Third Secret “Commentary” Raises Concerns Over “Whitewash”
June 21, 2000, FORT ERIE, ONTARIO: After repeated delays, the Vatican Press Office has officially announced that the Third Secret of Fatima will be published on June 26, 2000 at a press conference to be held at 11:30 a.m. in the John Paul II Hall of the Press Office.
The announcement came unexpectedly, after an article in La Repubblica on June 15 indicated that a commission presided over by Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), had met that day and failed to agree on either a date for publication or the contents of the accompanying “commentary,” and that publication would not occur until the end of June or perhaps July.
Now it is announced that the Third Secret will be published as part of a 40-page booklet which will include a photographic reproduction of Sister Lucia’s original handwritten text of the Secret, consisting of 25 lines. The remainder of the booklet will apparently be devoted to 12 pages of commentary by Cardinal Ratzinger, and approximately 26 pages of “historical context” prepared under the direction of Monsignor Bertone, the CDF’s Secretary.
“The Vatican’s announcement that the Third Secret will be published in its authentic handwritten original is wonderful news, and a great blessing for the Church,” said Father Nicholas Gruner, head of the Fatima Center, an international organization dedicated to promoting the Message of Fatima in its entirety, including the Third Secret.
Regarding the commentary, Father Gruner added: “We are grateful for publication of the Secret at last, but why do we need 12 pages of commentary from Cardinal Ratzinger and some 26 pages of ‘historical context’ for a mere 25 handwritten lines? Our Lady of Fatima came to earth to speak to all the Faithful in simple language conveyed to three shepherd children, ages 7, 9 and 10. The first two parts of the Message of Fatima are crystal clear to any layman. Our Lady’s words in the Third Secret ought not to require advanced commentary in order to be understood. The Third Secret should speak for itself, like the first two Secrets.”
Father Paul Kramer, another priest who works at the Fatima Center, noted that on June 27 the Vatican will stage a press conference devoted to the publication of the memoirs of the late Cardinal Casaroli, entitled “The Martyrdom of Patience: 1963 to 1989.” Casaroli, as Vatican Secretary of State, was the architect of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik (otherwise known as the Vatican-Moscow Agreement), the longstanding Vatican policy of non-condemnation of Soviet Communism. The June 27 press conference will be attended by Mikhail Gorbachev.
Father Kramer added that “The timing of the June 27 press conference, only one day after publication of the Third Secret, raises concern that the current apparatus of the Vatican Secretary of State may be attempting to convey the message that Casaroli’s Ostpolitik, which constrained the Church to silence in the face of Communist persecution of Catholics, was a great success which brought about the ‘fall’ of communism, and that this is the great fulfillment of the Fatima Message.”
Father Kramer continued: “It would be outrageous if the Vatican, only one day after publishing Our Lady’s words in the Third Secret, would so closely link those words in time with the honoring of Mikhail Gorbachev as the Vatican’s guest. Gorbachev’s globalist, one-world foundation is promoting massive reduction of the world’s population through contraception and abortion, and Gorbachev recently declared that he is still a Leninist. Everything Gorbachev stands for is contrary to the Catholic Faith and a gross insult to the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
Father Gruner expressed concern that Ratzinger’s commentary and the ‘historical context’ which will accompany publication of the Third Secret “may be designed, along with the Gorbachev press conference, to persuade the world that Fatima is finished, that Russia converted with the so-called ‘fall’ of communism, and that the Third Secret is now a thing of the past. If that is the case, then what we may see on Monday is a great whitewashing of the Fatima Message. Let us hope this does not happen and that the commentary is faithful to the actual words of the Third Secret.”
Father Gruner stated that after careful consideration, the Fatima Center will comment on both the Secret and the accompanying commentary.
Father Gruner concluded: “We at the Fatima Center express our thanks to the Holy Father for his courage and perseverance in seeing to it that Our Lady’s actual words, as written down by Sister Lucia in 1944, are photographically reproduced and provided to the Faithful for study and contemplation. His Holiness has given a great gift to the Church.”