In the Third Secret:

by Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité

Frére Michel was born in 1948 and is considered among the most promising of the new Fatima experts. He holds a Master's degree in letters from the Sorbonne and a licentiate in philosophy from the Institut Catholique of Paris. He entered the community of Little Brothers of the Sacred Heart in 1970.

He is the author of the 4-Volume work The Whole Truth About Fatima which is indisputably the most thorough and scientific investigation into Fatima ever published. We have recently published Volume I in English. The following extract is taken from the soon to be published Volume III of this same work.

       Is the Pope mentioned in the unpublished part of the Secret? Once again, the most enlightening rule is the conformity of the Third Secret to the context of the message. This rule allows us to conclude, with assurance, in the affirmative: Yes, the Holy Father is certainly mentioned in the final Secret of Our Lady, and we can even guess in what sense.

I. The Role of the Pope in the Secret Which Has Been Revealed

       The great Secret of Fatima is nothing other than the concise and clear expression of the great design of divine mercy for our century, given by the Blessed Virgin Herself. We must reread the text attentively to discover, (perhaps to our astonishment), to what extent the role of the Sovereign Pontiff is absolutely decisive for the success of this great providential design.

       In the twenty-three lines of Sister Lucia's manuscript, the Holy Father is mentioned five times. Moreover the very structure of the Secret, where the promises and announcement of chastisements are repeated twice in a row, clearly underlines the supreme responsibility of the Holy Father, on whom everything depends in the final analysis.

       Indeed the requests of Our Lady addressed to the Holy Father are at the center of the text, like a key phrase:

First Announcement of the Promises

       "If My requests are heeded, many souls will be saved and there will be peace."

First Announcement of the Chastisements

       "The war will end, but if men do not stop offending God, another worse one will begin in the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and the Holy Father."

The Requests of Our Lady, Conditions for Salvation

       "To prevent this (all the chastisements just described, as well as those that follow), I will come to ask (the Holy Father) for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the communion of reparation on the first Saturdays of the month."

Second Announcement of the Promises

       "If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace."

Second Announcement of the Chastisements

       "If not, it will spread its errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred. The Holy Father will have much to suffer. Various nations will be annihilated."

The Pope, the First One to Whom Our Lady's Requests are Addressed

       The two requests of Our Lady of Fatima to the Supreme Pontiff, which are sandwiched in between the twofold presentation of the promises and chastisements, clearly stand out as the primordial condition of salvation. This is the heart of the drama, and the key to the prophecy.

       In the apparition of Tuy, the words of Our Lady are even more explicit in this sense:

       "The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart. God promises to save Russia by this means."

       In May of 1930, Sister Lucia wrote to her confessor, Father Gonçalves, the most precise request which the Blessed Virgin Mary charged her to pass on to the Pope:

       "The good Lord promises to put an end to the persecution in Russia if the Holy Father deigns to make, and orders the bishops of the whole Catholic world to make with him, a solemn and public act of reparation and consecration of Russia to the Most Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, if His Holiness also promises, once this persecution ends, to approve and recommend the practice of the devotion of reparation indicated above.

       "The good Lord insists that I request the Holy Father to approve the devotion of reparation which God Himself and the Blessed Virgin deigned to request in 1925."

       This shows to what extent the Message of Fatima is eminently ecclesial, not just in the sense that it concerns the whole Church, but especially because the incomparable promises attached to the fulfillment of the heavenly requests are attached first of all to the head of the Church, the Pope himself.

       It is similar to Paray-le-Monial, where the requests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus were addressed not to the people, but to King Louis XIV.

       To be sure, in our twentieth century God has completely entrusted the salvation of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But the Blessed Virgin — like the Holy Spirit, whose visible Figure and living Tabernacle She is — cannot act, and does not wish to act in the Church independently of the ministers instituted by Jesus Christ to teach, govern and sanctify the Faithful in His name.

       The fulfillment of the promises of Fatima — unheard of, incomparable promises — depends entirely on the will of the Pope, who by his apostolic authority must accept and promote the admirable design of mercy proposed by Heaven, but which cannot be fulfilled without his cooperation.

       It cannot be denied that in the Message of Fatima, the responsibility confided to the Holy Father is immense, dizzying: either wonderfully to the good, or terrible and disastrous. For it can be exercised for the better or for the worse: "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven." (Mt. 16:19)

       The Pope need only open the gates to the torrent of graces and blessings overflowing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus onto all souls, on Christendom and all the Church — through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, according to the design of infinite mercy from the Father of all good things. Jesus is the well. The Immaculate Heart of Mary is the canal. But it belongs to the Church, and in the first place the successor of Peter, to open the gates.

       That a crushing responsibility! But it clearly does not suppress in any way our own responsibility — the responsibility of each of the Faithful, who once they have learned the requests of Heaven must strive to put them in practice in their own life.

       Yet, Christ willed that His Church be hierarchical, and even the sum total of all the individual wishes of the members of Holy Church cannot replace this act of obedience of the Head. For it is this meritorious act, an act of burning faith and filial confidence, this act of courage by the supreme authority, ordering all the bishops also to conform to the commands of Heaven— it is this act of the Sovereign Pontiff that God requests and waits for, and He will not change His plan ...

The Conclusion of the Secret: From the Pope Alone Deliverance Will Come

Father Gruner and Frère Michel, author of The Whole Truth About Fatima, discussing the urgency of heeding the Message of Fatima at the International Fatima Rosary Crusade Fatima Symposium held in Vatican City.

       "In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, which will be converted and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world."

       Just as He is faithful, God is inflexible in His commands. He does not change His designs to cater to the capriciousness of men. No, He will not change His plan. He absolutely wills the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as a preliminary condition for its miraculous conversion. Sister Lucia was astonished to hear this from Our Lord:

       I asked Him why He would not convert Russia without the Holy Father making this consecration: Our Lord answered, "Because I want My whole Church to recognize this consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so as to extend its cult and place devotion to this Immaculate Heart alongside the devotion to My Divine Heart."

       Even before the conversion of Russia and peace of Christendom, it is this consecration of Russia by the Pope and all the bishops of the Catholic world which will constitute the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

       Just as He Willed that the Sacred Heart of His Son triumph in the heart of King Louis XIV, that It be honored publicly in his palace, and through him in all the courts of Europe as well — in the same way God Wills today that the Immaculate Heart of His Most Holy Mother be venerated by the pastors of His Church, as the Pope orders all the bishops to accomplish with him all the acts of devotion requested by Heaven.

       Let them consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, in an act of public and solemn faith in Her universal mediation, proclaiming before the whole world their complete confidence in Her all-powerful intercession.

       Since this command was given, it can be said without exaggerating: the salvation of the world is in the hands of the Vicar of Christ, and completely depends on his exact and prompt obedience to the commands of the Queen of Heaven.

       The salvation of many souls or their loss; war or peace; the worldwide expansion of atheistic communism or the conversion of Russia; the exaltation of the Church or an apostasy devouring and consuming the living cells of its body — everything depends first of all on him, and in the final analysis on him alone.

Continued in Next Issue,

Topics to be included are:

I. The Third Secret Announces the Defection of the Pastors; Parallel Chastisements; In Portugal ... and at Rome?; The Thesis of Father Alonso: "Grave Shortcomings of the Upper Hierarchy;" II. Now Everything Can Be Explained; Three Months of Insurmountable Agony; Some Revealing Admissions; Why the Secret was not Disclosed.

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