An extract taken from Chapter IX, pp. 465-479 from The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. III, The Third Secret. This book is now available in English from The Fatima Crusader.

Our Heavenly Mother came to Fatima to protect all Her children. In these dangerous times She wants us to pray the Rosary every day and wear the Brown Scapular. She gave the Third Secret which was to be revealed to the Faithful by 1960. It is a most extraordinary message, a prophecy which tells us of the spiritual disaster we are now living through and what we must do to save our soul.

       In mid-March, 1957, the double envelope, doubly sealed with wax, containing the final Secret of Our Lady of Fatima, was placed in the hands of Archbishop Cento, Apostolic Nuncio at Lisbon. On April 16, it arrived at Rome, at the Vatican, in the Pope's study.

       This brief message, written down by Lucy on a modest sheet of paper in January, 1944 - we have seen in what a dramatic context, and after a miraculous intervention by the Blessed Virgin¹ — this famous "Third Secret" had finally reached the Holy Father's hands. This prophetic warning, we are certain, could still have shored up the course of the waning pontificate, and strengthened the Church in advance against the terrible crisis approaching. The first warning signs of the crisis had already appeared in the revolutionary ferment of the "Liberation",* precisely a few months after Our Lady of Fatima, appearing to Lucy again, ordered her to write down this final message and pass it on to her bishop.
*"Liberation" refers to the liberation of France in 1944.

       Arriving at Rome in 1957, the Secret, with its divine and vivid light, could have enlightened the Pastors of the Church entrusted by Christ with keeping intact the deposit of the Faith. But would the Sovereign Pontiff deign to read it? Would he believe its veracity? Would he have the strength to take heed of it and divulge it at the hour willed by Heaven?

       In any case, since the spring of 1957, the Third Secret, which was certainly the gravest and most urgent one, was at the Holy Father's disposition. It can be said that the Church's and the world's salvation depended, above all, on the consideration the Sovereign Pontiff would give to these Divine words of the Queen of Prophets — the Immaculate Mediatrix, who alone was capable of finally crushing all heresies — in the hour of the final battle of the powers of darkness against the Church of Christ. As we chant in the liturgy: "Thou alone hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world!"

       But before going into the history of this dramatic confrontation between the various Popes and this tragic prophecy of Our Lady of Fatima, we must shed a little light on two preliminary questions. Since 1960, they have been muddled at will, and deliberately obscured, and we will see why:

1. To whom was the Third Secret directly addressed?
2. Had Our Lady really asked that it be revealed to the world in 1960?
   

       The examination of these two questions calls for a profound inquiry, following the most scrupulous critical method, for the answer is of utmost importance for the entire subsequent history of Fatima — and the Church — from 1960 to our own time.

I. The Intended Recipients of The Third Secret and The Date of Publication

       In spite of all the imprecisions, untruths and lies spread on this point since February of 1960, four important truths can be solidly established, truths founded on very numerous and solid testimonies.

(1) The Immediate Recipient of the Secret: Bishop da Silva of Leiria

       The first of these historical truths, and a highly significant one, is that Bishop da Silva could read the Secret immediately, on June 17, 1944, or when he took possession of it, and he even could have revealed it as he saw fit. However, he absolutely did not want to.

       Father Alonso states, "Undoubtedly, the Bishop of Leiria could have opened the letter immediately."² When in 1947 someone asked him if he knew the Secret, Bishop da Silva answered: "No. I did not want to read it. Fatima is entirely God's work, and I did not wish to interfere with it."³ Let us observe that Bishop da Silva never justified his attitude by saying he did not have the right to open the Secret, which he surely would have done, had he been able to fall back on the slightest declaration of Sister Lucy in this sense. No, he avowed once more, a few months before his death: "Although I could have opened it when I wanted, I preferred not to do so."⁴

       Why? The bishop gave this reason to Canon Galamba, who in turn told Father Alonso: "I asked him many times why he would not open it. He always answered, It's not my duty to interfere in this matter. Heaven's secrets are not for me, nor do I need to burden myself with this responsibility'."⁵

       What a disconcerting response! As though the Queen of Heaven's words were not a precious grace mercifully granted to the Church for the greater good of souls!

       So Bishop da Silva stubbornly refused to read it. The fact is so well established that Cardinal Ottaviani, in his discourse of February 11, 1967, at the Antonianum, said so clearly: "Although Lucy said he could, he did not wish to read it."⁶ Let us note, however, in Don José's defense, that although Sister Lucy had informed him, on Our Lady's behalf, that he could read the Secret, it was only a wish and not a formal order. The testimony of Canon Galamba, an advisor and long-time friend of his bishop, leaves no doubt on this question too:

       "Lucy said only that it could be made known immediately, if the bishop so commanded. But she did not say that it had to be opened immediately. The dates for making it known were determined in a dialogue between the bishop and Lucy."⁷

       In any case, an initial fact is certain, and moreover nobody has even thought of questioning it: the immediate recipient of the Secret was Bishop da Silva. It was also planned in 1945 that if he died, the precious document would go to Cardinal Cerejeira, Patriarch of Lisbon.⁸

       This fact must be stressed, for it proves that the Third Secret, contrary to everything said about it later on, was neither exclusively nor even explicitly addressed to the Holy Father. No, like the first two parts of the Secret, with which it forms a whole, it was entrusted to the Church, and first of all to the representatives of the Portuguese hierarchy, to whom it belonged to inform themselves about it and make it known.

       But that being said — no doubt because this final Secret, as we will demonstrate, concerns the authorities of the Church even more directly than the first two parts — Sister Lucy wished the Sovereign Pontiff to read it as early as possible.

(2) The Pope Could Have Read it in 1944

       We have recalled how in May or June, 1944, Sister Lucy expressed to the Bishop of Gurza her desire to speak with the Holy Father in person,⁹ to talk to him about the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but surely also about the Third Secret, which she had just written down three months earlier.

       Father Alonso records another important fact:

       "Cardinal Ottaviani himself has told us that the Sacred Congregation was not interested in 1944 in having the document sent to Rome, preferring that the Bishop of Leiria should continue to keep it in his possession."¹⁰

       Finally, as we have said, during her pilgrimage to Fatima on May 21-22, 1946, serious consideration was given to Lucy going immediately on to Rome to see the Pope, and as Canon Formigao made clear, "to tell him the third part of the Secret of Our Lady of Fatima".¹¹ After the regrettable abandonment of this project, the seer had to content herself with writing to him. She did so in July, 1946, again expressing her desire to speak with him personally.¹²

       Although our information is still very incomplete on this point, it seems very probable that Sister Lucy wanted Pius XII to learn the contents of the final Secret without any further delay.

       Since that did not happen — and this is a third important truth for which we will furnish unquestionable proofs — between 1944 and 1946 it was agreed between Lucy and Bishop da Silva that the final Secret would be divulged in 1960.

(3) "It Must be Read to the World in 1960"

       A series of unimpeachable witnesses allows us to establish this fact with absolute certitude. Let us quote first of all the decisive words of Canon Galamba, which alone would be sufficient for our demonstration:

       "When the bishop refused to open the letter, Lucy made him promise that it would definitely be opened and read to the world either at her death or in 1960, whichever would come first."¹³

       AN IMPRESSIVE SERIES OF WITNESSES (1944-1953). Thus the date 1960 was indicated by Lucy to Bishop da Silva, perhaps in 1944. In any case, we have written testimonies to this effect in 1946. On February 3-4, Father Jongen interrogated Lucy:

       "'You have already made known two parts of the Secret. When will the time arrive for the third part?' 'I communicated the third part in a letter to the Bishop of Leiria,' she answered. 'But it cannot be made known before 1960.'"¹⁴

       On August 12, 1946, Sister Lucy received John Haffert, who in a recent work also gives us an interesting testimony on this subject:

       "At the bishop's house (in Leiria), I sat at the table on his right, with the four Canons. During that first dinner, Canon José‚ Galamba de Oliveira turned to me when the bishop had left the room momentarily and asked: 'Why don't you ask the bishop to open the Secret?'

       "Endeavoring not to show my ignorance concerning Fatima — which at that time was almost complete — I simply looked at him without expression. He continued: 'The bishop can open the Secret. He doesn't have to wait until 1960'.

       "Just then the bishop returned and there was a long moment of awkward silence. The other Canons were obviously also interested in seeing whether or not I would broach the subject to the bishop — the subject on which apparently he had silenced them on more than one previous occasion and on which Canon Oliveira was now taking advantage of a newcomer to again broach the question.

       "I finally broke the silence by saying to the bishop that I understood there was a Secret still to be opened and was there some reason why the bishop did not wish to open it.

       "His Excellency looked up with what to me was an unexpected degree of firmness."¹⁵

       One month later, on September 7, 1946, Cardinal Cerejeira was in Brazil for the closing of the Marian Congress of Campinas. He declared on the subject of the Secret of Fatima:

       "From the two parts of the Secret already revealed, the third part has not been made known, but it has been written and placed in a sealed envelope and will be opened in 1960, we know enough to enable us to conclude that the salvation of the world, in this extraordinary moment of history, has been placed by God in the Immaculate Heart of Mary."¹⁶

       In February 1960, the Patriarch of Lisbon, reporting the directions which the Bishop of Leiria "had passed on to him" on this subject, declared, again in the same sense:

       "Bishop da Silva enclosed (the envelope sealed by Lucy) in another envelope on which he indicated that the letter had to be opened in 1960 by himself, Bishop José Correia da Silva, if he was still alive, or if not, by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon."¹⁷

       There is another and even more important testimony: that of Canon Barthas, who during his conversations with Sister Lucy on October 17-18, 1946, had the opportunity to question her on the Third Secret. Here is the account, which he published in 1952:

       "'When will the third element of the Secret be revealed to us?' Already in 1946, to this question Lucy and the Bishop of Leiria answered me uniformly, without hesitation and without comment: 'In 1960.'

       "And when I pushed my audacity so far as to ask why it was necessary to wait until then, the only response I received from either one was: 'Because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so.'

       "The text of Our Lady's words was written down by Sister Lucy and enclosed in a sealed envelope, and put in the safe of the Bishop of Leiria. It will be opened at the date indicated by Bishop José da Silva or by His Eminence the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon."¹⁸

       In 1953, under the title, Fatima, altar do mundo, there appeared in Portugal three bulky volumes, handsomely made, and containing a series of studies written by the best experts of the period. In this quasi-official publication, during his account of the apparitions Canon Galamba wrote concerning the Third Secret:

       "The third part of the Secret, written down by Sister Lucy, was sealed by the hands of His Grace the Bishop of Leiria and will be opened either after the seer's death or at the latest in 1960 (ou apos a morte da vidente ou o mais tardar em 1960)."¹⁹

(4) "Because the Blessed Virgin Wishes it so"

       All testimonies reporting to us Sister Lucy's repeated declarations lead us to a most important conclusion: Heaven desired and willed that Our Lady's final Secret be believed and divulged — in 1944 at the earliest, and in 1960 at the latest, for then it would become perfectly clear.

       But let us note carefully that this was not a prophecy. It was a new request of Our Lady, which Bishop da Silva and Cardinal Cerejeira had publicly bound themselves to fulfill. Sister Lucy had never pretended to prophesy by announcing publication of the Secret in 1960, as an event which would happen no matter what. And, in this sense, Father Martins dos Reis was correct. This revelation, being confided to the authorities of the Church, continued to depend on their co-operation and many other unforeseeable elements — and above all, an intervention from Rome, which took place in 1957.

Footnotes:

1. Cf. supra, p. 47-48.

2. La Verdad sobre el Secreto de Fatima (=VSF). Unless otherwise stated, we quote it in its English version namely "The Secret of Fatima" p. 45.

3. Ibid., p. 45.

4. Quoted by Vilalta Berbel, Los Secretos de Fatima, p. 76.

5. Ibid., p. 38-39.

6. Doc. cath., March 19, 1967, col. 541-546.

7. VSF, p. 47.

8. We recall that on December 8, 1945, Bishop da Silva placed the envelope sealed by Sister Lucy in a larger envelope, also sealed with wax, and on which he wrote himself: "This envelope with its contents will be given to His Eminence Cardinal Don Manuel, Patriarch of Lisbon, after my death. Leiria, December 8, 1945. José, Bishop of Leiria."

9. Cf. supra, p. 176.

10. VSF, p. 48.

11. Cf. supra, p. 228-229, 234.

12. Ibid., p. 229.

13. Quoted by Alonso, VSF, p. 46-47.

14. Revue Mediatrice et Reine, October 1946, p. 110-112.

15. John Haffert, Dear Bishop! AMI 1981, p. 3-4.

16. Obras pastorais, Vol. III, p. 101.

17. Novidades, February 24, 1960, quoted by La Documentation catholique, June 19, 1960, col. 751. We do not think the date 1960 appears on the envelope. But the Cardinal's material error at least attests to the clarity of the orders Bishop da Silva had transmitted to him on this subject.

18. Barthas, Fatima, merveille du XXe siècle, p. 83. Fatima-editions, 1952. It must be noted that Canon Barthas published this account after having the privilege of meeting Sister Lucy again, on October 15, 1950, in the company of Msgr. Breynat, O.M.I., vicar apostolic of Athabasca-Mackenzie, in the Great Canadian North (TPE, p. 246).

19. Fatima, altar do mundo, Vol. II, p. 147.

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