Matt C. Abbott
'The Fourth Secret of Fatima': Is Pope Benedict's life in danger?
By Matt C. Abbott
The following are excerpts from the book The Fourth Secret of Fatima, authored by Italian journalist Antonio Socci. Many thanks to RCS Libri (publisher of the Italian edition) and Doug Bersaw of Loreto Publications (publisher of the English edition) for granting me permission to reprint this material.
Dedication
To His Holiness Benedict XVI.
To Yusriani (15 years old), Theresa (16 years old), and Alvita (19 years old), young Christians, throats slit and decapitated by the blows of a machete because of their faith in Jesus. (On October 29, 2005 in Indonesia these three Christian students were assaulted by a band of fundamentalist Muslims while going to school, a private Catholic school in Poso. The terrorists held them down, cut their throats, and then their heads. The head of one of them was then thrown in front of the Christian church of Kasiguncu.)
To Angela Pia, practically moral co-authoress of the book by her prayers.
"It seems to me that this is the first time Heaven has warned the world of its partial destruction since Our Lord predicted at Jerusalem the chastisement that was threatening it. We are perfectly free to disregard this appeal, but if that should happen, then God have mercy on us all!"
Acknowledgments
I thank Professor Mariagrazza Russo for her precious expertise concerning the text of the Third Secret, which I publish in the Appendix. I thank Dr. Solideo Paolini for his availability to compare notes, his suggestions and the unpublished information he has generously provided to me. I thank besides my Franciscan and Poor Clare "sisters" who sustain me always with prayer. Finally an acknowledgment full of gratitude and prayer also for Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, who, with his monumental work on Fatima, has made readily available so many historical documents.
Introduction
A surprising discovery
On February 13, 2005 in the Carmelite convent of Coimbra, at the age of 98, Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last visionary of Fatima, custodian of the greatest and most terrible among the secrets of the 20th century, passed away. She died on the 13th day of the month, the same date the Madonna had chosen for the apparitions of Fatima.
Two days later, on my way to Perugia, I stopped for a break at a café on Lake Trasimeno. I took a copy of Corriere della Sera, just purchased at the newsstand, and sat by the placid waters, opened it, read and was struck by it. The Catholic writer, Vittorio Messori, had published on the first page an article entitled: "Secret of Fatima, Sealed in Sister Lucia's Cell."
He made some enigmatic nods toward a lot of writings and "letters to Popes" that the visionary had left, and then he spoke of the famous Third Secret revealed by the Vatican in 2000 "that, however, far from dissipating the mystery," according to the Catholic writer, "has given rise to others: on the interpretation, on the contents, on the completeness of this revealed text."
The editorial did not say anything else, and that was a pity; because this "news," tossed off with nonchalance, seemed to me a bomb that would have merited a lot more discussion. Also because of the authority of the one who signed it: Messori is a great journalist, exceptionally scrupulous; he is the most translated Catholic essayist in the world and would never have ventured lightly to hint at such "suspicions" concerning the Vatican. In that article it is not said if, when, and how one such as he, very near to the offices of the Vatican, had been persuaded that the official version was not convincing. I do not know his current opinion. Five years before, at the moment of the revelation of the Secret, Messori had not manifested any doubts. I still have his editorial in Corriere della Sera, of June 25, 2000, entitled "No Longer Any Fatima Secrets." Everything seemed to line up.
Therefore I reacted to the new article by Messori with a journalistic polemic in which I defended with a sword the rightness of the Vatican (ungenerously above all toward the traditionalists), attacked the writer and liquidated all of his "dietrologies" concerning unpublished documents. Certainly, I knew that after the fateful revelation of the Third Secret in 2000, doubts, suspicions, rumors, and critical observations had begun to circulate within the curial environment, and that they had found public expression in traditionalist circles. But I had never paid attention to the traditionalist publications because I believed that they originated from a burning disappointment over a Secret that negates all of their "apocalyptic" forecasts.
However, I was struck by an article by a young Catholic scholar, Solideo Paolini, in a traditionalist review in which I myself was mentioned. He entered into my debate with Messori on Fatima and — with a deft polemic — developed a series of arguments that substantially demolished the official Vatican version (which had been mine). In substance — according to Paolini, who immediately after published his thesis in the book Fatima: Do Not Despise Prophecies — the Vatican continues to hide the principal part of the Third Secret, even denying its existence because of its explosive contents. Paolini's arguments were serious and his attitude impartial. Other books appeared less well founded and less respectful.
The traditionalists' disputes with the Vatican on the revelation of the Third Secret (of June 26, 2000) have never been analyzed, confronted, and confuted by the ecclesiastical party and are unknown in the lay world — perhaps because their publications circulate almost exclusively in their own environment.
To me the choice by the Curia and the Catholic media to ignore and say nothing about them did not seem right, especially after having read the extremely harsh tone of their accusations against the Vatican. For example, in a volume assembled by Father Paul Kramer, which combines the works of different authors, the Vatican is denounced for failing to heed the requests of the Madonna of Fatima, and it is affirmed that "the price of the Vatican's indecision could not be greater, and could be paid by the entire human race."
I held that if these suspicions were not dispelled and the accusations confronted, sooner or later the Church would be battered by a tempest analogous to, and perhaps even more forceful, than the one let loose over the "silences of Pius XII" or the theories of Dan Brown.
It seemed to me that the "polemical arms" were ready (even if, for the moment, unknown by the media and the public at large): deposited in traditionalist "arsenals" but at the disposition of whoever would want to launch a heavy attack against the Vatican. For example, the vehement "I accuse" of Laurent Morlier under the peremptory title: "The Third Secret of Fatima published by the Vatican is a falsehood." Analyzing this literature — besides that circulating on the Internet — it occurred to me that throughout the Fatima affair there are so many questions without answers as to color it a "detective story." Perhaps the most fascinating and dramatic detective story of our times because it involves not only the Vatican, great powers and their secret services, as well as certain obscure apparatuses of power, but also each one of us, and the proximate destiny for all humanity and for the Church.
To explain the Vatican's position and to confute that journalism I sought out representatives of the Curia such as Cardinal Bertone, today the Vatican Secretary of State, who was at the center of the Secret's revelation in 2000 (certainly a delicate and weighty task that merits understanding). While he had gratified me with his personal attention, having invited me to hold a press conference in his former Diocese of Genoa, the prelate did not think it necessary to respond to my request for an interview — a choice he obviously had every right to make, but which nevertheless feeds the fear that there are embarrassing questions and, above all, something serious to hide.
I tried, however, to understand the Vatican's position in order to counter the accusations of the "Fatimists." I investigated the concrete and reliable elements of criticism in the traditionalist literature, unfortunately buried in a mass of theorems, invective, absurdity, and unconfirmed hearsay. I caught certain of their contradictions, dismantled some theses, but in the end I had to surrender — thanks also to the revelations of an authoritative witness who furnished invaluable information. I had not expected the discovery of a colossal enigma, of a mystery that spans the history of the Church of the 20th century, something unutterable, something "chilling" that has literally terrorized different Popes who succeeded each other in mid-century, something that certainly regards the Church, but also the proximate future of us and of our brothers.
Here I recount my voyage into the greatest mystery of the 20th century, and I present the result I honestly reached — a result that seriously contradicted my initial convictions, and that surprised and impressed me. (The reader will note this evolution and change of judgment from the first pages to the conclusion.) I trace finally a hypothesis on the "why" of these events that opens, however, to hope, and allows the Church's divine greatness to shine through alongside the misery of Churchmen (with the limits that all of us have), touching us, as if by hand, with the real and living presence of Jesus Christ and of His Mother — here, today, among us. In our aid. No one, obviously, is obliged to believe in supernatural events like those that happened at Fatima, but no one will be able to say one day that he did not know.
— Antonio Socci
October 7, 2006
Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary
Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: It Happened at Fatima and at Rome...
Chronicle of a unique event ................................................... 7
The shadows of 2000 .............................................................. 15
A very strange encounter ..................................................... 23
Chapter 2: The Life of this Pope is in Danger
Wolves (more or less gray) ................................................... 33
Martyrdom: A program? ...................................................... 35
A prophecy already realized? .............................................. 38
Ratzinger leaves us free ....................................................... 48
Who is the Pope of the Secret? .............................................. 54
Chapter 3: Detective Story in the Vatican
Is there a "secret" not revealed? ........................................... 65
Those mysterious words of the Madonna ....................... 70
Different opinions on the "disasters" ............................... 74
Apocalypse now? ................................................................. 82
That interview of Cardinal Ratzinger... ............................ 89
Thus spoke Sister Lucia ...................................................... 97
A worse patch for the hole ............................................. 105
Whispers and shouts ........................................................ 122
Chapter 4: The Fourth Secret of Fatima
"Precisely so!" ..................................................................... 129
The Vatican mystery of the dates ........................................... 132
An explosive folio ............................................................... 143
Satanic verses? .................................................................... 153
Chapter 5: The "Secret" Meaning of the Events
The "power" of the Pope ..................................................... 169
The power they have renounced ..................................... 177
Mea culpa of a Pope ......................................................... 210
The overthrow of "power" ................................................. 216
Places and circumstances of this book ...................... 223
Appendix .............................................................................. 229
Related links:
The Devil's Final Battle
The Message of Fatima
Fatima: The Apparitions
© Matt C. Abbott
March 30, 2010
The following are excerpts from the book The Fourth Secret of Fatima, authored by Italian journalist Antonio Socci. Many thanks to RCS Libri (publisher of the Italian edition) and Doug Bersaw of Loreto Publications (publisher of the English edition) for granting me permission to reprint this material.
To His Holiness Benedict XVI.To Yusriani (15 years old), Theresa (16 years old), and Alvita (19 years old), young Christians, throats slit and decapitated by the blows of a machete because of their faith in Jesus. (On October 29, 2005 in Indonesia these three Christian students were assaulted by a band of fundamentalist Muslims while going to school, a private Catholic school in Poso. The terrorists held them down, cut their throats, and then their heads. The head of one of them was then thrown in front of the Christian church of Kasiguncu.)
To Angela Pia, practically moral co-authoress of the book by her prayers.
"It seems to me that this is the first time Heaven has warned the world of its partial destruction since Our Lord predicted at Jerusalem the chastisement that was threatening it. We are perfectly free to disregard this appeal, but if that should happen, then God have mercy on us all!"
-
— Hamish Fraser
-
— The Madonna to Saint Catherine Labouré Paris, 1830
-
— Psalm 8
I thank Professor Mariagrazza Russo for her precious expertise concerning the text of the Third Secret, which I publish in the Appendix. I thank Dr. Solideo Paolini for his availability to compare notes, his suggestions and the unpublished information he has generously provided to me. I thank besides my Franciscan and Poor Clare "sisters" who sustain me always with prayer. Finally an acknowledgment full of gratitude and prayer also for Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, who, with his monumental work on Fatima, has made readily available so many historical documents.
A surprising discovery
On February 13, 2005 in the Carmelite convent of Coimbra, at the age of 98, Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last visionary of Fatima, custodian of the greatest and most terrible among the secrets of the 20th century, passed away. She died on the 13th day of the month, the same date the Madonna had chosen for the apparitions of Fatima.
Two days later, on my way to Perugia, I stopped for a break at a café on Lake Trasimeno. I took a copy of Corriere della Sera, just purchased at the newsstand, and sat by the placid waters, opened it, read and was struck by it. The Catholic writer, Vittorio Messori, had published on the first page an article entitled: "Secret of Fatima, Sealed in Sister Lucia's Cell."
He made some enigmatic nods toward a lot of writings and "letters to Popes" that the visionary had left, and then he spoke of the famous Third Secret revealed by the Vatican in 2000 "that, however, far from dissipating the mystery," according to the Catholic writer, "has given rise to others: on the interpretation, on the contents, on the completeness of this revealed text."
The editorial did not say anything else, and that was a pity; because this "news," tossed off with nonchalance, seemed to me a bomb that would have merited a lot more discussion. Also because of the authority of the one who signed it: Messori is a great journalist, exceptionally scrupulous; he is the most translated Catholic essayist in the world and would never have ventured lightly to hint at such "suspicions" concerning the Vatican. In that article it is not said if, when, and how one such as he, very near to the offices of the Vatican, had been persuaded that the official version was not convincing. I do not know his current opinion. Five years before, at the moment of the revelation of the Secret, Messori had not manifested any doubts. I still have his editorial in Corriere della Sera, of June 25, 2000, entitled "No Longer Any Fatima Secrets." Everything seemed to line up.
Therefore I reacted to the new article by Messori with a journalistic polemic in which I defended with a sword the rightness of the Vatican (ungenerously above all toward the traditionalists), attacked the writer and liquidated all of his "dietrologies" concerning unpublished documents. Certainly, I knew that after the fateful revelation of the Third Secret in 2000, doubts, suspicions, rumors, and critical observations had begun to circulate within the curial environment, and that they had found public expression in traditionalist circles. But I had never paid attention to the traditionalist publications because I believed that they originated from a burning disappointment over a Secret that negates all of their "apocalyptic" forecasts.
However, I was struck by an article by a young Catholic scholar, Solideo Paolini, in a traditionalist review in which I myself was mentioned. He entered into my debate with Messori on Fatima and — with a deft polemic — developed a series of arguments that substantially demolished the official Vatican version (which had been mine). In substance — according to Paolini, who immediately after published his thesis in the book Fatima: Do Not Despise Prophecies — the Vatican continues to hide the principal part of the Third Secret, even denying its existence because of its explosive contents. Paolini's arguments were serious and his attitude impartial. Other books appeared less well founded and less respectful.
The traditionalists' disputes with the Vatican on the revelation of the Third Secret (of June 26, 2000) have never been analyzed, confronted, and confuted by the ecclesiastical party and are unknown in the lay world — perhaps because their publications circulate almost exclusively in their own environment.
To me the choice by the Curia and the Catholic media to ignore and say nothing about them did not seem right, especially after having read the extremely harsh tone of their accusations against the Vatican. For example, in a volume assembled by Father Paul Kramer, which combines the works of different authors, the Vatican is denounced for failing to heed the requests of the Madonna of Fatima, and it is affirmed that "the price of the Vatican's indecision could not be greater, and could be paid by the entire human race."
I held that if these suspicions were not dispelled and the accusations confronted, sooner or later the Church would be battered by a tempest analogous to, and perhaps even more forceful, than the one let loose over the "silences of Pius XII" or the theories of Dan Brown.
It seemed to me that the "polemical arms" were ready (even if, for the moment, unknown by the media and the public at large): deposited in traditionalist "arsenals" but at the disposition of whoever would want to launch a heavy attack against the Vatican. For example, the vehement "I accuse" of Laurent Morlier under the peremptory title: "The Third Secret of Fatima published by the Vatican is a falsehood." Analyzing this literature — besides that circulating on the Internet — it occurred to me that throughout the Fatima affair there are so many questions without answers as to color it a "detective story." Perhaps the most fascinating and dramatic detective story of our times because it involves not only the Vatican, great powers and their secret services, as well as certain obscure apparatuses of power, but also each one of us, and the proximate destiny for all humanity and for the Church.
To explain the Vatican's position and to confute that journalism I sought out representatives of the Curia such as Cardinal Bertone, today the Vatican Secretary of State, who was at the center of the Secret's revelation in 2000 (certainly a delicate and weighty task that merits understanding). While he had gratified me with his personal attention, having invited me to hold a press conference in his former Diocese of Genoa, the prelate did not think it necessary to respond to my request for an interview — a choice he obviously had every right to make, but which nevertheless feeds the fear that there are embarrassing questions and, above all, something serious to hide.
I tried, however, to understand the Vatican's position in order to counter the accusations of the "Fatimists." I investigated the concrete and reliable elements of criticism in the traditionalist literature, unfortunately buried in a mass of theorems, invective, absurdity, and unconfirmed hearsay. I caught certain of their contradictions, dismantled some theses, but in the end I had to surrender — thanks also to the revelations of an authoritative witness who furnished invaluable information. I had not expected the discovery of a colossal enigma, of a mystery that spans the history of the Church of the 20th century, something unutterable, something "chilling" that has literally terrorized different Popes who succeeded each other in mid-century, something that certainly regards the Church, but also the proximate future of us and of our brothers.
Here I recount my voyage into the greatest mystery of the 20th century, and I present the result I honestly reached — a result that seriously contradicted my initial convictions, and that surprised and impressed me. (The reader will note this evolution and change of judgment from the first pages to the conclusion.) I trace finally a hypothesis on the "why" of these events that opens, however, to hope, and allows the Church's divine greatness to shine through alongside the misery of Churchmen (with the limits that all of us have), touching us, as if by hand, with the real and living presence of Jesus Christ and of His Mother — here, today, among us. In our aid. No one, obviously, is obliged to believe in supernatural events like those that happened at Fatima, but no one will be able to say one day that he did not know.
— Antonio Socci
October 7, 2006
Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary
Introduction .......................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: It Happened at Fatima and at Rome...
Chronicle of a unique event ................................................... 7
The shadows of 2000 .............................................................. 15
A very strange encounter ..................................................... 23
Chapter 2: The Life of this Pope is in Danger
Wolves (more or less gray) ................................................... 33
Martyrdom: A program? ...................................................... 35
A prophecy already realized? .............................................. 38
Ratzinger leaves us free ....................................................... 48
Who is the Pope of the Secret? .............................................. 54
Chapter 3: Detective Story in the Vatican
Is there a "secret" not revealed? ........................................... 65
Those mysterious words of the Madonna ....................... 70
Different opinions on the "disasters" ............................... 74
Apocalypse now? ................................................................. 82
That interview of Cardinal Ratzinger... ............................ 89
Thus spoke Sister Lucia ...................................................... 97
A worse patch for the hole ............................................. 105
Whispers and shouts ........................................................ 122
Chapter 4: The Fourth Secret of Fatima
"Precisely so!" ..................................................................... 129
The Vatican mystery of the dates ........................................... 132
An explosive folio ............................................................... 143
Satanic verses? .................................................................... 153
Chapter 5: The "Secret" Meaning of the Events
The "power" of the Pope ..................................................... 169
The power they have renounced ..................................... 177
Mea culpa of a Pope ......................................................... 210
The overthrow of "power" ................................................. 216
Places and circumstances of this book ...................... 223
Appendix .............................................................................. 229
Related links:
The Devil's Final Battle
The Message of Fatima
Fatima: The Apparitions
© Matt C. Abbott
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