About 1989 years ago, this happened...

The Fatima prayer, taught by the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three shepherd children:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

You can stream or download Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ by signing up for a free trial membership on Flixzone. Walt recommends the movie, but not necessarily the site. Please NOTE that this appears to be a negative option deal, meaning that your credit card will be charged if you do not cancel your membership within the specified time. 

VIDEO: The Consecration of Russia will be TOO LATE (Taylor Marshall)

I can't help but return to the discussion of the Church's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and whether the consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary will have the effect of bringing an end to the conflict and a period of peace to the world, as Our Lady of Fatima promised.

So many of us who believe in the Fatima Message, and have worked to make it known and obeyed, are hoping and praying that Pope Francis will do the Consecration in the manner requested by the Blessed Virgin. See "Notes and thoughts re Consecration of Russia & Ukraine", WWW 16/3/22.

But will he? Dr Taylor Marshall, whose podcasts we have featured many time on WWW, doubts it. And if Francis fails to do it right, will his act be to any avail? Dr Marshall answers these questions in his podcast of March 16th, "Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine (Will it Work?)".

In case you don't have 3/4 of an hour to watch that podcast, Dr Marshall posted this short clip, with the key takeaway. The Consecration (by Pope Francis) will be too late, but still the Immaculate Heart of Mary will save Russia and Ukraine. Listen.

 

Dr Taylor repeats what he wrote at pages 100ff of his book, Infiltration: The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within, which I commend to you. There have already been five or six consecrations, and none of them have worked as hoped, because none of them were done validly, according to the request of Our Lady of Fatima. 

Does that mean that Pope Francis shouldn't try again? Certainly not! And even if this new consecration is flawed -- through not using the right words (the Consecration Prayer of Pope Pius XII), or not being made in union with the world's bishops -- graces will certainly flow from it. So let us pray. Amen.

Notes and thoughts re Consecration of Russia & Ukraine

The mojo wire has been humming since we posted "At last???!!!! Pope Francis to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as requested by Our Lady of Fatima", yesterday afternoon. Although the lamestream media, dominated by secular humanists who know next to nothing of Christianity, Catholicism and the Fatima apparitions, have ignored this story, the  Consecration is an event that has been awaited and prayed for for 105 yeares. Attention must be paid!

An assiduous reader wonders why Pope Francis intends to consecrate "both Russia and Ukraine" to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. "Didn't Our Lady of Fatima request just the consecration of Russia?"

The short answer is that when the Blessed Virgin appeared to the three seers in 1917, the Bolshevik revolution had not yet taken place, and Ukraine was still a part of the Russian empire. An independent republic was proclaimed in 1918, but died aborning. By the time Sister Lucia saw Our Lady again in 1929 (see below), Ukraine had been part of the USSR for a decade. So, the "Russia" in Our Lady's message included Ukraine.

Walt has received an email from Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, whose videos we often repost here. Mr Matt writes:

While I am relieved that he’s not consecrating Russia and Ukraine to Pachamama, I nevertheless do have one question: No matter where you come down on the Crisis in Ukraine, can you think of a more perfect opportunity than this for the Pope, united with all his bishops, to finally and at long last consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? 

It would be so easy to finally do it right. Why now? Well, perhaps a better question is: Why not now? The eyes (and the wrath) of the world are focused on Russia. The consecration would not upset any of the Vatican's precious "dialogue partners". 

Even the world's hapless bishops would go along with it this time since their partners in media and government would certainly have no problem with it. Why not? Well, Russia, Russia, RUSSIA! It's a win/win for everybody! So why not just do it right? It's as if the Vatican will do almost anything to not obey the Mother of God's very specific requests. 

Mr Matt is referring to the specifics of Our Lady's Apparition at Tuy (Spain) in 1929, in which She told Sister Lucia, "The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. So numerous are the souls which the justice of God condemns for sins committed against Me, that I come to ask for reparation. Sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray."

The emphasis is mine. Pope Francis has not commanded "all the bishops of the world" to join in his consecration. The Vatican has only said that "the same act, on the same day, will be carried out in Fatima by His Eminence Cardinal Krajewski, Apostolic Almoner, as envoy of the Holy Father."

The late Fr Nicholas Gruner, founder of the Fatima Center, once told one of Walt's agents that he (Father Gruner) thought the then pope (John Paul II) was afraid to order the bishops to join him when he did the flawed consecration of the world (not Russia, specifically) in 1984, for fear that not all the bishops would obey.

I do not wish to impute motives to Pope Francis, but there will be those who will suggest that the pope is stopping short of ordering all the bishops to join him, in case his consecration doesn't produce the desired result! He would then be able to say that he did the best he could, in the circumstances.

But let us not get ahead of ourselves. Let us be both faithful -- full of faith! -- and optimistic, confident in God's mercy and love for those who love Him. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

We must all pray and contact our bishops, asking that they join in the Pope's consecration of Russia and so fulfil the request of Our Lady of Fatima. Walt recommends the novena started by LifeSite News, for Pope Francis to consecrate Russia as Our Lady asked.

Toronto: one picture worth 1000 words

From the Great No-longer-white North, Agent 3 sends this screen grab from the CTV Toronto news page. The baby girl's name is Fatima; her father is... wait for it... Mohammed. No further comment. M-103

Further reading: "Coming soon, believe it or not -- Islamic Party of Ontario", by Tarek Fatah, in the Toronto Sun, 1/1/19.

VIDEO: Michael Matt and Christopher Ferrara visit Fatima

Assiduous readers of WWW will know that Walt is a believer in the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Our Lady of Fatima, known also as Our Lady of the Rosary came to warn us of the Great Chastisement which will befall the world unless we repent of our sins and turn back to the Gospel and the True Faith handed down to us through the Church by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lady of Fatima also requested the Consecration of Russia, by name, to Her Immaculate Heart, by which means that nation will be converted and the world will have a period of peace. This is the essence of the Message of Fatima which Father Nicholas Gruner and other like-minded Catholics worked so hard to make known.

In this video, Michael Matt (editor of The Remnant) and Christopher Ferrara, noted Catholic author and speaker, visit the Fatima shrine and comment on the 100th anniversary of Our Lady's most public and important Apparition. In 2006, Walt had the pleasure and blessing of visiting Fatima along with Father Gruner, Mr Ferrara and our late friend, John Vennari. 11 years later, as Messrs Matt and Ferrara explain, the Consecration of Russia has still not been done, and the crisis in the Church is graver than ever in modern times. Yet the Catholic Faith the love for the Mother of God live on.

Two of the seers of Fatima to be canonized

We are less than two months away from the 100th anniversary of the first of the Marian Apparitions at Fatima, Portugal. On 13 May 1917 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three children -- Jacinto and Francisco Marto and their cousin Lucia (Lucy) dos Santos -- the Seers of Fatima.

Our Lady of Fatima returned on the 13th of every month through October, to bring Her Message of prayer, penance and the necessity of praying and working for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, which will bring to our troubled world a period of peace. She also warned that unless Her requests are heeded, nations will be annihilated and millions of souls lost. For more on the relevance of the Fatima Apparitions to the turmoil we face today, see "The connection between Our Lady of Fatima and Islam", WWW 9/3/17.

Devotees of Our Lady of Fatima have cause to rejoice this weekend. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has approved a miracle through the intercession of Blessesds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the three children who witnessed the Apparitions. The decree, released on March 23rd, fulfills the requirements for the canonization of the two Seers. Both died in their youth, shortly after the Fatima Miracles. They were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

The March 23 decree creates the possibility that Pope Francis could preside at the canonization of Blesseds Francisco and Jacinto Marto in May, when he will visit the Fatima shrine to mark the 100th anniversary of the Apparitions.

The third of the Seers, Lucia dos Santos, became a Carmelite nun and lived until 2005. In 2008, a separate cause of beatification was opened for Sister Lucia. Pope Benedict XVI waived the usual five-year waiting period after a candidate's death for the opening of her cause.

The connection between Our Lady of Fatima and Islam

May 13th will the 100th anniversary of the first Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima to the three seers, Blesseds Jacinta and Francisco and Sister Lucia dos Santos*.

Of all the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, those of Our Lady of Fatima are among the most famous. On 13 May 1917, the seers took their sheep to graze near the Portuguese farming town of Fatima when they saw a figure of a woman dressed in white, holding a rosary. After this first appearance, the Blessed Virgin returned on the 13th of every month from May until October, with a message calling the faithful to repentance, reparation and prayer, and a warning of dire consequences should the requests of Heaven not be heeded.

In 1930, Holy Mother Church proclaimed the supernatural character of the Apparitions and a shrine was erected at Fatima. It was visited by Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and millions of lesser personages including Walt and a number of his agents.

Many years ago, Ven. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen devoted one of his famous TV talks to the Fatima Apparitions. (The program includes clips from the 1952 Warner Bros. movie, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima. Click here to see the trailer for the movie.) He pointed out that everything God does, including the Apparitions, is done for a reason. So we may ask ourselves, why Fatima, and whether the Message of Fatima has any relevance for us, nearly a century later.

Readers with some knowledge of Islam will recognize "Fatima" as the name of the youngest daughter of the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam. She is the object of the veneration, love, and respect of all Muslims. During the Islamic occupation of the Iberian peninsula (711-1492 AD), a Muslim chieftain who ruled the region named an obscure village in what is today northern Portugal after his daughter, who in turned was named after Mohammed's daughter.

Why would the Blessed Virgin choose to appear in such a place, "the middle of nowhere"? Why not Lisbon, or Madrid, or Rome? The answer may well be that She chose to appear at Fatima as a sign that Islam will one day be converted. That's what Ven. Bishop Sheen believed, and since the Message of Fatima is about the conversion and salvation of souls, that's what we should believe and pray for. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

* Footnote: The cause for the beatification of Sister Lucia dos Santos is nearing success. The Catholic News Agency reported last month that 15,000 pages of evidence have been collected, over the course of eight years, and will soon be sent to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints for approval.

FREE: "Pope Benedict, 'Gender Theory' and the Threat to Civilization"

Ed. here, with a special FREE offer for our Catholic readers and for all who are concerned about the degradation of our Christian values and society -- Western civilization itself.

A friend has sent us a pamphlet published this month by the Fatima Center entitled "Pope Benedict, 'Gender Theory' and the Threat to Civilization". Here are the two introductory paragraphs.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2012 Christmas address to the Roman Curia, warned against what is called "gender theory". This theory, which coincides with the rise of homosexuality in society, claims there is no such thing as a God-given masculine nature or a feminine nature. Individuals are free to choose and remake their gender.

The acceptance of such theories not only defies God and nature, but gives rise to the persecution of Christians, and of anyone who opposes the pro-homosexual program....

The section headings which follow include: Nature Defied; The Family Threatened; Normal People Bullied; and Persecution and Punishment.

The entire article is too long for us to republish here on WWW, but we are converting it to a .pdf file (less than 1 MB), which we will e-mail to you, FREE. All you have to do is e-mail us your request.

We won't save or sell your e-mail address. You won't receive any follow-up mailings, requests for money, or spam. We make this offer only because we feel this message MUST be circulated to all Christians concerned for the future of our society.

Footnote: Those who were scandalized, earlier this month, by the political correctness of school authorities in Hillsboro MO in allowing "Lila", a self-proclaimed "transgendered" girl, to use the female lockers and toilets in "her" school will find this article of great interest. It is also relevant to Ontario parents fighting the provincial government's new pro-LGBT sex education curriculum.

VIDEO LINK: Pontifical High Mass for Father Nicholas Gruner

His Excellency Bishop Bernard Fellay, SSPX, celebrated a Pontifical High Mass on Saturday for the funeral of Father Nicholas Gruner, RIP, who passed away on April 29th.

Over 600 people attended the Mass at the Scotiabank Convention Centre, in Niagara Falls, Canada.

Click here to see the Fatima Center video of the entire Mass. And in your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of Father Gruner.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

The Lord is with Thee.

Blessed art Thou among women,

And Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Pray for us sinners

Now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Book review: "Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul"

If you don't believe in the afterlife -- in Heaven and Hell -- you can stop reading right now. This is not for you. But if you do believe, or even if you're just unsure, you should read Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, the latest book by Father Nicholas Gruner, "the Fatima Priest".

Father Gruner has written many short pieces -- magazine articles, papers and the like -- but this is only his second book. The first was World Enslavement or Peace, which concentrated chiefly on the Message of Our Lady of Fatima, which Father Gruner has been preaching relentlessly for nearly four decades. In Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, Father Gruner answers the question: What is the purpose of human life?

The answer, as anyone who has been properly taught the basics of the Catholic Faith should know, is that the purpose of human life is to save our immortal souls.

Sadly, fewer and fewer people -- even highly educated people, even Catholic churchmen -- actually know the Catholic Faith. They have come of age since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), which blurred and distorted the clear truths of the traditional Faith handed down to us from the Apostles through the great doctors, teachers and leaders of the Church. As Father Gruner says, they have not been nourished on the solid food of the true Faith, but have been fed "the sentimental pablum of our times".

This lack of formation in Catholic truth has terrible consequences. People make decisions about crucial matters -- marriage, for instance -- based on wrong information, on false ideas. As a result, their lives become a mess -- full of confusion and disorder.

In the 50 years since Vatican II, the condition of the Church and the world has grown steadily worse. Most Catholics don't understand why so many bad things are happening in our society and in their own church. In Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, Father Gruner argues that we can no longer rely on our Church leaders to be faithful to the immemorial truths of the Deposit of Faith. He clears away the fog that has settled over the Catholic landscape since Vatican II, and shows clearly how we can separate the things we must believe to be saved from the things -- the novelties and heresies -- we must reject.

Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul is concise, factual, and easy to read -- unlike some other "Fatimist" books. Reading it is like having a conversation with Father Gruner about what his work has meant and what he has learned over the years. One of my dear Catholic friends told me "I learned things I should have known before, which became perfectly clear to me as I read this book."

The book includes, as an appendix, the interview given by Sister Lucia, the chief seer of Fatima, to Father Augustine Fuentes, on 26 December 1957. We can see now the accuracy of her prophecy of the defections and betrayals of so many priests and nuns. Her plea is even more timely for us today than when she spoke in the last known public statement she gave before being silenced almost totally for the rest of her life.

Also worth reading is the preface by James Hanisch, who collaborated with Father Gruner in the writing of Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul. He recounts his conversation with Father Gruner in April of 2013, which led to the writing of the book.

"If only [he writes] there were a brief and simple booklet...demonstrating that the true Catholic Rule of Faith is not arbitrarily subject to the whims and fads of a 'living magisterium', and that no churchman of any rank has the 'authority' to change Revealed Truth or to undermine the good of the Church."

Now, that book is available. To get a copy, send an e-mail to info@fatima.org, or call toll-free: 1-800-263-8160. Tell them Walt sent you. And no, Walt doesn't get anything for making this recommendation. I believe Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul is a book you should read for the purpose disclosed by the title, so I'm telling you about it. Period.

Has Russia been chosen by God to chastise us, and so bring us back to the Faith?

It is said that great minds think alike. Trouble is, they don't all think alike at the same time. As a result, there are 1000s of stories, ideas, thoughts, comments and pieces of junk whirling around on the Internet, like so many rocks in the Asteroid Belt. Every now and then one of them whizzes by the window of Walt's cabin -- the Internet window, I mean -- and is noticed. And sometimes I think, hang on, I've seen that one before.

That happened this very day, when Agent 9 sent up the text of "America as the Last Man Standing", a speech made by Geert Wilders, Chairman of the Netherlands Freedom Party, at an event sponsored by the Hudson Institute in New York on 25 September 2008. Turns out Walt ran this in May of last year as "Geert Wilders warns USA: Muslims taking over Europe -- you're next!"

Walt thinks it's worth another look -- even more relevant and urgent now than it was then. Here's Agent 9's comment.

I think Hilaire Belloc foresaw this many years ago. If we don't do something about abortion, gay marriage, and pornography, God will appoint someone to do it for us! So let's pray that we will make these things illegal without the help of the Muslims. And that can only happen if we see a revival of the Catholic Faith.

Maybe the Russia/Ukraine problem is the beginning of the isolation and alienation of Russia that will lead to her being a threat to the world that will finally persuade the Pope to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart. Then Russia will be converted and there will be a period of peace for the world.

Our Lady told Sister Lucy: "It will be late, but Russia will be consecrated...etc." Then Russia may turn out to be the moral leader of the world.

VIDEO: Michael Matt talks about the worldwide persecution of Christians, Vatican II and the victory of relativism

One of the best truly Catholic newspapers extant is The Remnant. Since 1990 it has been edited by Michael J. Matt, a graduate of Christendom College. In the Wanderer and elsewhere, Mr. Matt has written hundreds of articles on the state of the Roman Catholic Church as well as anti-Chrisitan political trends in the world.

Mr. Matt is the author of Christian Fables, Legends of Christmas and Gods of Wasteland (Fifty Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll) and regularly speaks to traditional Catholic groups across the USA and Canada. His most recent appearance was at The Path to Peace Conference held in Niagara Falls, Canada, by the Fatima Center.

The title of his talk is "Will there soon be martyrs?" If you're Christian -- even if you're not Catholic -- and want to understand what's going on in the Middle East and why Christians and Christianity are under attack worldwide, watch this video.

Warning: The video is just over 58 minutes long, but if you have any doubt as to how the almighty State "hungers for Christian blood" -- Mr. Matt's words -- you should pay attention to every minute. He explains how those of us who still believe -- the remnant -- are part of "a Christophobic narrative which is at work and very serious". If you doubt Walt [How could you?! Ed.], try the first 10 minutes or so. You won't be able to turn it off.

West trending to secular dictatorship, says Orthodox prelate

Once again one has to wonder if the Consecration of Russia has taken place, so that the promised conversion of "that poor nation" is happening before our eyes. Certainly the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church are bucking the European and North American trend away from Christian values. Walt wrote about this last month in "Does Russia Duma's political incorrectness mean the Fatima prophecy is being fulfilled?"

Now we have a revealing report from the Russian news agency Interfax, quoting Metropolitan Hilarion, the Orthodox Church’s chief ecumenical official, as saying that "secularization in disguise of democratization" is leading Western nations toward totalitarianism.

"This powerful energy today strives to finally break with Christianity, which controlled its totalitarian impulses during 17 centuries," said the prelate. The secularists are striving, he continued "to set up an absolute dictatorship that demands total control over each member of society. Don't we move to it when 'for the sake of security' we agree to obligatory electronic passports, dactyloscopy [fingerprint identification] for everyone, and photo cameras occurring everywhere?"

Metropolitan Hilarion was also strongly critical of the efforts of the progressive thinkers and their propagandists in the lamestream media to "make immorality normal". He gave the example of the legalization of same-sex "marriage" in France. The French socialist government "consciously and demonstratively ignored demands of people and used tear gas to disperse them."

In an article in Pravoslavnaya Beseda, the metropolitan wrote, "Nowadays [the] state sets a principle of secularity, independence from any outside authority that is authorized to point out to violations of morals or rights."

The "outside authority" is, of course, the Church, which western governments now believe -- virtually without exception! -- should have no voice, let alone influence, in affairs of state. No, not even in Ireland or Italy. Only (perhaps) in Russia.

Pope Francis to move on Third Secret of Fatima?

Walt found it passing strange that Father Nicholas Gruner, founder director of an Apostolate dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima, should have been so positive about the election of Pope Francis. Successive popes from Pius XI to Benedict XVI have been perplexed by the Third Secret revealed by Our Lady to the late Sister Lucia. The closer it got to 1960 -- the year by which Our Lady said the Secret must be revealed -- the more nervous the Vatican got.

Fatima experts, such as Walt's old buddy Christopher A. Ferrara, Esquire, believe that the Third Secret foretells the apostasy and corruption which stain the mainstream Roman Catholic Church today. We can call the collapse of the Church and the departure from the True Faith the poisoned fruits of Vatican II. But Pope John XXIII, who instigated the Council, read the secret and in his wisdom (?) set it aside, saying the Blessed Virgin must have been talking about somebody else or some other time.

That's been the Vatican party line ever since. We've seen more than half a century of lies and cover-ups orchestrated by the Vatican Secretaries of State, notably Cardinals Casaroli, Sodano and the evil Bertone. And all of the post-Conciliar popes have toed the line. That includes Paul VI, who famously said that, through Vatican II, "the smoke of Satan has entered the Church"...but did nothing about it.

The Message of Fatima does not just concern the ruination of the Church. Our Lady warned of wars and other catastrophes -- manmade and natural -- which would result in the annihilation of millions of souls. Unless, that is, the Pope (in union with all of the bishops, acting together at the same time) fulfilled a very simple request. She asks them to consecrate Russia (specifically) to Her Immaculate Heart. If that is done, She promises, Russia will be converted to the Faith and become an instrument of peace.

Because of the Vatican's policy of Ostpolitik (devised by the Secretariat of State, not by any pope), not one of the popes who have known of Our Lady's request have dared to do as She asks. During World War II, Pius XII attempted a consecration of "the world". John Paul II performed another act of consecration of the world in 1984, but on 25 March of that year admitted in a prayer to the Blessed Virgin that the consecration of Russia remained undone.

Fast forward to 26 June 2000, when the then Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano, released his "interpretation" of the Third Secret of Fatima, with an introduction by Cardinal Bertone. Cardinal Ratzinger (as he then was) followed Sodano in pronouncing the Fatima prophecy "a thing of the past". The intent of this tale about "the bishop dressed in white" was clearly (in Mr. Ferrara's words) "to consign Fatima to the dustbin of history".

Strangely enough, after he became Benedict XVI, Pope Ratzinger reversed himself. On 11 May 2010, en route to Portugal for a visit to the Fatima shrine, the Holy Father rejected "the universally disbelieved Sodano/Bertone 'interpretation'". (Ferrara's words)

Rather, said Benedict, the Third Secret prophesies what is happening in the Church today, and predicts future events in the Church which are still developing day by day. "The greatest persecution of the Church does not come from enemies outside, but arises from sin in the Church." Sin in the Church... the smoke of Satan... just as Paul VI said!

Not three years later, Benedict XVI found himself physically and mentally incapable of resisting the enemies with in the Church any longer, and threw the torch to whoever might be his successor. Perhaps it was through divine intervention that Cardinal Bergoglio was chosen, for it turns out that Pope Francis is a friend of Our Lady of Fatima. One of his first acts, the day after his election, was to go to pray at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

We do not know what the Pope said to the Blessed Virgin or what She made him understand. But this week we learn, from Vatican Insider (written by leading Vaticanista Andrea Tornielli) that the Holy Father has asked José Cardinal Policarpo, Archbishop of Lisbon, to dedicate his pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima!

Cardinal Policarpo confirmed the Pope’s request at a meeting of the Portuguese bishops’ conference. He said that the Pontiff had twice asked him to make the consecration. The cardinal suggested that the entire bishops’ conference could join in the act of consecration.

This is an extremely significant move by the Holy Father. It shows that he believes in the Fatima Message, and acknowledges the correctness of what Benedict XVI said, that the Message of Fatima is still valid today.  (Tornielli says the prophecy could apply not only to the Church's struggle against the totalitarian regimes of the East, but the paedophilia scandal as well.)

What will be Pope Francis' next step? Could it be that he will finally command all the world's bishops to join him in the Act of Consecration of Russia that Our Lady of Fatima requested? Let us pray so, because that is Heaven's Key to World Peace.

Further reading: "A Prelude to the Consecration of Russia?" by Christopher A. Ferrara, Esquire.

Recommended blog: Fr. West's Catholic Blog, and in particular "Queen Esther and Our Lady of Fatima - Homily for Thursday of the First Week of Lent"

Message for Holy Week

Agent 3 saw this sign in front of the Church of Our Lady of the Scapular, in Niagara Falls, Canada. (The reference is to the Brown Scapular which Our Lady gave to St. Simon Stock.) Very appropriate for Holy Week.

The Fatima Network offers you a Brown Scapular -- Our Lady's Garment of Grace -- FREE and with no obligation. Click here for details and an order form.

Fatima Rosary Rally, Toronto Airport Sheraton, April 20th

Yesterday I told a reader in Uzbekistan -- no kidding -- that, now that the conclave is over, I probably wouldn't be writing too much about the affairs of the Church, unless the Holy Father drops some kind of bombshell on us. Such as a return to Traditional Catholicism.

Not much chance of that. I note with dismay that Pope Francis is to be "installed", not consecrated or crowned as tradition demands. Nor could he be anything other than "installed", since he, like Benedict XVI, was never consecrated as a bishop, merely "installed" according to the Protestant-style "New Ordinal" of 1969.

I note with even more dismay that, for the new Pope's first Mass, the Protestant picnic table was returned to its place of dishonour in the Sistine Chapel, concealing the beauty of Michelangelo's inspired art. And the message of his "homily" was hardly even Christian. What Francis told the Cardinals was that the Church should not -- repeat, not -- try to impose its message on a modern society that doesn't want to hear it. The Church needs to be "one with the people". In other words, the Faith should be made to conform to popular sentiment, rather than ask the faithful to conform to the Truth revealed by God.

So... going by first impressions, I'd say the outlook for a revival of the Faith of our Fathers is pretty gloomy. But we can hope. And we can pray! Good Catholics in the Toronto area -- and let's not forget Buffalo! -- are encouraged to attend a Fatima Rosary Rally, sponsored by the Fatima Center, to be held at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre on Saturday, April 20th, beginning at 12:30 p.m.

The Miraculous Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima -- blessed by Pope Paul VI -- will be present. Father Nicholas Gruner, "the Fatima Priest", will speak, as will Walt's old friend John Vennari, editor of Catholic Family News.

You will have an opportunity to be enrolled -- with your family members if you wish -- in the Brown Scapular, Our Lady's protection in these dangerous times. Sacramentals and literature on the Message of Fatima will be available. Admission is free, and the benefits and graces to be obtained many.

For more information or directions to the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre, call the Fatima Center, toll-free, 1-800-845-3047. Tell them  you read about the rally in Walt Whiteman's World!

Father Gruner talks about the conclave and Cardinal Ouellet

Father Nicholas Gruner, director of the International Fatima Rosary Crusade, was interviewed on the popular Canadian television programme Morning Live on the last day of the papacy of Benedict XVI.

Father Gruner talked about the upcoming papal conclave, and on the possibility that Marc Cardinal Ouellet, the former Archbishop of Quebec, might become the first Canadian Pope. Father Gruner and Cardinal Ouellet were fellow seminarians in Montreal in the 1960s.

Father Gruner offered a positive appraisal of both Cardinal Ouellet's character and his chances. He made the point, though, that no matter who is chosen, the next pope's first duty is to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as was requested by Our Lady of Fatima requested. It is only through the Consecration, Father explained, that the problems facing the Church and the world will be solved.

The video clip runs for just over six minutes. Please allow a minute or so for it to load.

Catholics everywhere are urged to pray for the Church and for the conclave that will choose our new Pope. Click here for some recommended prayers.

How the Vatican sold out to Communism

In a just-released article in The Catholic World Report, journalist Edward Pentin examines why the Second Vatican Council failed to issue an explicit condemnation of Communism. Has lifted the veil of mystery over the omission, citing the findings of an impressive list of reputable Church historians: Father Norman Tanner, Roberto de Mattei, Christopher Gillibrand, Edmund Mazza and Jean Madiran.

This omission was not just allowed to happen, but actually approved by two of the Conciliar popes -- John XXIII and Paul VI -- who we now know had read the Third Secret of Fatima. Cardinal Woytyla, later to become Pope John Paul II, also had a hand in the sell-out to Moscow, although whether he had seen the Third Secret at this point is in not known.

Mr. Pentin refers to Jean Madiran's book, The Metz Agreement, which describes how the Vatican effectively sold out to Communism, at a secret meeting in 1962 between Cardinal Eugène Tisserant and the Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Nikodim, who was in fact an agent of the KGB.

The Vatican's policy of making nice with the Reds has become known as Ostpolitik, and has been denounced for decades -- literally -- by the devotees of Our Lady of Fatima, led by Father Nicholas Gruner, Christopher A. Ferrara, and John Vennari.

Ostpolik -- the bastard child of Cardinals Sodano, Casaroli and now Bertone -- explains such aberrations as the Vatican's tolerance of the schismatic and heretical Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which actually persecutes and imprisons priests and bishops of the true "underground" Catholic church.

For their pains, the "Fatimists" have been labelled "conspiracy theorists" and worse. But Mr. Pentin quotes Sr De Mattei as asking, "Were those who denounced the brutal oppression of Communism in the Council, calling for its solemn condemnation, prophets? Or were those who believed, as the architects of Ostpolitik, that it was necessary to come to an agreement with Communism -- a compromise -- because Communism interpreted humanity's anxieties over justice and would have survived one or two centuries, improving the world?"

The author of Il Concilio Vaticano II -- Una storia mai scritta concludes, "If the Second Vatican Council would have condemned Communism, it would have helped accelerate its decline. The opposite occurred."

Our Lady of Fatima knew it. She told us that unless Her request for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart were granted, the errors of Communism would spread throughout the world! And so it has come to pass.

Mr. Fentin quotes Professor Mazza as calling "the loss of the transcendent" -- the secularization of our society -- the worst of the errors. "What  has happened over the last 50  years? The errors of atheism and socialism, a world without God, has 'Marxized' the world so that we're ready to embrace socialism if it's couched in the right terms." Precisely what the Communists wanted!

Good Catholics, you must read this article! It is of the utmost importance in understanding what's going on in the Catholic Church today. Through Ostpolitik, the Church got into bed with the Communists; now it can't get out!

Ed. has put Edward Pentin's excellent article into .pdf format. The file is about 2.9 MB. We'll be happy to e-mail it to you. Send your request to the usual e-address: walt.whiteman@yahoo.com.

A dark and stormy night at the Fatima Center

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

So begins what has long been regarded as the worst novel ever written in the English language: Paul Clifford, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest uses the phrase as a signifier of purple prose. The contest, run by the San Jose State University English Department, celebrates the worst extremes in "dark and stormy night" writing.

Walt has just seen Part I of 2011's sure-fire winner. Place your bets now, ladies and gentlemen, on Russian Sunrise: A Novel of Faith and Hope, by Bruce W. Walters, M.D. Published by Good Counsel Publications, Russian Sunrise is, according to its prologue [Prologue? In a novel? Ed.] "a novel exploring in detail what might be, based in broad concept on what will be."

Over 10 lines later we learn it's about what Russia and the world will be like when the Pope finally performs the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as the author and 1000s of Catholic believers in the Message of Fatima devoutly wish.

A "disclaimer for a work of fiction" assures us that the persons and events depicted are products of the author's imagination. They are also incredibly two-dimensional caricatures of real people, straight out of Catholic Comics. Here's an example of a dinner conversation between Mariya (Mary) and Mikhail (Michael):

(Mikhail): "Now I'm terrified. Everything about you seems exactly right, Mariya, and all of a sudden I can't see any escape route for myself. I'm captured, disarmed, defenseless, and there is no hope of escape. I'm a prisoner and I love it!"
(Mariya): "You've got it bad, Misha. I'm so glad. Because a lot has happened in the past two months that seems too good to be true. It's almost like a fairy tale. I met this impossibly handsome and intelligent and talented older man who seems very youthful, and who just happens to be a crown prince. I have only recently been informed that I am a princess. He falls in love with me, and takes me to a fairy tale ball in New York where we dance the night away and steal the show and end up all over the television and newspapers ever since. I begin to dream of spending my life with hi, and then I sense that, if we don't watch out, we will end up as a king and queen, living in a royal palace and presiding over a Christian nation."

Chapter 20 goes on like that for nearly eight letter-sized pages. And there are 22 more chapters, just in Part I. I would call it a sure cure for insomnia except that morbid curiosity has so far kept me flipping the pages just to see if it gets any worse. [It does. Ed.]

One of the minor characters of the good doctor's fertile imagination is one "Father Nicholas Gottschalk"*. We are told that "he is without doubt the world's best-known Fatima advocate". What a coincidence, then, that Good Counsel Publications is one of the imprints of the Fatima Center, whose founder and director is Father Nicholas Gruner. Father Gruner often refers to himself (modestly) as one of the world's best-known Fatima advocates.

Also an obvious coincidence is the name of the fictional pope who, in 2015, finally performs the Consecration in 2015. It's Pope Nicholas VI, "the first German pope...in several hundred years". Pope Nicholas was the former Jacob Cardinal Ritter. Yes, clearly a fictional character.

Russian Sunrise comes highly recommended, according to five lengthy blurbs on the back cover. (One of them runs to two paragraphs and 13 lines.) Anyone who has read The Fatima Crusader will recognize the names appended to the ringing endorsements. They are all employees or associates of Father Gruner.

I regret not being able to give this travesty of a roman à clef my endorsement, although I will gladly nominate it for the Bulwer-Lytton prize. Using a novel to promote a religious or political ideal is not a novel idea. And it can work, when it's done well. Sadly, Russian Sunrise is not well done. It is not even medium rare. It is merely half-baked.

* Footnote: "Gottschalk", in German, means "God's servant". And Father Nicholas Gruner just happens to be of German descent. Another coincidence, no doubt. And yes, Russian Sunrise actually has footnotes! In a novel! Even Sir Edward knew better than that.

Benedict XVI admits Church's problems come "from within"

Pope Benedict XVI made an astonishing statement on his way to Fatima, Portugal, where he will celebrate Holy Mass on May 13th, on the 93rd anniversary of the first Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima.

According to today's Reuters report, the Holy Father said that the greatest threat to Catholicism came from sin within the Church. "Today we see in a truly terrifying way that the greatest persecution of the Church does not come from outside enemies but is born of sin within the Church," the Pope told reporters on the plane to Portugal.

What is amazing is not the statement itself -- devotees of Our Lady of Fatima have been saying as much for decades -- but that His Holiness has at last conceded that this is indeed a vital part of the Message of Fatima, the burden of the Third Secret of Fatima.

Benedict told reporters he believed that interpretation of the Third Secret, revealed in 2000, "could include the suffering the papacy and the Church would have to endure as a result of today’s sexual abuse crisis."

His predecessor, Pope Paul VI, put it another way. "The smoke of Satan," he said, "has entered the Church".

So what is to be done? Benedict says the Church has a very deep need to recognize that She must do penance for Her sins and "accept purification". Indeed. And it is up to Him to bring that about.

A good start would be to obey the commands of Our Lady of Fatima. If he would just consecrate Russia to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart, in the way She asks, Russia and the world will be converted, and we will have a time of peace and prosperity, as She promised. Amen...so let it be.

UPDATE: 14/5/10 - Noted "Vaticanista" Sandro Magister has written a good analysis of the meaning of the Pope's statements, including the full text of what the Holy Father said. Click here to read his article in Chiesa.