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I am asking all of my little ones to keep guard over their minds and their tongues. These are powerful tools that the evil one uses. By means of them he whispers his lies and the uttered words cause division and grave harm to all of my children. Know that I come among you as Mother of God, to call you to conversion of heart, to ardent prayer and fasting that your faith might then grow strong.
Know that my desire is for your souls, and that I wish you to live for your soul and by its divine life and light. Do not rely heavily upon your human opinions in any matter. Where human thought and human feeling are called upon, the evil one divides, confuses and arouses the lower, base passions.
Dear children, I solemnly tell you that you shall see now in these coming months many signs of the coming Divine Punishment. I solemnly tell you that even now I weep, offering my Sorrow to my Divine Son that your hearts might be opened, your minds enlightened, your souls enflamed with the Holy Spirit.
Yet many, many of my children shall not be prepared. Then shall voices around the world be raised in bitter anguish, calling upon God to hear their pleas. If they do not convert their hearts, I solemnly tell them God shall not hear. Then shall come more disasters which shall be worse than any before seen. The very land shall weep, and my children will cry for mercy.
Seek Mercy now, my dear children, for the time is grave. Rely upon no man, no government to rescue from evil your household. All the governments, as well as many of my little one's spiritual homes are made of straw built upon shifting sand. All shall crumble in the days to come. The Hour of Great Sorrow is here, and still you refuse my plea. Still you are filled with pride, protecting your interests but never considering God's interest.
Therefore, my little ones, I solemnly tell you my time among you is growing short. By God's authority I will manifest myself to many, in many places. To many will I speak lest they take their eyes and heart from my Divine Son.
Behold! Lift up your eyes. See the Signs of God upon you and return to His Embrace.
Pray! Pray! Pray! I love and bless you. Thank you for responding to my Call!
My children, how I love you. How I desire only to bring you closer to my Divine Son. How I seek to awaken your slumbering faith, your weak, even tepid love. O! My children, even now I weep at the sorrow which comes, ready now to cause death, suffering and misery among all the nations. You shall see disturbances in nature that will reveal clearly that you are in the end times. You will see the Hand of God and many will cry out for Mercy. They who repent shall know Mercy!
But woe to all whose pride refuses to repent, who are not humble. Then shall the fire come from heaven. Then shall the sun be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light. Then shall mountains crumble and oceans pass their borders. Many shall perish and yet they will curse God! My little ones, please come home now! My Divine Son Jesus Christ has suffered all the agonies of the world for you. Will you not be mindful of His Love? Will you not through prayer and fasting cause your faith to swell?
Beloved child of my Immaculate Heart, do not grow lax. Keep vigil at the lamp of faith lest your ingratitude extinguish its flame. The world is plunged into spiritual darkness. Soon the whole earth shall experience a 'new' order for every nation. And the 'new' order is the tool of the evil one. God is the Same. His Word does not change. Believe with firm faith that you might persevere.
I love and bless you. Thank you for responding to my Call!
The Italian network Rai had prepared a 3-hour show to prepare viewers for the 20th anniversary of the Pope's election. The show, which included interviews with a number of international figures, was being broadcast live from Rome.
Bruno Vespa, the host for the Rai broadcast, was stunned when he received a phone call from the third floor of the Vatican apostolic palace. The call was placed by Msgr. Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope's personal secretary, who quickly handed the phone over to the Holy Father himself.
"Mr. Vespa, I want to thank you and all the other participants for all you have done and said about these 20 years. Thank you very much," the Pope said.
The phone call was obviously not planned by anyone involved with the special broadcast. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the chief spokesman for the Holy See, said, "I didn't even know he was watching the broadcast."
Navarro-Valls said that the call had been a spontaneous gesture. "He wanted to call, so he did," he remarked. Vespa, clearly astonished and moved by the Pope's gesture, told reporters today, "This is a Pope who has never been formal."
Among the other luminaries interviewed for the Italian broadcast were Italian Cardinals Noe and Biffi; political leaders Helmut Kohl, Kofi Annan, Yasser Arafat, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Lech Walesa; soccer star Ronaldo; singer Luciano Pavarotti; and the Pope's would- be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca.
During the program the former chief of East Germany's spy service said on Tuesday that his agency had managed to insert a spy into the Vatican during the 1980s.
Former Stasi chief Markus Wolf told Italy's state-run RAI-TV, during a special broadcast to mark Pope John Paul II's 20th anniversary, that the mole -- a Benedictine monk from Germany working in the Vatican's science offices -- had supplied information on Vatican foreign policy and especially the late Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli.
Wolf and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who also appeared on the program, both denied that any Soviet-bloc country played a role in the assassination attempt on the Holy Father in 1981. Convicted Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca initially said the KGB and Bulgarian secret service helped him in his attempt on the Pope's life, but later changed his story. Italian courts also found insufficient evidence to support the claim.
Nancy Fowler, 47, relayed to people gathered from throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia, the message she allegedly received from the Mother of Christ. "My dear children, I have come to be with you today as your loving mother to instruct you. Children, please live your life in full union with God. It is most pleasing to God when you imitate Him," she said. Fowler also said the Blessed Mother urged them to pray and shun materialism.
The late Archbishop of Atlanta, James Lyke, had expressed caution about the apparitions before his death in 1992. Diocesan priests may not celebrate Mass at the site and parishes may not sponsor pilgrimages, but individual Catholics may continue to go there. Last year, more than 30,000 people showed up.
Fowler had said last year that this would be the last message she was going to receive. She has claimed to receive message from the Virgin Mary since 1983, but since 1993 has only offered the messages once per year on the anniversary of the last apparition of Fatima, October 13.
The play, written by award-winning playwright Terence McNally, portrays a modern-day Christ-figure, Joshua, and his apostles with whom he engages in homosexual activity. The Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights has opposed the play since it was made public in May, and has called it "sick beyond words."
Catholic League president William Donohue led hundreds of protesters outside the Manhattan theater, denouncing the play as hate speech. But counter-protesters said the performance was a free-speech issue. "Given how radical Jesus was, there is no doubt which side he'd be on tonight," Episcopal priest the Rev. Richard McKeon said. "He was always annoying the church elders, and would probably be equally glad to anger the Catholic Church," an institution McKeon said "can have extreme power to control what people see and cannot see."
In the scenes most offensive to critics, Jesus maintains a homosexual affair with Judas, a cigarette-smoking Virgin Mary advises against listening to the advice of nuns, the Last Supper degenerates in a drunken stupor, and Jesus performs a same-sex wedding between the apostles James and Bartholomew while denouncing a critical Jewish rabbi as a bigot.
That arrests occurred on the Feast of the Assumption is especially egregious, said foundation director Joseph Kung. Father Wei Jingkun was detained while celebrating Mass near his home in Baoding and remains in police custody, while six members of the church were also either detained or fined. Sister Zhang Yanzhi was arrested and detained for 15 days for teaching catechism to children. Another woman, Xie Suqian, who allowed the catechism class to meet in her home, remains in detention, the foundation said in a statement.
Police also briefly detained 100 Catholics who were enroute to a Mass, while 11 of them were held for 15 days and fined up to $120. Another priest escaped when police arrived in an orchard where 1,000 people had gathered for Mass.
China requires Catholics to belong only to the state-controlled Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association which eschews connections to the Pope and the Universal Church as well as many Catholic doctrines. Several million Chinese Catholics belong to the underground Church which pledges loyalty to Rome and holds the faith in its entirety.
