Posted on 10/28/2001 1:27:22 PM PST by father_elijah
Fatima Secret Still Not Fully Revealed?
Despite repeated official Vatican denials, the rumor that some aspect of the "Third Secret" of Fatima has still not been revealed continues to spread. Is it groundless, or could there be something to it?
***
ROME-MOSCOW WATCH
The Secret of Fatima: More to Come?
ROME -- News has just emerged that Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last surviving Fatima visionary, several weeks ago sent Pope John Paul II a letter reportedly warning him that his life is in danger.
According to Vatican sources, the letter, claiming that events spoken of in the "Third Secret" of Fatima had not yet occurred, was delivered sometime after September 11 to John Paul by the bishop emeritus of Fatima, Alberto Cosme do Amaral.
The Vatican has not confirmed publicly receipt of the letter.
One source for the story, which was reported on in the Italian press yesterday and today, is Italian priest Father Luigi Bianchi.
Bianchi claims to have met Sr. Lucia dos Santos last week at her cloistered Carmelite convent in Coimbra, Portugal. (She is not allowed to speak with anyone who has not received prior permission from the Vatican, so it is not immediately clear whether Bianchi received that approval, circumvented the need for it, or did not actually meet Sister Lucia as he maintains.)
"She told me she is very worried about the international situation," Don Bianchi told Italian journalist David Murgia. "She said we have entered a crucial time for the Church and for the world -- and that the only salvation is prayer."
The letter is said to contain this warning: "Soon there will be great upheaval and punishment." And it reportedly asks the Holy Father to pray because "your life is in danger."
The current bishop of Fatima, Serafim Ferreira de Sousa, when questioned by journalists, did not deny that Sr. Lucia had sent a letter to the Pope, but said "there are no letters from the seer that express fear for the life of the Pope."
Sources have also suggested that Sr. Lucia's letter encourages the Pope to fully reveal the Third Secret. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who presented the interpretation of the Third Secret on June 26, 2000, said yesterday that the recent rumours of a letter are only the continuation of, "an old polemic fed by certain people of dubious credibility," with the objective of "destabilizing the internal equilibrium of the Roman Curia and of troubling the people of God."
One of the people who seems to fit Cardinal Ratzinger's description, arguably, is a Canadian priest, Fr. Nicholas Gruner, head of the Fatima Center, who has been suspended a divinis by the Vatican. Fr. Gruner has long maintained that the "third secret" was not fully revealed by the Vatican and has publicly pressured Rome to release the full text.
Gruner claims that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is conducting a "campaign of mystification," revealing only parts of the secret. This "does not conform to the truth," Gruner says.
Regarding the life of the Pope, Don Bianchi is worried. "Lucia said that he is the target of the enemy, that his life is in danger and we need to pray for him," Bianchi said.
Sr. Lucia is reported to have also said to the Italian priest that the third secret has not yet been revealed in full.
In an interview with Murgia, Fr. Bianchi speculated on the possibility that the Vatican did not reveal the full secret "to avoid creating panic and anxiety in the population; to not scare them."
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and indeed John Paul II himself, have interpreted the assassination attempt on the Pope in 1981 as the realization of the warnings of the third secret.
But Don Bianchi says otherwise. "The message doesn't speak only about an attempt on the pontiff, but speaks of 'a white bishop who walks amongst the ruins and bodies of murdered men and women,'" Bianchi said. "This means that the Pope will have to suffer greatly, that some nations will disappear, that many people will die, that we must defend the West from becoming Islamicized. That is what is happening in these days."
Sr. Lucia, when asked by Fr. Bianchi what could be done to stop the terror that is increasing in the world, is said to have taken the rosary in her hand and said: "This is the only 'weapon' we have."
Open minded ? [sic] Hopefully I'm diarming [sic] the religious fanatics. Do the radical Islamics ring a bell in your little brain ? [sic]It is quite amazing that in a post with three errors you refer to someone else as having a little brain. If you cannot see any differences between Islam and Catholicism you are quite clearly the one with the little brain.
patent +AMDG
I suspect that the description of holiness will end up sounding like a description of those graven images in your local church of Rome. You know, the ones they don't worship.Does your home have any images in it? Do you worship them?
patent +AMDG
A religious fanatic is a religious fanatic. Thats all I will say.Of course, and it is true simply because you say so. Wiley merely blurts out his opinion, and so it is. There are many kinds of faiths out there, and not all are equal, not all are the same, and very few of them produce men willing to fly a jet into the side of a building. Your hatred of faith blinds you.
patent +AMDG
The Gospel at Mass today was the Gospel of the Pharisee and the Publican. You know that one?
You guys worry a lot about our supposed sins of "idolatry". In fact, you worry a whole lot more about our supposed sins of idolatry than any Christian ought to worry about any one else's sins. I don't recall spending much of my life worrying about your sins. I worry about my own.
I would like some proof that any of you are at a sufficiently advanced state of spiritual development that you are in a position to instruct any of the Catholics on this thread. Please, each of you, detail for us a time when you committed the sin of idolatry in your own life, how you recognized it, how you repented of it, and how you lived that repentance. That way we'll know you know something of idolatry besides the fact that it gives you an excuse to point the finger. This sin of idolatry must not have any relationship to Catholicism; I want to see some capacity for self-criticism, not "Rome-criticism".
Failing that, why don't you just admit that you're all acting like Pharisees and shut up for a change.
And apparently all you're capable of saying. Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were both politicians, but there was a world of difference between them.
I believe in god but I do not believe in Popes, Kings or Elvis/Me too. I also dont believe in Presidents, Congressmen, Chocolate, Soldiers, or anything else. My faith is in God. I trust Gods Word. When that Word states that it has chosen Peter to shepard His flock, I obey God.
patent +AMDG
You mean an abridged Bible.
Jeremiah 23:26-27
Revelation 11:18
Revelation 14:1
Revelation 22:4
All these scriptures mention MY NAME and the fact that men have forgotten MY NAME!!
What NAME do you call Him? I call Him by His Hebrew Name: Yahweh.
The Word was made flesh.
God bless,
patent
PING and FLAG
I believe that Sister Lucy has said that it deals with apostasy. I suppose there are several ideas as to what apostasy is, but one that I read was when James and others considered Paul apostate for falling away from the Law. (Saying that the Law was dead).
If that is a reasonable definition of apostate, it would certainly fit in with what Sister Lucy said. For there are a great many that have fallen away from the Law.
It seems that she also said it would have a negative impact on the church. And if people have been deceived about the Law being dead, well, that would sure have a negative impact!
Satan knows the right address. When we are attacked from all sides, we should be the most at ease, and it should deepen our faith. The libs, the pop cons, the homosexual advocates, the greens, the reds, the feminazis, the atheists, the fundies, the Jack Chicks...what do they all have as least common denominator? Anti-Catholicism.
Satan knows the right address, even if individually they do not.
You would think the fundies would look at the company they keep (The libs, the pop cons, the homosexual advocates, the greens, the reds, the feminazis, the atheists) and "come out of her."
Was Peter chosen after the death of James, who was the head of the Jerusalem church after the crucifixion?Peter was chosen by Jesus Christ, so it would have been before the death of James. This is of course based on the Catholic view that the Bible clearly sets forth that Peter was the Rock, and was told to tend our Lords sheep. Obviously, this is disputed by many here.
patent +AMDG
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.