When Pope John Paul II visited Germany in November 1980 he held a meeting with around 300 people. He was confronted with three questions which were:
1. Do you agree with the receiving of the Holy Eucharist in the hand?
2. What happened to the third secret of Fatima?
3. What is the future of the Catholic Church?
1. "No I do not agree. However my predecessors gave the hand receiving of the Holy Eucharist to some countries. I am not going to revoke the privilege."
2. "I and the Popes before me did not reveal the third secret of Fatima because we did not want to make the people give up and say "then what is the use to continue living". Furthermore, we did not want to create a sensationalism in the news media. Regarding the third secret of Fatima every Christian should know the following: Continents will disappear beneath the oceans. Whole Nations will be destroyed from moment to moment."
3. The future of the Catholic Church is the following:
a) "The Church shall be greatly persecuted. Where the martyrs of the past are nothing compared with those of the future. This is the weapon (the Rosary) that the Christian must use against the terrible future. Not to stop what shall happen but, but, but perhaps to soften what is predicted to happen."
b) "... the chastisements cannot be averted, it is too late... the die was cast. The chastisements can be mitigated by praying the Rosary."
On 13 May 1981, Pope John Paul II was seriously wounded. He missed two bullets aimed at his skull as he bent down to look at a medal of Our Lady of Fatima worn by a young girl in the crowd. In the recuperating room he read everything he could about Fatima, and he reread the Third Secret.
While recovering from his surgery due to the gun shot, the Pope stated that:
