In 1960, the Holy See imposed some very strict conditions of isolation on Sister Lucy, the very same year that the Third Secret was to be revealed to the world… and wasn’t.
From 1960 up until the time of her death in 2005, Sister Lucy had been forbidden to speak about Fatima without direct permission from the Holy See. For 45 years, she had not been allowed to share the truth about Fatima (except for that part of the Fatima Message that had been already published before 1960). The full message delivered by Our Lady, a message of warning and of hope for the entire world, has been to this very day hidden from mankind.
Yet on several occasions, Sister Lucy seemed to indicate what the third part of the Secret contained. In these statements, Sister Lucy speaks of the devil gaining power over some priests and bishops and other consecrated souls. She speaks of the diabolic disorientation infecting the upper hierarchy. These were truly explosive revelations!
In her 1957 conversation with Father Fuentes, her last public interview that was not pre-approved by the Vatican, Sister Lucy said:
“The devil is about to wage a decisive battle with the Blessed Virgin, as he knows what it is that offends God the most, and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way he will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them.”
More than a decade later, Sister Lucy denounced the progressivist forces in the Church seeking to downplay and suppress the Rosary.
“This campaign is diabolical,” she wrote in 1969 to one of her priest-nephews, “do not let yourself be deceived.” This is from the 1973 book A Little Treatise on the Nature and Recitation of the Rosary containing excerpts from letters of Sister Lucy written during 1969-1971.
In these letters, she also had strong words about the leadership in the Church following Vatican II. She wrote in 1970 to Mother Martins, a former companion with the Dorothean Sisters:
“It is painful to see such a great disorientation in so many who occupy places of responsibility… the devil has succeeded in infiltrating evil under cover of good, and the blind are beginning to guide others, as the Lord tells us in His Gospel, and souls are letting themselves be deceived.”
It is noteworthy that in 1957, Sister Lucy said the devil was about to wage a decisive battle. By 1971, she says the devil has begun to succeed.
“Gladly,” Sister Lucy continued, “I sacrifice myself and offer my life to God for peace in His Church, for priests and for all consecrated souls, especially for those who are so deceived and misled… he (the devil) has succeeded in leading into error and deceiving souls having a heavy responsibility through the place which they occupy… They are blind men guiding other blind men.”
In 1960, Our Lady’s messenger found herself forced to keep to a rigorous silence about Heaven’s demands, which were addressed to the hierarchy but which were cast aside by them.
Perhaps it is because Sister Lucy spoke too clearly that she had been silenced.