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by Charles M. Mangan
The “Third Secret” of Fatima has for many years given rise to much speculation. Now that His Holiness Pope John Paul II has revealed the Secret by directing the publication of The Message of Fatima, a brief work prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that explores the historical and theological dimensions of this long-awaited text, the time has come for greater understanding of just what it is that Mary asked not only of the three Fatima children but also—by extension—of us.
To comprehend better his recent documentation, special attention must be paid to two of its sections: Sister Lucia’s account of the Secret in her January 3, 1944 letter to the Bishop of Leiria in Portugal; the Theological Commentary of His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the same Congregation, concerning the Secret.
We know that what has been regarded as three various Secrets can actually be considered as one Secret with three parts. (This is the terminology found in The Message of Fatima.) The first and second parts of the Secret dealt with the vision of Hell and the errors perpetrated by Russia, respectively. The third part, which had been kept in the Secret Archives of the Holy Office (presently known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) since April 4, 1957, now has been—for the first time—made public.
Here are Sister Lucia’s own words taken from her text dated January 3, 1944 and written in Tuy, Spain:
- . . .at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’ And we 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. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.
- Public Revelation essentially differs from private revelation. Public Revelation is how God has shown Himself to man and finds its “literary expression” in Sacred Scripture. Private revelation, on the other hand, “refers to all the visions and revelations which have taken place since the completion of the New Testament.” The message of Our Blessed Lady at Fatima belongs to private revelation and, for that reason, is a help to the faith that is demanded by Public Revelation.
- The apparitions of Fatima pertain to “interior perception.” Traditionally, there are enumerated three categories of visions or perception: exterior bodily visions, interior visions; spiritual visions. Fatima belongs to the middle group. That the three shepherd children experienced “Was by no means a simple expression of their fantasy, but the result of a real perception of a higher and interior origin”; however, one must not conclude that “for a moment the veil of the other world were drawn back” for Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco. That is why His Eminence Angelo Cardinal Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State, acknowledge during the Beatification Mass for Jacinta and Francisco on May 13, 2000 in Fatima that the visions “do not describe photographically the details of future events, but synthesize and compress against a single background facts which extend through time in an unspecified succession and duration.”
- Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means putting the attitude of Mary expressed in her fiat—”Your will be done”—at the center of one’s very existence. The best and lasting devotion to the Mother of God is imitation of her selfless service of Jesus. In every circumstance, she readily obeyed the Lord.
- The symbolic images found in the third part of the Secret all point to the urgency of conversion and penance and the reality of suffering for the Gospel. The Holy Father leads the flock of witnesses along the Way of the Cross—the Via Crucis—to the Risen Christ. Yes, mortification is a must for followers of the Messiah; suffering is inevitable for the Christian. These bring about the necessary conversion that inaugurates the new and abiding life promised by the Good Shepherd.
Father Mangan is a priest of the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Those interested in reading the entire texts of the Third Secret and Cardinal Ratzinger’s commentary can go online to www.3mil.net.
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