Cardinal Ratzinger (November 11, 1984)

Published Testimony:

On November 11, 1984, Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave an interview in Jesus magazine, a publication of the Pauline Sisters. The interview is entitled “Here is Why the Faith is in Crisis,” and was published with the Cardinal’s explicit permission. In this interview, Cardinal Ratzinger revealed that he had read the Third Secret and that the Secret refers to “dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world.”

Cardinal Ratzinger said in the same interview that the Secret also refers to “the importance of the Novissimi [the Last Times / the Last Things]” and that “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…” The Cardinal further revealed that “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, first of all that of Fatima…”

 

Photo of Original Italian Extract from “Jesus” Magazine

Above is a photographic reproduction of the key part of Cardinal Ratzinger’s interview as it has been approved by His Eminence in the first days of October and published in the November 11, 1984 issue of Jesus magazine, concerning the Third Secret. The original Italian text reported above was photographically reproduced and published in The Fatima Crusader, Issue 37, Summer 1991. The English translation appearing below was published in The Fatima Crusader, Issue 18, October-December 1985 and in The Fatima Crusader, Issue 37, Summer 1991 (with a circulation of 1,000,000) — it has never been challenged by anyone.

Following is the interview as it has been approved by His Eminence Cardinal Ratzinger in the first days of October:

 

One of the four sections of the Congregation (for the Doctrine of the Faith) concerns itself with Marian apparitions;

“Cardinal Ratzinger, have you read what is called the Third Secret of Fatima: i.e., the one that Sister Lucia had sent to Pope John XXIII and which the latter did not wish to make known and consigned to the Vatican archives?” (In reply, Cardinal Ratzinger said:)

“Yes, I have read it,” (which frank response provoked a further question:)

“Why has it not been revealed?” (To this the Cardinal gave the following most instructive reply:)

“Because, according to the judgement of the Popes, it adds nothing (literally: ‘nothing different’) to what a Christian must know concerning what derives from Revelation: i.e., 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, first of all that of Fatima in what is already known of what its message contains. Conversion and penitence are the essential conditions for ‘salvation’.”

In the portion of the text of the interview shown above, the Cardinal says that the Third Secret contains “religious prophecy” which cannot be revealed “to prevent [its] being mistaken for a quest for the sensational”. Yet on June 26, 2000, the same Cardinal Ratzinger says that the Third Secret refers only to events which had already happened (culminating in the attempted assassination of the Pope in 1981) and contains no prophecy concerning the future. What has happened to make Cardinal Ratzinger change his prior testimony? Why does he suggest on June 26, 2000 that the Third Secret could be the result of Sister Lucy’s imagination alone? Does he really believe in the Message of Fatima? If not, can his personal interpretation of the Message of Fatima be trusted?

In June 1985, the November 1984 interview in Jesus magazine was published in a book entitled The Ratzinger Report. Key references in the interview concerning the contents of the Third Secret had been mysteriously deleted from the book. The book was published in English, French, German and Italian and reached over 1,000,000 copies in print. Although the revelations concerning the Third Secret had been censored, the book admitted that the crisis of Faith which Father Alonso tells us is predicted in the Third Secret is already upon us, and that it encompasses the whole world.1

For more information on the Third Secret themes Cardinal Ratzinger alluded to in this interview, see the article “The Real Third Secret“.

 

Notes:

1. Father Paul Kramer, ed., The Devil’s Final Battle, (The Missionary Association, Terryville, Connecticut, 2002) pp. 33, 274-275. See Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima — Volume III: The Third Secret, (Immaculate Heart Publication, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A., 1990) pp. 822-823. See also The Fatima Crusader, Issue 37, Summer 1991, p.7.