracity of the words
the three shepherd children said that the Virgin Mary had addressed to
them."
Bishop Venancio, on his own initiative, decided to launch an appeal to all the bishops
of the world and attempted to organize a world day of prayer and penance for the
following October 13, but the Vatican turned a deaf ear to this proposal, and nothing
was done. This did immense harm to the Fatima cause. It was from this date, after this
public disregard for the 3rd secret, that devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin began to
decrease in a perceptible and then alarming manner in the Church.
This fault was to have incalculable consequences. For by disregarding the
prophecies and requests of Fatima, it was the Virgin Mary -- it was God Himself -- who
had been disregarded, who had been ridiculed in front of the world. The conditional
punishment announced through the maternal warning of Our Lady was in consequence
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destined to be accomplished tragically, inevitably by disobeying the message of the
Virgin.
Cardinal Ottaviani related that Pope John XXIII placed the Secret,
"in one of those archives which are like a very deep, dark well, to the
bottom of which papers fall and no one is able to see them anymore."
Pope Paul VI straightway adopted the same attitude toward the 3 rd secret.
The Virgin had asked that the secret be made public in 1960 because, as Sr Lucia told
Cardinal Ottaviani, "in 1960, the Message will appear more clear." Other statements
from Sr Lucia have said that "the punishment predicted by Our Lady in the third secret
has already begun."
We are now in the period of which the message speaks. We are now living through the
3rd secret. We are witnessing the events that it announces.
Catholics throughout the world by 1960 were waiting for the Pope to open the letter
and reveal the 3rd secret. But Pope John XXIII and the subsequent Popes have greatly
disappointed the faithful by refusing to reveal its contents.
Why this is so we are not sure. In Pope John XXIII’s "Journal of a Soul", the diary of his
life, he says the Second Vatican Council was a success because of the Blessed
Mother’s intervention. Pope John XXIII had read the secret of Fatima and said that the
secret did not pertain to the reign of his pontificate. Why several Popes did not reveal
the secret is a mystery.
There is continuing controversy concerning why Popes since Fatima have not revealed
the 3rd secret. Scholars disagree on whether or not the 3rd secret was meant only for
the eyes of the Popes or if it was to be released to the general public. The comment by
Pope John XXIII and others upon reading the secret -- indicating that it did not pertain
to their pontificates -- lends credulity to this argument. Also, Pope John Paul II is
under Mary’s protective mantle, and he has not released the contents either. It seems
that the 3rd secret was to be made available to the world from may sources.
On 10/11/92, an interview took place between Sr Lucia and Anthony Cardinal
Padiyara of India, Bishop Francis Michaelappa of India, and Fr Francisco
Pacheco of Fort Ceara, Brazil. Sr Lucia was asked by Cardinal Padiyara,
"Do God and Our Lady still want the Church to reveal the Third Secret?"
Sr Lucia answered, "The Third Secret is not intended to be revealed. It
was only intended for the Pope and immediate Church hierarchy. Our
Lady never said that it was to be revealed to the public by 1960 at the
latest. The Secret was for the Pope."
The controversy continues.
The secrets of Fatima still have not been released by the Church, but through the
intervention of the Blessed Mother at apparition sites we have a good idea of the
contents.
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We do know from the Akita message of 10/13/73 and the 5/13/90 message of Fr
Gobbi that the secret seems to deal with the apostasy and chastisement.
"The Blessed Virgin has told us," confided Sr Lucia to Fr Fuentes, that
"many nations will disappear from the face of the earth, and Russia will
be the instrument of heavenly punishment for the world, if we do not
obtain beforehand the conversion of that poor nation."
Bishop Venancio named the late Fr Alonso in 1966 as the official expert on
Fatima. Fr Alsonso concluded that the 3rd secret refers mainly to a spiritual
chastisement which will be far worse, and even more fearsome, than famine, wars, and
persecution, for it concerns souls and their salvations or their eternal perdition. His
work consisted of 14 volumes which, unfortunately, he was forbidden to publish. Before
his death, however, on 12/12/81, he was able to make known his conclusions in
various pamphlets and numerous articles in theological journals.
In a series of letter in 1969-1970, Sr Lucia reveals more:
"It is indeed sad that so many people let themselves be dominated by the
diabolical wave that is sweeping the world, and that they are blinded to
the point of being incapable of seeing error! Their principle fault is they
have abandoned prayer; in this way they have become estranged
from God, and without God everything fails. The devil is very cunning and
looks for our weak points in order to attack us. If we are not diligent and
careful to obtain strength from God, we shall fail, for our age is very
wicked and we are weak. Only the strength of God can keep us on our
feet."
Sr Lucia wrote:
"Let people say the rosary every day. Our Lady stated that repeatedly in
all her apparitions, as if to fortify us against these times of diabolical
disorientation, so that we would not allow ourselves to be deceived by
false doctrines .. Unfortunately, the great majority of people are ignorant
in religious matters and allow themselves to be led in any direction.
Hence, the great responsibility of one who has the task of leading them...
A diabolical disorientation is invading the world, deceiving souls! It must
be resisted."
On 9/16/70, Sr Lucia wrote:
"Our poor Lord, He has saved us with so much love and He is so little
understood! So little loved! So badly served! It is painful to see such great
confusion, and in so many persons who occupy positions of
responsibility! The fact is the devil has succeeded in bringing in evil under
the appearance of good; the blind are beginning to lead others, as
the Lord tells us in His Gospel, and souls are allowing themselves to be
deceived. Gladly I sacrifice myself and offer my life to God for peace
in His Church, for priests and for all consecrated souls, especially for
those who are deceived and misguided!"
Sr Lucia insists that, "the Virgin knew that these times of diabolical disorientation were
to come." To someone who was questioning her on the content of the 3 rdsecret, Sr
Lucia replied,
"It’s in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse, read them." She also confided
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to Fr Fuentes that the Virgin Mary made her see clearly that "we are in
the last times of the world."
Cardinal Ratzinger in August 1984 said that the 3rd secret concerned the,
"dangers which threaten the faith and the life of Christians." Responding
to the question, "Why is the faith in crisis?", he stated, "The dangers
threatening the faith, the importance of the last times, and the fact that
the prophecies contained in this Third Secret correspond to what
Scripture announces."
On 9/10/84, Bishop Amaral of Leira, Portugal, declared in the great hall of the
Technical University in Vienna,
"The Secret of Fatima speaks neither of atomic bombs nor of nuclear
warheads, nor of SS20 missiles. Its content concerns only our faith. To
identify the secret with catastrophic announcements or a nuclear
holocaust is to distort 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 the
faith is continually diminishing in Europe."
Fr Alonso’s thesis is now publicly confirmed by the Bishop of Fatima. The message
foretells a terrible crisis within the Church. It is the loss of the faith, which the
Immaculate Virgin predicted would occur in our era, if her requests were not sufficiently
carried out. This loss of faith and all it entails is the drama that we have been
witnessing since 1960.
So we must ask why have such good and saintly men in the Church such as Pope
John Paul II not disclosed the 3rd secret? In 1980, while speaking in Fulda,
Germany, John Paul II stated in response to a question about the 3rd secret that
Lucia’s text does speak of chastisements. In response to another question, he stated
that "the chastisements cannot be averted, it is too late." He stated that "the die was
cast. [The chastisements] can be mitigated by praying the rosary." He reiterated that
he, as his predecessors, preferred to postpone publication so as not to encourage the
world power of communism to make certain moves.
These questions also shed light on why he has not undertaken any papal-directed and
comprehensive effort to reverse the continual and rapid deterioration of the
Church. Pope John Paul II said at the Fulda meeting, "No, the Church cannot be
reformed at the present moment." He, too, chose not to disclose the 3 rdsecret.
Understood in its depth and extent, John Paul’s statement can be shocking: "so as not
to encourage the world power of communism to make certain moves." For the Pope to
come to such a conclusion illustrates how accurate the message must be.
Fr Malachi Martin in "The Keys of This Blood" writes about this issue:
"In that ’Third Secret’, Lucia’s words are so explicit and so verifiable --
and therefore so authentic -- that, were the leaders of the Leninist Party-
State to know these words, they would in all probability decide to
undertake certain territorial and militaristic moves against which the West
could have few if any means of resisting, and the Church would be
plunged into further and deeper subjugation to the Party-State."
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This is the seriousness of Lucia’s words. The capitalist West could be entrapped by the
USSR. In Vatican parlance, Lucia’s words have dire geographical meaning. They must
not be treated as pious and devotional outpourings. Fatima relates to the fierce politics
of nations. Ever since Pope John XXIII opened and read those words, the Vatican has
treated them gingerly. Fatima has been politicized. John Paul II from the start has
gone along with the politicization. The secret has to be buried, as Cardinal
Ottaviani said in 1957,
"in the most hidden, the deepest, the most obscure and inaccessible
place on earth. If there was one dominant element to the Third Secret, it
isRussia."
"It must also be added, however, that the anti-Church partisans in the
Vatican bureaucracy and throughout the Church abhor anything savoring
devotion to Mary, to Fatima, and to divine revelation. They have forsaken
the divine faith of Catholicism, of which Mary, the Mother of God, is an
integral part. They also know the present Pope is under the special
protection of Mary. This Mary has said so many times to the visionaries of
the world and most notably to Fr Gobbi when she said, "he is the Pope of
my secret." When Mary says, "and I will receive his sacrifice," she seems
to point to a violent death of Pope John Paul II -- soon.
What is John Paul II to do? He is precisely aware what the future holds with its
chastisements, disasters, earthquakes, tidal waves, the betrayal of his churchment,
and the geopolitics of the world and its sensitive implications. While recuperating from
his wounds inflicted by Mehmet Ali Agea, his attempted assassin, he came to realize
the only hope for the world was the collegial consecration of Russia as requested at
Fatima.
Hoping for a mitigation of the coming tribulations -- but only a mitigation -- he attempted
to consecrate the world to Mary, "with a special mention of Russia." John Paul’s
immediate step was to write all of his bishops, telling them he would do just that on
5/13/82, in Fatima, and inviting them to join him -- either by a physical presence or by
parallel actions in their home dioceses. The apostasy of the last 50 years produced an
anemic response. Many of the bishops were no longer in union with Rome.
Has the Blessed Mother revealed the 3rd secret of Fatima in other messages? Many
people who have studied these messages clearly believe that the Blessed Mother
revealed it on 10/13/73 to Sr Agnes Sasagawa at Akita, Japan. The apparitions at
Akita have been approved by the local bishop. The message was as follows:
"As I told you, if men do not repent and better
themselves,
the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on
all of
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,
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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
weapons 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
the priests.
"The work of the devil will infiltrate even into
the Church
in such a way that one will see cardinals
opposing
cardinals, bishops against other bishops. The
priests who
venerate me will be scorned and opposed by
their confreres
... churches and altars sacked; the Church will
be full of
those who accept compromises and the
demon will press many
priests and consecrated souls to leave the
service of the
Lord.
The demon will be especially implacable
against souls
consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of
so many
souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins
increase in
number and gravity, there will no longer be
pardon for
them.
Pray very much the prayers of the rosary. I
alone am able
still to save you from calamities which
approach. Those
who place their confidence in me will be
saved."
Others point our that Our Lady seems to have revealed again the 3rd secret in
a locution to the Marian Movement of Priests on 9/15/87 at Akita, Japan, the Feast of
Our Lady of Sorrows:
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"A chastisement worse than the flood is about
to come upon
this poor and perverted humanity. Fire will
descend from
Heaven and this will be the sign that the
justice of God
has as of now fixed the hour of His great
manifestation. I
am weeping because the Church is continuing
along the road
of division, of loss of the true faith, of apostasy
and of
errors which are being spread more and more
without anyone
offering opposition to them. Even now, that
which I
predicted at Fatima and that which I have
revealed here in
the third message confided to a little daughter
of mine is
in the process of being accomplished. And so,
even for the
Church the moment of its great trial has come,
because the
man of iniquity will establish himself within it
and the
abomination of desolation will enter into the
holy temple
of God."
Fr Gobbi, in a locution on 2/11/79, received this message (similar to the warnings of
LaSalette):
"This interior division sometimes even leads
priests to set
themselves against priests, bishops against
bishops, and
cardinals against cardinals, for never before
as in these
times has Satan so succeeded in finding his
way into their
midst, rending asunder the precious bond of
their mutual
love."
On 6/13/89, Fr Gobbi received the following:
"Thus errors are spread in every part of the
Catholic
Church itself. Because of the spread of these
errors, many
are moving away from the true faith, bringing
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to
fulfillment the prophecy which was given to
you by me at
Fatima: The times will come when many will
lose the true
faith. The loss of the faith is apostasy."
Cardinal Ratzinger has written in the Ratzinger Report (see below) that the 3rd secret
of Fatima has to do with what he called "de nivissimis". The Cardinal had good reason
to know, having previously read the still unrevealed secret. The Latin expression "de
novissimis" means "dealing with the end times", pertaining to the latter days, or about
the final events. These "end times" to which Ratzinger and the 3rd secret refer, and
about which Pope Paul VI and his predecessors spoke, are well known to Biblical
scholars.
FILE TWO:
Subject: Fatima and environs
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 93 17:12:44 CST
disclaimer.txt:
This article is being posted for information purposes only,
I do not claim it’s validity, and I leave it to the reader
to decide upon the truthfulness of it themselves. I did NOT
write this article, so please don’t flame me for something
I didn’t write.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: The following file was originally picked up from
the Catholic
Information Network (CIN #1) in San Francisco (415-387-
3251) PCP
Although I’ve had this file for sometime, I have just
recently deemed it appropriate to upload this to ParaNet in
light of a number of references to Fatima and the "3 rd"
Secret" in certain UFO related material. In particular,
I’ve seen this subject referenced in the "Krill" files
and in msg threads both on ParaNet and in the
Compuserve
Paranormal Issues Forum. Some feel that it is related, at
least in part, to some element of the UFO phenomenon.
Personally, I feel it relates to some "end time" event which
could lie over the not so distant horizon. Although much of
the speculation surrounding the 3rd Secret of
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Fatima seems
to indicate some kind of earthly catastrophe, its my own
feeling that it also has an explicit political dimension to
it, most probably in relation to the Soviet Union.
The Ratzinger Report
An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church
The session represented extremely unusual
journalistic access to a prefect of the doctrinal office,
requiring months of wizardry by Moody to negotiate.
But Ratzinger had already lowered barriers with
lengthy interviews that friendly writerVittorio
Messori turned into a book called "The Ratzinger
Report." The cardinal's candid and downbeat
comments on the health of the church had caused a
sensation in 1985.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger with Vittorio Messori
(Ignatius Press 1985)
Fatima and environs
One of the four sections of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith (the so-called
disciplinary section) is entrusted with the task of
judging Marian apparitions.
I ask:
"Cardinal Ratzinger, have you read the
so-called ’third secret of Fatima’, which
Sister Lucia, the only survivor of the
group of those who beheld the apparition,
forwarded to Pope John XXIII, and which
the Pope, after he had examined it,
passed on to your predecessor, Cardinal
Ottaviani, ordering him to deposit it in the
archives of the Holy Office?"
The reply is immediate and dry: "Yes, I have
read it."
Undenied versions are circulating in the world, I continue, which describe the
contents of that "secret" as disquieting, apocalyptic, as warning of terrible
sufferings. John Paul II himself, in his personal visit to Germany, seemed to
confirm (albeit with prudent circumlocutions, privately, to a select group) the
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undeniably disconcerting contents of that text. Before him, Paul VI, during his
pilgrimage to Fatima, also seems to have alluded to the "apocalyptic" themes
of the "secret". Why was it never decided to make it public, if only to counter
rash speculations?
"If this decision has not yet been made", he answers, "it is not
because the Popes want to hide something terrible."
Then there is "something terrible" in Sister Lucia’s manuscript, I insist?
"If that were so", he replies, avoiding going further, "that after all
would only confirm the part of the message of Fatima already
known. A stern warning has been launched from that place that
is directed against the prevailing frivolity, a summons to the
seriousness of life, of history, to the perils that threaten
humanity. It is that which Jesus himself recalls very frequently:
’... Unless you repent you will all perish...’ (Lk 13:3).
Conversion--and Fatima fully recalls it to mind--is a constant
demand of Christian life. We should already know that from the
whole of sacred Scripture."
So there will be no publication, at least for now?
"The Holy Father deems that it would add nothing to what a
Christian must know from Revelation and also from the Marian
apparitions approved by the Church in their known contents,
which only reconfirmed the urgency of penance, conversion,
forgiveness, fasting. To publish the ’third secret’ would mean
exposing the Church to the danger of sensationalism,
exploitation of the content."
Perhaps also political implications, I venture, since it seems that here, also,
as in the two other "secrets", Russia is mentioned?
At this point, however, the Cardinal declares that he is not in a position to go
further into the matter and firmly refuses to discuss other particulars. On the
other hand, at the time of our interview, the Pope proceeded to reconsecrate
the world (with a particular mention of Eastern Europe) to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, precisely in accordance with the exhortation of the Virgin of
Fatima, and the same John Paul II, wounded by his would-be assassin, on
May 13-- anniversary of the first apparition in the Portuguese locality--went to
Fatima in order to thank Mary, "whose hand (he said) had miraculously
guided the bullet", and seemed to refer to the forewarnings that had been
transmitted through a group of children to humanity and that seemed to refer
also to the person of the Pontiff.
On the same theme, it is well known that for years, now, a village in
Yugoslavia, Medjugorje, is at the center of world attention because of
reported "apparitions" which --whether true or not-- have already drawn
millions of pilgrims. But they have also provoked deplorable conflicts between
the Franciscans who govern the parish and the bishop of the local diocese. Is
a clarifying statement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the
highest court in this matter, to be expected, with, of course, the approval of
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the Pope, which is indispensable for each one of its documents?
He replies:
"In this area, more than ever, patience is the fundamental
principle of the policy of our Congregation. No apparition is
indispensable to the faith; Revelation terminated with Jesus
Christ. He himself is the Revelation. But we certainly cannot
preventGod from speaking to our time through simple persons
and also through extraordinary signs that point to the
insufficiency of the cultures stamped by rationalism and
positivism that dominate us. The apparitions that the
Church has officially approved--especially Lourdes and Fatima-
-have their precise place in the development of the life of the
Church in the last century. They show, among other things, that
Revelation-- still unique, concluded and therefore
unsurpassable--is not yet a dead thing but something alive and
vital. Moreover--prescinding Medjugorje, on which I cannot
express a judgment since the case is still being examined by
the Congregation--one of the signs of our times is that the
announcements of ’Marian apparitions’ are multiplying all over
the world. For example, reports are arriving from Africa and
from other continents at the section of the Congregation that is
competent to deal with such reports."
But, I ask, besides the traditional element of patience and prudence, on what
criteria does the Congregation base itself for a judgment, in the face of the
multiplication of these facts?
"One of our criteria", he says, "is to separate the aspect of the
true or presumed ’supernaturality’ of the apparition from that of
its spiritual fruits. The pilgrimages of ancient Christianity were
often concentrated on places with respect to which our modern
critical spirit would be horrified as to the ’scientific truth’ of the
tradition bound up with them. This does not detract from the fact
that those pilgrimages were fruitful, beneficial, rich in blessings
and important for the life of the Christian people. The problem is
not so much that of modern hypercriticism (which ends up later,
moreover, in a form of new credulity), but it is that of the
evaluation of the vitality and of the orthodoxy of the religious life
that is developing around these places."
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