The “third part” of the secret of Fatima, according to the indications of Our Lady to Sister Lucia, should have been made known at the latest in 1960.
John XXIII, the first pontiff who read Sister Lucia’s text refused to reveal it however. On 8 February 1960, with a terse press release, the Vatican made it known that the secret of Fatima would not be revealed.
Paul VI, elected on 23 June 1963, also read the message, but maintained in its regard the same position as his predecessor.91
On 13 May 1973, the members and volunteers of the TFP welcomed to their headquarters in São Paulo the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which had miraculously wept in New Orleans in 1972, with a vigil of prayers, during which they renewed their consecration to Our Lady according to the de Montfort method. Convinced that the “third secret” must contain decisive words of warning, of guidance and of comfort for mankind at this decisive time, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira formulated, on that occasion, a message to Sister Lucia, the surviving seer, that she should break her silence and reveal the unknown part of the heavenly message of which she was the trustee, in order to “open the eyes of those who are sleeping as the apostles slept in the Garden of Olives”. The message was signed with particular solemnity by 735 members of the TFPs of Brazil and of other nations present that evening in the São Paulo headquarters of the association.92 That August saw the beginning of the distribution of the updated version of the leaflet of Dr Antônio Augusto Borelli Machado: As aparições e a Mensagem de Fatima conforme os manuscritos da Irmã Lucia.93
The persistent silence maintained by the ecclesiastical authorities regarding the “third secret” has surrounded it with a halo of mystery of apocalyptic proportions. Public opinion generally believes that the third secret regards a nuclear war, accompanied by natural catastrophes. The majority of scholars of the message of Fatima do not agree with this.
Fatimologists, such as the Spanish Claretian Joaquín María Alonso,94 the French Michel de la Sainte Trinité95 and Dr Antônio Augusto Borelli Machado himself96 believe that the essential part of the third secret regards not so much a material catastrophe, as a spiritual one constituted of the internal crisis of the Church. “Before this crisis became well-known” writes Antonio Borelli “it is clear that a compassionate spirit would have been horrified in face of such an hypothesis. But, from the time when the crisis became public, there is no reason to draw back from this prediction.”97
Among those who support this hypothesis is Cardinal Silvio Oddi, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, who remarked:
“I would not be surprised if the third secret referred to dark times for the Church: serious confusion, disturbing apostasies which would take place within Catholicism. If we look at the serious crisis experienced since the time of the Council, the signs of the realization of this prophecy do not seem to be lacking”.98
The reason for the decision not to publish the third secret, according to words which Cardinal Oddi attributes to Sister Lucia, is that
“they might be mistakenly interpreted”. “I think” the Cardinal added “that the secret of Fatima contains a sad prophecy for the Church, and it is for this reason that Pope John did not divulge it, and Paul VI and John Paul II did likewise. In my opinion, the secret more or less says that in 1960 the Pope would convene a Council which would indirectly bring about, contrary to expectations, many difficulties for the Church.”99 “At this point” comments the cardinal “I dare to advance an hypothesis: that the third secret of Fatima foretold something serious that the Church would have done, of course unintentionally. Because of bad interpretations, acts of disobedience or something of this nature, the Church would go through a rather difficult period. (…) But if this is really the case, the secret is already known because the crisis of the Church is there for all to see. And all the wisest minds have been aware of it for years.”100
Notes:
91. Not even John Paul II believed it opportune to reveal the last part of the message of Fatima, which thus appears, in the age of the “transparent society”, the most jealously guarded secret of our time. “A secret is a secret. And to be logical, no one can draw conclusions from its content, until he knows it. However, it is not out of place at this point to make a conjecture. The part of the secret that has still not been divulged probably contains terrifying particulars on the way in which the punishments announced at Fatima will be carried out. This is in fact the only reason that explains why it may seem hard to make it publicly known. If it contained conciliatory prospects, everything leads to believe that it would have already been made public”. Corrêa de Oliveira, Preface to A. A. Borelli Machado, Le apparizioni e il messaggio di Fatima, p. 16.
92. Cf. the text in Um homem, uma obra, uma gesta, pp. 201-02.
93. The work has letters of approval from about forty bishops, among whom The Most Rev Philip M. Hannan, archbishop of New Orleans, Cardinal Bernardino Echeverría Ruiz O.F.M., archbishop of Guayaquil, Cardinal Silvio Oddi, the archbishop of Braga Eurico Dias Nogueira, Primate of Portugal, The Most Rev German Villa Gaviria, archbishop of Barranquilla in Colombia.
94. Among the various works of Father Alonso, who died in 1981, Joaquín M. Alonso C.M.F., La verdad sobre el Secreto de Fatima, Madrid, Centro Mariano, 1976.
95. Brother Michel de la Sainte Trinité, Toute la Vérité sur Fatima, Saint Parres-les-Vaudes, Editions Renaissance Catholique – Contre-Réforme Catholique, 1984-5, 3 vv., summaries by Brother François de Marie des Anges, Joie intime événement mondial, Saint Parres-les-Vaudes, Editions la Contre-Réforme Catholique, 1991. Cf. especially the III volume, Le Troisième Secret (1985).
96. A. A. Borelli Machado, Le apparizioni e il messaggio di Fatima, pp. 71-7.
97. Ibid, p. 76.
98. Cardinal Silvio Oddi, Interview to “Il Sabato” of 17 March 1990, p. 9.
99. Cardinal Oddi, Interview to “30 Giorni”, no. 11, November 1990, p. 69.
100. “30 Giorni”, 4, April 1991, p. 57; “Fatima, una profezia ancora incompiuta”, Lepanto, nos. 108-10, March-April-May 1991.