"An Apostate Pope, Under Control of Satan?" - Fr. Malachi Martin et al on the Real Third Secret of Fatima
"Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of Antichrist. [...] The Church will be eclipsed, the world will be in consternation." - Selected excerpts taken from Our Lady of La Salette's Secret to Mélanie Calvatin on 19 September 1846, 1878 (Approved apparition) Final version published in 1879 at Lecce, Italy, with the imprimatur and approval of Bishop Salvatore Luigi Zola, C.R.L.?, the Bishop of Lecce
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"The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts so new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarrez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatise from the faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism.” “Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church." - Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, p. 88-90, p. 79
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Act bravely, my Brethren; take courage, and trust in the Lord. The time is fast approaching in which there will be great trials and afflictions; perplexities and dissensions, both spiritual and temporal, will abound; the charity of many will grow cold, and the malice of the wicked will increase.
The devils will have unusual power, the immaculate purity of our Order, and of others, will be so much obscured that there will be very few Christians who will obey the true Sovereign Pontiff and the Roman Church with loyal hearts and perfect charity. At the time of this tribulation a man, not canonically elected, will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavour to draw many into error and death.
Then scandals will be multiplied, our Order will be divided, and many others will be entirely destroyed, because they will consent to error instead of opposing it
There will be such diversity of opinions and schisms among the people, the religious and the clergy, that, except those days were shortened, according to the words of the Gospel, even the elect would be led into error, were they not specially guided, amid such great confusion, by the immense mercy of God.
Then our Rule and manner of life will be violently opposed by some, and terrible trials will come upon us. Those who are found faithful will receive the crown of life; but woe to those who, trusting solely in their Order, shall fall into tepidity, for they will not be able to support the temptations permitted for the proving of the elect.
Those who preserve their fervour and adhere to virtue with love and zeal for the truth, will suffer injuries and, persecutions as rebels and schismatics; for their persecutors, urged on by the evil spirits, will say they are rendering a great service to God by destroying such pestilent men from the face of the earth. But the Lord will be the refuge of the afflicted, and will save all who trust in Him. And in order to be like their Head [Jesus Christ], these, the elect, will act with confidence, and by their death will purchase for themselves eternal life; choosing to obey God rather than man, they will fear nothing, and they will prefer to perish [physically] rather than consent to falsehood and perfidy.
Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor, but a destroyer. - Works of the Seraphic Father St. Francis Of Assisi [London: R. Washbourne, 1882], p. 248-250
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"These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered." - Pope Leo XIII, Motu Proprio, 25 September 1888, "The Prayer to St. Michael", The Raccolta, 1910 Edition, #292, p. 264, pdf p. 272
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"The Papacy will be attacked by all the powers of hell. In consequence the Church will suffer great trials and afflictions in securing a successor upon the throne of Peter…. It is a matter of history that the most disastrous periods for the Church were times when the Papal throne was vacant, or when anti-popes contended with the legitimate head of the Church. Thus also shall it be in those evil days to come." - Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, The Apocalypse of St. John, 1921, p. 120-128
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"The False Prophet will be endowed with satanic powers to deceive the nations. He will probably set himself up in Rome as a sort of antipope during the vacancy of the papal throne." - Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, The Apocalypse of St. John, 1921, p. 135
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"The prophecies of the Apocalypse show that Satan will imitate the Church of Christ to deceive mankind; he will set up a church of Satan in opposition to the Church of Christ. Antichrist will assume the role of Messiahs; his prophet will act the part of Pope; and there will be imitations of the Sacraments of the Church. There will also be lying wonders in imitation of the miracles wrought in the Church." - Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, The Church of Christ: An Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise, 1927, p. 119
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“I cannot reveal anything about what I have learned at Fatima about the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts: the one concerns the Pope. The other, logically - although I should say nothing - should be the continuation of the words: 'In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.'” - Father Joseph Schweigl, 2 September 1952 (Pope Pius XII sent him to interrogate Sr. Lucia); Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima: The Third Secret, Vol. III, p. 710, p. 337-338
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“It is therefore completely probable that the text [Third Secret of Fatima] makes concrete references to the crisis of faith within the Church and to the negligence of the pastors themselves [and the] internal struggles in the very bosom of the Church and of grave pastoral negligence of the upper hierarchy …
“In the period preceding the great triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, terrible things are to happen. These form the content of the third part of the Secret. What are they? If ‘in Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,’ … it can be clearly deduced from this that in other parts of the Church these dogmas are going to become obscure or even lost altogether. …
“Does the unpublished text speak of concrete circumstances? It is very possible that it speaks not only of a real crisis of the faith in the Church during this in-between period, but like the secret of La Salette, for example, there are more concrete references to the internal struggles of Catholics or to the fall of priests and religious. Perhaps it even refers to the failures of the upper hierarchy of the Church. For that matter, none of this is foreign to other communications Sister Lucia has had on this subject. ...
“Pope John XXIII declared that the text did not refer to his pontificate ... And the following popes did not consider that the moment had come to lift the veil of mystery, in circumstances where the Church has still not overcome the frightening impact of twenty post-conciliar years, during which the crisis of the Faith has installed itself at every level.” - Father Joaquin Alonso (Official Archivist at Fatima); La Verdad sobre el Secreto de Fatima, 1976. See also Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima - Vol. III, p. 687, 704-705. See also De nuevo el Secreto de Fatima 1982 Ephemerides mariologicae p. 93
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“What I dreamt I really hope never comes to pass, it is too painful and I hope that the Lord will not allow the Pope to deny every article of faith and then take the place of God. How much pain I felt throughout the night, even my legs became paralysed and I could no longer move because of the pain I felt in seeing the Church reduced to a pile of rubble.” - Bruno Cornacchiola, 27 March 1977, Saverio Gaeta, Il veggente. Il segreto delle Tre Fontane, Salani editore, Milano, 2016, Capitolo 3 Il Messaggio, Capitolo 11 Il Futuro
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"The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church." - Pope Paul VI, 13 October 1977 in a formal address marking the 60th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun as quoted in the Milan-based daily Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, p. 7 of its issue dated 14 October 1977
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11 November 1984 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger affirmed that the Third Secret concerns, "a radical call for conversion; the absolute importance of history; the dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian, and therefore of the world. And then the importance of the ‘novissimi’ (the last events at the end of time). If it is not made public — at least for the time being — it is in order to prevent religious prophecy from being mistaken for a quest for the sensational (literally: ‘for sensationalism’). But the things contained in this ‘Third Secret’ correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and has been said again and again in many other Marian apparitions" - Ecco perche la fede e in crisi in the review, Jesus, p. 79
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"The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against the apostasy in the Church.” “I would not be surprised if the Third Secret alluded to dark times for the Church: grave confusions and troubling apostasies within Catholicism itself...If we consider the grave crisis we have lived through since the Council, the signs that this prophecy has been fulfilled do not seem to be lacking...” - Cardinal Silvio Oddi, to Italian journalist Lucio Brunelli in the journal Il Sabato, Rome, 17 March 1990
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In conclusion to his study of the Third Secret, Frère Michel sums up his findings as follows:
“Having reached the end of our inquiry, we are able to discern, with near certainty, the essential elements of Our Lady’s final secret: While ‘in Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,’ in many nations, perhaps in almost the entire world, the Faith will be lost. The pastors of the Church will fail gravely in the duties of their office. Through their fault, consecrated souls and the Faithful in great number will let themselves be seduced by pernicious errors spread everywhere. This will be the time of the decisive battle between the Blessed Virgin and the devil. A wave of diabolical disorientation will be hurled over the world. Satan will introduce himself even to the highest summit of the Church. He will blind the minds and harden the hearts of pastors. And God will deliver them to themselves as a chastisement for their refusal to obey the requests of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This will be the great apostasy predicted for the ‘last times’; ‘the False Lamb’ and ‘False Prophet’ will betray the Church to the profit of ‘the Beast,’ according to the prophecy of the Apocalypse.” – Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima: The Third Secret, 1990, Vol. III, Conclusion, p. 576
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"Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. - Catechism of the Catholic Church,1992, Paragraph #675 - The Church's ultimate trial
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"We're facing — what we may have to face, finally — the False Pope." - Fr. Malachi Martin, Detroit, Michigan circa 1989, November 1992?
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Father Malachi Martin (reader of the Third Secret of Fatima) Interview with Bernard Janzen 1992:
Janzen: In our discussion earlier you just touched on the subject of Satan's assault on the papacy. Perhaps we could have a brief discussion about that.
Martin: [...] what I think is fatally necessary for every Catholic to know, and that is the fate of the papacy and the coming stress and danger that we shall be without the strength of the papacy.
Bernard: Is it ever possible that the cardinals at a future conclave could elect a heretical pope?
Martin: [brief pause over the sensitive nature of the question] You know…they have elected men in the past who had heretical ideas. Two or three. They have never elected yet an apostate – an apostate. […] An apostate has rebelled against the very fundamental of faith and rejected God and Christ. We have apostates now who are papabili [men who could be elected pope]. Yes, we could have an apostate. But in that day, then we are into something terrible. We’re into something which, Bernard, is something that, if you think on it, in full knowledge of the meaning of your terms, is nightmarish. It would test the faith of St. Catherine of Sienna. It would test the faith of the greatest saint. It would try the patience of Job. It would be a black day; a day on which you can clothe every window in black and put out the lights and dress in sackcloth & ashes and pray that you're spared because your faith is going to be battered to pieces...if that happens. ’cause then, they have the prize and everything goes underground. And we are indeed on our way to becoming what Paul VI, in his misery, called, in 1978, an infinitesimally small part of humanity. Completely marginalized and pushed to the side and forgotten as a quaint group of people as interesting as Tibetan astrologers on a modern campus.
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“Malachi personally confirmed to me in 1997 that the "pope" who will lead the apostasy in the Church will be a Heretic and an Antipope.” – Father Paul Kramer, Facebook quote, May of 2016
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Father Malachi Martin Interview with Art Bell on 4 May 1998:
Martin: The prophecy of Fatima is not a pleasant document to read – not pleasant news. It implies – it doesn't make any sense unless we accept that there will be, or that there is in progress - a wholesale apostasy amongst clerics and laity in the Catholic Church, that the institutional organization of the Roman Catholic Church – that is, the organization of parishes, dioceses, archbishops and bishops and cardinals and the Roman bureaucracies and the chanceries throughout the world - unless that is totally disrupted and rendered null and void, the third secret makes no sense, and number two, the other salient characteristic about it is that it means intense suffering for believers.
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Father Malachi Martin Interview with Art Bell on 13 July 1998 (the very Anniversary of the Third Secret of Fatima):
Bell: Alright, here we go. Just a couple of things I want to quickly read. One from a friend in Australia, Father, who says, "I had a Jesuit priest tell me more of the third secret of Fatima years ago in Perth. He said, among other things, the last pope would be under control of Satan. Pope John fainted thinking it might be him. We were interrupted before I could hear the rest." Any comment on that?
Martin: Yes...uh...it sounds as if they were reading - or being told - the text of the third secret.
Bell: Oh my.
Martin: It sounds like it. But it's sufficiently vague to make one hesitate. It sounds like it.
Bell: Father, is there any circumstance under which you can imagine, that you would feel free to reveal the secret?
Martin: Yes. Yes. If there was a total collapse at the center.
Bell: And you anticipate that, don't you?
Martin: I anticipate it as a possibility, Art. I can't predict, but I anticipate it as a possibility, certainly, yes. I do.
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“In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church begins at the top.” - Cardinal Luigi Ciappi (Personal Theologian to Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II) from a 1995 personal letter to Professor Baumgartner of Salzburg, Austria; Father Gerard Mura, "The Third Secret of Fatima: Has It Been Completely Revealed?", the periodical Catholic, (published by the Transalpine Redemptorists, Orkney Isles, Scotland, Great Britain) March 2002
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"During the 'pre-Warning' period of great trial for the Church (and the world) an 'anti-pope' might also appear."
This was revealed to Conchita González by Our Lady on Thursday, 20 December 1962. "Conchita kept secret this prophetic allusion to the rule of an illegitimate and false-pope, or of an anti-pope and confided it only in 1965 to Mr. Albrecht Weber." - Jacques Serre et Béatrice Caux, Garabandal: Apparitions Prophetiques De Marie, Edición Francés, 4 décembre 1999, p. 156; Jacques Serre and Béatrice Caux, Garabandal: Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, English Edition, July 2001, p. 160, 255
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“I believe that there is a connection between that which is announced in the first part of the Secret, which concerns wars and sufferings which would be everywhere, and the second part which concerns the persecutions and a type of breakdown of the faith. Because where the ellipsis (the three dots, "…") was placed, it means "Here is the third part, which is not revealed" and then the conclusion "In Portugal the dogma of the faith will always be preserved etc." This suggests to me that there is a relationship between faith and the third part of the Secret. Therefore, it is something that relates to the Church. It is some kind of universal crisis which affects the whole Church and all of humanity.” - Father Jose dos Santos Valinho (nephew of Sr. Lucia); This public statement was made on 14 February 2003, broadcast on the program ENIGMA, which was transmitted prime time, nationwide on RAI, the National TV Network of Italy, The Fatima Crusader, Issue 74, p. 76
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On 25 October 2011, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the famous Roman exorcist who personally knew Padre Pio for 26 years, revealed what he learned from St. Padre Pio about the Third Secret of Fatima during the José María Zavala interview:
Zavala: “Forgive me for insisting on the Third Secret of Fatima: Did Padre Pio relate it, then, to the loss of faith within the Church?”
(Fr. Gabriele furrows his brow and sticks out his chin. He seems very affected.)
Amorth: “Indeed,” “One day Padre Pio said to me very sorrowfully: ‘You know, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time will come to rule a false Church.’”
Zavala: “Oh my God! Some kind of Antichrist! When did he prophesy this to you?”
Amorth: “It must have been about 1960, since I was already a priest then.”
Zavala: “Was that why John XXIII had such a panic about publishing the Third Secret of Fatima, so that the people wouldn’t think that he was the anti-pope or whatever it was …?”
(A slight but knowing smile curls the lips of Father Amorth.)
Zavala: “Did Padre Pio say anything else to you about future catastrophes: earthquakes, floods, wars, epidemics, hunger …? Did he allude to the same plagues prophesied in the Holy Scriptures?”
Amorth: “Nothing of the sort mattered to him, however terrifying they proved to be, except for the great apostasy within the Church. This was the issue that really tormented him and for which he prayed and offered a great part of his suffering, crucified out of love.”
Zavala: “The Third Secret of Fatima?”
Amorth: “Exactly.”
Zavala: “Is there any way to avoid something so terrible, Fr. Gabriele?”
Amorth: “There is hope, but it’s useless if it’s not accompanied by works. Let us begin by consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, let us recite the Holy Rosary, let us all do prayer and penance…” - José María Zavala, The Best Kept Secret of Fatima (El Sécreto Mejor Guardado de Fátima, 2017); OnePeterFive, Maike Hickson, 23 May 2017 and Steve Skojec, 21 April 2021
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On 26 October 2023, during a live YouTube broadcast, Father Elias Mary Mills, F.I. revealed that the Spiritual Director of Sister Agnes Sasagawa, Father Teiji Yasuda (1916 - 2013), mentioned a very unsettling revelation from Our Lady of Akita to Sr. Agnes. In a tape-recorded talk, Fr. Yasuda stated, "Like the first Judas, the last pope will sell Jesus to the enemy. Therefore, the era of the Antichrist-pope will soon come. [...] Therefore, we must properly defend our Faith. [...] At this time, the weapons left to us are the Rosary and the sign left by Her Holy Son." - Fr. Teiji Yasuda, Seibo Maria Zoh no Namida: Tehpu no Bunshuh (Kana no Mizukame), Yasuda Shinpu no Ohanashi [Holy Mother's Statue and its Tears: An Anthology of Tape-Recorded Preachings / Talks (The Cain's Water Jar), Fr. Teiji Yasuda, Narratives], 1 April 2003, p. 78-79; Live Breaking News From Akita and Seer Sr. Sasagawa! With Fr. Elias Mary
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"The greatest mark of God's wrath upon His people, and the most terrible chastisement that He can inflict upon them in this world are manifested when (as punishment) He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds, and who, instead of feeding those committed to their care, they tear and devour them cruelly; instead of leading their people to God, sell them to Satan; instead of leading them to Heaven, drag them with them to hell; and instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, they are its poison and its darkness."
- St. John Eudes † (1601-1680), Saint Jean Eudes, Œuvres complètes, Tome 3, Première Partie: Les qualités et excellences d'un bon Pasteur et d'un saint Prêtre, pdf p. 44-45
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"The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts so new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarrez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatise from the faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism.” “Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church." - Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, p. 88-90, p. 79
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Act bravely, my Brethren; take courage, and trust in the Lord. The time is fast approaching in which there will be great trials and afflictions; perplexities and dissensions, both spiritual and temporal, will abound; the charity of many will grow cold, and the malice of the wicked will increase.
The devils will have unusual power, the immaculate purity of our Order, and of others, will be so much obscured that there will be very few Christians who will obey the true Sovereign Pontiff and the Roman Church with loyal hearts and perfect charity. At the time of this tribulation a man, not canonically elected, will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavour to draw many into error and death.
Then scandals will be multiplied, our Order will be divided, and many others will be entirely destroyed, because they will consent to error instead of opposing it
There will be such diversity of opinions and schisms among the people, the religious and the clergy, that, except those days were shortened, according to the words of the Gospel, even the elect would be led into error, were they not specially guided, amid such great confusion, by the immense mercy of God.
Then our Rule and manner of life will be violently opposed by some, and terrible trials will come upon us. Those who are found faithful will receive the crown of life; but woe to those who, trusting solely in their Order, shall fall into tepidity, for they will not be able to support the temptations permitted for the proving of the elect.
Those who preserve their fervour and adhere to virtue with love and zeal for the truth, will suffer injuries and, persecutions as rebels and schismatics; for their persecutors, urged on by the evil spirits, will say they are rendering a great service to God by destroying such pestilent men from the face of the earth. But the Lord will be the refuge of the afflicted, and will save all who trust in Him. And in order to be like their Head [Jesus Christ], these, the elect, will act with confidence, and by their death will purchase for themselves eternal life; choosing to obey God rather than man, they will fear nothing, and they will prefer to perish [physically] rather than consent to falsehood and perfidy.
Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor, but a destroyer. - Works of the Seraphic Father St. Francis Of Assisi [London: R. Washbourne, 1882], p. 248-250
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"These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered." - Pope Leo XIII, Motu Proprio, 25 September 1888, "The Prayer to St. Michael", The Raccolta, 1910 Edition, #292, p. 264, pdf p. 272
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"The Papacy will be attacked by all the powers of hell. In consequence the Church will suffer great trials and afflictions in securing a successor upon the throne of Peter…. It is a matter of history that the most disastrous periods for the Church were times when the Papal throne was vacant, or when anti-popes contended with the legitimate head of the Church. Thus also shall it be in those evil days to come." - Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, The Apocalypse of St. John, 1921, p. 120-128
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"The False Prophet will be endowed with satanic powers to deceive the nations. He will probably set himself up in Rome as a sort of antipope during the vacancy of the papal throne." - Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, The Apocalypse of St. John, 1921, p. 135
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"The prophecies of the Apocalypse show that Satan will imitate the Church of Christ to deceive mankind; he will set up a church of Satan in opposition to the Church of Christ. Antichrist will assume the role of Messiahs; his prophet will act the part of Pope; and there will be imitations of the Sacraments of the Church. There will also be lying wonders in imitation of the miracles wrought in the Church." - Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, The Church of Christ: An Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise, 1927, p. 119
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“I cannot reveal anything about what I have learned at Fatima about the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts: the one concerns the Pope. The other, logically - although I should say nothing - should be the continuation of the words: 'In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.'” - Father Joseph Schweigl, 2 September 1952 (Pope Pius XII sent him to interrogate Sr. Lucia); Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima: The Third Secret, Vol. III, p. 710, p. 337-338
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“It is therefore completely probable that the text [Third Secret of Fatima] makes concrete references to the crisis of faith within the Church and to the negligence of the pastors themselves [and the] internal struggles in the very bosom of the Church and of grave pastoral negligence of the upper hierarchy …
“In the period preceding the great triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, terrible things are to happen. These form the content of the third part of the Secret. What are they? If ‘in Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,’ … it can be clearly deduced from this that in other parts of the Church these dogmas are going to become obscure or even lost altogether. …
“Does the unpublished text speak of concrete circumstances? It is very possible that it speaks not only of a real crisis of the faith in the Church during this in-between period, but like the secret of La Salette, for example, there are more concrete references to the internal struggles of Catholics or to the fall of priests and religious. Perhaps it even refers to the failures of the upper hierarchy of the Church. For that matter, none of this is foreign to other communications Sister Lucia has had on this subject. ...
“Pope John XXIII declared that the text did not refer to his pontificate ... And the following popes did not consider that the moment had come to lift the veil of mystery, in circumstances where the Church has still not overcome the frightening impact of twenty post-conciliar years, during which the crisis of the Faith has installed itself at every level.” - Father Joaquin Alonso (Official Archivist at Fatima); La Verdad sobre el Secreto de Fatima, 1976. See also Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima - Vol. III, p. 687, 704-705. See also De nuevo el Secreto de Fatima 1982 Ephemerides mariologicae p. 93
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“What I dreamt I really hope never comes to pass, it is too painful and I hope that the Lord will not allow the Pope to deny every article of faith and then take the place of God. How much pain I felt throughout the night, even my legs became paralysed and I could no longer move because of the pain I felt in seeing the Church reduced to a pile of rubble.” - Bruno Cornacchiola, 27 March 1977, Saverio Gaeta, Il veggente. Il segreto delle Tre Fontane, Salani editore, Milano, 2016, Capitolo 3 Il Messaggio, Capitolo 11 Il Futuro
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"The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church." - Pope Paul VI, 13 October 1977 in a formal address marking the 60th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun as quoted in the Milan-based daily Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, p. 7 of its issue dated 14 October 1977
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11 November 1984 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger affirmed that the Third Secret concerns, "a radical call for conversion; the absolute importance of history; the dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian, and therefore of the world. And then the importance of the ‘novissimi’ (the last events at the end of time). If it is not made public — at least for the time being — it is in order to prevent religious prophecy from being mistaken for a quest for the sensational (literally: ‘for sensationalism’). But the things contained in this ‘Third Secret’ correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and has been said again and again in many other Marian apparitions" - Ecco perche la fede e in crisi in the review, Jesus, p. 79
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"The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against the apostasy in the Church.” “I would not be surprised if the Third Secret alluded to dark times for the Church: grave confusions and troubling apostasies within Catholicism itself...If we consider the grave crisis we have lived through since the Council, the signs that this prophecy has been fulfilled do not seem to be lacking...” - Cardinal Silvio Oddi, to Italian journalist Lucio Brunelli in the journal Il Sabato, Rome, 17 March 1990
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In conclusion to his study of the Third Secret, Frère Michel sums up his findings as follows:
“Having reached the end of our inquiry, we are able to discern, with near certainty, the essential elements of Our Lady’s final secret: While ‘in Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,’ in many nations, perhaps in almost the entire world, the Faith will be lost. The pastors of the Church will fail gravely in the duties of their office. Through their fault, consecrated souls and the Faithful in great number will let themselves be seduced by pernicious errors spread everywhere. This will be the time of the decisive battle between the Blessed Virgin and the devil. A wave of diabolical disorientation will be hurled over the world. Satan will introduce himself even to the highest summit of the Church. He will blind the minds and harden the hearts of pastors. And God will deliver them to themselves as a chastisement for their refusal to obey the requests of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This will be the great apostasy predicted for the ‘last times’; ‘the False Lamb’ and ‘False Prophet’ will betray the Church to the profit of ‘the Beast,’ according to the prophecy of the Apocalypse.” – Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima: The Third Secret, 1990, Vol. III, Conclusion, p. 576
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"Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. - Catechism of the Catholic Church,1992, Paragraph #675 - The Church's ultimate trial
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"We're facing — what we may have to face, finally — the False Pope." - Fr. Malachi Martin, Detroit, Michigan circa 1989, November 1992?
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Father Malachi Martin (reader of the Third Secret of Fatima) Interview with Bernard Janzen 1992:
Janzen: In our discussion earlier you just touched on the subject of Satan's assault on the papacy. Perhaps we could have a brief discussion about that.
Martin: [...] what I think is fatally necessary for every Catholic to know, and that is the fate of the papacy and the coming stress and danger that we shall be without the strength of the papacy.
Bernard: Is it ever possible that the cardinals at a future conclave could elect a heretical pope?
Martin: [brief pause over the sensitive nature of the question] You know…they have elected men in the past who had heretical ideas. Two or three. They have never elected yet an apostate – an apostate. […] An apostate has rebelled against the very fundamental of faith and rejected God and Christ. We have apostates now who are papabili [men who could be elected pope]. Yes, we could have an apostate. But in that day, then we are into something terrible. We’re into something which, Bernard, is something that, if you think on it, in full knowledge of the meaning of your terms, is nightmarish. It would test the faith of St. Catherine of Sienna. It would test the faith of the greatest saint. It would try the patience of Job. It would be a black day; a day on which you can clothe every window in black and put out the lights and dress in sackcloth & ashes and pray that you're spared because your faith is going to be battered to pieces...if that happens. ’cause then, they have the prize and everything goes underground. And we are indeed on our way to becoming what Paul VI, in his misery, called, in 1978, an infinitesimally small part of humanity. Completely marginalized and pushed to the side and forgotten as a quaint group of people as interesting as Tibetan astrologers on a modern campus.
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“Malachi personally confirmed to me in 1997 that the "pope" who will lead the apostasy in the Church will be a Heretic and an Antipope.” – Father Paul Kramer, Facebook quote, May of 2016
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Father Malachi Martin Interview with Art Bell on 4 May 1998:
Martin: The prophecy of Fatima is not a pleasant document to read – not pleasant news. It implies – it doesn't make any sense unless we accept that there will be, or that there is in progress - a wholesale apostasy amongst clerics and laity in the Catholic Church, that the institutional organization of the Roman Catholic Church – that is, the organization of parishes, dioceses, archbishops and bishops and cardinals and the Roman bureaucracies and the chanceries throughout the world - unless that is totally disrupted and rendered null and void, the third secret makes no sense, and number two, the other salient characteristic about it is that it means intense suffering for believers.
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Father Malachi Martin Interview with Art Bell on 13 July 1998 (the very Anniversary of the Third Secret of Fatima):
Bell: Alright, here we go. Just a couple of things I want to quickly read. One from a friend in Australia, Father, who says, "I had a Jesuit priest tell me more of the third secret of Fatima years ago in Perth. He said, among other things, the last pope would be under control of Satan. Pope John fainted thinking it might be him. We were interrupted before I could hear the rest." Any comment on that?
Martin: Yes...uh...it sounds as if they were reading - or being told - the text of the third secret.
Bell: Oh my.
Martin: It sounds like it. But it's sufficiently vague to make one hesitate. It sounds like it.
Bell: Father, is there any circumstance under which you can imagine, that you would feel free to reveal the secret?
Martin: Yes. Yes. If there was a total collapse at the center.
Bell: And you anticipate that, don't you?
Martin: I anticipate it as a possibility, Art. I can't predict, but I anticipate it as a possibility, certainly, yes. I do.
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“In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church begins at the top.” - Cardinal Luigi Ciappi (Personal Theologian to Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II) from a 1995 personal letter to Professor Baumgartner of Salzburg, Austria; Father Gerard Mura, "The Third Secret of Fatima: Has It Been Completely Revealed?", the periodical Catholic, (published by the Transalpine Redemptorists, Orkney Isles, Scotland, Great Britain) March 2002
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"During the 'pre-Warning' period of great trial for the Church (and the world) an 'anti-pope' might also appear."
This was revealed to Conchita González by Our Lady on Thursday, 20 December 1962. "Conchita kept secret this prophetic allusion to the rule of an illegitimate and false-pope, or of an anti-pope and confided it only in 1965 to Mr. Albrecht Weber." - Jacques Serre et Béatrice Caux, Garabandal: Apparitions Prophetiques De Marie, Edición Francés, 4 décembre 1999, p. 156; Jacques Serre and Béatrice Caux, Garabandal: Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, English Edition, July 2001, p. 160, 255
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“I believe that there is a connection between that which is announced in the first part of the Secret, which concerns wars and sufferings which would be everywhere, and the second part which concerns the persecutions and a type of breakdown of the faith. Because where the ellipsis (the three dots, "…") was placed, it means "Here is the third part, which is not revealed" and then the conclusion "In Portugal the dogma of the faith will always be preserved etc." This suggests to me that there is a relationship between faith and the third part of the Secret. Therefore, it is something that relates to the Church. It is some kind of universal crisis which affects the whole Church and all of humanity.” - Father Jose dos Santos Valinho (nephew of Sr. Lucia); This public statement was made on 14 February 2003, broadcast on the program ENIGMA, which was transmitted prime time, nationwide on RAI, the National TV Network of Italy, The Fatima Crusader, Issue 74, p. 76
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On 25 October 2011, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the famous Roman exorcist who personally knew Padre Pio for 26 years, revealed what he learned from St. Padre Pio about the Third Secret of Fatima during the José María Zavala interview:
Zavala: “Forgive me for insisting on the Third Secret of Fatima: Did Padre Pio relate it, then, to the loss of faith within the Church?”
(Fr. Gabriele furrows his brow and sticks out his chin. He seems very affected.)
Amorth: “Indeed,” “One day Padre Pio said to me very sorrowfully: ‘You know, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time will come to rule a false Church.’”
Zavala: “Oh my God! Some kind of Antichrist! When did he prophesy this to you?”
Amorth: “It must have been about 1960, since I was already a priest then.”
Zavala: “Was that why John XXIII had such a panic about publishing the Third Secret of Fatima, so that the people wouldn’t think that he was the anti-pope or whatever it was …?”
(A slight but knowing smile curls the lips of Father Amorth.)
Zavala: “Did Padre Pio say anything else to you about future catastrophes: earthquakes, floods, wars, epidemics, hunger …? Did he allude to the same plagues prophesied in the Holy Scriptures?”
Amorth: “Nothing of the sort mattered to him, however terrifying they proved to be, except for the great apostasy within the Church. This was the issue that really tormented him and for which he prayed and offered a great part of his suffering, crucified out of love.”
Zavala: “The Third Secret of Fatima?”
Amorth: “Exactly.”
Zavala: “Is there any way to avoid something so terrible, Fr. Gabriele?”
Amorth: “There is hope, but it’s useless if it’s not accompanied by works. Let us begin by consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, let us recite the Holy Rosary, let us all do prayer and penance…” - José María Zavala, The Best Kept Secret of Fatima (El Sécreto Mejor Guardado de Fátima, 2017); OnePeterFive, Maike Hickson, 23 May 2017 and Steve Skojec, 21 April 2021
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On 26 October 2023, during a live YouTube broadcast, Father Elias Mary Mills, F.I. revealed that the Spiritual Director of Sister Agnes Sasagawa, Father Teiji Yasuda (1916 - 2013), mentioned a very unsettling revelation from Our Lady of Akita to Sr. Agnes. In a tape-recorded talk, Fr. Yasuda stated, "Like the first Judas, the last pope will sell Jesus to the enemy. Therefore, the era of the Antichrist-pope will soon come. [...] Therefore, we must properly defend our Faith. [...] At this time, the weapons left to us are the Rosary and the sign left by Her Holy Son." - Fr. Teiji Yasuda, Seibo Maria Zoh no Namida: Tehpu no Bunshuh (Kana no Mizukame), Yasuda Shinpu no Ohanashi [Holy Mother's Statue and its Tears: An Anthology of Tape-Recorded Preachings / Talks (The Cain's Water Jar), Fr. Teiji Yasuda, Narratives], 1 April 2003, p. 78-79; Live Breaking News From Akita and Seer Sr. Sasagawa! With Fr. Elias Mary
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"The greatest mark of God's wrath upon His people, and the most terrible chastisement that He can inflict upon them in this world are manifested when (as punishment) He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds, and who, instead of feeding those committed to their care, they tear and devour them cruelly; instead of leading their people to God, sell them to Satan; instead of leading them to Heaven, drag them with them to hell; and instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, they are its poison and its darkness."
- St. John Eudes † (1601-1680), Saint Jean Eudes, Œuvres complètes, Tome 3, Première Partie: Les qualités et excellences d'un bon Pasteur et d'un saint Prêtre, pdf p. 44-45
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