Saturday, October 18, 2014

Ratzinger on Fatima (1)

http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/fatima12c-seers.jpgOn 11 November 1984, Cardinal Ratzinger, gave an interview in Jesus magazine, a publication of the Pauline Sisters. The interview is entitled “Here is Why the Faith is in Crisis,” and was published with the Cardinal's explicit permission. In this interview Cardinal Ratzinger admits that a crisis of faith is affecting the Church around the world. In this context, he reveals that he has read the Third Secret and that the Secret refers to “dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world.”

Ratzinger says in the same interview that the Secret also refers to “the importance of the Novissimi [the Last Times/the Last Things]” and that “If it is not published, at least for now, it is to avoid confusing religious prophecy with sensationalism ...” The Cardinal further reveals 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 ...”

Sources:  Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima - Volume III, pp. 822-823. See also Jesus magazine, November 11, 1984, p. 79. See also The Fatima Crusader, Issue 37, Summer 1991, p. 7.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Cardinal Ratzinger on his conscience




According to an Austrian priest close to Ratzinger, two things weighed on Pope Benedict's conscience while he was a cardinal: 

  • One was his mishandling of the Message of Fatima, i.e. the Third Secret, on 26 June 2000. Ratzinger allegedly said "my hand was forced";
  • The other was his 1988 mishandling of Archbishop Lefebvre, prior to the latter's excommunication. Ratzinger is reported to have said that in the case of Lefebvre, "I failed".

Note: Bishop Williamson, formerly of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), related this story.