“. . . beyond this great vision of the suffering of the Pope, which we can in the first instance relate to John Paul II, are indicated future realities of the Church which are little by little developing and showing themselves. Thus it is true that beyond the moment indicated in the vision, it is spoken, it is seen, the necessity of a passion of the Church . . .
“As for the new things that we can discover in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on the Pope and the Church do not come only from the outside, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from inside the Church, from the sin that exists in the Church. This too we have always seen, but today we see in a really terrifying way that the greatest persecution of the Church does not come from external enemies, but is born of sin in the Church, from the sin that exists in the Church...”
—Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage to Fatima in May of 2010