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15 Years
Ago:
Cardinal Ratzinger
on the Third Secret
Taken from “The
Third Secret” by Frére Michel de la Sainte Trinité
 In November,
1984, an account appeared in an Italian review of an interview granted in
August by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, to journalist Vittorio Messori. In this long article
entitled, “Here is Why the Faith is in Crisis”, an important section
was devoted to Fatima and its third Secret.1
A few years ago,
this interview of the Cardinal with the Italian journalist appeared in book
form,2 after having been changed and rearranged. The few pages
devoted to the Secret of Fatima3 were profoundly modified.
Editor’s
Note: Identical passages in the two versions are in italics. Passages in the
first version but suppressed in the second are capitalized. Given here is only
the November 11, 1984 version of Cardinal Ratzinger’s published remarks
— followed by Frére Michel’s analysis of both versions.
NOVEMBER, 1984 VERSION4
THE MADONNA AS DEFENSE OF THE FAITH. WHY IT IS NECESSARY TO TURN TO
MARY.
“YES I HAVE READ
IT”
November 1984
One of the four
sections of the Congregations is entrusted with the task of judging Marian
apparitions.
«Cardinal Ratzinger, have you read the so-called ‘third Secret of
Fatima’, which Sister Lucy forwarded to Pope John, who didn’t
want to reveal it, and ordered it to be deposited in the archives?»
«Yes, I have read it.»
WHY HASN’T THE SECRET BEEN
REVEALED?
«Why
hasn’t it been revealed?»
1. «IT WOULD ADD NOTHING»
«Because, according to the judgment of the Popes, it would add nothing
to what a Christian must know from Revelation: a radical call to
conversion, the absolute seriousness of history, THE DANGERS
THREATENING THE FAITH AND LIFE OF THE CHRISTIAN, AND THEREFORE THE WORLD. AND
ALSO THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LAST TIMES.»
2. THE DANGER OF
«SENSATIONALISM»
«If it is
not published — at least for the moment — it is to avoid confusing
RELIGIOUS PROPHECY with sensationalism.
BUT THE THINGS CONTAINED IN THIS THIRD SECRET CORRESPOND TO
WHAT IS ANNOUNCED IN SCRIPTURE and are confirmed by many other Marian
apparitions, beginning with the Fatima apparitions themselves in their known
contents. Conversion, penance, are essential conditions of
salvation.»
I. The Reasons For Non-Publication:
Two Inconsistent Pretexts
«Why
hasn’t the third Secret been revealed?» To this question, the
Cardinal’s reply has not varied — and it is disappointing. In effect
Cardinal Ratzinger gives us two reasons for this non-publication, each one as
insignificant as the other. Besides that, they are contradictory.
A Secret Which Would Tell Us
Nothing
«The Holy
Father deems (thus it is John Paul II’s personal opinion expressed here by
the Cardinal) that it would add nothing to what a Christian must know
from Revelation and also from the Marian apparitions approved by the Church in
their known contents, which only reconfirmed the urgency of penance,
conversion, forgiveness, fasting.»
Unbelievable!
The final Secret of Our Lady of Fatima would tell us nothing new which we
didn’t already know . . . And this is the reason why for almost thirty
years, the Popes obstinately refuse to divulge it? Would then this message of
the Blessed Virgin, which according to Her express will ought to have been
revealed in 1960, be useless and superfluous, in contrast with the rest of the
message, which is undeniably significant and urgent?
It is
unthinkable, and one is astonished that a Cardinal of Holy Church dares to
advance such a ludicrous argument in the Pope’s name. Unless, that is, the
Cardinal only meant to say that «the things contained in this third
Secret» «correspond», are in harmony, in perfect coherence
with the elements of Revelation and with the messages of other authentic Marian
apparitions. But in this case, it is one more reason, and a very weighty one,
to make it known to the faithful!
The Danger of Sensationalism
«To avoid confusing religious prophecy with sensationalism», to
avoid «the danger of sensationalism, exploitation of the content»
— here we have the second motive which would justify non-publication
of the Secret!
This time, the
argument is completely incredible. Our Father highlighted the fact in his
“Open Letter to Cardinal Ratzinger” in January, 1985: «How
could a “religious prophecy” which is colorless, odorless and
without any particular savor give rise to “sensationalism”?
And if this Secret adds nothing new, why hide it for the last thirty-five
years! If it is from Heaven, how could it be inconsistent, or useless, or
inopportune?! Why have they taken the indefensible position — and in the
long run, the untenable, scandalous, and criminal position! — of cunningly
refusing it to us, of wanting to make it be forgotten by the world, and
recently again after the sign of May 13, 1981! And again during the pilgrimage
to Fatima of May 13, 1982? If not because this third Secret carries, in twenty
lines of a tiny school notebook, a condemnation and nullification of everything
which has happened in the Church since 1960 . . .?
«Insignificant, this Heavenly Secret? Come now!
Sensational is pejorative, and is not any more fitting.
“Apocalyptic” is the only just term. We know it from the source: it
reveals this part of the Apocalypse which must come in our
time.»5
Yes, it is
certain: because the great Fatima prophecy announces not only the crisis of the
Faith which has come since 1960, but also the deficiencies of the highest
members of the hierarchy, and because it denounces — in a more or less
explicit manner, but sufficiently clearly — the “great conciliar
orientations” which have opened the Church to apostasy, as long as the
Popes want to continue governing the Church in the spirit of the Council —
exalting religious liberty, this abominable heresy, ecumenism, the ideals of
1789 and the cult of man — they can never reveal to the world the words of
the Queen of Heaven, which condemn them.
The
modifications brought by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the first version of his
interview are, on this precise point, highly significant.
II. The Contents of The Third
Secret: the Truth Betrayed
Indeed in
November, 1984, undoubtedly still impressed by the reading of the Secret,
Cardinal Ratzinger, while striving — quite clumsily! — to justify
non-publication, nevertheless gave a glimpse of important truths concerning its
content. We have already said that while explaining that «according to
the judgment of the Popes, it (the third Secret) would add nothing to what a
Christian must know from Revelation», he indicated four important themes
of this Revelation, which also belong to the Fatima message. But in this
enumeration, every informed reader can easily discern what corresponds to the
already known message: «a radical call to conversion», this is the
essence of the public message, and equally of the first Secret; «the
absolute seriousness of history», this is the content of the second
Secret; and finally, what undoubtedly expressed the essential and specific
themes of the third Secret: «The dangers threatening the faith and
life of the Christian, and therefore the world. And also the importance of the
“last times”.» Further on, the Cardinal pointed out still
another positive element of the final Secret: «But the things contained
in this third Secret correspond to what is announced in Scripture . .
.» Earlier, on the subject of the Secret, he had employed the
expression «religious prophecy». This was telling us that it
really is a prophecy — which we know through other channels — and
that it corresponds to those of Holy Scripture.
Although bound
together in an enumeration which may seem banal, several important themes of
the Third Secret were thus explicitly mentioned by the Cardinal.
Now if we reread
the “augmented version”, the Cardinal has carefully erased — and
surely not for lack of space! — these few precise elements which informed
us of the true content of the Secret: «The dangers threatening the
faith» . . . have vanished. «The importance of the last
times» has equally disappeared. The concordance of the prophecies
of the Third Secret with those of Scripture is no longer mentioned.
But above
all, the Cardinal saw fit to modify the context in which he spoke about Fatima,
from beginning to end. It is as if, in a first movement of frankness and
loyalty, he had already said far too much, infringing the law of silence —
not to say dissimulation and lying — which the Popes have imposed on Rome
since 1960, regarding this terrible Secret which burns them up.
Six months
previously, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had
taken up the question of the Third Secret in an article entitled:
«Here is Why the Faith is in Crisis». The section devoted to
the Secret bore the double title: «The Madonna as Defense of the
Faith. Why it is Necessary to Turn to Mary.» And he began this way:
«If
the discourse on Mary has always been essential to the Christian
faith, today it is indispensable and urgent, perhaps more than at any other
period in the Church’s history. At the beginning of the Council
(Cardinal Ratzinger confided), I didn’t at all understand certain ancient
formulas, such as “Mary is the enemy of all heresies”. Others,
such as de Maria, numquam satis (about Mary, one can never say enough)
seemed excessive to me. As the situation changed during the Council and after,
and as I went deeper into this theme, I had to change my mind . . .»
Our Father
commented, in his Letter to the Cardinal:
«Astonishing words, which you go on to justify luminously.
All the great dogmas of our Faith are so closely connected with the glories and
privileges of Mary that to believe in the latter is to avoid all error on the
former. The two most ancient dogmas, the Perpetual Virginity and Divine
Maternity of Mary, but also the two most recent ones, the Immaculate Conception
and the Assumption, practically secure faith in Jesus the Man-God, and preserve
the privileges of the all-powerful Father, Who can intervene in matter itself,
etc. One recognizes your present preoccupations touching the Faith: they have
led you to consider faith in Mary quite simply as the defense of the Faith. As
indeed it is!
«You
equally consider with favor Marian devotion, if it is correct, so that it may
guarantee for the Faith its dimension of the heart, using “heart” the
way Pascal meant it. It reconciles reason with feeling. And also, you add, it
corresponds to the expectations of modern women confronted with a certain
feminism, showing them the feminine dimension of their profound nature,
illumined and given singular worth by the virginity and maternity of Mary.
«The
true devotees of Our Lady will find these theological considerations a little
dry. They would be wrong to consider them
superfluous.»6
In this context,
where it is above all a question of the Faith, Fatima had been evoked. And the
Blessed Virgin was proposed — along the very lines of the third Secret, we
might add — as the remedy for the present crisis of the Faith.
Curiously,
very curiously, in the new version Fatima is dealt with in the chapter
entitled: «Women, A Woman».7 The Blessed Virgin
is now presented as the remedy . . . for the problems of women! It is a
question of the ordination of women, «the “banalization” of
sex», “feminism in the convent” and Sisters who go now to
psychoanalysis instead of confessors, the dizzying drop in women’s
religious vocations, the aggiornamento of religious life, and we come to . .
. «A remedy: Mary».8 Then the Cardinal
develops «six reasons for not forgetting», before finally
reaching the three pages on Fatima. These pages are placed under an innocuous
title, which leaves no opportunity for any «sensationalist»
interpretation: «Fatima and environs».
There is at
least a change of perspective here, and a series of retouches was given to the
first exposition. One easily guesses the hidden reason, while still deploring
it . . .
The Cardinal Had Said Too Much!
No
doubt there was scant appreciation at Rome for the obvious interpretation of
the Cardinal’s original statements, expressed in all clarity by our Father
in his “Open Letter”, which he addressed to Cardinal Ratzinger in
January, 1985:
«We are
immensely grateful to you for having been the first to thus reveal to us con
franchezza — at least as far as permitted by the reserve demanded by
your high functions, which obliges you to guard them — these things which
had always been hidden from us. And even after Father Alonso, and we for our
part, had guessed them, discovered and published them, they had been
obstinately denied and negated! Thus this Secret exists, you have read it, the
Popes have judged that it adds nothing new, you repeat this judgment without
making it your own.
«And while
we were misled about its contents, you find words so precise and placed in an
order such that, for the specialists, it is just as if you wanted to let them
know that they are not mistaken. Father Alonso was right, we are right: the
Secret is not “strictly reserved to the Holy Father” (Declaration of
Cardinal Ottaviani, February 11, 1967), it does not just concern Portugal (the
thesis of Father G. Freire) . . . I will spell it out: “We are
running out of time, if we are not converted soon, we will fall into apostasy
and we will die in terrible chastisements, which will already be among these
cataclysms, wars, famines, and persecutions which the holy Books announce for
the coming of the End of time.”»
«Here is
news given for the first time by an authoritative person, of prodigious
interest. Your Eminence has read the final Secret, the only
secret at present which has an absolute, vital importance for the Church and
for the whole world, involving simultaneously the temporal and eternal
salvation of all. I am sure that it was reading this extraordinary Secret which
changed your way of seeing the state of the Church and the world, and gave you
the strength of soul to utter this great cry of alarm, this dossier on the
crisis of the faith . . .»
«Continuing your revelations, you say: “If it is not
published, at least for the moment” (almeno per ora. Oh,
how this phrase makes our hearts tremble with a wonderful hope!) . . .
«And
thus we are heading towards the time of its indispensable revelation to the
world. You are intimately persuaded of it, are you not? It must be published,
this Secret coming from Heaven as a last act of mercy, a final prayer to
men to be converted!»9
Well, no! Six
months later, Rome closed the door again — inexorably — to this great
hope. It is necessary to continue being silent, to dissimulate, even to lie
— but at no price are the Faithful allowed to guess the words of their
Heavenly Mother, which are absolutely not in accord with the new language used
by their Popes and reformer bishops for over thirty years!
Alas! It seems
that everything which the Cardinal — entrusted above all with the
safeguarding of the Faith — decided to add in his book to his previous
exposition on Fatima tends only to this purpose: to mislead, to deceive his
readers on the authentic contents of the Third Secret, and to distract their
attention from the prophecy concerning precisely the loss of Faith,
which it is his duty to remedy!
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Ecco
perché la fede è in crisi in the review Jesus, p. 79. (2) The
Ratzinger Report, Ignatius Press, 1985. — (3) Ibid., P. 109-111, 118. (4)
The subtitles in the center have been added by us. (5) CRC 207, January 1985,
p. 12. — (6) CRC 207, January 1985, p. 11-12. (7) Ratzinger Report, P. 93.
— (8) Ibid, P. 104. — (9) CRC 207, January 1985, p. 12.
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