In Issue No. 20 Father Paul Leonard wrote "The Plot to Silence Our Lady". We are indebted to him for uncovering this Plot. In the following article, Father Paul has chosen to name names because after the public admonition he gave to those responsible for misleading the public, those concerned have chosen to not publicly correct their very serious published errors regarding Our Lady of Fatima's Message. Most of our readers who wrote in expressed their appreciation for Father Paul's article. Some, however, may have been mystified as to what motivated those who, while claiming to be promoting Our Lady of Fatima's Message were actually endeavoring to obstruct Our Lady's full Message from being known and obeyed.

The full message of Our Lady of Fatima is even now still being suppressed by left-leaning philo-communist churchmen and organizations who remain unabashedly committed to the politics of the Vatican-Moscow Agreement.(1) Our Lady's message is unmistakably clear and unequivocal.

"I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays. If My requests are granted Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she shall spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecution of the Church, the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will suffer much, various nations will be annihilated''. Our Lady specified several things when She spoke these words on July 13, 1917.

1) That She would come again to make the requests;

2) If Her requests are obeyed, Russia will be converted and there will be peace;

3) If Her requests are not fulfilled, then:

a) Russia will spread its errors throughout the world.
b) Russia will cause wars and persecution of the Church, martyrdom of the good and even suffering for the Pope.
c) Various nations will be annihilated.

In fulfillment of Her promise of July 13, 1917, Our Lady came to Sister Lucia in the apparition of June 13, 1929 at Tuy and declared "The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father in union with all the bishops of the world, to consecrate Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means."

In these words the Mother of God made clear that:

1) Russia must be specified as the object of the consecration.

2) The consecration must be performed not only by the Pope, but it must be a collegial act performed by all the bishops of the world.

3) "By this means," that is by the actual consecration itself, Russia will be converted and saved.

The leadership of the World Apostolate of Fatima (alias Blue Army) has stubbornly and impenitently falsified Our Lady's message, in their unholy campaign to bring the Fatima message in line with the Vatican-Moscow Agreement. The March/April 1986 issue of Soul magazine on page 32 states a brazen lie when it refers to the Collegial Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary made with the bishops of the world by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square on March 25, 1984 ... There the pope in union with all bishops of the world made the consecration to Mary's Immaculate Heart. As requested in the apparitions of June 13, 1929. "Then on page 9 of the same issue - Soul magazine states: "...The Holy Father proceeded to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary ... in compliance with the request of Our Lady when She said 'I will ask for the consecration of the world to My Immaculate Heart'..."

Our Lady of Fatima never asked for the consecration of the world, but She clearly specified Russia as the object of the requested consecration. The Blue Army editors have falsified Our Lady's own words by changing Russia to world.

Blue Army Entrenched In Untenable Position

This is just one of many examples of how the Blue Army has been publishing false and misleading reports which attempt to create the impression that the consecration has already been done. The Fatima Crusader has repeatedly corrected and refuted the false reports of Soul magazine. Nevertheless, the Blue Army leaders have chosen to entrench themselves in their untenable position - they have apparently chosen to deliberately disregard the demonstrated and proven truth: promoting errors and falsehood, in order to adhere to a policy that does not oppose Cardinal Casaroli's Vatican-Moscow Ostpolitik.

In spite of the fact that Our Lady's requests have simply not been fulfilled, the Blue Army leadership perpetuates the totally absurd claim that the consecration has been made in an incomplete manner - not fully made exactly as God requires, but nevertheless made.

Our Lady demanded the consecration of Russia. The thing that was done was the consecration of the world. Therefore, the consecration that the Blessed Virgin requested simply was not done. To say it was done, but only in an incomplete or partial way is not only false, but a deceptive means to make black appear as white. Thus, Soul magazine and the Blue Army leadership's absurd claim that the collegial consecration of Russia has been incompletely made is a deceptive stratagem, cunningly conceived to achieve a hidden but nevertheless very definite purpose: to put an end to the public campaign for the Collegial Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

It would be simply too much to expect even the most obtuse mind to simply swallow a stark absurdity. Therefore, enough confusion has been injected into the affair in order to deflect the mind's attention from dwelling upon the fact that an act which does not validly fulfill the stipulated requirements is null and void, and therefore cannot even be considered a partial or incomplete act of fulfilling Our Lady of Fatima's command.

There still remains one more stumbling block to be smoothed over and rendered palatable: the fact that Russia has quite obviously not been converted away from its militant atheism and Church persecuting Communism in spite of the fact that the Consecration has supposedly been made. Again, just enough ambiguity and confusion has been injected into the matter in order to induce the public to unwittingly swallow an outright falsehood.

Our Lady stated quite unequivocally that the Collegial Consecration would be the means by which the conversion of Russia would be brought about. In order to deflect the public's mind away from this, the editors for Soul magazine have propagated the brazen falsehood that the Consecration of Russia was not "an actual condition for the conversion of Russia," but that it was only "a sign that the requests of Our Lady of Fatima have been fulfilled."

Soul Magazine Contradicts Our Lady

Our Lady of Fatima made the unconditional promise that the Consecration of Russia will bring about the conversion of that nation: God "promises to save Russia by this means." According to Soul magazine, the promise is conditional: "it will depend on the greater or lesser fidelity of men ..."

After publishing all these distortions, contradictions and lies, one would think that Soul magazine has more than sufficiently insulted the intelligence of its readers, but Soul magazine editors do not stop here. Soul magazine has repeatedly published the clamorous announcement that "The Conversion of Russia has already begun."(!) Priests and laymen are psychically annihilated in Soviet psychiatric wards, and physically annihilated in the camps of the Gulag. The Church is being furiously persecuted in Russia while the war in Afghanistan continues to rage. To say that the conversion of Russia has already begun, is a gesture of insult and betrayal to all the victims of the atrocities and persecution who presently suffer at the hands of Russian Communism and its agents. Sister Lucia writes that "our good Lord promises that the persecution in Russia will end if the Holy Father will himself make a solemn public act of reparation and consecration of Russia ... and order all the Catholic bishops of the world to do the same ..." (Letter of June 12, 1930) The conversion of a few thousand individuals in Russia is an encouraging development, but we must not allow that fact to mislead us about the conversion of Russia. That Conversion will only take place when the Collegial Consecration of Russia that Our Lady requested will have been performed by the Pope and the bishops.

The Fatima Crusader has again and again pointed out the glaring inconsistencies, contradictions and absurdities that Soul Magazine has published with an astounding regularity. The Blue Army leadership seems to be demonstrating an adamant and remorseless resolve to continue unabated in this most reprehensible practice. In view of this, a rational being endowed with the use of common sense cannot but conclude that Soul Magazine and the Blue Army Leadership's penchant for falsehood and distortion is the direct result of a deliberately formulated policy.

Crux Of The Matter

Here is the crux of the matter: Our Lady's real Fatima message has been suppressed because it is at variance with Cardinal Casaroli's treacherous and pro-Communist Vatican-Moscow Ostpolitik. It is for this reason that Soul magazine states (March, April, 1984, p. 5): "we might pray explicitly for Russia if we wish to do so, but in our public message ... avoid upsetting the delicate balance of international affairs which the Holy See (i.e. Cardinal Casaroli) is trying so hard to control and direct." We must desist from working for the fulfillment of Our Lady's request so as not to offend the Communists for "even Russians who are not Christians may understandably resent any thought that they are in need of conversion." (ibid p. 5)

The Blue Army has been turned into an instrument of Cardinal Casaroli's Vatican-Moscow Ostpolitik which would prohibit the Pope and Bishops from fulfilling Our Lady of Fatima's request for the sake of the short-sighted politics of appeasement, compromise and surrender to Communism.

The rationale of the Vatican-Moscow Agreement is that of rejecting divine wisdom in favor of human prudence. Our Sunday Visitor seems to be also of this persuasion.

In the Feb. 12, 1984 issue of that paper we read that "the Church faces a dilemma: where it is unable to negotiate, the people suffer, where it does negotiate, it can make the life of the people better." (P. 9) And "It will negotiate short-term limitations to assure long-term survival of the Church in a country." (Feb. 19, 1984, p. 7)

Such a position subjects God to human judgment if in such negotiations the fulfillment of Our Lady's request is ruled out. Our Lady of Fatima said: "Only I can help you." "If we ignore Her," Father Gruner says, "no one can, and no one will help us. If we ignore Her, God Himself will not help us because He sent His Mother to tell us what we must do to have peace and international security."

Father Sheedy's Unjustified Attacks Rebutted

Father Frank Sheedy, who in his Sunday Visitor column seems to favor the Ostpolitik of negotiation, compromise and surrender, has published some misinformation and distortions of his own in that publication. On Sept. 7, 1986 (Our Sunday Visitor p. 15) he states that "The International Fatima Rosary Crusade ... is headed by an Eastern-bloc Catholic bishop." This is absolutely false. Father Sheedy also thinks that The Fatima Crusader "goes to extremes" when it says that Sister Lucia has been silenced and that it urges the revelation of the "third secret." By saying that these statements of The Fatima Crusader as "extreme", Father Sheedy is suggesting that these statements are false. Therefore, I take this opportunity to remind Father Sheedy that it was Sister Lucia herself who, on March 19, 1983 revealed in a prepared statement which she read to the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Portalupi, that she could not speak because she did not have the permission of the Holy See. Furthermore, when Canon Barthas asked her why it would be necessary to wait until 1960, to open the Secret and reveal it to the world, Sister Lucia replied to him in the presence of Bishop da Silva of Fatima. "Because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so."

Father Sheedy says that The Fatima Crusader "believes that Our Lady's request has not been fulfilled by the consecrations made by Pope John Paul II". After the Pope made the Act of Consecration of the World (March 25, 1984) he asked Our Lady to enlighten "the people whose consecration and entrusting You are awaiting from us", and later in the day he spoke in his prayer "of those peoples for whom You Yourself are awaiting our act of consecration and entrusting." Thus it is not only The Fatima Crusader, but also Pope John Paul II who believes that Our Lady's request that Russia be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart has not been fulfilled.

Father Sheedy states that Fatima Crusader "finds fault with the 'Vatican Ostpolitik' ..." I therefore, take this opportunity to point out that in speaking out publicly against Communism, both Cardinal Ratzinger and John Paul II are going against the 'Vatican's Ostpolitik'.

In the November 16, 1986 issue, Father Sheedy hurls a reckless and, one might even say libelous accusation against The Fatima Crusader: he says that "some of its positions deviated from the orthodox." Father Sheedy makes absolutely no attempt to substantiate such a serious charge (nor has anyone else) but he merely reproduces the notorious letter of Bishop Stanislaus Brzana of Ogdensburg which does not anywhere state that The Fatima Crusader deviates from orthodoxy.

The first thing to be said about this Brzana letter is that it is a masterpiece of innuendo which appears to deliberately create a false impression in the minds of the faithful. It says: "Some of the positions accepted in this publication (The Fatima Crusader) do not represent the teachings of the Catholic Church"and therefore, he advises "caution" in reading it.

Now what exactly does it mean to state that some of one's positions "do not represent the teaching of the Catholic Church"? First of all it does not mean that his positions are false, unorthodox or in any way at variance with the official Magisterium of the Church. This statement can be applied to all Catholic newspapers and magazines and even to some of the writings and declarations of the Popes. When Pope Pius XII announced the dogma of the Assumption, he mentioned in his speech that people had come to Rome "from every part of the Catholic world." Now while the dogma of the Assumption represents the official teaching of the Catholic Church, the Pope's remark about the people coming to Rome "from every part of the Catholic world" does not represent the teaching of the Catholic Church. Likewise, when a Bishop or even a Pope issues a statement as a private doctor, he thereby states his own personal position, and in so doing, his statements do not represent the teaching of the Catholic Church.

The Bishop's Letter Is Unsigned

The statement therefore, that someone's positions do not represent the teaching of the Church is by itself a harmless commonplace that can be applied to practically every Sunday sermon. However, the issuing of such a statement in the form of a warning as Bishop Brzana did clearly appears to be an underhanded and unsavory attempt to create the false impression in the minds of the faithful that The Fatima Crusader is not entirely orthodox. Perhaps it is because the malicious intent of the letter is so evident that the Bishop lacked the courage to sign it, and unsigned it remains. Upon investigation, it appears that the letter was prepared by a Chancery official and the Bishop himself knows very little about this letter.

Father Gruner's letter (see Issue No. 18, Page 12) written in response to Bishop Brzana's unsigned letter was sent to Bishop Brzana and Father Gruner personally visited him as well, but the Bishop could not explain why he advises "caution" in the reading of The Fatima Crusader, nor did he venture to point to any statement in The Fatima Crusader that he considered to be unorthodox.

Finally, it is entirely ludicrous to have reservations about The Fatima Crusader because it "seemed to be critical of the Church." Does Father Sheedy really think that it is disloyal or sinful to be critical of the Church, or that virtue consists of being a good yes-man who doesn't dare make waves? The Fatima Crusader is as bland as a parish bulletin when compared to the violent oratory with which St. Peter Damian criticized and condemned the curial officials of his day. He so strenuously criticized the Church because of his loyality and love for the Church. If what he did was wrong, he would not be a Saint and Doctor of the Church.

St. Athanasius was so critical of the bishops and the Pope that he was even excommunicated by Pope Liberius but it is Athanasius who is a Saint and Doctor of the Church while Liberius is not.(2)

It is out of loyalty to the Church and to the Holy Father that the Fatima Crusader denounces and deplores the politics of the Vatican-Moscow Agreement. The politics of appeasement, compromise and surrender which this agreement embodies is like a hangman's noose on the Church of God. Surrender to Communism is embodied in the outrageously scandalous words of Cardinal Casaroli who is the architect of the ongoing Ostpolitik, who says that "the Cuban Catholic Church and her spiritual guide always take care not to create any problem for the socialist (Communist) regime ... the Catholics and the Cuban people in general do not have the slightest problem with the socialist (Communist) government." This is a treacherous lie. I myself have listened to the discourses of Cuban priests and prelates who explained how the persecution of Catholics and the curtailment and limitation of religious rights continues to take place in Cuba.

The Pope Needs Our Support

The Pope needs our support in his efforts to free the Church from this yoke of the Vatican-Moscow Agreement. By petitioning the Holy Father to consecrate Russia, we are not trying to pressure the Pope into doing something that he does not wish to do. The Holy Father himself, when he was Bishop of Crakow, petitioned Pope Paul VI to perform the consecration of Russia. He desires very much to perform the consecration of Russia with the rest of the bishops of the Church.

In 1980, it was reported even in Soul magazine that the Holy Father "is disposed to make the Collegial Consecration when enough Bishops request it." Unfortunately, the Blue Army leadership is now working to prevent the Holy Father's desire to consecrate Russia from being fulfilled. By doing everything in our power to live the Fatima message and strive for the realization of the Consecration of Russia that Our Lady requested, we will do our part to assist and support the Holy Father in the difficult task of freeing the Church from the shackles of the Vatican-Moscow Agreement, and bringing about the conversion of Russia and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Footnotes:
1. Not all Cardinals and Bishops adhere to the Vatican-Moscow Agreement. e.g. Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Law and Cardinal Obando. 2. More exactly, Pope Liberius confirmed the excommunication which the bishops pronounced against St. Athanasius.

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