St. Pope John Paul II on Fatima

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?

His answers were:

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:

"... in these months, I have come to understand that only solution to all problems of the world, the deliverance from war, the deliverance from atheism, and from the defection from God is the conversion of Russia. The conversion of Russia is the content and meaning of the message of Fatima. Not until then will the triumph of Mary comes."

On 13 May 1982, Pope John Paul II publicly thanked the Blessed Mother for saving his life, during his visit to Fatima.

 

Ratzinger on Fatima (1)

On 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.

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.