Forebodings about the Death of Sister Lucy

Tradition in Action | February 2005 | Marian T. Horvat

[Land of the Irish]

HOT TOPICS: Fatima





Forebodings about the Death of Sister Lucy


Marian T. Horvat

The first thing that struck me when I heard that Sister Lucy had died at age 97 on February 13 was: “How sudden and unexpected this news is! It must have been a heart attack, or some other such unforeseen sudden illness.”

The last seer died leaving many questions about the Fatima message unresolved. Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2000

But no, it was not. Coimbra Bishop Albino Cleto told Radio Renascença that “she had been weak for several weeks and had not left her cell.”

So why was there no mention before of her illness? Surely the Vatican realized that the faithful world over would have stormed Heaven with prayers to Our Lady, asking her to prolong a bit longer the life of Sister Lucy so that she might complete her mission and clarify so many confusions that remain about the Third Secret. Why was no one informed during these “several weeks” of illness? Another foggy item amid the confusion. Was it to avoid the possibility that she might break her silence and speak out about the things that she should? I think it is licit to ask the question.

Regarding the actions of Sister Lucy in the last decade, in which she apparently agreed with the Conciliar Church and its interpretations of the Third Secret, I always had in the back of my mind those words of Jacinta to Lucy: “When the time comes, speak, do not hide yourself…”

Jacinta warned her cousin: "When the time comes, speak..."

Our Lady appeared to Jacinta many times before her death, and the girl’s warning to her cousin indicates a prophetic understanding of a forced silence to come for Sister Lucia. It also indicates that the secret was so important that even this small child realized that there would be forces inside the Church that would try to prevent it being revealed. Again, it seems to indicate that Our Lady wanted to warn Lucia to be vigilant and react against strong pressure for her to remain silent about the crisis in the Church.

In fact, since 1970, Sister Lucy had been silenced, forbidden to speak to anyone about the Fatima message without prior authorization of the Vatican. Further, no one outside of her close family was allowed access to Sister Lucy unless they had approval from ecclesiastical authorities. Those passes were very, very difficult to get.

But even being in this virtual prison, so long as Sister Lucy lived, there was still the chance that she would speak. There was the prospect, albeit slim, that in some mysterious way afforded by Providence, a person might slip through the iron curtain separating her from the public and speak to her. Once, some dozen years ago, I had hoped to have a conversation with her. I had a contact who was godfather of one member of Sister Lucy’s family, which gave him access to her. He gave me the idea that he could possibly arrange a meeting where I could be present. I waited in vain. The meeting never materialized.

Later, I learned that my contact was giving distorted information about the Church in Russia to Sister Lucy, assuring her that the Schismatics were converting and the country was experiencing a veritable springtime of faith, with the people showing a great interest in the Fatima message. In effect, if Sister Lucy relied on his reports, she could assume the message had been fulfilled, Communism was defeated, Russia was converting, which is far from the truth [click here]. I wondered then how much more false and distorted information Sister Lucy was receiving from other such watchdogs.

Still, the hope always flickered that someone, somehow, would find a way to reach her, to explain the calamitous situation in the Church beyond her small world in the Carmel of Coimbra. The news of the sudden death of Lucia dos Santos, her mission still incomplete to all appearances, took the wind out of that hope and left me, like many Catholics, mystified and with a sense of dire foreboding.


The attempt to bury the message with Sister Lucy

Soon after the death of Sister Lucy, news reports began to trumpet that the Fatima chapter was closed, with nothing new that could be said or added. “Sister Lucy has told all details of Fatima,” the President of the Scientific Commission of the Fatima Congress told Portuguese news agency Ecclesia (Zenit, Feb. 20). The message had been legitimately “interpreted and translated by the Church” and “there would be no more great novelties since the last witness has died,” he concluded.

To insure nothing new would emerge, Sister’s Lucy’s cell was ordered sealed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. “Whatever is enclosed there will be passed through the sieve of trusted theologians and monsignors sent, one supposes, by the same Cardinal Ratzinger,” reported Vittorio Messori, a well known Italian journalist in the Corriere della Sera. And what is enclosed there? Apparently quite a bit - her diary, drafts of letters to the Pope, her mystical intuitions, perhaps some advice Our Lady gave her to do this or that. I can’t help but suspect that if we were to know the full contents of this legacy, it could very well re-open the Fatima chapter the Vatican is trying so hard to close.

What was the message and third secret of Fatima?

Our Lady left Lucia, the eldest of the seers, on earth to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and as trustee of the third secret. The first part of the message was the vision of Hell, where, Our Lady told the children, many souls were falling. The second was Our Lady’s warning that there would be another war. If man did not convert, Russia would spread its errors of Communism throughout the world and the world would suffer a great chastisement.

The third part, generally referred to as the third secret, was to be revealed to the world in 1960, Sister Lucy said, when its meaning would be more clear. John XXIII opened the sealed message, read it, and refused to reveal it. Acting in direct contradiction to the command of the Mother of God, he said, “This matter is not for our times.” Naturally, faithful Catholics perturbed over the drastic changes in doctrine and tradition set in motion by Vatican Council II thought the message would be about this crisis. Their suspicions were confirmed by high-ranking Prelates who did read the third secret and affirmed that it revealed both a crisis in the Church of great proportions and other catastrophic events.

Ratzinger's "secret" clashed with the already known parts of the Fatima message, as well as the accounts of ecclesiastics who had read the third secret. Inside the Vatican, June-July 2000

Then, in 2000, the secret was supposedly released in full, along with an “official interpretation” by Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone. What was the secret? It was a confused text about a man in white walking up a hill among crosses who was shot and killed, being “officially” interpreted by Ratzinger and Bertone to symbolize the failed attempt on the life of John Paul II in 1981.

With this, Ratzinger and Bertone tried to declare Fatima and its third secret a “past event.” They imagined they could close the door on the topic. We see the same thing being insisted upon now with the death of Sister Lucy. They do protest too much, methinks, to paraphrase a line from the Bard of Avon. Such insistence reveals fear. Which implies there is still something to fear. Therefore, it appears that something remains.

Certainly, questions remain in the minds of the faithful. Why did the contents of Ratzinger's “secret” contradict what Our Lady had already foretold in the previous parts – a great chastisement where many nations would be annihilated? It also conflicted with the serious statements made by reliable sources who had read the third secret and told us it referred to a great apostasy in the Church, beginning with its head. Did Sister Lucy - if she really was Sister Lucy - truly sustain that this was the whole secret and that the interpretation was sound, as the Vatican sources claimed she did? That the Fatima chapter was closed, and what remained was the simple call to penance and prayer? Many, myself included, doubted this could be so.


Forebodings of a chastisement

We still have means, however, to find a little orientation. The Fatima message has a clear-cut conditional character - set out by Our Lady herself. We do not need to rely solely on the revelation of the last secret or any “official” interpretation to understand the present-day reality. We can be told a thousand times that Fatima is over, that the consecration was made, that Russia converted, that there is no crisis in the Church, that there will be no chastisement. Saying a foolish thing a thousand times does not make it less foolish.

But in the prophecies of Our Lady, there are a series of “if-then's” that permit us to know certain things.

If the consecration of Russia is made, she said, then Russia will convert and we will see a time of peace granted to the world. Russia has not converted, and even the most simple-minded person can see that we are not in a time of peace. The world is convulsed by wars and acts of terrorism, and threatened by nuclear and biological weapons.

If man does not convert and stop offending Our Lord with sins of blasphemy and impurity, then there will be a chastisement of such proportions that nations will disappear from the face of the earth. It is clear mankind has not converted, and the open affronts to Our Lord are more blatant and cruel. In daily news reports, we can read about the escalating moral crisis, with civil and ecclesiastical authorities showing astonishing tolerance for the sins of homosexuality, abortion, sexual education, and so on.

Therefore, the causes for a universal chastisement pointed out by Our Lady remain. With the death of Sister Lucy, Our Lady will not be able to forestall the chastisement as we had hoped.

Is the prophecy of Fatima fulfilled or is this just one more lie of the Conciliar Church? If the latter is the case, will Our Lady take her revenge against such an abuse of authority?

The recent tsunami - a warning to mankind?

Perhaps by allowing the death of Sister Lucy, Our Lady wants to signify that the world is no longer worthy of warnings, and the disappearance of nations she spoke of will occur without further warning. In this case, we should look for what could be the start of the chastisement, as happened at the time of the Great Deluge.

When one sees the devastation a tsunami in the Indian Ocean wreaked in a matter of minutes on the day after Christmas, one can only ask if this is not a natural warning that the chastisement is beginning.

For those who think this an exaggerated hypothesis, I recommend they read a report by Russian scientists who, curiously enough, predict something quite similar from a different perspective. They concluded the past tsunami is not a freak incident, but the precursor of many others to be accompanied by a general irruption of volcanoes that could result in a polar inversion and generate another geological era [click here].

He who lives will see if it is true.

Related Topics of Interest

   Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of Fatima

  The Myth of a Converted Russia

  Confirmation of a Great Crisis

Readers who like this subject are interested in the following works:

Tape: Prophetic Revelations of Fatima and Quito

Book: Our Lady of Good Success: Prophecies for Our Times

Book: In the Murky Waters of Vatican II

 
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[Land of the Irish]

http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/g10htSisterLucy_Horvat.htm

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Interesting, thanks. I do believe the tsunami was the beginning of the worldwide chastisement.

[vox_freedom]

Interesting, thanks. I do believe the tsunami was the beginning of the worldwide chastisement.

And Russia's direct involvement in nuclear proliferation in the Middle East adds to the evidence... Now we'll await the pathway from China to the Middle East and see what transpires.

[Dajjal]

Later, I learned that my contact was giving distorted information about the Church in Russia to Sister Lucy, assuring her that the Schismatics were converting and the country was experiencing a veritable springtime of faith, with the people showing a great interest in the Fatima message. In effect, if Sister Lucy relied on his reports, she could assume the message had been fulfilled, Communism was defeated, Russia was converting, which is far from the truth. Bumpus ad summum

[steve86]

I do believe the tsunami was the beginning of the worldwide chastisement.

So do I. Even if thousands of similar tsunamis have occurred in the past (and they have), I believe this particular one is beginning of the chastisement (or a warning thereof).

There is a sort of a false peace in the world today. Yes, small arms and roadside bombs here and there (and I pray for the victims), but little in the way of major combat. Unlike many here, I don't believe that any "peace" in Iraq or the rest of the Mideast will be lasting.

As the author suggests, there is no shortage of threats in the world, and I believe that major powers are plotting their moves against the United States. When the surprise attack occurs, I believe that western intelligence and politicians will be in the dark, although there will be those who will have warned to unhearing ears.

FWIW, I believe that we will be hearing much more about the avian flu (H5N1). Many in the professional epidemiological world are practically in a panic, as was the Director of the CDC (for one day). Someone apparently got to her and caused her to retract or modify much of what she had said the previous day. I believe the SARS outbreak was a warning of what might occur on a worldwide scale.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I have always suspected China of genetically engineering these diseases as bioweapons. It would not surprise in the least.

[pascendi]

Good article. I kind of wonder lately about something, though. Connect these two paragraphs together:

"Later, I learned that my contact was giving distorted information about the Church in Russia to Sister Lucy, assuring her that the Schismatics were converting and the country was experiencing a veritable springtime of faith, with the people showing a great interest in the Fatima message..."

"...The second was Our Lady’s warning that there would be another war. If man did not convert, Russia would spread its errors of Communism throughout the world and the world would suffer a great chastisement."

It's always assumed that atheistic Communism represents the errors. At least, that's what I've always heard, but it always did seem so incomplete a thought. Do we know this, at least, from Our Lady... did she specifically say this? I'm thinking more in terms lately of it being more to do with the Eastern and Western churches; about the schismatics, about unity. Was it supposed to be more about healing the thousand year old Great Schism?

We've been fighting off Communism with the weapon of Americanism. Both being, in my estimation, merely two wings of the same bird, really.

What if we had been more careful to perceive what the essence of the errors really consisted of. Atheistic Communism: the error, or, only the effect of a cause? If so, what's the primary cause?

There must be some way to tie a lot of this together. The fall of the last monarchy, and in its wake, the use of one kind of social error to combat another. Politically and socially, that is. But then there's the absurdity of a failed ecumenism to address the Schism. Same kind of thing. The timing is interesting as well.

[pascendi]

As Pope St. Pius X pointed out, the first step to Atheism is actually Protestanism. Modernism is identified as the middle step between the two. Protestanism, then Modernism, then ultimately, Atheism.

Now consider who we are. America was founded upon principles related to step one. Step one is instrinsic to the principles. The second step, we own that ballpark.

So how did we seek to combat step three? With steps one and two, of course: by making the world safe for what? For our American ideals.

Then take a very careful look at our ideals, and where the Saint says they lead us. We combat error with error.

So it seems that in identifying the error as Atheistic Communism of Russia, something's lacking for a complete view. The errors must be something deeper than just that.

Just some random ramblings in the middle of the night. Any thoughts?

[murphE]

chime in anytime, ping.

[Gerard.P]

The only thought that keeps going through my head when these issues come up is, "Keep your soul clean."

We can only do limited work in the way of evangelizing to mitigate the chastisements if they come upon us. And individually or even collectively it will take divine intervention to short circuit this globalist juggernaut that I believe is a trap set to enslave the whole human race, if not directly it will enslave them in error and sin.

So, we should all watch "The Passion of the Christ" again and again and prepare ourselves to follow the Way of the Cross as the Holy Father St. Pius X instructed us to.

[Gerard.P]

I would speculate that the "error" that we are dealing with is the common error between the East and the West. Both Communism and the Capitalist system are rooted in one thing, "Materialism."

They both deny morality in one way or another. The Communist denies individual morality, the Capitalist collective morality.

The same principle that St. Pius X wrote about: the conservative force and the progressive force is at work, and not only on the individual and national level. That tension exists among the nation states and the superpowers. America is currently operating as the "Progressive force" and China and the Middle East are "Conservative Forces".

There will be an intersection of these forces in the future and it will probably result in wars and calamities before consolidating into one force of liberalism. Just a guess on my part, but that will be when the Anti-Christ shows up.

The whole thing will have been orchestrated by that evil angelic intelligence and his willing and unwilling dupes will have handed millions over to him.

[LadyDoc]

Fatima's message was the same of the gospel:
Pray (in this case, the rosary, the prayer of poor illiterates)
Meditate on the gospels (in Fatima, the "mysteries" of the rosary, which are the important part of the gospels)
And do the duties of your daily life.

Fatima, like most Saintly people, believe the modern world is going against God's will and this leads to war and chastisement, but prayer can "stand in the gap" and encourage God's mercy on sinners and even stop wars.

The fall of the iron curtain is probably the result of prayers and intercssions by millions of unknown Christians.

And personally, I believe we were "sent" Bush as president because a million American men prayed and repented for our country in a public way at the Promisekeeper's ralley in Washington...imagine the Christian persecution that would have slowly increased if Gore had been president...

[nickcarraway]

So why was there no mention before of her illness?

Whatever else, I don't find it surprising at all that we wouldn't know anything about Sister Lucia's health or anything else. As important a person as she is, she was a cloistered Carmelite nun, and would not have wished to have the attention at all. She spent her time praying, as Our Lady told her, and that was infitely more valuable than anything else she could have done. Don't forget what St. Pope Pius X said about the passive virtues.

Also don't forget St. Bernadette Soubirous went through a prolonged and painful illness in a convent, living as anonymously as any of the other sisters there, despite the fact she known throughout the world.

[pascendi]

"As important a person as she is, she was a cloistered Carmelite nun, and would not have wished to have the attention at all. She spent her time praying, as Our Lady told her, and that was infitely more valuable than anything else she could have done. Don't forget what St. Pope Pius X said about the passive virtues."

My question, naturally then, is what about this book called Calls from the Message of Fatima, which is in at least one place advertised as follows:

"Sister Lucia, the famous Fatima visionary. Finding herself flooded with constant questions and feeling it was beyond her to reply to each questioner, the cloistered nun asked the Holy Spirit for permission to write a text that would reply in general to the many questions -- and here it is! This is in effect a long letter to all of us, written entirely by Sister Lucia for you and me, based on Scriptural passages."

I'm nothing more than curious.

Have any of you read this book, and if so, your thoughts please.

[pascendi]

"...imagine the Christian persecution that would have slowly increased if Gore had been president..."

It wouldn't have mattered much. The principle behind either choice was the same.

But since when were Christians supposed to avoid persecution anyways?