Today, on the Feast of St. Anthony, we also commemorate the 94th Anniversary of the “Apparition at Tuy,” which in many ways can be considered the climactic revelation and summary of the Message of Fatima. (You can read the details of this apparition HERE.)
Fr. Karl Stehlin also presents a compelling case that Our Lady’s second visit to Fatima, on June 13, 1917, was the most important of Her visits. It was on this day that She revealed Her Immaculate Heart, which is the “essence” of the Message of Fatima and the only solution for our times. In revealing Her Heart to men, Our Lady reveals that which God Himself, the Blessed Trinity, holds most dear! This is a mystery upon which one must meditate deeply. (Watch Fr. Stehlin’s video: When Our Lady Shows Us Her Immaculate Heart, or listen to the podcast.)
AN IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARY
On June 13, 1929, Sister Lucia dos Santos was given a mystical vision which can also serve as a profound catechesis on the saving Catholic Faith. The Mysteries of the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, the Cross, our Redemption, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacred Host and the Precious Blood, Our Blessed Mother and Her intercessory role, divine grace and mercy: all of these hold a prominent role in this heavenly apparition.
Yet perhaps what we remember most from this event, is that this is when Our Lady told Sister Lucia:
“The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.”
Our Lady had already mentioned this consecration at Fatima, as part of Her ‘Secret’ on July 13, 1917. However, She indicated that She would return at a future date to actually request the consecration. June 13, 1929 was that day.[1]
We do well to consider why this particular day was chosen. We surely won’t penetrate the inscrutable wisdom of God’s ways, but I believe the following three points form part of the reason. Please feel free to add other reasons you might consider in the comment section below.
ERRORS OF RUSSIA
First, by June 1929, the Pope and the world had seen enough of atheistic communism in Russia to know how terrible it would be if these errors were to spread throughout the world. On April 16, 1929, Stalin’s first “Five Year Plan” was put into effect. On May 22, 1929 Russia’s constitution was modified so that all “religious propaganda” was declared illegal.
Sunday worship was subsequently abolished. Millions had already been deported to concentration camps, the Catholic Church had been outlawed, divorce and abortion had been embraced, and the world knew there was a reign of terror against anyone deemed an “enemy of the state.” Communism was also on the verge of breaking out in many European nations, as the bloody and anti-Catholic Spanish Revolution was about to prove to the world.
LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Second, June 13th was the anniversary of Our Lady’s second apparition at Fatima. In addition, in 1929 it fell on a Thursday, which is a day traditionally reserved to honor, and make reparation to, Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament. The Message of Fatima places a great emphasis on Eucharistic Reparation, and “indifferences, sacrileges and outrages” against Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament are clearly great sins of our age. (The articles we just posted for the Feast of Corpus Christi explain this in greater detail.)
And who can forget that June 13th is the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, a native son of Portugal? He was also a Franciscan friar[2] who worked many great miracles, especially in fighting heretics who denied dogmas of the faith, especially in regards to the Holy Eucharist. As a Doctor of the Church, St. Anthony reminds us of how important it is to hold fast to the infallible teachings of Holy Mother Church. And we always pray to St. Anthony when we have lost something. Yet at present, the Church has lost many priceless treasures – such as dogmas of the Faith, Our Lord’s Real Presence in many sanctuaries, reverence for Our Lord, fear of the Lord, devotion to Our Lady and love of Her Rosary, purity and modesty, and the list goes on. Granted, these have not been lost everywhere, but they have been lost in many places.
CHRIST IS KING – DENIED IN PRACTICE BY THE LATERAN TREATY
Third, and most importantly (in my opinion), the Lateran Treaty had become effective on June 7, 1929. Less than one week after this monumental document became law, a document in which the Pope effectively conceded that he did not have any real temporal authority (excepting the world’s tiniest and newest nation, the Vatican City State), Heaven requested that the Pope consecrate Russia.
Yet everyone knows that a person can only consecrate something over which he has authority. A bishop can consecrate his diocese but not another. A president and parliament might consecrate their nation, but not some other. A father may consecrate his family, but not his neighbor’s. So if the Pope were to publicly consecrate Russia it would be a definitive and explicit profession that he has authority over Russia. If in the post-Lateran Treaty era[3], the Pope still has authority over Russia, the largest nation on earth and the nation most opposed to God on account of its atheistic and materialistic ideology; then logically the Pope also has authority over every other nation.
This is, in fact, true Catholic doctrine. Christ is not just the King over spiritual or religious matters, but He must reign in temporal matters as well.[4] He must rule every nation, every civil and social organization, and every private home and heart. The Pope is the Vicar of Christ and therefore exercises this power in Our Lord’s Name.
However, by accepting the terms of the Lateran Treaty – which had been rejected by Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, and Benedict XV – Pius XI was conceding the revolutionary error that the Pope’s temporal power was severely limited, even non-existent. Most people today, even Catholics, accept this false premise as a normal way of life.[5]
And what was God’s answer to this grave papal error? Within less than a week, He provided a powerful mystical vision to Sister Lucia which encompasses all aspects of Catholic dogma, and commanded that NOW was the time for Russia to be consecrated and the Pope, as Christ’s Vicar, to acknowledge that he has all temporal and spiritual power.[6]
PAPAL AFTERMATH
The Popes’ refusal to obey Our Lady and consecrate Russia must necessarily have dramatic and cataclysmic effects. One such consequence is that, over the subsequent decades, the Popes increasingly “forgot” or neglected their authentic role as Vicar of Christ. Certainly the Popes of the past fifty years have not exercised papal authority as their predecessors. They no longer anathematize heresy. They no longer endorse the concept of a confessional Catholic state. They do not exercise their power so as to defend all the rights of God. Instead, they embrace and promote ecumenism, collegiality, dialogue, and religious indifferentism. At this late stage, we have even seen the Bishop of Rome support paganism, idol worship, unnatural vice, environmentalism, sacrilegious Communion, the National ‘Catholic’ State Church in China, and nearly every platform of the globalist agenda. Today, it is not unreasonable to ask, “Do the modern Popes truly understand, in light of Catholic Tradition, what it means to be the Pope and Vicar of Christ?”
The Papal Office lies at the very heart of the Fatima Message. An aspect of the grace which Our Lady of Fatima means to bring is to help the Pope “remember” who Christ has called him to be; that the Pope may think, speak and act as the true Vicar of Christ. For at its very root, the crisis in the Church today is a papal crisis. Perhaps this is why in the Vision of the Third Secret, the children beheld:
“… [we saw] something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it, a Bishop dressed in White. We had the impression that it was the Holy Father.” [my emphasis]
Our Lady of Fatima prophesied that the Pope would have to suffer greatly. I do not believe this only refers to the suffering that individual Popes will have to endure, including martyrdom as was shown in the Third Secret, but I believe it also refers to how the Papal Office itself will suffer greatly. Naturally the Church will therefore also have to suffer greatly.
Yet once Russia is properly consecrated to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart and Catholics faithfully practice the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays, then God – through Our Lady – will grant the whole world the grace to acknowledge Christ as King of kings and the Pope as His Vicar upon earth. This will happen when Her Immaculate Heart triumphantly reigns. The Sacred Heart of Her Son – and His Vicar – will likewise then also reign, for these Two Hearts are mystically One. It is only thereby that the world will experience the promised period of peace.
[1] All Catholics should bear this date in mind, especially in light of Our Lord’s warning to Sister Lucia at Rianjo in August of 1931. He warned: “Make it known to My ministers, given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My command, they will follow him into misfortune.” (Read more details about that apparition here.)
Our Lord was referencing His request to the kings of France, through St. Mary Margaret Alacoque, that they take specific actions to foster devotion to the Sacred Heart. This is quite similar, although apparently smaller in scope, to Heaven’s request at Fatima that there should be a worldwide devotion to the Immaculate Heart.
Our Lord made this request on June 17, 1689. It was exactly one-hundred years later, on June 17, 1789 (Feast of the Sacred Heart) that France’s Third Estate rose up and declared itself a National Assembly, stripping the king of much of his authority. This was the onset of the French Revolution, which the secret societies incited in order to destroy Altar and Throne. They wished to destroy all vestiges of law and order upheld by Christendom to create a new order from the ashes of their destruction in which they would be the masters. They did so under the justifying cover of their slogan: “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” Yet, they gave each of these platitudes a diabolical meaning which runs contrary to the right order established by God.
History books often tout “Bastille Day” (July 14, 1789) as the start of the French Revolution, but by then the revolutionary forces had already been set well into motion. On that day, a rioting mob of violent protestors stormed the bastille prison, overran the French police, and freed the inmates. Does this sound eerily familiar? Patterns in history do tend to repeat themselves.
Several years later, on January 21, 1793, the French executed their king by guillotine! This regicide was unheard of in Christian Europe. It also bears an eerie resemblance to the execution of a Pope in the Vision of the Third Secret.
The fires and ideology of the French Revolution then spread all over Europe and America in the 19th century, always through violent means. Today the entire world accepts the spirit of the French Revolution.
And it was in the wake of the French Revolution that atheistic communism was born. In truth, the ‘Red Revolution’ which caused so much death and destruction in the 20th century is but a continuation and intensification of the French Revolution. It appears clear to me that we have now entered the next level of escalation in this “Satanic Revolution from the Depths of Hell.”
Thus, all faithful Catholics might be well served by preparing themselves well, especially spiritually, for June 13, 2029. If Russia is not consecrated by then, it will be exactly one-hundred years of disobedience by the Popes, akin to the 100 years of disobedience by the French kings. In such an event, I shudder to think of what evil may then be unleashed upon our unrepentant world which has so adamantly rejected God…
[2] Those familiar with Our Lady of Buen Suceso (Quito, Ecuador – early 1600s) will also note another prophetic connection with the Franciscans. Our Lady appeared to Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres and left her miraculous life-like statue in a convent dedicated to Her Immaculate Conception. The convent was under the guidance of Franciscans. Great spiritual sufferings and evils began once the convent was transferred out of the Franciscans’ care to the diocesan bishop.
Yet Our Lady promised that Her convent and statue would endure until the end of time. She predicted that terrible evils would begin around the middle of the 20th century. She indicated that one of the signs that the Catholic restoration would begin was when this convent in Quito would be transferred back to the care of the Franciscans, who would surely be led by holy friars, perhaps even the “great prelate” of Our Lady’s prophecies to Mother Mariana.
[3] The Pope’s universally acknowledged temporal power stretches back to the time of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne (800 AD) and of his father, Pepin the Short, who created the Papal States in 756 AD. However, papal temporal authority has been a political reality since the time of Constantine’s Edict of Milan (313 AD) when Catholicism was made legal, and Emperor Theodosius’ Edict of Thessalonica (381 AD), when Catholicism became the official religion of the Empire. Thus, the Lateran Treaty of 1929 was literally going against over 1600 years of tradition.
[4] The reader is directed to Quas Primas (1925), Pius XI’s encyclical on this topic and perhaps the most important 20th century Church document on Christ the King. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
[5] I have taught several history classes, and my favorite course to teach is Church History. At the start of this course, I ask students to keep in mind several major themes which span the Church’s entire life. One of those major themes is how men and societies have struggled over the centuries to correctly live the proper balance between Church and State. (Some historians refer to this as “the Battle” between Church and State.)
Catholic teaching has clarified this matter. Church and State are meant to work together for the good of man, each having its proper sphere of authority; yet in this delicate balance the Church must remain above the State, just as the supernatural order is above the natural order, and man’s soul is far more important than his body. (Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical on the Christian constitution of states, Immortale Dei (1885), provides a sound presentation on this topic.)
Sadly, since the Protestant Revolution, the State has gained ascendancy over the Church. The State’s clear supremacy over the Church became a hallmark of the French Revolution and is enshrined in such concepts as “separation of Church and State.” With the atheistic communist revolutions of the 20th century, even the thin veneer of that false façade was jettisoned and it is now openly trumpeted that the State has every right to control the Church. This is a pivotal aspect of the New World Order: all religious matters must come under the complete tyrannical control of the One World Government State. This is the grand vision of the Antichrist, and Our Lady of Fatima comes to crush this diabolical madness.
[6] Historically, this teaching is known as the “Doctrine of the Two Swords.” It was well-developed in the scholastic theology of the medieval ages, but had already been established by Pope Gelasius (492-496). It finds scriptural foundation in the proper exegesis of Our Lord’s cryptic Gospel passage from the Last Supper: “For I say to you, that this that is written must yet be fulfilled in Me: And with the wicked was He reckoned. For the things concerning Me have an end. But they said: Lord, behold here are two swords. And He said to them, It is enough. And going out, He went, according to His custom, to the mount of Olives. And His disciples also followed Him.” – Lk 22: 37-39