We publish second part of speech by Bishop Bernard Fellay, during conference in Moscow.

The Coming Chastisement a Divine Punishment for Modern Ecumenism?

There I may say these words, but it is not easy to interpret them. So, there is a word about the Church, and it’s a very, very strong word because it says only One Faith! One Baptism! One Church! Maybe it is, as if to say, “Watch out!” There’s a time which is coming, where you no longer know where the Church is. And this affirmation, that yes, there is one Church! And only one! – NOT hundreds and everybody’s holy! And so, no, there is only ONE! It COULD be – I don’t dare to say more – an answer against ecumenism as it is lived today, or against this error which pretends that everybody can be saved. But let’s not say it the negative way, that is, by condemning the error, but by affirming the truth. And, of course, eternity, Heaven – so there is a Heaven. Against all the atheists and so on, and all the people who no longer believe that there is something after death. So, this is just to give you a little approach.

Now, let’s go back. I will grasp a certain number of phrases. I will give you each time the origin, which deals definitely with our time. And I may say, there too, you have certain phrases which remain vague. For example, when Cardinal Ratzinger talks about the Third Secret, he will speak about the difficulty that the Christian life will meet, difficulty for the faith, danger – even at the end, for the world. It says something, but not much, and is not precise. In a certain way, the Bishop of Fatima – who is also supposed to know the Secret – says: the Third Secret is nothing to do with catastrophes, it concerns the apostasy in Europe. So you see it’s a little bit more precise, but there too, you don’t have everything. Or Cardinal Ciappi who says the apostasy starts at the top in the Church. He speaks of an apostasy, and it starts at the top. So you see, it’s indirect. It’s people who know, and will tell you something, but they don’t tell you everything – they give you something to feed you.

Probably the main source, and the most precise source, will be Father Fuentes. Father Fuentes was the postulator of the cause [for the beatification] of the two seers, Jacinta and Francisco – so he had to really deal with Fatima. And he had a lot to do with, and a lot to speak with, Sister Lucy. So I have to make it precise here, you understand already: Very, very early, the Church forbade Sister Lucy to talk [about Fatima] and forbade people to approach Sister Lucy. I remember in the 90’s, in the 80’s already, in around 2000, in order to be able to talk with Sister Lucy, you needed the permission of Cardinal Ratzinger. And let’s say, in this little book of Sister Lucy, she is describing a big problem – she had to write this little book because it was her spiritual director who commanded her to write it. But she said, “I am forbidden to talk about the Secret.” Well, not only the Secret, but the whole message.

And it is really funny to see that it is the answer for many – even the Cardinal Prefect of the religious to whom she asked, “Can I write that?” I tell you it’s the general answer to this question: They say, “It is one thing to talk, another to write – so you can write.” I find it funny. But with this interpretation [understanding], she finally wrote this book. It is a little book, 60 pages. It is a beautiful book. I can only recommend to you if you can get a copy of it. It’s published by the Carmel of Coimbra. And I guess it’s not written in Russian.

But you see the heart, the soul of Sister Lucy, and you see how deep in God she is. And so, in almost the only thing she talks about here is this necessity of reparation and remaining in God. I have somewhere a quote, an excerpt, a phrase where you see that she’s talking about one error: “What is it, which is purifying us in purgatory? What is it that purifies us? I don’t know very good. In former times, one said that we would be purified by the means of a fire which burns, and this fire is equal to the one in hell. The modernist seems not to concur with this mentality.”

You see, it’s very delicate. She could have used the hammer, but she is very, very delicate. But it shows that she disagrees, of course, but she said it very smoothly.

 

Abandoning the Idea of Sacrifice

So, you have these little things which are like little references to what is happening, but nothing as clear as Father Fuentes. I think that’s really the strongest you can find in the Church on the whole Fatima Message about now! [That is, about this time in Church history]. And one of the key points is the abandonment of the idea and the necessity of sacrifice.

It is long first, it is several pages and she described the situation. It is the end of ’57, so it’s just before ’60, and I think it’s just before the Council. And what she says there is attacking already what we will call the spirit of the Council, which is going to produce what we have now. For example: “Father we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call to penance to come from our bishops in our diocese, nor from the religious congregations.”

So you see, Sister Lucy says “Sacrifice, the heart of Christian life, is gone!” it’s not coming, neither from the Pope, nor from the bishops, nor from the religious, as if it’s forgotten. But this is the heart of Christian life! The sacrifice! First, we have the sacrifice of Our Lord, which is the Mass, to which we are called to unite ourselves. It’s Saint Peter who says that Our Lord has left to us an example that we have to follow, and it is precisely His Sacrifice on the Cross. And when Our Lord says, who wants to be my disciple? The first thing He says is he must renounce himself. He must renounce himself, take up his cross every day and follow Me [Our Lord]. So it’s really basic. It’s an absolutely fundamental element of the Catholic Church and Catholic life.

Why is there a Church? Why did God found a Church? To save us! And how are we saved? By getting away from sin. And how do we do that? You regret, we regret the sin; or like the Holy Scripture says, we die to sin, and we rise – we resurrect to the grace. And so really, the Cross, the death to the bad inclinations and to the disobedience, is fundamental. And this is gone. It’s really, if you look at it, what are the problems today? We certainly have the problem of the faith, which has disappeared. But in life, it is the separation from the Cross, or as the modernists do, they leave the Cross but Our Lord is gone. So they leave a cloth, but Our Lord is gone. He’s risen, so He’s away. He’s no longer on the Cross.

And Sister Lucy here explains, how is it that we do not find this in the Church anymore? She says: “No – Our Lord has already very often used these means, and the world has not paid attention. That is why now it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform himself spiritually.” So it means we can no longer have the support from the Church, that is from the authorities who used to push us, and say: “Do penance! You want to be saved, you have to do that.” It [the support] is gone. So you are left to yourself, to save yourself.

And she continued by saying, “Each person must not only save his own soul, but also help to save all the souls that God has placed on our path.” And after having spoken of the necessity of doing penance, the next phrase is about prayer: “The devil does all in his power to distract us and to take away from us the love of prayer. We shall be saved together, or we shall be damned together.”

And now again, a very interesting sentence, of something which I have already talked about before. “Father,” Sister Lucy is talking to Father Fuentes, “Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times, but She made me understand this for three reasons.”  So, here you have clearly, what Our Lady said, and what I [Sister Lucy] think. And here, “The first reason is because She told me that the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin.” Sister Lucy says the Blessed Virgin Mary said the devil is engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. And the next phrase is from Sister Lucy and she says, “And a decisive battle is the final battle.” So, Sister Lucy concludes and she says, “Where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat.” And she continues, “Also from now on we must choose sides.” It’s curious because we were always told we must choose. And she says: “Either we are for God, or we are for the devil. There is no other possibility.” Our Lord said it already. He said nobody can serve two masters. But it shows you how intense the battle is.

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