J.M.J.
July 16, 2018
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Until a few weeks ago, I believed I had a pretty good assessment regarding circumstances in the Catholic Church in the United States. That was until I read a recent article by
long-time friend of, and writer for, The Fatima Center, Christopher Ferrara.
In his Fatima Perspectives of June 26, 2018 he wrote the following about Catholics in the U.S.:
“One Father Bill Peckman, a diocesan priest from Missouri, recites the grim statistic that there are 74.3 million Catholics in the US, plus ’30 million who self-identify as former Catholics.’ Among the 74 million who still consider themselves Catholics, ‘only 23% go to Mass on any kind of regular basis.’ That would be a mere 17 million Catholics, out of a total of 104 million present and former Catholics, who make any effort to obey the fundamental law of the Church respecting attendance at Mass on the Sabbath.”
These statistics reflect the great apostasy or great falling away from the Church that is taking place. It is part of what Our Lady of Fatima warned would happen the longer Her requests went unheeded. It has also been referred to by Father Gruner and others, as part of Our Lady’s prophecy of the annihilation of nations.
One might ask how this is an annihilation. Well Father Gruner proposed that the annihilation that Our Lady spoke about could refer to both a physical annihilation – stamping out the existence of a country through war, natural disasters, etc. – but he also proposed it could be a spiritual annihilation. Certainly the figures for practicing Catholics clearly demonstrate this.
The same decline in the practice of the Faith by Catholics has been happening in Europe for decades as well – even worse.
The cause of the problem is that Our Lady’s requests have been, and continue to be, ignored. Instead of heeding Her warning 101 years ago to stop offending God – She told us that a great many were already going to hell in 1917 – Catholics have continued to grievously offend God, with ever increasing numbers who are no longer in the state of grace.
As one diocesan bishop in the U.S. told me in a meeting 13 years ago: “The great majority of Catholics need to be re-catechized; they don’t know the Faith.”
Many Catholics are no longer familiar with even the most basic of Catholic teachings. Just 60 years ago every 7-year-old Catholic child preparing to make his first Holy Communion knew that in order to be saved, in order to go to Heaven, one must be Catholic and be in the state of grace (as opposed to the state of mortal sin) when one dies.
The difference between the time Our Lady of Fatima delivered Her warning and today, is that 101 years ago Catholics knew the Faith. Sadly that cannot be said today.
Part of the punishment for not heeding the requests of Our Lady of Fatima has been (and still is) bad pastors. As Father Gruner said many times over the years: “God gives us leaders according to what we deserve.” He was referring to both secular and religious leaders.
He further expounded that the worst punishment God gives is bad pastors. We have seen plenty of that in the last 60 years beginning with Pope John XXIII. The bad leadership continued to increase with each successive Pope (except John Paul I who only lived for a month after ascending to the papacy).
Today, we have the worst Pope in the history of the Church. And as long as Catholics continue to lead non-Catholic lives, living in the state of mortal sin, it will continue to get worse. This is also why the Consecration of Russia hasn’t been done. Until Catholics do as Our Lady of Fatima asked, beginning with returning to the state of grace, God will not give the graces for the Pope to do the Consecration.
But rest assured, when enough of the Catholic laity around the world do finally heed Our Lady’s requests, God will either convert the current pope, or raise up the pope who is to do the Consecration.
My personal guess is that enough graces will be gained if just 10 percent of the world’s Catholics stop offending God and return to the state of grace as Our Lady requested, as well as heed the rest of Her requests: pray the Rosary daily, offer sacrifices for sinners including the sacrifice of one’s daily duties, wear the Brown Scapular and make the Five First Saturdays Communion of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Yes, I am saying that based on Our Lady’s words in 1917, and the moral decline in the world since then, I believe that less than 10% of the world’s Catholics are in the state of grace. What does that mean? It means that if the entire world were destroyed today (that won’t happen because we have Our Lady’s promise of Her Triumph and a period of peace still to follow) less than 10% of the world’s population would be saved and the rest would spend eternity in hell.
The current population of the world is 7.6 billion. That means if the world were destroyed right now, more than 90 percent, or more than 6,840,000,000 (six billion, eight hundred forty million) would suffer the pains of hell for eternity. That’s the explicit reality of ignoring Our Lady of Fatima and Her requests.
Our Lady of Fatima and Her Message are the only solution – the only way out of this moral morass. The only way to get people to listen to Her is first to educate them. We need to tell them about the apparitions and Her requests. They might obey if they knew anything about the Message of Fatima. But Her Message has been greatly suppressed by enemies outside of, and even more, within the Church.
And second, is to educate Catholics in the true Catholic Faith so they know what to do in order to return to the state of grace. Unfortunately – part of the punishment of having bad pastors for the last 60 years is neglecting to teach the Catholic Faith in Catholic schools and seminaries. This was done by the deliberate design of enemies in the Church and it began about 55 years ago after the end of the Second Vatican Council.
The end result, the greater majority of people who call themselves Catholic don’t know a great deal of the Catholic Faith, and even worse is that they don’t know that much of what they have been taught is not the Catholic Faith.
It is Our Lady Herself Who told us only She can help us. It is the only solution and I am guessing that you are encountering some of what I have been encountering for quite some time now.
I am referring to those who consider themselves “Fatima experts” who are, instead of doing the all-important work of spreading the Fatima Message, re-directing their energy with projects that will solve nothing. Some are wasting their time – and the precious time of others – on such things as the Pope isn’t the Pope, while others are wasting time on issues that have been covered and addressed in great detail decades ago, such as was there a fake Sister Lucy?
My response is WHY are these people wasting precious time when the only solution is spreading and heeding the Fatima Message? Mind you, it is their time to waste, but then they attempt to get others involved and waste their precious time as well.
Please don’t give these issues a moment of your time. Such issues will not solve the crisis in the Church and the world, and will make things worse by pulling people away from the only solution which Our Lady of Fatima gave. Instead, please help the only apostolate in the world working full time to spread the Full Fatima Message. Spend your extra time by heeding Our Lady’s requests and by educating people on the Fatima Message and the Catholic Faith.
We have everything to gain by promoting this message and I am at a loss as to why some “experts” think it worthwhile to promote anything else.
Proclaiming that there existed a fake Sister Lucy will solve nothing. Proclaiming that Francis is not the Pope is even worse – not only will it not solve anything, it will cause more fighting and more division in the Church and lead people away from the only true solution.
Neither of these two projects will get the Consecration of Russia done. The only thing that will, is for Catholic laity to heed the requests of Our Lady of Fatima and gain the graces necessary. The rest is up to God. It is called Faith. And to question how the Consecration of Russia will be done with the current pope demonstrates what seems to be rampant today – a lack of Faith.
Let’s just obey Our Lord and Our Lady and then watch, while what They promised will happen, unfolds.
To help promote the Fatima Message, we have enclosed a leaflet titled, 10 Important Fatima Questions Answered! It is a leaflet that Our Lady’s apostolate produced decades ago, and we have just updated it.
In this era when so many do so little reading, we hope that this short explanation on Fatima helps you in promoting Our Lady’s Message. It is small enough to be carried in a purse, and can be easily folded to fit in a pocket.
For more copies of the enclosed leaflet, 10 Important Fatima Questions Answered!, call us at 1-800-263-8160, or 905-871-7607, or return the enclosed reply form.
In the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts,
Joanna Swords
P.S. Don’t forget about the Catholic Catechism Our Lady’s apostolate published and has available to help educate Catholics on the true Faith.