On the 4^th and 5^th of November 2017 in Moscow (Russia), Fr. Shane Pezzutti and faithful of the SSPX in Russia co-operating with the Fatima Centre, organized a Conference about Fatima in Moscow. We publish first part of speech by Bishop Bernard Fellay.

Dear congress members, it’s for me a great, great joy to be able to address these few words about Fatima and the Church today, and to be able to do that almost to the day 100 years after the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution which was announced at Fatima. So we have the combination of these two, let’s call them anniversaries, one happy, one unhappy. Both linked not just historically, but supernaturally.

So the question I tried to address, which is not very easy, is: Can we find in Fatima – and I use the word “Fatima” as broad as possible – something about the happenings in the Church today?

I precisely use the word Fatima, because we are going to distinguish what we mean when we say Fatima.

So, first, we have to distinguish different levels: Different levels which will indicate, let’s say, the importance of these levels, and also the certainty of what is said.

 

A Multi-Layered Revelation

And so first, we have what we call the Message of Fatima. That is what the Blessed Virgin Mary told the children – the three seers of Fatima – so that these children would repeat and transmit what She told them. And we can, here, also distinguish certain points which had to be transmitted immediately, and some which would be revealed later on.

The part which had to be revealed later, we call it secret. Well, Sister Lucy called it a Secret and in three parts.

Then there is another level which does exist, which we have to mention, and it is more difficult. It is points or truths which have been revealed either at the moment, in 1917, or later. And part of it clearly was not destined to be transmitted.

Let’s give some examples. What we know, what is very well known, is precisely the Apparitions of 1917 with their contents. But we know also that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Sister Lucy in 1929, that the Sacred Heart appeared in 1931. That in 1944 there was a vision, or an Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to give the order to the sister to write down the Secret. So you see, there is a whole amount of information which is not exactly covered the same way as what is called the message of 1917. But we find a lot of information in these Apparitions.

Then we have another level, and it is the level that the seers have exposed as being their own opinion. For example, this little booklet, which is called The Message of Fatima, has been written by Sister Lucy just before her death, which was published in 2011 post-mortem. The sub-title is “How I See the Message.” So it is an explanation by Sister Lucy of what she understands of the Fatima Message. So it does not directly transmit what the Blessed Virgin Mary said, but what Sister Lucy understood of the message.

Then you have what others have either read, or said, or received from the seers – for example, Cardinal Ratzinger, who said: “I have read the Secret,” and then he gives you some information about it. Or you have Father Fuentes, who says, “I have talked with Sister Lucy and she told me these things.” And understand that, in fact, all these provide an enormous amount of information, but which needs to be evaluated correctly.

 

Many Documents Still Not Published

We are not going to talk about everything. It’s an enormous amount, and I may say probably 90 – 95 percent is not freely accessible.

You have it especially in the archives – the archives of Father Alonso – which is enormous. It’s probably about 12 volumes and only one or two have been published. And it seems that there is a very strong action to prevent their publication. Then you have the archives of the Sanctuary of Fatima and of the Diocese. You have the archives of the Patriarch in Lisbon and they are not freely accessed.

I give you just one little hint. In 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary, talking to the seers, said, “Go and talk to Father Formigão.” So you have the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is giving a precise name of a person which is unknown as part of the common knowledge of Fatima. And the Blessed Virgin Mary requested that two religious congregations should be founded – one male, one female – and the main purpose was reparation. The female branch, Father Formigão was able to establish but it was very, very difficult. They had a very hard time setting it up against the resistance of the authorities.

So you can see with this example, that this type of information can be of interest but which is very, very difficult to access. And we are facing there something very, very interesting: that Fatima is really a fight, and a fight between the Blessed Virgin Mary and the devil. It is not just a simple Apparition where the Blessed Virgin Mary says something, and then the human, or the Church, obeys. It is a very, very complicated following of events which many times makes us angry, because it seems so simple and even the ecclesiastical authority do not obey.

When you think that the Blessed Virgin Mary promised – you consecrate Russia and nothing of all this pain, sufferings for the world, for so many souls, nothing will happen, not to the Church – everybody will be saved [from these sufferings]. And they don’t do it! Now we touch here on this very deep problem. It is a problem of the response of the free will of human beings to an invitation from Heaven. And this time, inside the Church – not pagan, not bad people in itself but the people that are supposed to be the best – the top of the Church, which are supposed to respond, but do not.

We know, thank God, that God will have the last word. And the Blessed Virgin Mary took care to tell us – “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph!”

 

The Church Today in Light of the Fatima Message

Now I will try to focus on this: What do we find in the Message of Fatima, which is referring to now in the Church. And when I say now, of course, it’s not just the year 2017, but it is since the Second Vatican Council. This part which seems to be concerning this famous date 1960, when the Third part of the Secret – or if you want, the Third Secret – had to be published with the explanation that will make it easier to understand.

So, what do we find? Very interesting, looking at what we call the message. That is, what is published about the apparitions in 1917. We find something very interesting – the punishment, the conditional punishment, that refers to if this is not done [if Our Lady’s requests are not heeded], if the world does not convert, if the Pope does not consecrate Russia. So, we see two elements. One is concerning the world and one is concerning the Church. And concerning the world, it is very clear, it is chastisement. The usual chastisement is war, maybe something more. And then, the Church, and what is said about the Church, is persecution and the Pope suffering. So for the Church we have two things, persecution – which means it is something from outside attacking the Church – and the Pope, who has to suffer.

There is an interesting element which has been published recently, which is taken from, again, a post-mortem biography of Sister Lucy. And in this biography, which has been published – if I am right – in 2013 by the Carmel of Coimbra, you find something: a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary who helped the Sister, or more, commanded Sister Lucy to follow the order of the bishop who asked her to write down the Third Secret.

And again, there are two aspects: one which is striking, which is absolutely impressive, and at the same time, difficult to really understand. She says, or she speaks, of the point of a lance which was held by an angel, and there is like a flame which goes out of this – the point of the lance – and which touches the axis of the earth. And she continued by saying, the earth is shaken – mountains, towns, villages with their inhabitants, are buried.

So to have a mountain falling down, that means terrible earthquakes. She continued by saying, the ocean, the rivers, the clouds go above their limits. Ocean, river, we understand. Clouds? But she continued by saying, this water is flowing above the people and houses, and people die. And innumerous – there is no way to count the number of – people who died. And Sister Lucy continued by saying: This is a purification of the world for the sin in which it is buried – hatred, ambition – which provokes destructive war. So with this, we may have to think that what is described here is the result of a war. But it is difficult to say; is it everything, the war? Is there something that just comes from God Himself – an earthquake?

But you see, here there is an absolutely dramatic description, or let’s say, a happening for the world which makes some people think – that’s probably the Third Secret. We must remember that Sister Lucy is forbidden to speak about it. So, is it part, is it a supplement? But it’s certain! And it’s enough – it’s not finished.

The text continues the following way: “After having felt my heart was beating, in my spirit a voice, a mild voice said: ‘At one time … one unique Faith, one Baptism, THE Church – One, Holy, Apostolic.” And it ends by: “In eternity, Heaven.” So as it would say, on earth – one Church, one Faith, one Baptism; in Heaven – up there for eternity, Heaven. And she continued by saying this word, Heaven: “Yes, Heaven filled my heart in such a way that without being even conscious of it, I continued to repeat to myself for a long time, Heaven, Heaven.”

Now you see, you have again these two parts: One part dealing with happenings for the world, for the nations, which could be an illustration of the famous word which we know from the Second Secret – whole nations will disappear, will vanish. Or John Paul II in Fulda, Germany, who talked about the Secret and said: Well, is it really worth telling the people that in one instant millions of people will die, covered by the sea? So you see – it might be a better explanation of what we already have in the second part of the Secret – it’s only me trying to explain it. And then again, after having spoken of disasters for the world, there is a look at the most important matter, which is salvation.

Taken from “Fatima Crusader” no. 120 (Autumn 2017)