By Andrew Cesanek and David Rodríguez
As 2022 draws to a close and we begin a new year, it is appropriate to reflect upon The Fatima Center’s immediate purpose – to widely make known the ever-increasing urgency of the Message of Fatima. We are living in “Fatima Time.” Our Lady’s prophecies and Sister Lucia’s dire warnings continue to play out in current events.
Even Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed (in reference to the Third Secret) on May 13, 2010, in Fatima before 500,000 pilgrims: “Whoever thinks that the prophetic mission of Fatima is concluded deceives himself.”
And Pope John Paul II stated the following during a discussion with a select group of German Catholics in Fulda, Germany in November 1980:
“On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this much. If there is a message in which it is said that the oceans will flood entire sections of the earth, that, from one moment to the other, millions of people will perish, there is no longer any point in really wanting to publish this secret message… We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ… With your and my prayer it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary.”
Furthermore, Bishop Amaral, the third Bishop of Fatima, in a speech in Vienna, Austria on September 10, 1984, stated the following:
“Its content concerns only our faith. To identify the [Third] Secret with catastrophic announcements or with a nuclear holocaust is to deform the meaning of the message. The loss of faith of a continent is worse than the annihilation of a nation; and it is true that faith is continually diminishing in Europe.”
Then, in a public interview in 1995, adding a crucial bit of evidence, Bishop Amaral stated: “Before I asserted in Vienna [in 1984] that the Third Secret concerned only our Faith and the loss of faith I had consulted Sister Lucia and first obtained her approval.”
It Is Urgent that Russia Be Consecrated
After March 25, 2022, many Catholics thought the proper consecration of Russia might have been accomplished – it has not. The current events of the past nine months have shown clearly to all that God is still awaiting the proper Consecration of Russia. When that happens, Our Lady will promptly respond by fulfilling Her infallible promises. Nevertheless, during these past nine months, The Fatima Center has been asked, ‘What is your purpose now?’ This question still seems relevant, but from the extreme at the other end of the spectrum. There are those who know Russia is not consecrated, see the signs of the times, read other prophecies, and believe the Consecration of Russia will be too late and is therefore no longer relevant. This is the error we particularly seek to correct in this essay.
A Troubling Question
Consider the following question recently sent to The Fatima Center:
“Pardon my bluntness, but I wonder just what the Center’s purpose now is. Like his predecessors, Jorge Bergoglio has disobeyed Mary by failing to release the full Third Secret and to consecrate Russia as Mary requested. Devout Catholics, the few that remain, are aware of the First Saturday and the Scapular promises, though, per my polling, they do not execute, lazily relying hazily on God’s mercy. The Warning or Illumination of Conscience is due in this generation per Luz De Bonilla, which means it will happen no later than 15 or so years from now. But Fr. Rodrigue [a Canadian priest who started a new religious fraternity] suggests it is imminent. The rapid deterioration of societal fabric suggests he is right. The Warning will be the perfection of mercy. With it behind us and The Three Days to follow, why continue a mission that looks like it will be overcome by world events? Even Mary has said that the consecration will come late. When is that? Now it looks like it could be well into the New Era of Peace (Heaven on Earth) following the Three Days of Darkness, at which point it will be of little to no import since the global population will have been largely purified.”
How Do We Address These Confused Matters?
First, it should be clearly stated that The Fatima Center’s raison d’être remains the same as always: obedience by all – both Church hierarchy and laity – to Our Lady’s full Message of Fatima. That obedience has most certainly not been accomplished. Russia has not yet been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, nor has it converted to the Catholic Faith. Neither has the Third Secret been revealed.
Furthermore, very few people practice the First Saturday devotion requested by Our Lady. And a very low percentage of Catholics pray the Rosary daily, offer prayer and penance, wear the Brown Scapular faithfully, or have consecrated themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Thus, it is of the greatest urgency that we spread the Message of Fatima to everyone we know. To this end, The Fatima Center has recently mailed out a very helpful tri-fold leaflet titled ‘Fatima in Brief.’ Please distribute this to everyone you know.
Second, if someone is aware of the realities expressed in the question above, and understands the content of Fatima in Brief, then he should also clearly understand why The Fatima Center’s purpose is more pressing now than ever before. All such devotees of Our Lady must be working with a greater urgency. (David Rodríguez addressed this urgency in his talk, Fatima and the Kingship of Christ, at our recent conference in New Hampshire, Fatima: The Moment Has Come.
Third, and perhaps the least addressed and most misunderstood, is the fact that once Russia is consecrated and converted, The Fatima Center’s purpose will be inestimably more important. Following Our Lady’s prodigious miracles, and the conversion of Russians and millions more, there will be countless souls who need to be catechized in the Faith and taught about devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary! The Church in the East will have to be reunited with the West, for there can be no era of peace without unity under the Vicar of Christ. All those who have worked with The Fatima Center for decades will then be well-disposed to be used by God as His instruments to spread the devotions of the Rosary, the Brown Scapular, the Immaculate Heart, and the Sacred Heart throughout the East.
Be Careful with Contemporary ‘Prophecy’
Regarding the prophecies of Fr. Michel Rodrigue, they have not been approved by the Church; thus, they cannot be considered as “fact.” In fact, no Church authority has supported these prophecies and his own bishop has disavowed them. They do contain suspect material. For example, he states that during the alleged Illumination of Conscience: “Small tongues of fire will land on every soul during this process which will last about 15 minutes. Every soul will encounter Our Blessed Lord.” Regarding the latter statement, that will certainly occur at each person’s particular judgment (at the moment of death), when Our Lord metes justice to the wicked and grants eternal reward to the good.
The Warning or Illumination of Conscience is not taught by the Catholic Church. It may happen, or it may not. If it does happen, we really don’t know in what it will consist or when it will happen – this could be reserved for the time of the Antichrist. Thus, Catholics should not base their lives and especially the salvation of their souls on the possibility of it occurring – let alone assume that such a prophetic event will happen within their lifetime. God has given us the Ten Commandments and the duties of our state to guide our spiritual lives. Our Lady of Fatima has provided us with the most important message of our time; that is sufficient warning for us to live our lives appropriately.
An Era of Peace will not come before the proper Consecration. The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is an Era of Peace. We know this will happen because She has promised it. Only after that time of peace will we see the rise of theAntichrist and the Second Coming of Christ. We are clearly not yet at that stage – though it appears we are at an end of “an age” and this age will possibly end cataclysmically. How badly depends on our obedience to Our Lady of Fatima and the Message She gave us there.
We also don’t have a timeline or guarantee on the Three Days of Darkness. They may or may not occur in this age. If they do, they could be a time when many unfaithful bishops perish and then the few remaining obey and consecrate Russia. Or these days could happen as a result of the Consecration – that could be when God purges the world and brings about an age of peace. Or they could happen later in the final days of Antichrist. (Since the Three Days of Darkness are not taught by the Church’s ordinary and universal Magisterium, there is also the possibility that they may not happen at all.)
At our recent conference in Manchester, New Hampshire, Fr. James Mawdsley made a good point in one of the Q&A sessions (the video of which will soon be released online). Some people asked about the Three Days of Darkness and Illumination of Conscience. He spoke about how people are far too interested in these sensational things of which we know little and which come through private revelation (some not Church-approved), and yet Catholics don’t even read the Old Testament well, which is definitely God’s word and contains – by the use of types – all that will happen. Father insisted we should first read the Old Testament (several times) before attempting to deal with these contemporary prophetic messages.
It Is Never “Too” Late
The questioner states: “Why continue a mission that looks like it will be overcome by events? Even Mary has said that the consecration will come late.”
The Consecration of Russia should have taken place in 1929. Even in 1931, Our Lord already said it was late. God requires prompt obedience, and we should not delay. So, we’ve known for decades that it will happen “late.”
However, it is never “too late” to obey Our Lady of Fatima. Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucia in Tuy, Spain on June 13, 1929 to make Her formal request for the Consecration of Russia. Then in in 1931 (at Rianjo, Spain), since the Pope and Catholic bishops still had not obeyed Our Lady, Our Lord told Sister Lucia, “It is never too late to have recourse to Jesus and Mary.”
Our Lady’s command can’t be “overcome by events,” nor bypassed nor superseded. This is because God is Almighty, and He is in absolute control of all history. There is nothing that men or demons can do to “throw God’s plan off track.” We strongly exhort all the faithful to never doubt Our Lady’s words or promises. We should read and re-read – ponder, meditate and trust – Our Lady’s words at Fatima instead of reading the alleged prophecies of unconfirmed sources.[1]
Only Our Lady Can Help Us
We must obey Our Lady and encourage everyone we know to do so. And it is urgent that we do so now. The hour is clearly late. Yet the proper Consecration of Russia will never be of little import. Why would Our Lady come from Heaven to formally ask for the Consecration of Russia, knowing that it would be “of little to no import”? She certainly demonstrated by Her prophecies of July 13, 1917 that She knew what the future held for humanity. And God will not allow things to get better without that obedience to Our Lady (and the day of reparation, for example). Only She can help us now.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
2023 New Year Resolution
Therefore, we urge every Catholic to obey Our Lady’s Message of Fatima. Please pray and do penance for the Pope and our hierarchy, that they will consecrate Russia correctly and reveal the Third Secret in totu. And resolve this new year to [1] live Her Message more faithfully, and [2] tell (at least) ten more souls about Her Message.
Cease offending God and remain in the state of grace. The penance God requests of each of us is that we obey His commandments and fulfill the duties of our state.
Let us raise up to the Queen of Heaven a great Roman Catholic S.O.S.
R – Pray your Rosary every day.
C – Consecrate yourself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
S – Wear the Brown Scapular faithfully.
O – Offer Prayer and Penance.
S – Practice the First Saturday devotion every month.
Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things?
The Lord hath said to Me: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.
– from the Introit for Christmas Midnight Mass (Ps 2:1,7)
ENDNOTES:
[1] To strengthen your faith in Our Lady’s promises and God’s absolute control over history, I would encourage you to read Father Mawdsley’s recent book, Crushing satan’s head, which delves into the authentic fulfillment of God’s inspired and inerrant word.