INTRODUCTION
by Tarcisio Bertone, SDB
Archbishop Emeritus of Vercelli
Secretary of The Congregation For The Doctrine Of FaithAs the second millennium gives way to the third, Pope John Paul II has
decided to publish the text of the third part of the “secret of Fatima”.The twentieth century was one of the most crucial in human history, with
its tragic and cruel events culminating in the assassination attempt on the
“sweet Christ on earth”. Now a veil is drawn back on a series of events
which make history and interpret it in depth, in a spiritual perspective alien
to present-day attitudes, often tainted with rationalism.Throughout history there have been supernatural apparitions and signs
which go to the heart of human events and which, to the surprise of
believers and non-believers alike, play their part in the unfolding of history.
These manifestations can never contradict the content of faith, and must
therefore have their focus in the core of Christ's proclamation: the Father's
love which leads men and women to conversion and bestows the grace
required to abandon oneself to him with filial devotion. This too is the
message of Fatima which, with its urgent call to conversion and penance,
draws us to the heart of the Gospel.Fatima is undoubtedly the most prophetic of modern apparitions. The first
and second parts of the “secret”—which are here published in sequence so
as to complete the documentation—refer especially to the frightening vision
of hell, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Second World War,
and finally the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to
humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist
totalitarianism.In 1917 no one could have imagined all this: the three pastorinhos of
Fatima see, listen and remember, and Lucia, the surviving witness, commits
it all to paper when ordered to do so by the Bishop of Leiria and with Our
Lady's permission.For the account of the first two parts of the “secret”, which have already
been published and are therefore known, we have chosen the text written
by Sister Lucia in the Third Memoir of 31 August 1941; some annotations
were added in the Fourth Memoir of 8 December 1941.The third part of the “secret” was written “by order of His Excellency the
Bishop of Leiria and the Most Holy Mother ...” on 3 January 1944.There is only one manuscript, which is here reproduced photostatically.
The sealed envelope was initially in the custody of the Bishop of Leiria. To
ensure better protection for the “secret” the envelope was placed in the
Secret Archives of the Holy Office on 4 April 1957. The Bishop of Leiria
informed Sister Lucia of this.According to the records of the Archives, the Commissary of the Holy
Office, Father Pierre Paul Philippe, OP, with the agreement of Cardinal
Alfredo Ottaviani, brought the envelope containing the third part of the
“secret of Fatima” to Pope John XXIII on 17 August 1959. “After some
hesitation”, His Holiness said: “We shall wait. I shall pray. I shall let you
know what I decide”.(1)In fact Pope John XXIII decided to return the sealed envelope to the Holy
Office and not to reveal the third part of the “secret”.Paul VI read the contents with the Substitute, Archbishop Angelo
Dell'Acqua, on 27 March 1965, and returned the envelope to the Archives
of the Holy Office, deciding not to publish the text.John Paul II, for his part, asked for the envelope containing the third part
of the “secret” following the assassination attempt on 13 May 1981. On 18
July 1981 Cardinal Franjo Šeper, Prefect of the Congregation, gave two
envelopes to Archbishop Eduardo Martínez Somalo, Substitute of the
Secretariat of State: one white envelope, containing Sister Lucia's original
text in Portuguese; the other orange, with the Italian translation of the
“secret”. On the following 11 August, Archbishop Martínez returned the
two envelopes to the Archives of the Holy Office.(2)As is well known, Pope John Paul II immediately thought of consecrating
the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and he himself composed a
prayer for what he called an “Act of Entrustment”, which was to be
celebrated in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major on 7 June 1981, the
Solemnity of Pentecost, the day chosen to commemorate the 1600th
anniversary of the First Council of Constantinople and the 1550th
anniversary of the Council of Ephesus. Since the Pope was unable to be
present, his recorded Address was broadcast. The following is the part
which refers specifically to the Act of Entrustment:“Mother of all individuals and peoples, you know all their sufferings and
hopes. In your motherly heart you feel all the struggles between good and
evil, between light and darkness, that convulse the world: accept the plea
which we make in the Holy Spirit directly to your heart, and embrace with
the love of the Mother and Handmaid of the Lord those who most await
this embrace, and also those whose act of entrustment you too await
in a particular way. Take under your motherly protection the whole
human family, which with affectionate love we entrust to you, O Mother.
May there dawn for everyone the time of peace and freedom, the time of
truth, of justice and of hope”.(3)In order to respond more fully to the requests of “Our Lady”, the Holy
Father desired to make more explicit during the Holy Year of the
Redemption the Act of Entrustment of 7 May 1981, which had been
repeated in Fatima on 13 May 1982. On 25 March 1984 in Saint Peter's
Square, while recalling the fiat uttered by Mary at the Annunciation, the
Holy Father, in spiritual union with the Bishops of the world, who had been
“convoked” beforehand, entrusted all men and women and all peoples to
the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in terms which recalled the heartfelt words
spoken in 1981:“O Mother of all men and women, and of all peoples, you who know all
their sufferings and their hopes, you who have a mother's awareness of all
the struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, which
afflict the modern world, accept the cry which we, moved by the Holy
Spirit, address directly to your Heart. Embrace with the love of the Mother
and Handmaid of the Lord, this human world of ours, which we entrust
and consecrate to you, for we are full of concern for the earthly and eternal
destiny of individuals and peoples.In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and
nations which particularly need to be thus entrusted and consecrated.‘We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God!' Despise not
our petitions in our necessities”.The Pope then continued more forcefully and with more specific
references, as though commenting on the Message of Fatima in its
sorrowful fulfilment:“Behold, as we stand before you, Mother of Christ, before your
Immaculate Heart, we desire, together with the whole Church, to unite
ourselves with the consecration which, for love of us, your Son made of
himself to the Father: ‘For their sake', he said, ‘I consecrate myself that
they also may be consecrated in the truth' (Jn 17:19). We wish to unite
ourselves with our Redeemer in this his consecration for the world and for
the human race, which, in his divine Heart, has the power to obtain pardon
and to secure reparation.The power of this consecration lasts for all time and embraces all
individuals, peoples and nations. It overcomes every evil that the spirit of
darkness is able to awaken, and has in fact awakened in our times, in the
heart of man and in his history.How deeply we feel the need for the consecration of humanity and the
world—our modern world—in union with Christ himself! For the
redeeming work of Christ must be shared in by the world through the
Church.The present Year of the Redemption shows this: the special Jubilee of the
whole Church.Above all creatures, may you be blessed, you, the Handmaid of the Lord,
who in the fullest way obeyed the divine call!Hail to you, who are wholly united to the redeeming consecration of your
Son!Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God along the paths of
faith, hope, and love! Enlighten especially the peoples whose consecration
and entrustment by us you are awaiting. Help us to live in the truth of the
consecration of Christ for the entire human family of the modern world.In entrusting to you, O Mother, the world, all individuals and peoples, we
also entrust to you this very consecration of the world, placing it in your
motherly Heart.Immaculate Heart! Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily
takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose immeasurable
effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the
paths towards the future!From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of
war, deliver us.From sins against the life of man from its very beginning, deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God,
deliver us.From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and
international, deliver us.From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.
From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us.
Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all
individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies.Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin: individual sin
and the ‘sin of the world', sin in all its manifestations.Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the infinite
saving power of the Redemption: the power of merciful Love! May it put a
stop to evil! May it transform consciences! May your Immaculate Heart
reveal for all the light of Hope!”. (4)Sister Lucia personally confirmed that this solemn and universal act of
consecration corresponded to what Our Lady wished (“Sim, està feita, tal
como Nossa Senhora a pediu, desde o dia 25 de Março de 1984”: “Yes it
has been done just as Our Lady asked, on 25 March 1984”: Letter of 8
November 1989). Hence any further discussion or request is without
basis.In the documentation presented here four other texts have been added to
the manuscripts of Sister Lucia: 1) the Holy Father's letter of 19 April 2000
to Sister Lucia; 2) an account of the conversation of 27 April 2000 with
Sister Lucia; 3) the statement which the Holy Father appointed Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State, to read on 13 May 2000; 4) the
theological commentary by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.Sister Lucia had already given an indication for interpreting the third part of
the “secret” in a letter to the Holy Father, dated 12 May 1982:“The third part of the secret refers to Our Lady's words: ‘If not [Russia]
will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and
persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father
will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated'
(13-VII-1917).The third part of the secret is a symbolic revelation, referring to this part
of the Message, conditioned by whether we accept or not what the
Message itself asks of us: ‘If my requests are heeded, Russia will be
converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors
throughout the world, etc.'.Since we did not heed this appeal of the Message, we see that it has been
fulfilled, Russia has invaded the world with her errors. And if we have
not yet seen the complete fulfilment of the final part of this prophecy, we
are going towards it little by little with great strides. If we do not reject
the path of sin, hatred, revenge, injustice, violations of the rights of the
human person, immorality and violence, etc.And let us not say that it is God who is punishing us in this way; on the
contrary it is people themselves who are preparing their own
punishment. In his kindness God warns us and calls us to the right path,
while respecting the freedom he has given us; hence people are
responsible”.(5)The decision of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to make public the third
part of the “secret” of Fatima brings to an end a period of history marked
by tragic human lust for power and evil, yet pervaded by the merciful love
of God and the watchful care of the Mother of Jesus and of the
Church.The action of God, the Lord of history, and the co-responsibility of man in
the drama of his creative freedom, are the two pillars upon which human
history is built.Our Lady, who appeared at Fatima, recalls these forgotten values. She
reminds us that man's future is in God, and that we are active and
responsible partners in creating that future.Tarcisio Bertone, SDB
Archbishop Emeritus of Vercelli
Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the FaithSpource: EWTN