He will return with his immense heart, with his heart of fire, his poor man's soul
and his smile. He will return! And the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph!

THE CARDINAL AND THE SEER

The book of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, The Last Seer of Fatima, My Conversations with Sister Lucy (ed. Rai, May 2007), which was published in Italy for the ninetieth anniversary of the apparitions and for which Pope Benedict XVI wrote the preface, is presented under the form of a series of conversations with the journalist Giuseppe De Carli. Cardinal Bertone recalls the circumstances of the publication of the Third Secret and of his meetings with Sister Lucy at the Carmel of Coimbra on 27 April 2000, 17 November 2001, and 9 December 2003.

Let us say straightaway, so as not to harp on it longer, that Sister Lucy confirmed to him the authenticity of the manuscript of the Third Secret, the facsimile of which was published on 26 June 2000. Assuredly, the entire Secret was disclosed on that day. Furthermore, in the last days of her life, she renewed time and again her testimony on the triple appeal of the Angel and on the visions of the Secret (Fatima, Salvation of the World, éd. CRC, 2007, pp. 360-361, French edition only).

On the other hand, how can we believe the Roman prelate when, two years after the death of the seer, which took place on 13 February 2005, he attributes to her all the official interpretations of the Secret. He no longer fears her denials. In fact, this was planned long ago. In 1992 Mgr Luciano Guerra told the Abbé Laurentin: « It will be possible to say many things more clearly (sic) after Lucy’s death. » (John-Paul I, the Pope of the Secret, Ch. 11)

Today a false Lucy is being fabricated, one whose “revelations” are a hymn to the glory and praise of John Paul II.

BERTONE AGAINST BERTONE

According to the interpretation imposed by the highest Roman authorities in 2000, the Third Secret announced the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II that occurred on 13 May 1981. Giuseppe De Carli objects: « In the vision, the Pope dies. On the other hand, pierced or struck by projectiles, John Paul II survived. » Cardinal Bertone is not in the least discountenanced. His source is Sister Lucy: « In the conversation that I had with her on 27 April 2000, a clear and immediate reference was made to the attack against John Paul II. » (p. 67)

Too late, your Eminence! Your first report, the official report published two months after the conversation, revealed to us her true reaction: « I wrote what I saw, she said to you, it is not for me to interpret it, but for the Pope. » (Documentation catholique, 2000, p. 676) As for Cardinal Ratzinger, he specified in his Theological Commentary on the Secret: « Sister Lucy responded by pointing out that she had received the vision but not its interpretation. The interpretation, she said, belonged not to the visionary but to the Church. » (ibid., p. 681)

THE PROPHECY… FULFILLED!

In our studies to identify the Pope of the Secret, we remarked that in the expression « a Bishop dressed in White » the adjective bore a capital letter: « Sister Lucy wrote Branco in Portuguese with a capital B, as if it were a proper name; in Italian the word is translated Bianco, or else… Albino. »  (John-Paul I, the Pope of the Secret, Ch. 7, http://www.crc-internet.org/JP1/Fatima4.htm) Furthermore, Brother Bruno of Jesus pointed out in his first commentary that John Paul I had not received the tiara: « Albino Luciani was the first Pope to be thus “uncrowned” on the very day of his enthronement. » (CCR n° 331, June 2000, p. 21) Carli has clearly read our demonstrations and been impressed by them. He asks the cardinal: « This “Bishop dressed in White”, White is written in the Secret with a capital letter, could it not refer to Albino Luciani? » Then he explains: « Luciani presented himself as the first Pope without the tiara, as a simple “bishop dressed in white”! »

Then he recalls Cardinal Luciani’s visit to the Carmel of Coimbra on 11 July 1977: « As his private secretary Fr. Diego Lorenzi related to me, Luciani’s conversation with Sister Lucy lasted about two hours. “When he came out of it, the face of the Patriarch was pale, like white linen.” The Cardinal joked [later on, in the restaurant]: “The sister is small, vivacious and rather effusive.” He said nothing further. During the following Lent, we are in 1978, Albino Luciani’s brother, – according to a testimony published by our colleague and Vatican expert, Andrea Tornielli –, revealed that, during the spiritual exercises at Canale d’Agordo, Albino was pensive. He remained aloof; he was agitated and worried. “I am unable not to think about what Sister Lucy told me”, he replied to his family. He repeated twice: “Sister Lucy told me…” But he did not finish his sentence. What did the seer say to the future Pope John Paul I? »

Is Cardinal Bertone going to reveal to us what the seer said by divulging the contents of a previously unpublished document? Read what he said: « At the Carmel of Coimbra on 9 December 2003, the reconstitution of the conversation written by Cardinal Luciani in the form of minutes was read to the seer, and Lucy confirmed with a smile that it reflected it exactly. This typed document was signed by the Patriarch and was probably published in January 1978 in the review The Heart of the Mother. It is a text that has been forgotten. » Guiseppe De Carli adds: « It is a text that is little or completely unknown. » (pp. 69-70)

Your Eminence, your discovery of the “minutes” arrives too late. Cardinal Luciani’s article entitled At Fatima… with Sister Lucy is very well known to our readers. It was published not in January 1978, but on 23 July 1977 in the Catholic weekly Gente Veneta. We printed the full text in (CCR n° 288, September 1996, p. 8 and in John-Paul I, the Pope of the Secret, Ch. 8, Appendix).

Let us think: Cardinal Luciani was not going to write in an article intended for the general public what he had not succeeded in confiding to his brother Edoardo!

Furthermore, all the while as you desire to reduce the content of the conversation to what the cardinal said in this article, you paradoxically recognise the existence of « converging testimony concerning Lucy’s prediction that the Patriarch of Venice would be elected to the Sovereign Pontificate » (p. 73). No, it cannot be doubted: the seer revealed to him on 11 July 1977 his vocation of universal Shepherd and victim for his people.

You state that when commenting on « Cardinal Luciani’s visit, Sister Lucy spontaneously exclaimed before the Carmelites: “If he were elected Pope, it seems to me that he would be a good Pope!” (ibid.) » But you remain silent over her thought concerning the death of John Paul I.

She knew the circumstances of his demise, however, and she spoke about it. A year before the publication of the Third Secret, Fr. José Valinho confided to me: « Sister Lucy told me that the death of Pope John Paul I was mysterious. » And to enlighten me further about his aunt’s thinking, he added: « The fact is, they refused to carry out an autopsy. »

Furthermore, Mrs. Maria das Dores Pestana, who used to accompany her mother during her parlour conversations with the holy Carmelite, declared to me on 19 February 2003: « Sister Lucy is convinced that John Paul I was assassinated. »

These two testimonies reinforce our conviction: before the publication of the Third Secret in the year 2000, Sister Lucy spoke of a « mysterious death ». Bound by secrecy, she could not say more. Three years later, when the Secret had been published, she could say the truth that she had first contemplated in the vision of 13 July 1917 and then announced during the parlour conversation with the Cardinal on 11 July 1977, a truth that was finally fulfilled during the night of 28 to 29 September 1978: he was assassinated.

THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
SURROUNDED BY THORNS… EXCLUDED!

As we turn the pages, we remark gross errors:

« 1915. Apparition of an angel to Lucy.

« 1916. Second and third apparition: “I am the Angel of Portugal, the Angel of peace.” » (p. 183)

Let us re-establish the truth. There were three apparitions of the « Guardian Angel » in 1915. Then, again three apparitions in 1916. In autumn of that year, during the apparition of the “angel of the Eucharist”, the three seers were favoured with an extraordinary, miraculous Communion: « I felt the contact of the Host, Lucy said, as in ordinary Communions. » The cardinal ignores these accounts from the IV^th Memoirs, one of the seer’s major texts, which he takes for « annotations » (pp. 56 and 185).

The booklet How I See the Message of Fatima through Time and Events, written by the seer in the 1990s, is falsely identified with the book that she wrote in 1955 at the request of Fr. Ballestrero, the future cardinal, a book that has remained unpublished and is kept in the archives of the Holy Office (pp. 97 and 187).

Fatima is doctored and misrepresented in order to please the world: « What value can a prophecy like that of Fatima have if it is does not say a word about the Shoah, about the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis? » (p. 97) The second part of the Secret, which announces that « Russia will spread her errors in the world », is thus supplemented by an addition on « the Shoah » (p. 151)

Cardinal Bertone relates that on 17 November 2001, the seer revealed to him « a detail » that he believed « was unpublished: “During the vision, Our Lady, radiant with light, held in Her right hand a Heart, and in Her left hand the rosary.” » (p. 68)

The Roman prelate once again reveals his ignorance of the Fatima file: he considers an unpublished detail what Sister Lucy told him about the revelation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that took place on 13 June 1917. On that day Lucy saw « a Heart surrounded by thorns that seemed to be piercing It. We understood, she wrote in her forth Memoirs, that It was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, which desired reparation. »

The Cardinal’s readers will know nothing about this vision of the Immaculate Heart that appeared to them « flesh-coloured, and surrounded as though by a branch of wild gorse ». No mention is made of this Apparition in either the introduction of the book written by Giuseppe De Carli or in the eight pages of chronology. We pass directly from 13 May to… 13 July, then from 19 August… to 13 October 1917! On the other hand, the Cardinal devotes more than ten lines of his chronology to Pope Benedict XV, who, however, up to his death in 1922, took no explicit measure in favour of Fatima. We could summarise as follows the message of Fatima as reviewed and corrected by Cardinal Bertone: God wishes to establish in the world, by the Virgin Mary, the cult of the Holy Father.

NO CENSORING? COME NOW!

Sister Lucy insistently asked Pope John Paul II for the publication of her book Calls from the Message of Fatima that she had finished writing on 25 March 1974. « I spoke about it with Cardinal Ratzinger, and then with the Pope, the Secretary of State relates. A professor of theology, the late lamented Fr. Jésus Castellano of the Carmelite Order, read it without making important corrections to it. No extensive revision that could modify the content occurred. The person who said that this was the case [Who was it that spoke of corrections and censoring if not Brother Bruno of Jesus? Why not name him? Is his demonstration unanswerable?] wrote something inexact. There was no need to make corrections or censor it. » (p. 47)

Too late, your Eminence! When consulting the photocopy of the manuscript on 18 February 2004, I observed that the book published in 2000 was a reworked version.

The last page of her published text (p. 302) is dated 25 March 1997. Now, I saw with my own eyes at the end of her manuscript the date of 25 March 1974 written in her own handwriting, and not 25 March… 1997. The quotation of John Paul II from 29 October 1978 on page 274 in the book published is not found in the manuscript finished four years earlier, and for good reason!

The overall plan was changed completely. The explanation of God’s commandments was placed after the twenty Calls from the Message and now constitutes the third part of the book. In the presentation of the book, Fr. Castellano stresses that it is the same plan as that of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (p. 12)

Originally, Sister Lucy had inserted the explanation of the commandments in her commentary on the second apparition of « the Guardian Angel », between the sixth “call”, « Pray, pray very much! » and the seventh, « Constantly offer prayers and sacrifices to the Most High ». The presentation of God’s commandments was thus situated after the call to prayer in order to ask for the grace to understand and keep them. Her manuscript ended with « the call to follow the road to Heaven ». Whereas the current presentation, the result of the work of the men from the Vatican… takes us back to the Old Testament!

Of course, we have not yet obtained permission, despite our countless attempts, to make a complete comparative study of the manuscript and the version published on 8 December 2000. Nevertheless, a thorough analysis of the book as it was published shows omissions that can certainly not be directly attributed to Sister Lucy. Brother Bruno of Jesus admirably demonstrated it in a very probing, literal commentary on the Calls, cf. He is Risen, beginning with n^o 12, special issue, August 2003, to n^o 29, January 2005.

With the exception of the Rosary, everything that belongs exclusively to Fatima that is not found written in black and white in the Bible is systematically neglected, ignored.

The two petitions addressed to the Holy Father concerning the consecration of Russia and the approval of the reparatory Communion of the first Saturdays are totally concealed. There is never a mention of the prophecies of the Secret related to these demands. There is no mention of the announcement of the chastisements that will occur as long as they are not satisfied: wars, famines, nations annihilated, persecutions, suffering of the Holy Father. There is no mention of the marvellous promises: triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, collegial consecration of Russia, followed by her conversion, and a time of peace granted to the world.

Sister Lucy always obeyed her superiors by following their directives and submitting her writings to their censorship. In the 1940s she noted: « In the end, all the things of this world pass through the censorship of those who see them in a different way, and I am so accustomed to all that. » (Alonso, Fatima, Spain, Russia, 1976, p. 87) Her obedience became heroic when the aforementioned censorship prevented her from carrying out her mission as messenger of Our Lady.

As Brother Bruno wrote, her silence in the Calls from the Message on the elements specific to the revelations of Fatima « is extraordinarily eloquent, since it accuses the incredulity of the superiors, bishops and Popes, on whom it is incumbent to publish the Secret, to recommend the practice of the First Saturdays, to consecrate Russia. The heroic obedience of Sister Lucy accuses their disobedience. » (He is Risen, no 28, December 2004, p. 26; http://www.crc-internet.org/HIR04/Dec28_1.htm)

IMPLICIT CONSECRATION

According to the journalist Giuseppe De Carli, the consecration of Russia « was the politico-religious demand that John Paul II considered the most insidious [sic]. In order not to offend the sensitivities of the “separated Orthodox brethren, the Pope, maintained a cautious stance”. The Orthodox patriarch of all the Russias, Alexis II would have considered an explicit consecration as a declaration of war. »

– Careful! Cardinal Bertone exclaims. For Lucy the consecration of Russia did not mean capturing the great Christian Russia in order to integrate her within Catholicity. » (p. 94)

Too late, your Eminence! In 1976, Fr. Alonso stated clearly: « Sister Lucy has always thought that the conversion of Russia does not only mean a return of the Russian peoples to the Christian Orthodox religion by rejecting the Marxist atheism of the Soviets, but that it refers simply and fully to her total, complete conversion by returning to the unique, true Church, the Roman Catholic Church. » (Fatima, Salvation of the World, p. 373)

Bertone continues: « Several Popes have offered our world to Mary. In order to respond more fully to the demands of “Our Lady” John Paul II composed an “Act of Offering” for 7 June 1981, which he repeated at Fatima in 1982 and re-elaborated to pronounce in spiritual union with the bishops of the world on 25 March 1984, the feast of the Annunciation, at the end of the Holy Year of the Redemption. This text must be re-read because the mass media did not fully grasp its import. A petition that placed itself on the wavelength of the divine will: “Mother of the Church! Enlighten especially the peoples whose consecration and entrustment by us you are awaiting.” The allusion to Russia is implicit, but it is there. » In short, the consecration of Russia would have been fulfilled: « Any discussion and any further petition is baseless. » (p. 94)

This fallacious statement of fact comes much too late.

On Thursday, 22 March 1984, at the Carmel of Coimbra, an old friend of the seer, Mrs. Maria Eugénia Pestana, asked her: « So, Lucy, is it the consecration on Sunday? » The seer motioned no and declared, « This consecration cannot have a decisive character. » Sister Lucy had already read the letter from John Paul II to all the bishops of the world as well as the text of the prayer of offering. She had observed that « Russia did not plainly appear as the sole object of the consecration ». (John Paul I: The Pope of the Secret, Ch. 10)

John Paul II’s acts of offering, the Abbé de Nantes observed, « were only tricks and deceits, with no explicit mention of Russia, no expiation for the offences to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who is practically never invoked, and with no devotion! They were done in such a way that these perfidious moves are now the worst offences to Mary, which can only be repaired by a sincere execution of Heaven’s demands! » (CCR n° 245, January, p. 1992, p. 5)

HEAVENLY LIGHT OR PAPAL INJUNCTION?

After 25 March 1984, for five years, Sister Lucy affirmed that the consecration had not been carried out as Our Lady willed (cf. John Paul I: The Pope of the Secret, Ch. 10 and 11). Why did she apparently change her mind in 1989? « Without her hand having been forced », the Cardinal writes (p. 79).

Therein lies the question. The Cardinal claims that the seer had a divine revelation assuring her that the act of offering of the world in March 1984 had been accepted by Heaven (p. 95).

But it is too late! For we know that there was not a heavenly intervention but a papal injunction. After making enquiries in Portugal, the Abbé Caillon wrote on 8 March 1990: « The Pope is saying that the consecration is done. He is forcing Lucy to say the same as he. » (John Paul II: The Pope of the Secret, Ch. 11)

Later, on 20 February 2003, I asked Mgr do Amaral, emeritus bishop of Fatima, about the order he had communicated to the seer during a one-on-one meeting: « Did John Paul II want her to say, “The consecration is done.” Was that the order from the Pope that you passed to Lucy?

– Yes, that is it. » (ibid., Ch. 11)

Cardinal Bertone reverses the roles: according to him, it is Sister Lucy who informed John Paul II that the consecration was done! The Pope supposedly learned it in a letter from the seer dated 8 November 1989 (p. 94).

It is too late, your Eminence: we published in May 1990 the typed letter said to be from Sister Lucy, bearing that date and addressed to Walter Noelker, and showed its apocryphal character. This text is so stupid that it is impossible that the seer took the initiative to develop the reasoning it contains, cf. John Paul I: The Pope of the Secret, Appendix on the apocryphal letters of Lucy, Ch. 11.

LAPSES OF MEMORY

Bertone plagiarises and tones down the booklet by the Mother Prioress of the Carmel of Coimbra, Sister Lucy, Memories on Her Life (2005). Mother Marie-Céline related one of the scathing retorts that the seer made to the Cardinal during his visit to the Carmel in 2001, but without saying anything about its context. The Cardinal had passed it over in silence in his reports.

This time, the prelate attempts to minimise the altercation: « I must reveal to you… » Too late! Mother Marie-Céline already revealed it to us. « I asked a question to Sister Lucy. I do not remember what. » Hem! Hem! « I dropped it as one abandons something useless or unimportant » Hem! Hem! « I do remember, however, her rather irritated reply, that I do: “I am not here to make my confession.” » (p. 90)

How then can he claim that « the climate during these meetings always remained full of joy? Nothing under compulsion and inquisitorial » (p. 100).

Whom are we to believe? Bertone on page 90 or Bertone on page 100?

THE TEARS OF OUR LADY… EFFACED!

The Cardinal plagiarises Mother Marie-Céline, for example, by borrowing this remark: « A Carmelite’s cell keeps secrets that we will only know in Heaven. » (p. 95) He omits, however, what follows: « How many times did Our Lady come here? We do not know. But one day, I was witness to something that made me see with what simplicity Sister Lucy touched the supernatural, all the while leading a very ordinary life. It was in 2003, on 26 May. I was with her in the lower choir in order to photograph her next to the statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which had been offered to us a short while before. When the photo had been taken, Sister Lucy continued to look at the statue. I did not disturb her… Turning towards me, she said to me with distress: “Our Lady is weeping!” »

In 2003, not only was Our Lady’s face marked with a trace of sadness as in 1917, but She shed tears. Her tears silently demanding consolation and reparation for the offences that are committed against Her could but remind the holy Carmelite of the message of Pontevedra: « Behold, My daughter, My Heart surrounded by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and their ingratitude. You at least try to console Me. » There followed the demand of the reparatory devotion of the first Saturdays of the month.

Sister Lucy never succeeded in obtaining that the Carmel of Coimbra officially practice this devotion. Now, before dying she renewed her petition to the sisters of her convent and this time with success. The practice was inaugurated one year later in February 2006. The Carmel of Coimbra’s internet site then recalled the exercises demanded to satisfy this devotion, and Bl. Jacinta’s warning to Lucy was duly quoted.

« You will remain here to make it known that God wishes to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tell everyone that God grants us graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that people are to ask Her for them; and that the Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated alongside Himself. Tell them to pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for peace, since God has entrusted it to Her.

« Such was the mission that Our Lady entrusted to Sister Lucy and with which she charged us in order that we continue it after her. »

RECOURSE TO SISTER LUCY

What Sister Lucy finally obtained from her Carmel, she must now obtain from the universal Church by changing the hearts and minds of the highest Roman authorities.

All our expectations are now in the power of intercession of the holy Carmelite. While she was alive, she already worked miracles. « She joked about them », Fr. Kondor confided. Furthermore, in 1960, confined in her convent where only members of her family had permission to visit her, she wrote to the Bishop of Fatima: « When I am freed from the prison of this earth, my apostolate will be more widespread and its means more fruitful. »

Did she not announce to Cardinal Meisner in May 2002: « I will pray for the Pope as long as I am on this earth, and I will pray even more when I am in Heaven. »

Whatever happens, in whatever circumstance, even crushed by « misfortune », there will still be time for the Sovereign Pontiff to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to approve the reparatory devotion. At Rianjo, after having confided to Lucy the very impressive prophecy concerning the punishment that would strike His ministers, Our Lord added: « It will never be too late to have recourse to Jesus and Mary. »

Brother François de Marie des Anges.