By FR. SEAN CONNOLLY
(Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in a series of articles on the one hundredth anniversary of our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima. Fr. Connolly is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York. Part six, because of its length, has appeared in two separate issues of The Wanderer. This is the second installment; the first appeared in the issue of August 17, 2017, p. 7B.)
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Early in the pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II, on May 13, 1981, what is now the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima as it is the anniversary of her first apparition to the three visionaries, the Holy Father was shot four times in an assassination attempt.
While recovering in the hospital from his wounds he recognized this extraordinary coincidence and had the Third Secret brought to him from the Vatican secret archives. Two envelopes were delivered to him — a white one with Sr Lucia’s original Portuguese text and an orange one with an Italian translation. (15). He recognized himself as the “Bishop dressed in White” who was slain in the vision and believed through our Lady’s intercession his life was given back to him.
Many object to this interpretation because John Paul II did not die as the Pope in the vision did. Furthermore, great controversy still remains over the Third Secret of Fatima. Many fervent and sincere Catholics who have studied the matter closely contend the Third Secret revealed by the Vatican in 2000 was not revealed in its entirety or was adjusted to avoid revealing coming cataclysmic events or apostasy from the highest ranks of the Church.
Points made to bolster such claims are the following: bishops working with the various Popes who read the text of the Third Secret commented that the text was written on one sheet of paper rather than four sheets as was reveled by the Vatican; the secret revealed by the Vatican was not in the form of a letter, yet Sr. Lucia stated she wrote the message in the form of a signed letter to the bishop of Leiria; and, finally, the true secret is supposed to contain words attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary and be a prophecy about coming cataclysms and apostasy in the Church.
One can sympathize with the last expectation — that the Third Secret ought to contain information about the tumultuous post-Vatican II era of the Church. Yet, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone (later a cardinal), in his position then as an archbishop and the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, did address all of these objections subsequent to the publication of the Third Secret.
In his interview with Sr. Lucia he reports that she confirmed the validity of the Vatican text of the Third Secret and that she said: “Everything has been published; there are no more secrets.” The private secretary to Pope St. John XXIII who was later made a cardinal, Loris Cardinal Capovilla, read the secret beside Pope John XXIII and actually held the manuscript in his hands. He made the following statement: “The text which I read in 1959 is the same that was distributed by the Vatican.” (16)
As the cardinal prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI posited this interpretation of the Third Secret:
“The angel with the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the threat of judgment which looms over the world. Today the prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of fire no longer seems pure fantasy: Man himself, with his inventions, has forged the flaming sword. The vision then shows the power which stands opposed to the force of destruction — the splendor of the Mother of God and, stemming from this in a certain way, the summons to penance.
“In this way, the importance of human freedom is underlined: The future is not in fact unchangeably set, and the image which the children saw is in no way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed. Indeed, the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction. The purpose of the vision is not to show a film of an irrevocably fixed future. Its meaning is exactly the opposite: It is meant to mobilize the forces of change in the right direction.” (17)
Still another controversy persists over the message given by our Lady at Fatima on July 13, 1917. It is the matter of the consecration of Russia. To prevent the punishment of the world by means of war, famine, and persecution of the Church, our Lady requested the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.
If these requests are heeded, she promises that Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.
Also, in a later apparition to Sr. Lucia on June 13, 1929 at her convent in Tuy, Spain, she announced that the moment for God to ask the Holy Father to consecrate Russia had come and that it must be done in union with all the bishops of the world.
So, was Russia ever consecrated to our Lady’s Immaculate Heart?
To do this during the twentieth century in the midst of the Cold War was not an easy task. The Popes had many diplomatic and ecumenical factors to consider. It would be seen as a direct provocation of the Soviet Union which could take retaliatory measures on the Church of Eastern Europe and it could also be seen as an affront to Eastern Orthodoxy. So, how did each Pope approach this most important request from our Lady?
Pope Pius XI was the first to be informed of the request. The Portuguese bishops asked Pius XI for the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart under the influence of Fr. Mariano Pinho, SJ, who led them all on a retreat of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Fatima. Fr. Pinho was the spiritual director of a Portuguese mystic, Blessed Alexandrina da Costa (1904-1955), who received a revelation from our Lord Jesus to ask the Pope to consecrate the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (18)
This request was made in a letter composed in 1936 which was received by the Vatican secretary of state, Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, who was consecrated a bishop on the exact day our Lady first appeared in Fatima and who would later become Pope Pius XII.
In 1940, Sr. Lucia wrote a letter to Pope Pius XII which read:
“If Your Holiness would deign to make the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, making special mention of Russia, and would order at the same time that in union with Your Holiness all the bishops should also make it, the days would be shortened by which God has decided to punish the nations for their crimes through war, famine, and persecution against the Church” (19)
On October 31, 1942 at the closing of the Silver Jubilee of Fatima Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart with a vague reference to Russia not mentioning it by name: “To your Immaculate Heart…we consecrate, not only Holy Church…but also the whole world….Give peace to the peoples separated from us by error or by schism.” (20)
On July 7, 1952, ten years after he had consecrated the Church and the world with a mention of Russia though not by name, Pope Pius XII explicitly consecrated the people of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in an apostolic letter titled Sacro Vergente anno. In both cases, the world’s bishops did not participate, so the consecration as requested by our Lady was unfulfilled.
Pope Blessed Paul VI did not utilize the opportunity of the Second Vatican Council, which gathered all the bishops of the world together in one place, to make the collegial consecration as requested by our Lady. (21) But, on May 13, 1967, the 50th anniversary of our Lady’s first apparition at Fatima, he delivered an apostolic exhortation to all the bishops of the world entitled Signum magnum in which he called for national, diocesan, and individual consecrations to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Pope St. John Paul II would make the most definitive consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, but it is still not without controversy. We have already reviewed his revelation of the Third Secret and how he saw himself in the vision of the “Bishop dressed in White.”
Exactly one year after the assassination attempt, on May 13, 1982, in an act of thanksgiving for the Blessed Virgin’s intercession in saving his life, he journeyed to Fatima and invited all bishops to join him in consecrating the world, and with it Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Following Pope Pius XII, in the prayer no explicit mention of Russia was made.
Many bishops did not receive the invitation in time for the consecratory event at Fatima either. Sr Lucia later informed the apostolic nuncio it did not fulfill the conditions. Realizing that without the bishops joining him the consecration would need to be made again, he did so on March 15, 1984. Three months in advance of this date all bishops were invited by Pope St. John Paul II to accompany him in the act of consecration — even Orthodox bishops were invited to join and some did.
And so, in St. Peter’s Square with numerous cardinals and bishops personally present, in union with all the bishops throughout the world, kneeling before a statue of our Lady sent from the Chapel of the Apparitions in the Cova da Iria in Fatima, the Holy Father prayed in part: “We find ourselves united with all the pastors of the Church in a particular bond whereby we constitute a body and a college….Forty years ago and again ten years later, your servant Pope Pius XII….entrusted and consecrated to your Immaculate Heart the whole world….And therefore, O Mother of individuals and peoples….In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and nations that particularly need to be thus entrusted and consecrated.” (22)
On numerous occasions in writing and in interviews, Sr. Lucia affirmed the validity of this consecration, stating on one occasion to then Archbishop Bertone: “…it was accepted by Heaven.” (23)
Yet, objections remain to the validity of Pope St. John Paul II’s 1984 consecration due to the following factors: our Lady not initially asking for the consecration of the world but only Russia; Russia never being explicitly mentioned by name; not all the bishops in the world being physically present with the Holy Father for the consecration; and that Russia has not yet been converted. (24)
It can however, be speculated that a fruit of this consecration was the fall of Communism. The Bolshevik Revolution establishing the Soviet Union as a Godless and Communist superpower began in 1917, the same year our Lady appeared in Fatima. After John Paul II’s consecration, the Soviet empire soon collapsed.
Taken Up Anew
Raymond Cardinal Burke just very recently called for another consecration of Russia to be made. The following analysis of Cardinal Burke’s remarks is provided by John Henry Westen of LifeSiteNews:
“The call for the consecration of Russia is for some controversial, but Cardinal Burke addressed the reasons for his appeal simply and straightforwardly. ‘The requested consecration is at once a recognition of the importance which Russia continues to have in God’s plan for peace and a sign of profound love for our brothers and sisters in Russia,’ he said.
“‘Certainly, Pope St. John Paul II consecrated the world, including Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 1984,’ said Cardinal Burke. ‘But, today, once again, we hear the call of Our Lady of Fatima to consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart, in accord with her explicit instruction.’ The want for the ‘explicit’ mention of Russia in the consecration as requested by our Lady was desired by Pope John Paul II, but not undertaken due to pressure from counselors. . . .
“For those who may still object to calling for the consecration of Russia, Cardinal Burke recalled the words of Pope St. John Paul II who in 1982 during his consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart noted: ‘Mary’s appeal is not for just once. Her appeal must be taken up by generation after generation, in accordance with the ever new “signs of the times.” It must be unceasingly returned to. It must ever be taken up anew’.” (25)
The cardinal proposed the consecration of Russia as an antidote to the spiritual chastisements the Church is facing in the failure of pastors in guiding the faithful in proper worship, teaching, and moral discipline.
(Editor’s Note: Also see Don Fier’s recent interview with Cardinal Burke, part one, The Wanderer, August 10, 2017, p. 1.)
With all of that said about the controversy over the consecration of Russia, let us not forget that alongside with it our Lady also requested the Communion of Reparation on the Five First Saturdays. This is important too! We must not lose sight of our part as individual Catholics in the Fatima event.
The message of our Lady is for society to return to God through penance, prayer, and devotion to her Immaculate Heart. In doing so we can grown in holiness and bring about the conversion of the world from its ruinous course.
After our Lady delivered her message on July 13, 1917, the three children pale as ghosts watched our Lady depart as usual. They would now wait for her return the next month.
FOOTNOTES
15) Apostoli, p. 187.
16) Ibid, pp. 266-267.
17) Joseph Ratzinger quoted in Miravalle, p. 203.
18) Apostoli, p. 172.
19) Lucia dos Santos quoted in ibid., pp. 173-174.
20) Pius XII quoted in ibid., p. 175.
21) Ibid., p. 178.
22) John Paul II quoted in ibid., pp. 194-195.
23) Lucia dos Santos quoted in ibid., p. 198.
24) cf. Ibid., pp. 249-261.
25) John Henry Westen. “Cardinal Burke calls for Consecration of Russia to Immaculate Heart of Mary,” at LifeSiteNews (accessed June 20, 2017).
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