Yesterday Associated Press broke the news that government officials in Portugal have announced that Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima next year.
This major announcement has not yet been confirmed by the Vatican, which normally waits until a few weeks before a papal trip. But it's not likely that the Portuguese government would give out the news were plans not firm.
The AP report says the Holy Father will preside at celebrations marking the 93rd anniversary of the miraculous apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima on May 13, 1917.
Traditional Catholics, particularly Fatima scholars like Father Nicholas Gruner, are speculating that the Pope may use the occasion to reveal, at long last, the words Our Lady confided to Sister Lucy, in the Third Secret of Fatima.
Those words, indeed the very existence of the Third Secret, have long been the subject of extreme controversy in Catholic circles. The Vatican was supposed to divulge the Third Secret in 1960, according to the instructions of the Virgin, but it did the opposite, hiding Sister Lucy's handwritten notes deep in the Vatican Archives.
Why all the secrecy? Why has every Pope since Vatican II kept silent while princes of the Church tried to silence the voice of Our Lady? The Third Secret is widely believed to predict corruption and apostasy in the Church, and the loss of the traditional Catholic Faith which has followed on Vatican II. No wonder the Church doesn't want to talk about it!
But Benedict XVI has read the Secret and has called it the greatest prophecy of the 20th century. He knows what it says and what Our Lady wants him to do to avoid the loss of millions, even billions, of lives and souls.
The Holy Father faces opposition from powerful forces within the Vatican itself, notably Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the papal wannabe. But perhaps -- let us hope and pray -- the Pope has decided that at last he must act! Those who hold to the traditional Catholic Faith should be counting the days until May 13, 2010.
Most Catholics know little or nothing about Fatima and Our Lady's prophecies for these last times. If you would like further information, let me know how to contact you by snail-mail, and I'll send you The True Story of Fatima, by Father John DeMarchi. Knowing the truth about the Message of Fatima could save your soul!
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