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no. 70

The Third Secret
      This brings us to the correlation of Garabandal with the Third Secret of Fatima. Though it has not been publicly revealed, the tableau of Mary’s messages give us a good indication that the third secret deals with the coming apostasy in the Church and the end times and that John Paul II is the last true pope before the era of peace. The reasoning here is based on the following: First of all, Our Lady has told the visionaries that the Warning and the Miracle will occur when the Church is in great turmoil and priests, religious and the truly faithful are greatly persecuted. Mari Loli has said, "It would look like the communists have taken over the world and it would be very hard to practice the religion, for priests to say Mass or for people to open the doors of the churches - Whoever practices [their faith] will have to go into hiding."

      Now consider what Our Lady said to Conchita regarding the popes, that after Pope John XXIII, there would only be three more popes. Since him we have had Paul VI, John Paul I, and now our holy pontiff John Paul II, the last of the good popes. When you compare this prophecy to the prophecies of Saint Malachi it all falls into place, and if there is another pope after our present Holy Father, there is much conjecture and fear that he will be an instrument of satan and a puppet of the antichrist who will rule from the revived Roman Empire as foretold in the Apocalypse.

The Papal Prophecies
      Besides Our Lady’s warning, we also have the caution of some great and prophetic popes over the years. Pope Pius IX, well before Fatima, knew of the bloody revolution that Communism would inflict and the godlessness that would ensue for the infamous books of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels were published during his pontificate. This moved him to pronounce in 1846 a condemnation of the theory, saying it was "absolutely contrary to the natural law itself," and that this infamous doctrine, if adopted, would "utterly destroy the rights, property, and possessions of all men, and even society itself." It also prompted the Vicar to declare the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. He also prophesied that "a great sign would fill the world with awe." This, as we can now see is the Warning and Miracle of Garabandal. For his beliefs and faith he was greatly persecuted, being treated as most prophets are - despised, ridiculed and slandered.

      Pope Leo XIII warned of this Communistic threat - "the fatal plague which insinuates itself into the very marrow of human society, only to bring about its ruin." This wise pontiff also saw, in a vision, what satan had planned for the coming century. That’s the main reason he composed the Prayer to St. Michael, whose feast we celebrate the end of this month. Pope Saint Pius X prophesied in 1904 the First World War as well as the struggle of the workers. He could envision even more clearly than Pope Pius IX and Leo XIII what was to come, when he foretold: "I believe that we are coming to the time when religion will be all but extinct from the earth."

      To counteract this grave prophecy he re-emphasized the importance of the Holy Eucharist.

      The Apparitions of Fatima occurred during the reign of Pope Benedict XV, but his successor Pope Piux XI faced the greatest challenge of Communism, prompting him to issue the encyclical Divine Redemptoris in 1937 a few years before the outbreak of World War II. This inspired encyclical predicted that Communism was the greatest foe the Church had or would ever encounter.

      It was widely recognized that the Communists and Masons infiltrated the Church during the first part of this century and have risen to great power within the ecclesiastical ranks. This is all in accordance with how the great apostasy and schism will come about and how so much of our faith has been watered down over the past thirty years. Our Lady zeroed in on this in her June 18 message of 1965: "Many cardinals, many bishops and many priests are on the road to perdition and are taking many souls with them."

      Pope Pius XII also realized the great era to come and the fulfillment of what Our Lady said at Fatima: "In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph." Many can see, with the recent plethora of apparitions throughout the world and the seriousness of the messages that Our Lady is forming her own special army to fight through prayer in winning over Communists, atheists, non-believers and a vast number of Moslems who have a special allegiance for the daughter of Mohammed - Fatima. This was prophesied not only by popes but great saints like Saint Louis Marie de Montfort and Saint John Bosco who prophesied that the twentieth century would see "the greatest triumph of Mary, greater even than that of Lepanto." Other saints such as Saint Frances of Rome foresaw the Three Days of Darkness and candidate-for-canonization Blessed Marie Taigi confirmed this. Blessed Faustina Kowalska affirmed that only by trusting in Jesus’ Divine Mercy, and by giving His Own Mother to intercede for us, and giving us Himself in the Holy Eucharist will we be able to sustain what lies ahead.

      Our own present Holy Father is probably the greatest prophet of recent pontiffs. He has sadly conveyed continuously that "the sense of sin is becoming weaker and weaker in modern man, which makes real repentance very unlikely." A few years ago he issued a most profound, eschatological prophecy concerning the World Population Congress in Cairo: "If the inclusion of abortion as well a means of population control passes, civilization will end as we know it." Prayerfully, his influence stopped Cairo, but will it be enough with the inroads the culture of death has been making over the last decade? Only prayer and time will tell.

NEXT INSTALLMENT: Part Ten - Garabandal: For whom the Bells Toll! The Eucharist, the Sanctity of Marriage, and the Fruits continue to multiply

To review all past installments of this on-going series, go to Archives beginning with the inaugural A CALL TO PEACE internet issue in January 1996. volume 7, no. 1.