Why are some Vatican bureaucrats keeping secret the predictions made to three shepherd children near a small Portuguese town some 80 years ago?
A mighty battle is taking place within the ranks of Catholics as a result of events that took place in Portugal in the middle of World War I. On one side are the powerful hierarchs in the Vatican. On the other, a lowly Canadian Catholic priest, Fr. Nicholas Gruner.
Fr. Gruner has two questions which he says, the leadership of the Catholic Church should answer, to wit: 1. Why has the Virgin Mary’s request in relation to the dedication of Russia not been fulfilled? And 2. Why is what has become known as the ‘Third Secret of Fatima’ been kept under wraps?
Well known Catholic writer Joseph A. Ferrera calls Fr. Guner ‘The most controversial priest in the Catholic Church today and the one most loathed by the forces that are shaping the New World Order.” Before detailing the ongoing David and Goliath battle, it is necessary to provide some background so those not familiar with the Fatima story can understand why Fr. Gruner is so dedicated to his quest and is conducting his crusade with unflinching determination in the face of such powerful resistance.
In 1917, according to official Catholic writings and pronouncements, the Virgin Mary appeared six times between May 13 and October 13, to three shepherd children – Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta – at Cova de Iria near the town of Fatima, Portugal. Francisco died on April 4, 1919 at the age of 10. Jacinta died on February 20, 1920 at the age of 9. Lucia became a Carmelite nun.
“I have been sent by God with a message for every man, woman and child living in this century” Mary told the shepherd children.
In 1917, the world was embroiled in a disastrous war that would result in millions of deaths before it was ended. Mary told the children that heaven would grant peace to all the world if her request for prayers, repentance and consecration were heard and obeyed.
Mary explained to the children that war is punishment for sin and warned that God would further castigate the world for its disobedience to his will by means of war, hunger and persecution of the Catholic Church, Pope and Catholic faithful. She went on to say that Russia would be God’s chosen “instrument of chastisement”.
Mary warned the children, “If my requests are not granted, Russia will spread its error throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions against the church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will suffer much and various nations will be annihilated.”
This much was made known at the time to the proper church authorities, and the dates recorded. This was 1917, prior to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the warning beyond the imagination of the people of the time.
Not Fulfilled
To prevent the terrible chastisement at the hands of Russia and to convert that benighted nation, Mary requested of the solemn public collegial (the Pope and all the Catholic bishops of the world), consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. While several Popes have indicated such a dedication, and bureaucrats in the Vatican dismiss claims to the contrary, Fr. Gruner contends that the specific, collegial dedication has never taken place. Hence, he says, the request has not been fulfilled.
The message, or messages, delivered over the six appearances made by the Virgin Mary at Fatima came to be called the Secrets of Fatima. It was confided to the children in three parts. The children were told that the first two parts should be revealed immediately, but the third part kept secret for a particular length of time or until certain things had come to pass.
The first two parts have been revealed. The third part has been in the hands of the Holy See in Rome since 1957, but amazingly, none of the Popes since then have been willing to make it public. In 1957, the Third Secret was delivered to the Vatican in a sealed envelope with the understanding that it would be disclosed to the world no later than 1960, when Sister Lucia said its meaning would become clear. But 1960 came and went, and the secret remained under lock and key.
In an unsigned press release early in 1960, the Vatican announced, to the dismay of Catholics everywhere, that the secret would not be disclosed. The secret has since been read by Pope Paul IV, Pope John Paul II and several highly-placed members of the Catholic hierarchy. None of them would reveal its contents.
At Fatima, the Virgin Mary told the three children that on October 13, God would work a great miracle for all to see so that all would believe the authenticity of her appearance. What happened became known as the ‘Miracle of the Sun’.
So it was that the promise of a great miracle spread like wildfire and on October 13, 1917, in the presence of 70,000 eyewitnesses, a miracle was worked in the sky above Fatima at the exact moment and in the precise spot that the children had announced earlier. Witnesses told how the Sun appeared to dance in the sky and seemed to fall toward the ground before returning to its normal place.
Prior to the Miracle of the Sun, it had been a very rainy day and the people were wet and muddy. However, after the Sun dipped so low that many of the people feared they would be crushed, the witnesses suddenly noticed that their clothes were completely dry, as was the ground. This was witnessed and attested to by believers and non-believers alike and recorded in both the secular press and official Catholic publications.
Following an extensive investigation by the church in 1930, the Fatima message was officially declared “as worthy of belief”. Five successive Popes have publicly indicated their approval and belief in the validity and critical importance of the Fatima apparitions.
Part of the message of the Virgin Mary almost 81 years ago was that a great tragedy would befall all mankind in the second half of the twentieth century. Humanity would not progress as God wants it to. Mankind would become sacrilegious and trample underfoot the gifts it has received from God. Important to Catholics is the warning from the Blessed Virgin that Satan will even succeed in infiltrating the highest positions of the church. Cardinals will fight cardinals and bishops will fight bishops. The church will fall into darkness and the entire world will be plunged into confusion.
Fr. Gruner says that it is obvious that the Virgin Mary’s warnings have been ignored by the world. “Just take a look at what’s happening in the world today if you have any doubts”, the Canadian priest says. Loyal Catholics point to the crumbling of the Catholic Church today, particularly following the Vatican II conclave, the promulgation of the Novis Ordo (New Order) and the suppression of the traditional Latin Tridentine Mass.
The church has paid, and is likely to continue to pay, for the illegal and immoral activities of homosexual priests. The church has already paid hundreds of millions of dollars to parents whose children have been molested by priestly pedophiles. According to Fr. Gruner and his supporters, the fact that the appeals of the Blessed Virgin were not followed resulted in the turmoil of World War II itself.
The lack of spirituality in the new Western Rite Catholic Mass is talked about among Catholics, both clergy and laity. And the resistance of most of the Catholic hierarchs, particularly in the United States, against the Tridentine Latin Mass is a matter of internal scandal.
Almost synonymous with American Catholicism of the middle part of this century is Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman. In 1939, he was named archbishop of New York. And even as Pope Pius XII in Rome was trying to save European Christians from the Godless Bolsheviks, Spellman in the New York, was conspiring with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to whip up a war frenzy.
Only, we would be allied with Josef ‘Stalin’ Djugashvili, the mass murder of the Christians whom Pius XII was trying to save. There are Catholics who say Rome buckled under the pressure of the money, and we’re talking gobs of money, from the US when Spellman was made a cardinal. From there, it was one giant step to Vatican II.
And that’s another speculative reason why the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is so determined to assign Fatima to the memory hole and Fr. Gruner to a backwater diocese in Italy. If, indeed, the Blessed Virgin predicted the infiltration of even the highest levels of the Catholic Church with the enemies of Christ and Christianity, the prime mission of those anti-Catholics would be to destroy (and withhold) knowledge of the Secrets of Fatima. Under those circumstances, Fr. Gruner would have to go.
In a recent letter to his followers, Fr. Gruner said, “Probably no other orthodox Roman Catholic apostolate has ever had to struggle against so much official opposition and so many bureaucratic attacks as we have in 1996 and 1997. Even as Christmas approaches, my own priestly life of 21 years hangs in the balance as we await the judgment of a court stacked with many who have openly opposed me for promoting the full Fatima message.”
Pope Pius XII had a more dire vision of today when he was quoted, vis a vis, Fatima:
“I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s message to Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the faith in her liturgy. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God; when the church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain or the red lamp where God awaits them, like Mary Magdalene weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask, “Where have they taken Him?”
