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Jacinta's Vision of the Holy
Father
Insulted and Persecuted
Taken from “The
Third Secret” by Frère Michel de la Sainte
Trinité
 «One day, (Lucy says) we spent our
siesta down by my parents’ well. Jacinta sat on the stone slabs on top of
the well. Francisco and I climbed up a steep bank in search of wild honey among
the brambles in a nearby thicket.
«After a little while, Jacinta called out to me:
“Didn’t you see the Holy Father?” “No.” “I
don’t know how it happened, but I saw the Holy Father in a very big
house, kneeling by a table, with his head buried in his hands, and he was
weeping. Outside the house, there were many people. Some of them were throwing
stones, others were cursing him and using bad language. Poor Holy Father, we
must pray very much for him.”
«One day, (Lucy continues) two priests
recommended us to pray for the Holy Father, and explained to us who the Pope
was. Afterwards, Jacinta asked me: “Is he the one I saw weeping, the
one Our Lady told us about in the Secret?” “Yes, he is.”
“The Lady must surely have shown him also to those priests. You see, I
wasn’t mistaken. We need to pray a lot for him.”»30
Some
experts believed that this mysterious vision applied to Pope Pius XII. But it
is more probable that this prophetic vision concerns the future. Does it
perhaps concern the Pope who will finally decide to fulfill the requests of Our
Lady, beginning with revealing Her final Secret to the world? If Sister Lucy
experienced a real agony before writing it down, we can imagine the terrible
sufferings of the Pope who would have to reveal it. It is also certain that
when the Supreme Pontiff renounces the compromises, silence and concessions
dictated by a too-human prudence and decides to act vigorously, in conformity
with his duty as Vicar of Christ — that is, first of all as the fearless
defender of the deposit of Faith, no longer hesitating to denounce by name the
heretics who poison his flock — he will provoke the furor of his enemies,
he will also have to bear the insults and hatred of his own misguided children,
who for a long time have been serving the Enemy. He will be insulted, he will
be pelted with stones, and he will be cursed. Yes, at that time more than ever,
«the Holy Father will have much to suffer».
The Vision of the War and
the
Holy Father in Prayer
«Another time, (Lucy writes) we went to the cave called Lapa
do Cabeço. As soon as we got there, we prostrated on the ground, saying
the prayers the Angel had taught us.
«After some
time, Jacinta stood up and called to me: “Can’t you see all
those highways and roads and fields full of people, who are crying with hunger
and have nothing to eat? And the Holy Father in a church praying before the
Immaculate Heart of Mary? And so many people praying with him?”
«Some days later, she asked me: “Can I say that I saw
the Holy Father and all those people?” "No. Don’t you see that
that’s part of the Secret? If you do, they’ll find out right
away.” “All right! Then I’ll say nothing at
all.”»31 This second prophetic vision, like the first,
has undoubtedly not yet been fulfilled. The horrible war in question is
undoubtedly the future war we are threatened with. As for the Holy Father
«praying before the Immaculate Heart of Mary», we may
believe that he is the Pope mentioned in the Secret: «In the end . . .
the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me.» Did Our Lady perhaps
reveal to Her little confidante what a tragic situation we would be in when the
consecration of Russia, requested so insistently by Heaven since 1929, would
finally take place? «They will do it, but it will be late,»
Our Lord told Sister Lucy.
Only the disclosure of the third Secret, and fulfillment
of the events predicted, will give us the whole truth about these visions of
Jacinta. Be that as it may, the lesson Lucy wished us to draw from these
accounts is simple, and more relevant and urgent than ever: we must pray, pray
much and offer sacrifices for the Pope. Although in her Memoirs the seer could
not reveal the reasons for her insistence — which undoubtedly directly
depend on the revelations in the third Secret — she at least wished to set
before us the moving example of her little cousin. Along with concern for
saving sinners from hell, the thought of the Holy Father was what preoccupied
her the most, surely because she knew of events that we did not — she knew
what dangers, temptations and finally what terrible persecutions the Holy
Father would have to put up with and suffer before the triumph of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Lucy even goes so far as to write:
«. . . There was not a prayer or sacrifice we offered
to God which did not include an invocation for His Holiness.»
40
This
preoccupation, which is so surprising for such young children, is perfectly
understandable if the third Secret mentions explicitly — and with details
striking to the imagination — possible defects of the Supreme Pontiffs and
the persecutions they will have to undergo later on (because of these
failings). Moreover we find explicit mention of these tribulations that the
Popes would undergo in the dramatic prophecy of Our Lord to Sister Lucy at
Rianjo, in August 1931:
«Make it known to My ministers, that given they follow the
example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My request, that
they will follow him into misfortune. It will never be too late
to have recourse to Jesus and Mary.»41 What misfortune is Our
Lord referring to? Undoubtedly it is the third Secret which provides the
answer.
FOOTNOTES:
(30) “De nuevo el Secreto de
Fátima”, Ephemerides mariologicae, 1982. III, p. 112-113. Cf. our
Vol. III, p. 75-78. — (31) III, p. 113. (40) II, p. 83; cf I, p. 34.
— (41) Cf. our Vol. II, p. 543-544.
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