The Secret of Fatima explained (Pt. 2) | EWTN Vaticano

[Music] [Music] the marian apparitions of fatima regard all of humanity they warn about the second world war the spread of the atheistic regime in russia and other nations the persecution of the church it's faithful and even the supreme pontiff [Music] mary calls for conversion and repentance and promises that in the end her immaculate heart will triumph russia will convert and there will be a period of peace [Music] in a way the messages of our lady of fatima pull back the curtain on the events that would transpire over the course of the 20th century nevertheless as

the vatican's explanatory document from the year 2000 titled the message of fatima affirms our lady's call to conversion in penance remains timely and urgent today the lady of the message seems to read the signs of the times the signs of our time with special insight in the previous episode of vaticano cardinal tarcicio bertone spoke of his first two meetings with fatima visionary sister lucia dos santos the cardinal as the then secretary of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith was entrusted by pope saint john paul ii with a special mission to authenticate the third

part of the secret of fatima with sister lucia before its revelation to the public in the jubilee year 2000 for decades pope after pope had kept this letter that contains the third part of the secret of fatima private in the vatican according to cardinal bertone pope saint john paul ii decided to make the third part of the secret of fatima public to bring clarity and as the pope himself put it to avoid the apocalyptic interpretations that were spreading in the second part of this exclusive 2017 interview with ewtn that had never been aired in its

entirety until now cardinal bertone recounts details of the third and final meeting he had with sister lucia in 2003 he shares what sister lucia told him about the election of cardinal albino luciani as pope john paul the first and whether the consecration of russia was accomplished in accord with the request of our lady of ferima for this and more vaticano starts now [Music] in the second so-called secret of fatima our lady made a precise request for russia to be consecrated to her immaculate heart sister lucia describes this in her third memoir of august the 31st

1941 written by order of his excellency the bishop of laeria and the most holy mother you have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go to save them god wishes to establish in the world devotion to my immaculate heart if what i say to you is done many souls will be saved and there will be peace the war is going to end but if people do not cease offending god a worse one will break out during the pontificate of pius x when you see a knight it lumened by an unknown light know that this

is the great sign given you by god that he is about to punish the world for its crimes by means of war famine and persecutions of the church and of the holy father to prevent this i shall come to ask for the consecration of russia to my immaculate heart and the communion of reparation on the first saturdays if my requests are heeded russia will be converted and there will be peace if not she will spread her errors throughout the world causing wars and persecutions of the church the good will be martyred the holy father will

have much to suffer various nations will be annihilated in the end my immaculate heart will triumph the holy father will consecrate russia to me and she shall be converted and a period of peace will be granted to the world sister lucia said that our lady had asked for the consecration of russia to the immaculate heart of mary so how did the popes in particular pius the 12th and john paul ii respond to this request the request of consecrating russia to the immaculate heart of mary is a very important request because russia is a people a

set of peoples let's say the peoples of russia a group of peoples that is at the center of the message and that is very much close to our lady's heart in the history of the popes of the 20th century how many times have we heard the reference to russia let us also think of the popes concretely to pope benedict xv who helped russia during the time of the great famine or to pius xi and others our lady's request is a very precise request there was a response naturally in a framework of consideration shall we say

in today's words of the ecumenical context was the first to consecrate the world to the immaculate heart of mary at the height of the war in 1942 then 10 years later with the very beautiful apostolic letter sacro vergente anno he consecrated precisely the peoples of russia [Music] [Laughter] [Music] john paul ii consecrated russia first in fatima in 1982 and then in rome on march the 25th 1984 during the extraordinary holy year of the redemption he does so without mentioning russia and this is an observation that some critics make however the references to russia are evident

the pope out of respect for the orthodox world i believe did not want to explicitly mention the word russia the reference however is very clear in the two consecrations of pius xii and in the above-mentioned apostolic letter of pius xii there is an equivalent expression i consecrate you we can read in the text of john paul ii who has a beautiful invocation the peoples whose consecration you await and so there is this corresponding expression it says so in the very solemn very beautiful consecration prayer mother of the church enlightened the people of god on the

paths of faith hope and charity enlightened especially the people whose consecration and entrustment you await help us to live in the truth of the consecration to christ of the entire human family of the contemporary world sister lucia whether questioned by her superior or by myself would testify to our lady's full satisfaction with this formula of consecration and would say como nosa senhora a pidu our lady requested [Music] nothing sister lucia wrote a book to give answers to the many letters she'd received throughout her life after the break cardinal bertone speaks of his strong support for

the publication of this book and reflects on the title of our lady as co-redemptrix contained within sister lucia's writings stay with us [Music] though the first part of the secret of fatima is the most frightening our lady reveals to the little children that god wants to save the souls of sinners and wishes to establish devotion to the immaculate heart of mary in the world how can this devotion to the immaculate heart of mary bring about salvation this and numerous other questions have been raised by many after reading the secrets of fatima our lady showed us

a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form like transparent burning embers all blackened and burnished bronze floating about in the conflagration now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire without weight or equilibrium and a bit shrieks and groans of pain and despair which horrified us and made us tremble with fear the demons could be extinguished by their terrifying and

repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals all black and transparent the vision lasted but an instant how can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly mother who had already prepared us by promising in the first apparition to take us to heaven otherwise i think we would have died of fear and terror there's a book from sister lucia in which she responds in some way to all the letters she received this book was published and it includes also the subject of mary as co-redemptrix what does that mean theologically what is the significance of this

book the book was published i humbly confess that i supported the opportunity of its publication cecil lucia had expressed her intention having begun to write this book to answer the thousands of letters she received she had written many letters that are now being examined at the congregation for the cause of saints however she wanted to collect all her thoughts and comments on the message of fatima in a book and she compiled this book at a meeting of cardinals at the holy office it was said no it is not advisable we cannot put sister lucia on

the universal stage and basically grant to her a license almost that of a saint as a master of mariology she is supposed to live in humility and concealment when i came back from the meeting with her i told cardinal ratzinger and pope john paul ii but there are many books of theology and popular devotion and some are not the best of doctrine and spirituality why not publish a book by sister lucia and i gave the draft of the book to father jesus castelleno trevira a carmelite and an imminent theologian and consultant of the congregation for

the doctrine of the faith who read it attentively and was fascinated by it and wrote a beautiful presentation of it sisilicia here in some way gives us the catechism of fatima she gives us the essence of the message of fatima with a simple theology but with profound spirituality there's also naturally the title of mary as co-redemptrix but it does not go beyond that also in father castelleno's presentation we see that it doesn't give any theological problems because it recognizes that mary is subordinate to christ the only mediator therefore this isn't this big problem the book

was then translated into different languages it is a nice book to read to reflect upon to meditate on i would recommend it especially now on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the farmer operations [Music] [Music] on his flight to portugal and then during his pilgrimage to fatima in 2010 benedict xvi said that the prophecy of fatima was not fully fulfilled that it was still alive what did benedict the 16th mean by this in what sense is it not fulfilled then cardinal ratzinger in his theological commentary at the time of the publication of the third

part of the secret of fatima explicitly said even if the events to which the third part of the secret of fatima refers now seem part of the past in the vision we can recognize the last century as a century of martyrs a century of suffering and persecution for the church a century of world wars and the many local wars in the mirror of this vision we see passing before us the witnesses of the faith decade by decade testimony martyrdom is a reality present in every century in this sense of course there is no century without

martyrdom even centuries to come future centuries but here we are dealing with a very specific history a history of persecution a history of violence a history of the destruction of cities a history of the human being i think that this world of destruction of violence and of wars which finally culminated in the attack on the current pope is the concrete positive content of this vision that does not denote the course of a future history it points to martyrdom as the reality of this century and it underlines for us the response to martyrdom must be penance

from conversion to love in the face of the powers of violence it certainly does not point to other events so in a certain sense he says these are events regarding the past but at the same time the heart of the appeal of fatima concerns conversion the conversion of the faithful and the church's journey infidelity to christ above all in a certain sense cesa lucia really cared about accomplishing and carrying out what she called the mandaminto de maria mary's commandment just as there is the lord's commandment love one another as i loved you so there is

mary's commandment do whatever he tells you and this is a process the process of conversion the process of intercession for peace for the conversion of russia for the salvation of humanity it is a process that never ends the message of fatima thus continues it is of perennial relevance it is also in this sense that pope benedict spoke and reiterated but john paul ii in his message for the world day of the sick in 1997 had already written the lady of the message seems to read the signs of the times the signs of our time with

special insight the insistent invitation of mary most holy to penance is nothing but the manifestation of her maternal concern for the faith of the human family in need of conversion and forgiveness all of these processes of conversion intercession and reconciliation did not stop in 1981. they continue and indeed they go forward laboriously and so the message of fatima continues to make its appeal to us to call us back to our core responsibility responsibility [Music] yeah cardinal bertone met sister lucia three times on april the 27th 2000 on november the 17th 2001 and they had their

last meeting on december the 9th 2003 after the break in the third part of the interview the cardinal tells us about this final meeting stay with us [Music] you met sister lucia for the last time on december the 9th 2003. how long did this final meeting last what did you talk about lucia the last meeting with sister lucia was an extraordinary encounter i'd say it was the most cordial even affectionate and fraternal but at the same time full of topics to be addressed i spent several hours perhaps five in coimbra that day i celebrated mass

i met the community and then i personally met with cecil lucia once more for about two hours with father condor who was the poster of the cause of the beatification of the little shepherds we chatted we recall the past or past meetings and the issues we had faced and then we especially touched upon let's say three issues the first topic was a bit of a clarification of sister lucia's relationship with cardinal luciani and so the so-called prophecy of his election as pope i presented cecil lucia with a type of report which was later published written

by cardinal luciani after the 1977 meeting with sister lucia in order to have her verification cecilia asked that it be translated into portuguese we translated it into portuguese celestia carefully read through it and confirmed here i have here the portuguese text that sister lucia counter-signed so the contents of the conversation were those sister lucia then to a precise question of mine did you predict cardinal luciani's election as pope with these precise words i do not remember if i told him he was going to become pope i told my community that i had met a good

cardinal a holy cardinal and that if he were to become pope he would be a good pope these are the words cecilia said to me certainly we know that cardinal luciani was very struck by the conversation with cecil lucia because the discussion was about problems of the church the faith the decline of the faith in the church about problems even though they were in the years between the 1970s and the 1980s imagine today the second topic we discussed dealt with pope john paul ii's health she asked me for a lot of information about the pope

because she was naturally very attached to the pope we know that the little shepherds were very much attached to the pope they prayed a lot for him they had offered their sufferings for the pope sufferings jacinta had said that famous expression the holy father makes me suffer a great deal already in 1917. sister lucia then became very closely connected to pope john paul ii she gave me her cane so that i could carry it to the pope she told me give this to the holy father and you will see that her lady will protect him

and will help his health to improve she did this because i had told her that the pope was walking with the aid of a cane like herself cecilia normally moved in a wheelchair but when she stood she had to lean on the cane i brought the cane here to rome to the holy father and i think it is now in the museum of saint john paul ii in krakow and then we spoke about sister lucia's health i wished her many good wishes for her 100 years i told her best wishes i hope we meet again

on your 100th birthday she answered me we will never meet again [Music] indeed when cecilia died on february the 13th 2005 her superior called me and on february the 15th 2005 i presided at her funeral in caimbra in a sea of white roses the whole city was decorated top to bottom in white roses i do not know where they collected them from every part of portugal so even this prediction of sister lucia came true [Music] foreign in the end sister lucille was a simple cloistered nun entrusted with an extraordinary message a message which in a

way foresaw the course of the 20th century a message that expressed our lady's desire for our continual repentance and conversion clearly a message that continues to be relevant in every age the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto the scene 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's meant to mobilize the forces of change in the right direction [Music] you