Editor’s Note: This lengthy article was originally published in The Fatima Crusader, Issue 74, Summer 2003. It is being reprinted here and on subsequent days as a series of five much shorter articles. This is Part 1 of 5.

Recently, an informal survey was taken of a number of lay persons and priests, as well as bishops and Cardinals, regarding the obligation to believe and obey Our Lady of Fatima. Not surprisingly, even among people who are self-proclaimed experts on the subject, there are dangerous ideas. Since the topic is crucial for the eternal salvation of millions of souls and, furthermore, it is absolutely essential for world peace, we present here an edited version of the talk Father Gruner gave at the 2001 Bishops Peace Conference in Rome.

We will now talk about the obligation to believe and to obey the Message of Our Lady of Fatima. There are several theological positions regarding the Church’s obligation, and our own individual obligation, to believe and obey Our Lady of Fatima.

First, let me briefly point out that there are those who say that Fatima is a “private revelation”, and, therefore, we do not have to believe in Fatima, nor are we or even the Pope obliged to obey it. You can, so these people say, believe it if you like, and fulfill the pious exercises it promotes if you like, but you cannot tell anyone that he is bound to believe and obey.

There are priests and Fatima organizations who claim to love Our Lady, who say such things. Their position, although widely held, is erroneous, is dangerous, and could lead many who hold this position ultimately straight to hell.

Why is it false, dangerous, and bad? We will see by examining the other two theological positions which both directly oppose the position outlined above.

Part I

Fatima Is in Biblical Prophecy

The first position upholding the Church’s obligation to believe and obey Our Lady of Fatima is as follows: The Message of Fatima is contained in Sacred Scripture by way of prophecy. And that if it is contained there, it is part of the Deposit of the Faith. And if it is part of the Deposit of Faith, then we’re bound to believe it with divine and Catholic Faith.

In other words, according to this position, the Fatima Message is part of public revelation, guaranteed by the Holy Ghost in Sacred Scripture. This theological position is clearly directly opposed to those who say, “Fatima is a private revelation.”

To many, even the pious as well as priests and theologians, this position (let us call it the “Fatima is in the Bible” position) is indefensible, extremist, and much too radical. I don’t hold this position as a certitude; but as you will see, it is very useful to understand: first, because it could be true and might one day even be the teaching of the Magisterium; and, secondly, it helps us to understand better the second position to be described below, which also upholds our obligations to believe and obey.

Opposing Theologian Silenced

Now regarding the “Fatima is in the Bible” position, let me explain by way of a theological discussion I had with a professor of Theology. It was publicly in class in Rome many years ago in the Marianum. He suggested to me that we did not have to believe at all in Fatima. And I said to him: “How do you know that it is not a fulfillment of biblical prophecy? Can you affirm categorically and absolutely it is not then part of the Faith?” And although he was totally opposed to my position, he could not refute it. He had no answer and acknowledged it.

Why did the professor concede, even though he was opposed? Simple. Because the argument is very simple, direct, and logical. To understand the force of it we need to review some basics.

What is it that we must believe by our profession of the Catholic Faith? What is of the Faith? St. Thomas tells us it is all that God has revealed. What is of the Catholic Faith? Everything that’s in Sacred Scripture. Everything that’s in Catholic Tradition. That’s the Catholic Faith.

St. Thomas Aquinas points out in his Summa Theologica that if you know that Scripture tells you David had seventy sons, then you must by divine and Catholic Faith believe it. That is why a theologian is held to a higher standard of belief than the average lay person.

To be saved, St. Thomas says, all persons must believe the 12 articles of the Apostles’ Creed. But a theologian must believe much more than that because there’s much more that has been defined and taught and passed on in the Deposit of Faith.^[1]

St. Thomas says that if you know that in Scripture David is said to be the son of Jesse, you must believe it with divine and Catholic Faith,^[2] because God revealed it. The essence of the theological virtue of Faith is that one believes not because his opinion coincides with God’s, but because one accepts what God has revealed.

We know that God, Who is all Holy, cannot lie. We know that God, Who is all knowing, cannot be mistaken. If God tells us something, then we have to believe it. Otherwise, we blaspheme God because in that case we are either calling Him a liar or we’re denying His capacity to know all truth. A non-believer may not explicitly intend to blaspheme God, but he is blaspheming by his very act of disbelief.

A Mortal Sin to Deny the Faith

That is why it’s a mortal sin to deny even one article of the Catholic Faith. The Church has taught this for centuries, as the Scriptures themselves do. St. Paul says in Galatians 1:8, “though we, or an angel from Heaven should preach a gospel to you besides that which you have received, let him be anathema.” (Which means let him be cut off, let him be cursed, let him go to Hell for all eternity.)

The Church, in her mercy and in her love for souls, has made it clear that certain things must be believed in order to be saved. That’s why she’s made solemn definitions. Whoever says or believes that which is contrary to a solemn definition, let him be anathema. Let him be cut off.

Now in our time many people in the Catholic Church are losing that sense of dogma, according to the Third Secret. (See the article “If We Lose Dogma, We Lose Our Soul” on this point.) But no man is excused from believing the truths of the Faith simply because many others have lost their sense of dogma. Dogmatic Faith is required for salvation. Not everyone knows all the dogmatic teachings of the Magisterium, but all are held to believe explicitly those things they know the Church has solemnly defined as being of divine and Catholic Faith.

Certainly, theologians have the obligation to know them and believe them more than lay persons.

But even a lay person, once a dogmatic teaching has been brought to his attention, has the same solemn obligation to believe as explicitly as a theologian. St. Augustine tells us that not everyone has the same gift of understanding, and that those of us who are less gifted, because we have less intelligence, have lesser obligations. But the essential obligation is the same for everyone; that is, that one must believe what God teaches. A refusal to believe what God teaches is enough to damn you to hell for all eternity.

And so the chief argument of this position is that the appearance of Our Lady at Fatima is contained in Sacred Scripture, because it is foretold in the Apocalypse, Chapter 12. In other words, if Our Lady’s appearance at Fatima in 1917 is in fact foretold in Sacred Scripture then we are bound to believe it as a future event predicted that has now come to pass. And as such, it is part of the Deposit of Faith. Remember, I do not hold this position as certain; however, I respect it, and I have no argument against it.

[Continue reading Part  2.]

END NOTES

[1] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Pt. II-II, Q. 2, Art. 6.

[2] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Pt. II-II, Q. 2, Art. 5.