July 13th 1917
It was during the torrid days of July, the month consecrated to the Most Precious Blood, that our Blessed Lady visited the little shepherds at Fatima for the third time. The immense importance of this visit cannot be overestimated, for at this time, the Blessed Virgin revealed God's message to the world. We take the following account from The Whole Truth About Fatima; Volume I, by Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité :
At the Cova da Iria on Friday, July 13th of 1917, a crowd estimated at between one and two thousand were gathered. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta knelt before the scrubby little holm oak where Our Lady had previously appeared. In her account, Lúcia relates that in answer to her question, “What does Your Grace want of me?” Our Lady replied:
“I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, and to continue praying the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.”
When Lúcia asked her to perform a miracle so that all would believe, Our Lady responded,
“Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.”
Our Lady continued:
“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: ‘O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. “
At the Cova da Iria on Friday, July 13th of 1917, a crowd estimated at between one and two thousand were gathered. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta knelt before the scrubby little holm oak where Our Lady had previously appeared. In her account, Lúcia relates that in answer to her question, “What does Your Grace want of me?” Our Lady replied:
“I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, and to continue praying the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.”
When Lúcia asked her to perform a miracle so that all would believe, Our Lady responded,
“Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.”
Our Lady continued:
“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: ‘O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. “
From Sr. Lúcia’s account:
“As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals.”
Here, in her Third Memoir, Sr. Lúcia added: “This vision only lasted a moment, thanks to our good Mother in heaven who, in the first apparition, had promised to take us to heaven. Were it not for that, I believe we would have died out of fright and fear. Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly" :
“You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI.
When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this 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 against the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this, 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 heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.
In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc. [Ed: This marks the third part of the secret, not yet not revealed] Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.
When you say the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.“
While this was going on, Ti Marto relates how the crowd was so silent that you could have heard a pin drop. And, like Maria Carreira and some other witnesses, Mr. Marto, who was very near the seers, perceived an unintelligible murmur: “then I began to hear a sound, a little buzzing rather like a mosquito in an empty bottle. But I couldn’t hear any words!” This mysterious murmur was heard by only a few witnesses.
However, two other unusual phenomena were noticed by a much greater number: The luminosity of the sky noticeably decreased, as during an eclipse, while the whole time the ecstasy of the children lasted. At the same time, the temperature, which was very hot, went down noticeably, and the tint of the light was modified. The atmosphere became yellow as gold. In addition, a whitish cloud, rather pleasant to look at, formed around the seers. Here again is the testimony of Ti Marto: “I saw what looked like a little greyish cloud resting on the oak tree, and the sun’s heat lessened and there was a delicious fresh breeze. It hardly seemed like the height of summer.”
THE MESSAGE OF JULY 13th
In the cycle of all the apparitions, this one of July is a watershed moment. The previous apparitions, including the Angel’s visits, prepared the children for this important day; and this July apparition is essential for understanding the subsequent ones. For it was during this apparition, as Sr. Lúcia relates, that Our Lady deigned to reveal to us the Secret. So true is this, that the message of July 13th appears to us very clearly divided into two parts:
The first - there are the words which were divulged immediately. And the second - the long text of the secret which the seers carefully kept hidden. However, what is important is that the two parts of the message are very closely connected.
The great novelty of this apparition, the decisive word which would attract innumerable crowds to the Cova da Iria for the next three months, is the announcement of a great miracle. Lúcia requested of Our Lady: ” … tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that all may believe that you are appearing to us.”
Although the request of Lucia reminds us of Bernadette’s request, the response of Our Lady is very different: At Lourdes, when Bernadette followed the advice of Father Peyramale and asked Our Lady to make the rosebush in the grotto bloom, she was content to smile. In this case, and here is the decisive, prodigious event, she accedes to her request:
“Continue to come each month. In October, I will say who I am and what I want; and I will work a miracle so that all may believe.”
Thus she announced three months in advance the place, day and hour of the promised great miracle. It was a clear promise, without any condition or the least ambiguity. On August 19th and September 13th, Our Lady repeated it in the same terms. Never before had heaven shown such condescension to the demands of men, to guarantee for them with certitude the truth of a message. Already, by this solid link between the prophecy and the miracle, the event of Fatima is unheard of - incomparable!
Consider also, that Our Lady made this announcement of the miracle (so that all would see and believe) immediately before revealing to the three seers her great prophetic secret. This was to make them understand, in all clarity, that the miracle would guarantee the divine origin of the message, as well as the fulfillment of this prophetic secret. Thus the great Miracle of the Sun on October 13th was closely associated, by the Blessed Virgin herself, not only with the whole of her message, but especially with the prophetic secret of July 13th.
It was when Our Lady opened her hands again, just as in the two previous months, that the children beheld the horrific vision of hell. This month, no doubt the Blessed Virgin remained in this attitude while she revealed the secret; and the supernatural light which they received was not limited to the vision of hell. Once again, as on May 13th and June 13th, they enjoyed a sort of vision of God, as Sr. Lúcia reports:
“Francisco seemed to be the one on whom the vision of hell made the least impression, though it did indeed have quite a considerable effect on him. What made the most powerful impression on him and what wholly absorbed him was God, the Most Holy Trinity, perceived in that light which penetrated our inmost souls. Afterwards Francisco said: ‘We were on fire in that light which is God, and yet we were not burnt! What is God? We could never put it into words. Yes, that is something indeed which we could never express! But what a pity it is that He is so sad! If only I could console Him!’"
This great sorrow of God, which reveals to us His Fatherly Heart, outraged by our sins, and as it were, overwhelmed by the chastisements which these sins justly draw down upon us, profoundly marked the soul of Francisco during the first three apparitions. He never forgot it, and his whole ideal would be to pray and sacrifice himself to ‘console God.'
THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
The apparition of July 13th also marks the high point of the revelation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the center and very heart of the whole Fatima message. The three apparitions of the Angel, followed by those of Our Lady on May 13th and June 13th, had prepared this revelation which the great secret expresses in all its fullness. But it is a remarkable fact that in the last three apparitions there is no more mention of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This great design of divine mercy for the salvation of the world would not be unveiled until later.
That is why, on July 13th, Our Lady solemnly announced that she would come back. She kept her promise and returned twice: on December 10th, 1925 at Pontevedra, to manifest once again her Immaculate Heart pierced with thorns, and to request the practice of the communion of reparation on the Five First Saturdays of the month; and then again on June 13th, 1929, at Tuy, to ask for the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.
In regards to Russia, on July 13th, Lúcia did not yet know what this word meant. Yet she always affirmed having heard the word Russia. Similarly, she is sure of having heard no reinado de Pio XI. "We did not know if it was a Pope or a king", she confided to Father Jongen in 1946, "but the most Holy Virgin spoke of Pius XI." As for the announcement of a night illumined by an unknown light, it was fulfilled to the letter in the aurora borealis during the night of January 25th, 1938.
Let us point out here, since it is important for critical purposes, what perfect harmony there is between the two parts of the message, that which was divulged immediately, and that which remained secret for a long time. The convergence of themes, which marks the profound unity of the same message pronounced by the Blessed Virgin the same day, is striking.
‘ONLY SHE CAN HELP YOU’
Frère Michel points out that the secret of "the secret" is that God wills to give us everything through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin; in response to our devotion to her Immaculate Heart, not only spiritual goods but even temporal peace, and this for the whole world. Has anyone noticed that one of the words of Our Lady, faithfully reported by Lúcia to her parish priest the next day, has the same vigor, the same exclusivity? "Continue to pray the Rosary every day… to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, for only she can help you." It is equivalent to saying: there is no salvation for us except from Jesus through the Blessed Virgin; this was already the essential core of the secret of Fatima which was disclosed by little Lúcia as early as July of 1917.
THE OBSESSIVE FEAR FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS
The other key of the secret, with its terrible first part: the gripping vision of hell, was clearly manifested at the very moment of the apparition, inscribed on the faces of the seers. All the witnesses in fact noticed the great sorrow which suddenly overwhelmed them. Those who were very near were very much moved by the sudden cry which fell from the lips of Lúcia. "At this moment", says Ti Marto, "Lúcia took a deep breath, went as pale as death, and we heard her cry out in terror to Our Lady, calling her by name."
Is it not this same fright, distorting their faces, which is still visible on this photograph of the three seers taken by Mario Godinho, only a few minutes after the apparition? It was also on July 13th that Our Lady revealed the only two prayers she taught the children, the one just before the secret, to invite them to sacrifice, and the other right after, to complete each decade of the Rosary. These are two very brief formulas, which show once again the humility and also the great pedagogy of the Virgin Mary. They are almost ejaculatory prayers which can easily come unceasingly to our lips. They are two precious pearls which, in a few words, synthesize the whole essence of her message. Thus concludes the insight of Frère Michel.
THE SECRET IN THREE PARTS
In summary, the great secret given by Our Lady to the children during the July 13th apparition consists of three distinct parts:
The first part was fully revealed in Sr. Lucia’s Memoirs, written at the command of her bishop, in 1941. This first part of the secret contained the horrific vision of hell, when the children saw the fate of damned souls, so vividly described above.
The second part of the secret was when Our Lady confided to the children Heaven’s requests for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and for the devotion of the Communions of Reparation on the First Saturdays. Our Lady also conveyed a great warning of the dire consequences in failing to heed these requests.
The third part of the secret (aka: The Third Secret) began with Our Lady's words: “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc." 1 and then ended with her words to the children: "Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.”
Much has been written on the Secret of Fatima, and most scholars have been unanimous in their belief that the phrase “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” begins the third part of the July secret. It is believed that the word “etc.” which Sr. Lucia specifically wrote in her Memoirs indicates exactly where the rest of the words spoken by Our Lady in the third part of the secret begin. However, on June 26, 2000, the Vatican released what was claimed to be the entire Third Secret, but this text does NOT contain any spoken words from Our Lady as indicated by the “etc.” Here is the text of what the Vatican published:
“After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’".
“And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it, a Bishop dressed in White; we had the impression that it was the Holy Father. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels, each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.” 2
There are many reasons for not having moral certitude that the above text is truly the whole Third Secret of Fatima. Among such are numerous testimonies of what the text of the Third Secret actually contains (from those who have read or studied it thoroughly; including Popes, Cardinals, bishops and priests). Most especially, that of Father Alonso, the official archivist of Fatima and who had many interviews with Sr. Lucia. These testimonies can be seen in The Devil’s Final Battle; Chapter 4; “The Third Secret”; pp. 23-26 and Chapter 12; “The Third Secret Predicts: The Great Apostasy in the Church after Vatican II”; pp. 139-144.3
For context, here are just a few of those testimonies: In 1984, then Cardinal Ratzinger explained that the Third Secret dealt with “the dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian, and therefore of the world.” Bishop Amaral added, “The loss of faith on a continent is worse than the annihilation of a nation.” In 1990, Cardinal Oddi explained, “The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against the apostasy in the Church.” Five years later, Cardinal Ciappi stated, “In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.” For a detailed comparison between the Third Secret "Vision" published by the Vatican, and the Third Secret text that has been alluded to by the various witnesses, see again The Devil's Final Battle; Chapter 13; “The Third Secret Consists of Two Distinct Texts”; pp. 158-172. 4
Further explanation of the suppression of the full Third Secret, can be found in the following publications from The Fatima Center: The Secret Still Hidden; The Secret Still Hidden Epilogue: Vindication; and The Secret Still Silenced, which is the first full-length video examination of the reasons for rejecting the claim that what the Vatican published, was indeed, the entire Third Secret. The evidence clearly shows through then Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone's own statements, that the text of the Third Secret which contain Our Lady's words have been suppressed. Recently, this suppression was confirmed by Archbishop Carlo Viganó in an April, 2020 statement, when he revealed that because of a deliberate cover-up operation “...the third part of the message that Our Lady entrusted to the shepherds of Fatima, remains a secret today.” 5
Although the final and most powerful part of the secret, where Our Lady's own words explain the great loss of Faith and the meaning of the vision of a Bishop dressed in White remain unpublished to this day, it can still be known in essence, as we sorrowfully experience its fulfillment day by day. In the terrible Vision of Hell, and in Our Lady's tender plea to heed Heaven's requests, our exceedingly sinful age has been given a great and merciful warning. How quickly our rebellious world's delusion and tepid indifference would melt away if confronted with the whole truth, and faced with the reality of what the children witnessed in that horrific July vision: the unending ruin of souls!
Jacinta could never afterward put the thought out of her mind: “How sorry I am for sinners!” she often moaned. “Oh, if only I could show them hell! And the people who are there, being burned alive, like wood in a fire!” Lucia, too, saw her mission in this world centering around that apparition; that in order to save sinners from going to hell, God wills to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Many years later, in her famous interview with Father Fuentes, Sr. Lucia assured us all that hell is real and we could go there: “Father, my mission is not to indicate to the world the material punishments which are certain to come if the world does not pray and do penance beforehand. No! My mission is to indicate to everyone the imminent danger we are in of losing our souls for all eternity if we remain obstinate in sin.”
“As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals.”
Here, in her Third Memoir, Sr. Lúcia added: “This vision only lasted a moment, thanks to our good Mother in heaven who, in the first apparition, had promised to take us to heaven. Were it not for that, I believe we would have died out of fright and fear. Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly" :
“You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI.
When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this 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 against the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this, 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 heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.
In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc. [Ed: This marks the third part of the secret, not yet not revealed] Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.
When you say the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.“
While this was going on, Ti Marto relates how the crowd was so silent that you could have heard a pin drop. And, like Maria Carreira and some other witnesses, Mr. Marto, who was very near the seers, perceived an unintelligible murmur: “then I began to hear a sound, a little buzzing rather like a mosquito in an empty bottle. But I couldn’t hear any words!” This mysterious murmur was heard by only a few witnesses.
However, two other unusual phenomena were noticed by a much greater number: The luminosity of the sky noticeably decreased, as during an eclipse, while the whole time the ecstasy of the children lasted. At the same time, the temperature, which was very hot, went down noticeably, and the tint of the light was modified. The atmosphere became yellow as gold. In addition, a whitish cloud, rather pleasant to look at, formed around the seers. Here again is the testimony of Ti Marto: “I saw what looked like a little greyish cloud resting on the oak tree, and the sun’s heat lessened and there was a delicious fresh breeze. It hardly seemed like the height of summer.”
THE MESSAGE OF JULY 13th
In the cycle of all the apparitions, this one of July is a watershed moment. The previous apparitions, including the Angel’s visits, prepared the children for this important day; and this July apparition is essential for understanding the subsequent ones. For it was during this apparition, as Sr. Lúcia relates, that Our Lady deigned to reveal to us the Secret. So true is this, that the message of July 13th appears to us very clearly divided into two parts:
The first - there are the words which were divulged immediately. And the second - the long text of the secret which the seers carefully kept hidden. However, what is important is that the two parts of the message are very closely connected.
The great novelty of this apparition, the decisive word which would attract innumerable crowds to the Cova da Iria for the next three months, is the announcement of a great miracle. Lúcia requested of Our Lady: ” … tell us who you are, and to work a miracle so that all may believe that you are appearing to us.”
Although the request of Lucia reminds us of Bernadette’s request, the response of Our Lady is very different: At Lourdes, when Bernadette followed the advice of Father Peyramale and asked Our Lady to make the rosebush in the grotto bloom, she was content to smile. In this case, and here is the decisive, prodigious event, she accedes to her request:
“Continue to come each month. In October, I will say who I am and what I want; and I will work a miracle so that all may believe.”
Thus she announced three months in advance the place, day and hour of the promised great miracle. It was a clear promise, without any condition or the least ambiguity. On August 19th and September 13th, Our Lady repeated it in the same terms. Never before had heaven shown such condescension to the demands of men, to guarantee for them with certitude the truth of a message. Already, by this solid link between the prophecy and the miracle, the event of Fatima is unheard of - incomparable!
Consider also, that Our Lady made this announcement of the miracle (so that all would see and believe) immediately before revealing to the three seers her great prophetic secret. This was to make them understand, in all clarity, that the miracle would guarantee the divine origin of the message, as well as the fulfillment of this prophetic secret. Thus the great Miracle of the Sun on October 13th was closely associated, by the Blessed Virgin herself, not only with the whole of her message, but especially with the prophetic secret of July 13th.
It was when Our Lady opened her hands again, just as in the two previous months, that the children beheld the horrific vision of hell. This month, no doubt the Blessed Virgin remained in this attitude while she revealed the secret; and the supernatural light which they received was not limited to the vision of hell. Once again, as on May 13th and June 13th, they enjoyed a sort of vision of God, as Sr. Lúcia reports:
“Francisco seemed to be the one on whom the vision of hell made the least impression, though it did indeed have quite a considerable effect on him. What made the most powerful impression on him and what wholly absorbed him was God, the Most Holy Trinity, perceived in that light which penetrated our inmost souls. Afterwards Francisco said: ‘We were on fire in that light which is God, and yet we were not burnt! What is God? We could never put it into words. Yes, that is something indeed which we could never express! But what a pity it is that He is so sad! If only I could console Him!’"
This great sorrow of God, which reveals to us His Fatherly Heart, outraged by our sins, and as it were, overwhelmed by the chastisements which these sins justly draw down upon us, profoundly marked the soul of Francisco during the first three apparitions. He never forgot it, and his whole ideal would be to pray and sacrifice himself to ‘console God.'
THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
The apparition of July 13th also marks the high point of the revelation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the center and very heart of the whole Fatima message. The three apparitions of the Angel, followed by those of Our Lady on May 13th and June 13th, had prepared this revelation which the great secret expresses in all its fullness. But it is a remarkable fact that in the last three apparitions there is no more mention of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This great design of divine mercy for the salvation of the world would not be unveiled until later.
That is why, on July 13th, Our Lady solemnly announced that she would come back. She kept her promise and returned twice: on December 10th, 1925 at Pontevedra, to manifest once again her Immaculate Heart pierced with thorns, and to request the practice of the communion of reparation on the Five First Saturdays of the month; and then again on June 13th, 1929, at Tuy, to ask for the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.
In regards to Russia, on July 13th, Lúcia did not yet know what this word meant. Yet she always affirmed having heard the word Russia. Similarly, she is sure of having heard no reinado de Pio XI. "We did not know if it was a Pope or a king", she confided to Father Jongen in 1946, "but the most Holy Virgin spoke of Pius XI." As for the announcement of a night illumined by an unknown light, it was fulfilled to the letter in the aurora borealis during the night of January 25th, 1938.
Let us point out here, since it is important for critical purposes, what perfect harmony there is between the two parts of the message, that which was divulged immediately, and that which remained secret for a long time. The convergence of themes, which marks the profound unity of the same message pronounced by the Blessed Virgin the same day, is striking.
‘ONLY SHE CAN HELP YOU’
Frère Michel points out that the secret of "the secret" is that God wills to give us everything through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin; in response to our devotion to her Immaculate Heart, not only spiritual goods but even temporal peace, and this for the whole world. Has anyone noticed that one of the words of Our Lady, faithfully reported by Lúcia to her parish priest the next day, has the same vigor, the same exclusivity? "Continue to pray the Rosary every day… to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, for only she can help you." It is equivalent to saying: there is no salvation for us except from Jesus through the Blessed Virgin; this was already the essential core of the secret of Fatima which was disclosed by little Lúcia as early as July of 1917.
THE OBSESSIVE FEAR FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS
The other key of the secret, with its terrible first part: the gripping vision of hell, was clearly manifested at the very moment of the apparition, inscribed on the faces of the seers. All the witnesses in fact noticed the great sorrow which suddenly overwhelmed them. Those who were very near were very much moved by the sudden cry which fell from the lips of Lúcia. "At this moment", says Ti Marto, "Lúcia took a deep breath, went as pale as death, and we heard her cry out in terror to Our Lady, calling her by name."
Is it not this same fright, distorting their faces, which is still visible on this photograph of the three seers taken by Mario Godinho, only a few minutes after the apparition? It was also on July 13th that Our Lady revealed the only two prayers she taught the children, the one just before the secret, to invite them to sacrifice, and the other right after, to complete each decade of the Rosary. These are two very brief formulas, which show once again the humility and also the great pedagogy of the Virgin Mary. They are almost ejaculatory prayers which can easily come unceasingly to our lips. They are two precious pearls which, in a few words, synthesize the whole essence of her message. Thus concludes the insight of Frère Michel.THE SECRET IN THREE PARTS
In summary, the great secret given by Our Lady to the children during the July 13th apparition consists of three distinct parts:
The first part was fully revealed in Sr. Lucia’s Memoirs, written at the command of her bishop, in 1941. This first part of the secret contained the horrific vision of hell, when the children saw the fate of damned souls, so vividly described above.
The second part of the secret was when Our Lady confided to the children Heaven’s requests for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and for the devotion of the Communions of Reparation on the First Saturdays. Our Lady also conveyed a great warning of the dire consequences in failing to heed these requests.
The third part of the secret (aka: The Third Secret) began with Our Lady's words: “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc." 1 and then ended with her words to the children: "Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.”
Much has been written on the Secret of Fatima, and most scholars have been unanimous in their belief that the phrase “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” begins the third part of the July secret. It is believed that the word “etc.” which Sr. Lucia specifically wrote in her Memoirs indicates exactly where the rest of the words spoken by Our Lady in the third part of the secret begin. However, on June 26, 2000, the Vatican released what was claimed to be the entire Third Secret, but this text does NOT contain any spoken words from Our Lady as indicated by the “etc.” Here is the text of what the Vatican published:
“After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’".
“And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it, a Bishop dressed in White; we had the impression that it was the Holy Father. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels, each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.” 2
There are many reasons for not having moral certitude that the above text is truly the whole Third Secret of Fatima. Among such are numerous testimonies of what the text of the Third Secret actually contains (from those who have read or studied it thoroughly; including Popes, Cardinals, bishops and priests). Most especially, that of Father Alonso, the official archivist of Fatima and who had many interviews with Sr. Lucia. These testimonies can be seen in The Devil’s Final Battle; Chapter 4; “The Third Secret”; pp. 23-26 and Chapter 12; “The Third Secret Predicts: The Great Apostasy in the Church after Vatican II”; pp. 139-144.3
For context, here are just a few of those testimonies: In 1984, then Cardinal Ratzinger explained that the Third Secret dealt with “the dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian, and therefore of the world.” Bishop Amaral added, “The loss of faith on a continent is worse than the annihilation of a nation.” In 1990, Cardinal Oddi explained, “The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against the apostasy in the Church.” Five years later, Cardinal Ciappi stated, “In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.” For a detailed comparison between the Third Secret "Vision" published by the Vatican, and the Third Secret text that has been alluded to by the various witnesses, see again The Devil's Final Battle; Chapter 13; “The Third Secret Consists of Two Distinct Texts”; pp. 158-172. 4
Further explanation of the suppression of the full Third Secret, can be found in the following publications from The Fatima Center: The Secret Still Hidden; The Secret Still Hidden Epilogue: Vindication; and The Secret Still Silenced, which is the first full-length video examination of the reasons for rejecting the claim that what the Vatican published, was indeed, the entire Third Secret. The evidence clearly shows through then Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone's own statements, that the text of the Third Secret which contain Our Lady's words have been suppressed. Recently, this suppression was confirmed by Archbishop Carlo Viganó in an April, 2020 statement, when he revealed that because of a deliberate cover-up operation “...the third part of the message that Our Lady entrusted to the shepherds of Fatima, remains a secret today.” 5
Although the final and most powerful part of the secret, where Our Lady's own words explain the great loss of Faith and the meaning of the vision of a Bishop dressed in White remain unpublished to this day, it can still be known in essence, as we sorrowfully experience its fulfillment day by day. In the terrible Vision of Hell, and in Our Lady's tender plea to heed Heaven's requests, our exceedingly sinful age has been given a great and merciful warning. How quickly our rebellious world's delusion and tepid indifference would melt away if confronted with the whole truth, and faced with the reality of what the children witnessed in that horrific July vision: the unending ruin of souls!
Jacinta could never afterward put the thought out of her mind: “How sorry I am for sinners!” she often moaned. “Oh, if only I could show them hell! And the people who are there, being burned alive, like wood in a fire!” Lucia, too, saw her mission in this world centering around that apparition; that in order to save sinners from going to hell, God wills to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Many years later, in her famous interview with Father Fuentes, Sr. Lucia assured us all that hell is real and we could go there: “Father, my mission is not to indicate to the world the material punishments which are certain to come if the world does not pray and do penance beforehand. No! My mission is to indicate to everyone the imminent danger we are in of losing our souls for all eternity if we remain obstinate in sin.”
This article was put together by Our Lady of Fatima Chapel/Fr. Hewko Massachusetts
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Permalink Reply by Jake on
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I have mentioned it many times since 2000: That vision is no secret. I read it in a book about Fatima way back in the late 1980s or early 90s. I don't remember the title, and I no longer have the book; I think it was "Fatima in Her Own Words," but I'm not sure. I do remember it was entirely a first-person account, so perhaps it was. At any rate, anyone who read that book knew, as Mother Angelica put it, "We didn't get the whole thing."
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