(Disclaimer: the author of this article is a sedevacantist—a position which I firmly reject. However, the article focuses mainly on the Fatima apparition and its arguments are well supported. Generally, it seems free of bias and is an important and timely topic; therefore, I have obtained permission from the author to repost it here. —Timothy Fitzpatrick)

By Steven Speray
May 13, 2026 Anno Domini

We are not bound to believe in private revelations. When the Church presents liturgies or churches in honor of a private revelation such as an apparition, it doesn’t imply the revelation is true and must be believed. Our faith doesn’t depend on them at all.

A liturgy or church in honor of an apparition may appear that the Church believes in it, but this is a matter of perspective. It would appear the Church, at one time, believed popes could be deposed. It would appear that it believed the Roman line during the Great Western Schism was the true line. These opinions are just opinions.

What is not an opinion is the Church saying a private revelation is worthy of belief. When the Church says a private revelation is worthy of belief, it means it’s free from doctrinal or moral error, and this declaration must be accepted and believed. However, the Church is not saying the revelation is free from historical inaccuracies, silly ideas, fraud, or demonic activity. It may have all of the above.

The Mystical City of God by Mary of Agreda was approved by the Church. However, there are errors in the work. The Catholic Encyclopedia states:

In particular instances, these visionaries have been mistaken: thus Marie de Agreda teaches, like her contemporaries, the existence of crystal heavens, and declares that one must believe everything she says, although such an obligation exists only in the case of the Holy Scripture. In 1771 Clement XIV forbade the continuation of her process of beatification “on account of the book”. [1]

Yet, in 1900, Pope Leo XIII granted an Apostolic Blessing to a Canadian lay woman who informed the pope of printing a book of all the instructions found at the end of each chapter in The Mystical City of God. Pope Leo XIII then ordered the book to be printed on the presses of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda in Rome. The book is titled Sublime doctrine de la Mère de Dieu sur les vertus chrétiennes (extrait de la ‘Cité mystique de Dieu’ par le Vén. Marie d’Agreda- Rome, Impr.de la Sacrée Congrégation de la Propagande, 1900. vii + 403pp.+ frontispiece.)

When I wrote about the problems with the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe [2], I discovered problems with the Fatima apparitions.

Much of what we’re told by Lucia of Fatima comes from her memoirs twenty years after the apparitions.

Bishop José Alves Correia da Silva approved the 1917 Fatima apparitions including the later apparitions in Spain as part of the Fatima message. For instance, Lucia claims that Our Lady appeared on December 10, 1925 at Pontevedra, to manifest Her Heart pierced with thorns, and to request the practice of the communion of reparation on the five First Saturdays of the month. The same bishop sanctioned the First Saturdays devotion on September 13, 1939.

According to Lucia, Our Lady came back one more time, on June 13, 1929, at Tuy, to ask for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, which is also included as part of the overall approval of Fatima.

The 1930 approval of Fatima is interesting despite the problems the Church noticed during its investigation.

With all charity, respect to the Church, and all those who strongly believe in Fatima, I would like to bring up some of those seriously troubling problems about Fatima. If we were in normal times, I would have submitted this to the Holy See, but under the circumstances, this is impossible. Also, due to the same set of circumstances, I believe this information is critical for Catholics and the continued questioning to what happened to the Church since the death of Pope Pius X in 1914. The Second Vatican Council didn’t come out of thin air. Who’s really responsible for this Great Revolt that’s been brewing long before Vatican 2? Does Fatima hold a key?

The following information comes from the Critical Documentation of Fatima at fatima_critical1.pdf

In case one thinks the documentation is fake, one can also find much of the info in the 1950 book The True Story of Fatima | EWTN by Fr. John de Marchi, I.M.C.

First Problem

Clothing and jewelry that’s not proper for Our Lady

The children described Our Lady:

“The attire consisted of a white cloak that reached from the head to the bottom of the skirt, gold from the waist down, with the strings crossing it, and from top to bottom, and the edges were more closely spaced. The skirt was white all over, with gold strings running along and across, but only reaching to the knee; a white coat, not gold, with only two or three strings at the cuffs; no shoes, white stockings, not gold; around the neck was a gold chain with a medal at the tips; her hands were raised; she had very small buttons on her ears, very close to her ears; she parted her hands when she spoke; she had black eyes; she was of medium height.” (emphasis mine) (Fatima Doc. 1 1917-05-c.27  Interrogation of Father Manuel Marques Ferreira, parish priest of Fátima, to Lúcia de Jesus Santos about the first apparition.)

The apparition doesn’t appear to be Our Lady, especially with a skirt reaching only to the knee, with white stockings, necklace, and earrings. Imagine an image of Our Lady as described being reproduced and placed in churches to be venerated. The image shown above is the best most reverent image I could generate based on the children’s description. It should not be a problem having a statue as described in church by an apparition approved as worthy of belief, but it is a huge problem!

Second Problem and Serious Issue

Two Major False Prophecies from Fatima

If we go back to the day of the “miracle of the sun” Lucia was telling everyone on Oct. 13, 1917 that World War 1 would end that day. After the “miracle” of the sun on Oct. 13, Father Manuel Marques Ferreira interviewed Lucia on Oct. 16. Lucia tells him that Our Lady told her:

“I want to tell you not to offend Our Lord anymore; that they pray the rosary to Our Lady; build a little chapel here for Our Lady of the Rosary (Lúcia is unsure whether it was like that: build a little chapel here, I am Our Lady of the Rosary); the war ends today; wait here for your military, very soon.”

In another interview three days later on Oct. 19, 1917, she told Father Manuel Nunes Formigão STD, JCD:

She [Our Lady] said: “The war ends today; wait here for your soldiers very soon.”

Fr Formigão: Did she say: “wait here for your military” or “wait here for your soldiers”?

She said: “Wait here for the military.”

Fr Formigão:  But look, the war is still going on!… The newspapers report that there have been fights since the thirteenth!… How can this be explained, if Our Lady said that the war ended on that day?

Lucia: I don’t know. I only know that I heard her say that the war would end on the 13th. I don’t know anything else

Fr Formigão:  Some people say that they heard you say on that day that Our Lady had declared that the war would end soon. Is this true?

[Lucia] I said it just as Our Lady had said it.

Fr Formigão also asked Jacinta on the same day:

Did she say that the war would end that day or that it would end soon?

Jacinta: Our Lady said that when she got to heaven, the war would end.

Fr Formigão: But the war isn’t over yet!

Jacinta: It is ending, it is ending

Fr Formigão: But when will it end?

Jacinta: I think it ends on Sunday.

In yet another interview following Oct. 13, Father António dos Santos Alves writes:

[Our Lady] told [the children] that she was Our Lady of the Rosary; that the war ended that day; that our soldiers would soon come; that they were to build a chapel to Our Lady of the Rosary on the site of the apparition and that the people amend their sins that have greatly offended her Son.

If Lucia misunderstood back when she actually heard Our Lady, how is it that she would remember so clearly 20 years later when writing her memoirs?

The excuse given was that exhaustive interrogating to exhausted children caused them to get the date wrong. That might be the case for little Jacinta, but Lucia doubled-down, even triple-downed her assertion that the war would end on Oct. 13, 1917. The end of the war date would be one thing you would remember and Lucia most certainly remembered it!

This huge contradiction and weird description of Our Lady’s appearance are overlooked by the “miracle of the sun” and massive influence of the people in persuading the authorities to accepting the whole thing and approving belief in it.

Bottom line, Lucia got it wrong repeatedly, which is highly unlikely, indicating a false apparition. If she got it wrong so badly within a couple of days, how can we trust anything that she said, not to mention what she recounts by memory twenty years later as seen in her memoirs? Her own parish priest Father Manuel Marques Ferreira never believed the story even after the “miracle” of the sun. He thought it was all demonic!

The failed second prophecy is far worse!

Second False Prophecy and the Third Secret

Lucia told Father Augustin Fuentes on December 26, 1957,

“Father, the Most Holy Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to Her message, neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on their way but without giving any importance to Her message. The bad, not seeing the punishment of God actually falling upon them, continue their life of sin without even caring about the message. But believe me, Father, God will chastise the world and this will be in a terrible manner. The punishment from Heaven is imminent.

Father, how much time is there before 1960 arrives? It will be very sad for everyone, not one person will rejoice at all if beforehand the world does not pray and do penance. I am not able to give any other details because it is still a secret. By the will of the Blessed Virgin, only the Holy Father and the Bishop of Fatima can know the secret. Both have chosen, however, not to open it in order not to be influenced by it.

This is the third part of the Message of Our Lady, which will remain secret until 1960.

 Tell them, Father, that many times the most Holy Virgin told my cousins Francisco and Jacinta, as well as myself, that many nations will disappear from the face of the earth. She said that Russia will be the instrument of chastisement chosen by Heaven to punish the whole world if we do not beforehand obtain the conversion of that poor nation.

Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. And the devil knows what it is that most offends God and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus, the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way, the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them.

According to Lucia, part of the third secret is also part of the great chastisement that happens between 1957 and 1960.

Cardinal Ottaviani asked Lucia 1955 why not before 1960, and she said, “Because then it will seem clearer (mais claro).” In fact, she stated, “it cannot be made known before 1960.” When pressed to why it had to be in 1960, she and Bishop José Correia da Silva replied to Canon Barthas in 1946: “Because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so.”

We see wars and people dying in the first two secrets. In the third secret, we hear about another major chastisement which will happen between 1957 and 1960.

Lucia said the world (not the Church) was going to be punished severely. The world would understand the contents of the third secret when revealed in 1960 just as people would understand the second secret when revealed after the fact. (World War 2 and revealed by Lucia in 1941.)

Logically, the election of Roncalli couldn’t be this part of the secret because in 1960, virtually everyone believed him to be a true pope and rejoiced something Lucia said would not happen. There would be no rejoicing.

The secret couldn’t say we have a fake pope only to be revealed by a fake pope. Therefore, it couldn’t have referred to the pope as some type of imposter pope.

Another critical point is that Lucia said, “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.”

If we draw an inference that this might mean apostasy in other places around the world, where would this be seen in 1960 from something from within 2 years prior to 1960?

The question is what kind of terrible chastisement would befall on the whole world that could be seen by 1960 that would be as big as the first two secrets to verify the prophecy was true?  Again, we’re talking about part of the third secret because that is what Lucia said.

China was the only country to suffer a major chastisement with the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962), which caused the Great Chinese Famine, resulting in an estimated 15 to 55 million deaths. This is huge for China, but not the world.

Surely, the great chastisement Lucia is referring would be greater than China’s catastrophe.

Think of all the possibilities and what we find is absolutely nothing!

If any other religion put something out like this, we Catholics would call it out for what it is, a false prophecy, because that’s simply what it is.

We have another false prophecy. However, the Church did not approve this prophecy as told in 1957 as worthy of belief. It was unknown when approved in 1930. Is Lucia not trustworthy? Does the whole Fatima event and the false prophecies go hand in hand? Absolutely!

Third Problem and Serious Issue

Too many exceptions are needed.

Fatima is nothing like Lourdes and St. Bernadette. The message at Lourdes was nothing new to Catholicism. It confirmed a recent dogma. The three secrets were for Bernadette herself. Its message was simple with a miraculous healing spring as a reward for having faith. It was a beautiful and wonderful event in every way. No real problems, no real confusions.

Fatima on the other hand has everything Lourdes doesn’t: Problems, Confusions, Demands or else, and Major prophecies that don’t come as stated.

When the angel appeared in the beginning, he gave the children Communion. Jacinta and Francesco hadn’t even received their First Communion yet. When Francesco received from the Chalice, he asked Lucia what he had received because he was unaware of what it was.

There are several strange things about this occurrence. In the West, we don’t receive from the Chalice and preparation and knowledge of Communion is absolutely demanded for those of the age of reason. Infants don’t need to know because they are not able. However, when the Sacraments are given to those of the age of reason, it’s imperative to understand what’s being received except perhaps in cases of danger of death.

If the angel is truly from Heaven, why would he go against the norms of the Church on such an important thing as Holy Communion? How would or could you know he was truly from Heaven if the only way to test the spirit are by the norms of the Church?

In the West, we fast before Communion, but are we to expect the children had no breakfast that day? It’s possible, but it seems like one exception after another is needed to legitimize the event as coming from Heaven.

We are not told about the angel story in 1916 or 1917 but years later in 1937 and 1941 by Lucia through her memoirs. Why did it take over twenty years before we hear about this incredible angel story?

The problem with the story is the strange way Holy Communion was given to the children under the circumstances. St. John tells us, “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God.” (I John 4:1) We test the spirits with Catholic belief and practice. Yet, the actions of the angel were contrary to Catholic belief and practice. However, the Church didn’t approve of the angel story because it came from the memoirs of Lucia over twenty years after the fact.

Lastly, if there’s no doctrinal problems with Fatima, does that mean receiving Communion without knowledge what’s being received at the age of reason not problematic doctrinally? If problematic, does that not call into question the approval by the Church? Should the Church not have warned or explained this problematic detail? Does the approval of Fatima call into question whether it’s really the Church doing the approving, especially in light of the missed prophecies?

Other problems with Fatima are covered in the Footnotes. However, these three suffice to show Fatima is not from Heaven.

What about the Miracle of the Sun?

The miracle of the sun was also seen many times at Medjugorja. I had friends who not only saw the miracle of the sun at Medjugorja, but their rosary beads turned to gold on each bead as they prayed it. They were strong believers in John Paul 2 and the Vatican 2 religion because of Medjugorja. Yet, these apparitions have blunt heresies even by Vatican 2 standards.

I have another friend who saw the miracle of the sun at Garabandal. The apparitions of Garabandal from 1961 to 1965 also have other spectacular miracles, yet its prophecies also failed miserably proving it to be a false apparition.

What I find interesting is that not all 70,000 people saw the “miracle” on that day as reported by apparitionists. Many reported seeing nothing unusual, which of course included the many skeptics, atheists, etc. the very ones that would need to see to believe. Everyone described the event quite differently, too.

The skeptical explanations for the “miracle” are also quite reasonable. In Pentecostal settings, we see how the power of suggestion make masses of people believe they’ve been “slain in the spirit.” I’ve seen it first-hand. “Speaking in tongues” is another example. We definitely see the power of suggestion at Fatima and many other places. Combine that with starring at the sun for a long period of time and then expecting to see something unusual. If a real weather condition happened on that day with all the other conditions, the event would certainly be magnified.

We read about this very thing in the book “God and the Sun of Fatima” written by the priest, physicist and philosopher of science, Father Stanley L Jaki, who believed in Fatima.

Fr. Jaki tells of the devout Catholic lawyer and Third Order Franciscan Domingo Pintos Coelho who was there in the Cova on Oct. 13, 1917. He published what he witnessed that day on Oct. 16^th in the local Catholic newspaper titled “Ordem.” (Keep in mind that in 1917, permission to write and publish on the Church was required as seen in canon law.)

Jaki didn’t like what Coelho wrote and breaks down everything he wrote to make Coelho appear to look irresponsible and/or faithless. However, Jaki was a strong believer in the miracle and he wouldn’t let anything get in his way in spreading what he believed was a miracle, but the fact remains that there is another side to the story.

Coelho wrote (p. 53): The leading newspapers began to speak of this case with great frequency and it will therefore be good not to reach a wrong conclusion before considering some ideas that rightly present themselves in cases of this nature. It is clear that as Catholics we accept the full possibility of the miracle. God, since He made the laws which rule natural phenomena, can also alter or suspend them. Simply put, a miracle is an exception. And exceptions are not presumed. They require certain proof. The Catholic Church has constantly insisted on the matter of proofs before it would agree to establishing the miraculous character of any fact of series of facts.

He continued in the next few pages…

In reference to what happened on Saturday the thirteenth, we can give witness because we were there, not as a pilgrim, note that well, but as a curious spectator.

From eleven until one-thirty the rain was constant and driven by a strong wind; a frankly rough and disagreeable weather which the enormous crowd of many thousands of people endured with excellent humor, without shelter other than rain hats and the vehicles, since not even one building is to be found in the vicinity.

Thirty-seven and a half minutes after one o’clock—or noon by solar time—was the hour set for the vision with which it was hoped that the phenomena in the heavens would coincide.

At this moment it continued to rain.

Some moments later the rain slackened and at one forty-five it stopped altogether. The sun, until then concealed, showed itself among the clouds that moved fairly fast. Because their density was variable, the veil which they threw over the king of stars [sun] was diaphanous. Like the multitude, we then looked toward the sun with rapt attention, and through the clouds, we saw it under new aspects—new for us, mark it well… Now surrounded by reddish flames, now with a ring of yellow or bright violet, now seemingly enlivened by a very rapid rotating movement, now even apparently detaching itself from the sky, approaching the earth, and giving forth a strong heat…

Why deny it? These phenomena, which we had never before witnessed, impressed us greatly. Among the crowds, a collective psychology established itself. And generally speaking there passed over the vast majority of that crowd a tremendous wave of faith that was very moving.

But then Coelho continues to explain….

One doubt remained with us, however.

Was what we saw in the sun an exceptional thing? Or could it be reproduced in analogous circumstances?

Now it was precisely this analogy of circumstances that presented itself to us yesterday [Sunday]. We could see the sun half overcast with clouds as on Saturday. And sincerely, we saw on that day the same succession of colors, the same rotary movement, etc.

(p. 57)

Coelho concluded his article:

Eliminating, then, the only extraordinary fact, what remains? Right now, the statements of the three children and nothing else.

It is very little.

Will the children be found sincere? We have no reason to doubt that they will be; their humble state is a guarantee of this for us.

We ask pardon for the crabbed stories of the investigators of popular belief who have attributed mysterious profit motives to the shepherds, for not believing this story without proof. Do the strongminded [espiritos fortes or freethinkers] want us to believe without proof? Very well. But with the same right we could demand from those who see in all this but Jesuit trickeries the same proofs they demand from us, regardless of whether they find them inconvenient and therefore dispense with them.

In sum, we returned from Fatima in the same state of mind in which we went there—in doubt.

Was there a miracle, were there apparitions? It is possible but between possibility and reality there is an abyss.

We will therefore continue with an open mind, benevolent, if so desired, but nothing more.

And let us be permitted to advise those who by their position and intelligence can influence others not to go beyond this limit.

(pp. 59-60)

After this article was published on Oct. 16^th, 1917, Coelho published another article the next day Oct. 17, again, talking about Fatima.

If miracles are rare today, it does not mean that they can no longer occur. For example, the lives of Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, and of the Curé d’ Ars were full of miracles. The history of Lourdes is also a series of miracles verified with the greatest rigor. …

St. Augustine says: “A miracle should never be proclaimed when a natural explanation is possible”.

This rule has always been scrupulously observed by the Church, the teacher of truth.

Now what did we say about the case of Fatima? That we, the obscure author of these lines, had not observed any fact that would prompt us to consider as supernatural. But not only did we treat it from a personal and unauthorized point of view but in no way did we wish to disclaim the observations which others have made and which differ from ours.

We would want nothing more than to witness events to which no natural explanation can be fitted. Our disappointment was great, when on Sunday, as we said, we verified the vacuity of what on the day before had seemed to be miraculous; our disappointment was heightened since we were greatly impressed by the coincidence that the rain of three hours’ duration had stopped almost exactly at the moment when the children prayed, and that the sun then appeared in the clouds.

Simply put, it is necessary in a matter of such weight not to yield to the principle Quod vohumus facile credimus.

We therefore conclude as we did yesterday: it is fitting to replace premature enthusiasm with the most prudent reserve. If in Fatima there is something of the supernatural our holding back will not impede the march of events upon which God in His infinite wisdom has decided.

On the other hand, a fiasco following hasty exaltation would not fail to be exploited by the enemies of the Church; they are always numerous, very active, and constantly on the watch for the propitious moment for the attack.

End of Coelho.

Coelho called the “Miracle of the Sun” vacuous and he got backlash immediately by other papers. I included this report to show there was another side, which many apparitionists don’t include in their stories. Jaki was an exception.

Simply put, the “miracle” of the sun doesn’t prove a heavenly apparition. The devout Catholic lawyer and writer who witnessed the event didn’t even think it was miraculous and publicly tells us so in two articles in a Catholic magazine within a week of the “miracle”. The same so-called miracle of the sun is seen at all the modern apparition sites, which we know are false. Yet, it was this very “miracle” that has convinced most Catholics that Fatima is a true apparition from Heaven.

Conclusion

The prophecies definitely failed. Is that the fault of Fatima or Lucia? We don’t separate the two. However, we know that Garabandal was false precisely because of the false prophecies. Why are the false prophecies of Fatima overlooked?

People would rather believe in a hoax, a deception of the devil, or any lie if it makes them feel better. The pope, many bishops, and many theologians and canonists have bought into Fatima but that doesn’t mean it’s true. They bought into Our Lady of Guadalupe apparition and it’s a proven myth where the Church tells us Marcos Aquino painted the image and not a single priest historian during that time mentions Juan Diego or the apparition while telling the whole history of Mexico. They even explain the millions of converts. See footnote [2] for the proof.

The Church has declared that nothing in the Fatima apparition is heretical or dangerous morally or doctrinally. However, is it possible the Fatima apparitions are a demonic deception as a distraction to something else? For instance, what was really behind the Spanish Flu and Vaccines? See page 27 of the COVID-Report-from-Rep.-Weyler-3.pdf

Both Jacinta and Francisco Marto were killed by the Spanish Flu. 100 million people died from this chastisement that’s never mentioned by “Our Lady” of Fatima. That’s as many people as both world wars put together! How could the Spanish Flu be overlooked? How is it still overlooked? This missed cataclysmic catastrophe is enough to call into doubt the whole Fatima event as something not from Heaven! Besides the Flu, what about the vaccines? We don’t even know the real death numbers to all the vaccinated throughout the last 100 years.

What’s more, even the Chinese catastrophe is overlooked when Lucia said the whole world would suffer some great chastisement between 1957 to 1960 that never came to pass.

Another possible deception by distraction concerns the Church. Is Fatima a demonic plan hidden within the demonic plan? What was going on with the Church then? After all, following the death of Pope Pius X, his successor, Pope Benedict XV, immediately began to ease the intense crackdown on “Modernism” that had characterized the previous pontificate. One of his first moves was to remove the staunch anti-modernist Cardinal Merry del Val as Secretary of State and replaced him with the liberal Cardinal Pietro Gasparri.

In his first encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, Benedict XV requested that the accusations of modernism stop. He writes, “23 As regards matters in which without harm to faith or discipline – in the absence of any authoritative intervention of the Apostolic See – there is room for divergent opinions, it is clearly the right of everyone to express and defend his own opinion. But in such discussions no expressions should be used which might constitute serious breaches of charity; let each one freely defend his own opinion, but let it be done with due moderation, so that no one should consider himself entitled to affix on those who merely do not agree with his ideas the stigma of disloyalty to faith or to discipline.”

Other key individuals who regained freedom of action or saw their previous restrictions eased include Moderate Modernist sympathizers and scholars. The Sodalitium Pianum (a network of informants established by Pius X) was largely ended by Benedict XV. Those who had been ostracized or prevented from teaching under the anti-modernist oath were given more freedom.

Many of the French clergy who were under intense pressure during the separation of church and state (and accused of being too compromising) found more space for dialogue under Benedict XV. The anti-modernist plan under Pope Pius X never returned and we begin to see the ugly head of modernism in the hideous architecture of church building and women getting into public offices throughout the pontificates of Benedict XV, Pius XI, and Pius XII.

Are we really surprised we got a Second Vatican Council? Talk about cataclysmic doom!

We see more Fatima issues in our times with all kinds of ideas and conspiracies floating around with the 3rd secret predictions, consecration of Russia, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, etc. all of which have nothing to do with the real Gospel, and which confuse the end times as told in Scripture. There’s no end to Fatima predictions, which are borderline heretical if not heretical. Just more distractions.

All these are the bad fruits of Fatima and there’s more bad tasting fruit waiting for you in footnote [3].

We know how Pope Leo XIII in the 1880’s tells us how in his vision Christ gives the Devil the time and power to deceive the Church. Was Fatima part of that plan in the grand scheme of things?

Based on these and other problems, Fatima appears to be a real and great deception of the devil to fool the masses to distract from something far greater!

Footnotes:

[1] CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Private Revelations

[2] Problems with the Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe – Part I

Problems with the Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe – Part II

[3] Other problems with Fatima include:

Fatima becomes a tool for the Vatican 2 religion

Roncalli (“Pope John XXIII”) read the contents of the third secret. He knew the prophecy and the fact that it hadn’t come to pass. He said the third secret was not for “our times” and he refused to reveal it. Cardinal Silvio Oddi confronted him over not revealing the secret in 1960. John XXIII told Oddi, “Do not speak to me of this again.” It seems he refused to read the third secret in 1960 because he it didn’t square with his plans. Did he even believe in Fatima, since he refused to do what was supposed to be asked of him? It would appear not. In 1962, at the Second Vatican Council, John XXIII referred to the three seers of Fatima as “Prophets of Doom.”

One thing is for sure, Fatima can be useful, everyone knew it, and it was!

John XXIII called Fatima, “the center of all Christian hopes.” Fatima was used to bolster the Vatican 2 teaching on Our Lady.

Fatima was later used by John Paul 2 to legitimize his legacy as the Marian and Fatima Pope. The attempted assassination of John Paul 2 in 1981, occurred exactly at the same time as the apparition of Our Lady in Fatima, and it is believed by many Vatican 2 Catholics that Our Lady of Fatima saved the life of their beloved pope.

John Paul II visited Fatima, Portugal, three times (1982, 1991, 2000) to thank Our Lady for saving his life during the May 13, 1981, assassination attempt. He famously placed the bullet that struck him into the crown of the Fatima statue, formally consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and beatified the shepherd children Francisco and Jacinta.

The Vatican revealed what they called the third secret which stated that the “Holy Father…was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him.” It continues to say other clergy, religious, and lay people were also killed one after another in the same place.

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The Vatican left out anything about apostasy or anything like that. As bad as their obvious fake third secret was, the Vatican also claimed the secret referred to the assassination attempt on John Paul 2.

If Sister Lucia died at some point around 1960 as many think and replaced with an imposter, the Vatican would use her to legitimize itself. For instance, the Lucia of 1984 said John Paul II’s consecration of Russia fulfilled the request of Our Lady.

She is used in many other ways that’s irrelevant insofar as this article is concerned, but the point is Vatican 2 Catholics are hooked on Fatima because it points to their “Pope” and “Saint” John Paul 2.

Whether or not the 1984 Lucia was the real one or not (I think not), Fatima is constantly in the forefront in the minds of everyone who calls himself Catholic.

A fake Lucia keeps the Fatima deception going for Vatican 2 Catholics believing John Paul 2 was great and the Vatican 2 religion is true, or perhaps expecting a pope to consecrate Russia correctly as asked. Many traditional Catholics expect a pope to consecrate Russia so that the nation converts to Catholicism. Many sedevantists are expecting a special triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary where a Church comes out of this great apostasy with a true pope because that’s how Fatima is interpreted.

We know that Our Lady would know the future as even Fatima indicates. Would she present herself at Fatima knowing full well how Fatima is used against real Catholicism with so much vagueness, confusion, and division? Perhaps, but it also seems to fit the biblical prophecy in II Thess. 2:10.

Fatima keeps people in the Vatican 2 religion.

Unnecessary cause for division among Catholics and contradiction

Almost no Catholic says the Fatima prayer in the Rosary correctly. William Thomas Walsh interviewed Lucia and she flatly denied what Fr. Jenkins of the SSPV said about it. It’s on page 225 of the 1947 book Our Lady of Fatima:

“In many books about Fatima, the prayer Our Lady asked you to say after the decades of the Rosary is given in some such form as this: ‘O my Jesus, pardon our sins, save us from the fire of hell, have mercy on the souls in Purgatory, especially the most abandoned.’ Is that correct?” “No, it is not,” she replied positively. “The correct form is the one I have written in my account of the apparition on July 13: ‘O my Jesus, pardon us, and save us from the fire of hell; draw all souls to heaven, especially those in most need.”

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What happens when those who believe are mixed with those who don’t believe when praying the Rosary together? This may not be a big deal but the next thing I’ll mention most certainly is.

Apparitionists demand Fatima be believed and accepted when the Church demands no such thing. While it permits belief in Fatima, it doesn’t demand it. The Church doesn’t say Fatima is true.

However, the message is for the pope to do something or else. Acceptance of Fatima becomes critical.

If Fatima is true, then the pope better do it and do it right. It’s not just about believing or not believing a private revelation. Lives are at stake because Communism is the most murderous state ever seen in history. Accepting, believing, and obeying Fatima concerns the expansion of Communism and the results thereof.

There’s a threat to the world if the pope doesn’t do what’s asked in a private revelation. It really fuels the apparitionists demand for belief and in a strong way vindicates apparitionists in their position on apparitions. How can such a condition be merely a private revelation that may or may not be accepted? It just so happens that Pope Pius XII nor any Vatican 2 pope did what Our Lady of Fatima asked, so did any of them truly believe in Fatima?

Fatima is a private revelation, yet it demands belief outside of the usual parameters of the Catholic Faith, which is precisely what a private revelation can’t do or can it? We have major divisions and animosity over an apparition.

ORIGINAL FIRST DRAFT BELOW

The Great Fatima Distraction?

We are not bound to believe in private revelations. When the Church presents liturgies or churches in honor of a private revelation such as an apparition, it doesn’t imply the revelation is true and must be believed. Our faith doesn’t depend on them at all.

A liturgy or church in honor of an apparition may appear that the Church believes in it, but this is a matter of perspective. It would appear the Church, at one time, believed popes could be deposed. It would appear that it believed the Roman line during the Great Western Schism was the true line. These opinions are just opinions. The Church has opinions, too, and private revelations are one of them.

What is not an opinion is the Church saying a private revelation is worthy of belief. When the Church says a private revelation is worthy of belief, it means it’s free from doctrinal or moral error, and this declaration must be accepted and believed. However, the Church saying a private revelation, such as an apparition is worthy of belief, it doesn’t imply it’s free from historical inaccuracies, silly ideas, fraud, or demonic activity. It may have all of the above.

The Mystical City of God by Mary of Agreda was approved by the Church. However, there are errors in the work. The Catholic Encyclopedia states:

In particular instances, these visionaries have been mistaken: thus Marie de Agreda teaches, like her contemporaries, the existence of crystal heavens, and declares that one must believe everything she says, although such an obligation exists only in the case of the Holy Scripture. In 1771 Clement XIV forbade the continuation of her process of beatification “on account of the book”. [1]

Yet, in 1900, Pope Leo XIII granted an Apostolic Blessing to a Canadian lay woman who informed the pope of printing a book of all the instructions found at the end of each chapter in The Mystical City of God. Pope Leo XIII then ordered the book to be printed on the presses of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda in Rome. The book titled Sublime doctrine de la Mère de Dieu sur les vertus chrétiennes (extrait de la ‘Cité mystique de Dieu’ par le Vén. Marie d’Agreda- Rome, Impr.de la Sacrée Congrégation de la Propagande, 1900. vii + 403pp.+ frontispiece.)

When I wrote about the problems with the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe [2], I discovered problems with the Fatima apparitions.

Much of what we’re told by Lucia of Fatima comes 20 years after the apparitions.

Bishop José Alves Correia da Silva approved the 1917 Fatima apparitions including the later apparitions in Spain as part of the Fatima message. For instance, Lucia claims that Our Lady appeared on December 10, 1925 at Pontevedra, to manifest Her Heart pierced with thorns, and to request the practice of the communion of reparation on the five First Saturdays of the month. The same bishop sanctioned the First Saturdays devotion on September 13, 1939.

According to Lucia, Our Lady came back one more time, on June 13, 1929, at Tuy, to ask for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, which is also included as part of the overall approval of Fatima.

The 1930 approval of Fatima is interesting considering some problems the Church noticed during its investigation.

With all charity, respect to the Church, and all those who strongly believe in Fatima, I would like to bring up some those seriously troubling issues about Fatima. The following information comes from the Critical Documentation of Fatima at fatima_critical1.pdf

In case one thinks the documentation is fake, one can also find much of the info in the 1950 book The True Story of Fatima | EWTN by Fr. John de Marchi, I.M.C.

First Issue

Our Lady’s clothing and jewelry are not proper for Our Lady

The children described Our Lady:

“The attire consisted of a white cloak that reached from the head to the bottom of the skirt, gold from the waist down, with the strings crossing it, and from top to bottom, and the edges were more closely spaced. The skirt was white all over, with gold strings running along and across, but only reaching to the knee; a white coat, not gold, with only two or three strings at the cuffs; no shoes, white stockings, not gold; around the neck was a gold chain with a medal at the tips; her hands were raised; she had very small buttons on her ears, very close to her ears; she parted her hands when she spoke; she had black eyes; she was of medium height.” (emphasis mine) (Fatima Doc. 1 1917-05-c.27 Interrogation of Father Manuel Marques Ferreira, parish priest of Fátima, to Lúcia de Jesus Santos about the first apparition.)

The bottom line, the apparition doesn’t appear to be Our Lady. If we made an image of Our Lady as described, would it be accepted by the Church, reproduced, and placed inside churches? After all, it should not be problem with a statue as described in church by an apparition approved as worthy of belief.

Second Serious Issue

Two Major False Prophecies from Fatima

If we go back to the day of the “miracle of the sun” Lucia was telling everyone on Oct. 13, 1917 that WW1 would end that day. After the “miracle” of the sun on Oct. 13, Father Manuel Marques Ferreira interviewed Lucia on Oct. 16. Lucia tells him that Our Lady told her:

“I want to tell you not to offend Our Lord anymore; that they pray the rosary to Our Lady; build a little chapel here for Our Lady of the Rosary (Lúcia is unsure whether it was like that: build a little chapel here, I am Our Lady of the Rosary); the war ends today; wait here for your military, very soon.”

In another interview three days later on Oct. 19, 1917, she told Father Manuel Nunes Formigão STD, JCD:

She [Our Lady] said: “The war ends today; wait here for your soldiers very soon.”

Fr Formigão: Did she say: “wait here for your military” or “wait here for your soldiers”?

She said: “Wait here for the military.”

Fr Formigão:  But look, the war is still going on!… The newspapers report that there have been fights since the thirteenth!… How can this be explained, if Our Lady said that the war ended on that day?

Lucia: I don’t know. I only know that I heard her say that the war would end on the 13th. I don’t know anything else

Fr Formigão:  Some people say that they heard you say on that day that Our Lady had declared that the war would end soon. Is this true?

[Lucia] I said it just as Our Lady had said it.

Fr Formigão also asked Jacinta on the same day:

Did she say that the war would end that day or that it would end soon?

Jacinta: Our Lady said that when she got to heaven, the war would end.

Fr Formigão: But the war isn’t over yet!

Jacinta: It is ending, it is ending

Fr Formigão: But when will it end?

Jacinta: I think it ends on Sunday.

In yet another interview following Oct. 13, Father António dos Santos Alves writes:

[Our Lady] told [the children] that she was Our Lady of the Rosary; that the war ended that day; that our soldiers would soon come; that they were to build a chapel to Our Lady of the Rosary on the site of the apparition and that the people amend their sins that have greatly offended her Son.

If Lucia misunderstood back when she actually heard Our Lady, how is it that she would remember so clearly 20 years later when writing her memoirs?

The excuse that exhaustive interrogating to exhausted children caused them to get the date wrong. That might be the case for little Jacinta, but Lucia doubled-down, even triple-downed her assertion that the war would end on Oct. 13, 1917. The end of the war date would be one thing you would remember and Lucia most certainly remembered it!

This huge contradiction and weird description of Our Lady’s appearance are overlooked by the miracle of the sun and massive influence of the people in persuading the authorities to accepting the whole thing and approving belief in it.

Bottom line, Lucia got it wrong repeatedly at the time or the apparition is false. If she got it wrong so badly within a week, how can we trust her memory twenty years later from her memoirs? Her own parish priest Father Manuel Marques Ferreira never believed the story even after the “miracle” of the sun. He thought it was all demonic!

The second prophecy is far worse!

Second False Prophecy and the Third Secret

Lucia told Father Augustin Fuentes on December 26, 1957,

“Father, the Most Holy Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to Her message, neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on their way but without giving any importance to Her message. The bad, not seeing the punishment of God actually falling upon them, continue their life of sin without even caring about the message. But believe me, Father, God will chastise the world and this will be in a terrible manner. The punishment from Heaven is imminent.

Father, how much time is there before 1960 arrives? It will be very sad for everyone, not one person will rejoice at all if beforehand the world does not pray and do penance. I am not able to give any other details because it is still a secret. By the will of the Blessed Virgin, only the Holy Father and the Bishop of Fatima can know the secret. Both have chosen, however, not to open it in order not to be influenced by it.

This is the third part of the Message of Our Lady, which will remain secret until 1960.

 Tell them, Father, that many times the most Holy Virgin told my cousins Francisco and Jacinta, as well as myself, that many nations will disappear from the face of the earth. She said that Russia will be the instrument of chastisement chosen by Heaven to punish the whole world if we do not beforehand obtain the conversion of that poor nation.

Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. And the devil knows what it is that most offends God and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus, the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way, the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them.

According to Lucia, part of the third secret is also part the great chastisement that happens between 1957 and 1960.

Cardinal Ottaviani asked Lucia 1955 why not before 1960, and she said, “Because then it will seem clearer (mais claro).” In fact, she stated, “it cannot be made known before 1960.” When pressed to why it had to be in 1960, she and Bishop José Correia da Silva replied to Canon Barthas in 1946: “Because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so.”

We see wars and people dying in the first two secrets. In the third secret, we hear about another major chastisement which will happen between 1957 and 1960.

Lucia said the world (not the Church) was going to be punished severely. The world would understand the contents of the third secret when revealed in 1960 just as people would understand the second secret when revealed after the fact. (World War 2 and revealed by Lucia in 1941.)

Logically, the election of Roncalli couldn’t be this part of the secret because in 1960, virtually everyone believed him to be a true pope and rejoiced something Lucia said would not happen. There would be no rejoicing.

The secret couldn’t say we have a fake pope only to be revealed by a fake pope. Therefore, it couldn’t have referred to the pope as some type of imposter pope.

Another critical point is that Lucia said, “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.”

If we draw an inference that this might mean apostasy in other places around the world, where would this be seen in 1960?

The question is what kind of terrible chastisement would befall on the whole world that could be seen by 1960 that would be as big as the first two secrets to verify the prophecy was true? Again, we’re talking about part of the third secret because that is what Lucia said.

China was the only country to suffer a major chastisement with the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962), which caused the Great Chinese Famine, resulting in an estimated 15 to 55 million deaths. This is huge for China, but not the world. Surely, the great chastisement Lucia is referring would be greater than China’s catastrophe.

Think of all the possibilities and what we find absolutely nothing!

If any other religion put something out like this, we Catholics would call it out for what it is, a false prophecy, because that’s simply what it is.

Bottom line, we have another false prophecy. However, the Church did not approve this prophecy as told in 1957 as worthy of belief. It was unknown when approved in 1930. Again, was the approval in 1930 provisional? Is Lucia not trustworthy? Does the whole Fatima event and the false prophecies go hand in hand? Absolutely!

Third Serious Issue

Too many exceptions are needed.

Fatima is nothing like Lourdes and St. Bernadette. The message at Lourdes was nothing new to Catholicism. It confirmed a recent dogma. The three secrets were for Bernadette herself. Its message was simple with a miraculous healing spring as a reward for having faith. It was a beautiful and wonderful event in every way. No real problems, no real confusions.

Fatima on the other hand has everything Lourdes doesn’t. Problems, confusions, demands or else, and major prophecies that don’t come as stated.

When the angel appeared in the beginning, he gave the children Communion. Jacinta and Francesco hadn’t even received their First Communion yet. When Francesco received from the Chalice, he asked Lucia what he had received because he was unaware of what it was.

There are several strange things about this occurrence. In the West, we don’t receive from the Chalice and preparation and knowledge of Communion is absolutely demanded for those of the age of reason. Infants don’t need to know because they are not able. However, when the Sacraments are given to those of the age of reason, it’s imperative to understand what’s being received except in cases of danger of death.

If the angel is truly from Heaven, why would he go against the norms of the Church on such an important thing as Holy Communion? How would or could you know he was truly from Heaven if the only way to test the spirit are with the norms of the Church?

In the West, we fast before Communion, but are we to expect the children had no breakfast? It’s possible, but it seems like one exception after another is needed to legitimize the event as coming from Heaven.

We are not told about the angel story in 1917 but years later in 1937 and 1941 by Lucia and her memoirs.

The bottom line is the radically strange way Holy Communion was given to the children under the circumstances, where the testing the spirit with Catholic belief and practice is impossible. However, the Church didn’t approve of this story of the Angel as it came from the memoirs of Lucia over twenty years after the fact. Again, is Lucia trustworthy and was the approval provisional?

Other problems with Fatima are covered in the Footnotes. However, these three suffice to show Fatima is not from Heaven.

What about the Miracle of the Sun?

The miracle of the sun was also seen many times at Medjugorja. I had friends who not only saw the miracle of the sun at Medjugorja, but their rosary beads turned to gold on each bead as they prayed it. They were strong believers in John Paul 2 and the Vatican 2 religion because of Medjugorja. Yet, these apparitions have blunt heresies even by Vatican 2 standards.

I have another friend who saw the miracle of the sun at Garabandal. The apparitions of Garabandal from 1961 to 1965 also have other spectacular miracles, yet its prophecies also failed miserably proving it to be a false apparition.

What I find interesting is that not all 70,000 people saw the “miracle” on that day as reported by apparitionists. Many reported seeing nothing unusual, which of course included the many skeptics, atheists, etc. the very ones that would need to see to believe. Everyone described the event quite differently, too.

The skeptical explanations for the “miracle” are also quite reasonable. In Pentecostal settings, we see how the power of suggestion make masses of people believe they’ve been “slain in the spirit.” I’ve seen it first-hand. “Speaking in tongues” is another example. We definitely see the power of suggestion at Fatima and many other places. Combine that with starring at the sun for a long period of time and then expecting to see something unusual. If a real weather condition happened on that day with all the other conditions, the event would certainly be magnified.

We read about this very thing in the book “God and the Sun of Fatima” written by the priest, physicist and philosopher of science, Father Stanley L Jaki, who believed in Fatima.

Fr. Jaki tells of the devout Catholic lawyer and Third Order Franciscan Domingo Pintos Coelho who was there in the Cova on Oct. 13, 1917. He published what he witnessed that day on Oct. 16^th in the local Catholic newspaper titled “Ordem.” (Keep in mind that in 1917, permission to write and publish on the Church was required as seen in canon law.)

Jaki didn’t like what Coelho wrote and breaks down everything he wrote to make Coelho appear to look irresponsible and/or faithless. However, Jaki was a strong believer in the miracle and he wouldn’t let anything get in his way in spreading what he believed was a miracle, but the fact remains that there is another side to the story.

Coelho wrote (p. 53): The leading newspapers began to speak of this case with great frequency and it will therefore be good not to reach a wrong conclusion before considering some ideas that rightly present themselves in cases of this nature. It is clear that as Catholics we accept the full possibility of the miracle. God, since He made the laws which rule natural phenomena, can also alter or suspend them. Simply put, a miracle is an exception. And exceptions are not presumed. They require certain proof. The Catholic Church has constantly insisted on the matter of proofs before it would agree to establishing the miraculous character of any fact of series of facts.

He continued in the next few pages…

In reference to what happened on Saturday the thirteenth, we can give witness because we were there, not as a pilgrim, note that well, but as a curious spectator.

From eleven until one-thirty the rain was constant and driven by a strong wind; a frankly rough and disagreeable weather which the enormous crowd of many thousands of people endured with excellent humor, without shelter other than rain hats and the vehicles, since not even one building is to be found in the vicinity.

Thirty-seven and a half minutes after one o’clock—or noon by solar time—was the hour set for the vision with which it was hoped that the phenomena in the heavens would coincide.

At this moment it continued to rain.

Some moments later the rain slackened and at one forty-five it stopped altogether. The sun, until then concealed, showed itself among the clouds that moved fairly fast. Because their density was variable, the veil which they threw over the king of stars [sun] was diaphanous. Like the multitude, we then looked toward the sun with rapt attention, and through the clouds, we saw it under new aspects—new for us, mark it well… Now surrounded by reddish flames, now with a ring of yellow or bright violet, now seemingly enlivened by a very rapid rotating movement, now even apparently detaching itself from the sky, approaching the earth, and giving forth a strong heat…

Why deny it? These phenomena, which we had never before witnessed, impressed us greatly. Among the crowds, a collective psychology established itself. And generally speaking there passed over the vast majority of that crowd a tremendous wave of faith that was very moving.

But then Coelho continues to explain….

One doubt remained with us, however.

Was what we saw in the sun an exceptional thing? Or could it be reproduced in analogous circumstances?

Now it was precisely this analogy of circumstances that presented itself to us yesterday [Sunday]. We could see the sun half overcast with clouds as on Saturday. And sincerely, we saw on that day the same succession of colors, the same rotary movement, etc.

(p. 57)

Coelho concluded his article:

Eliminating, then, the only extraordinary fact, what remains? Right now, the statements of the three children and nothing else.

It is very little.

Will the children be found sincere? We have no reason to doubt that they will be; their humble state is a guarantee of this for us.

We ask pardon for the crabbed stories of the investigators of popular belief who have attributed mysterious profit motives to the shepherds, for not believing this story without proof. Do the strongminded [espiritos fortes or freethinkers] want us to believe without proof? Very well. But with the same right we could demand from those who see in all this but Jesuit trickeries the same proofs they demand from us, regardless of whether they find them inconvenient and therefore dispense with them.

In sum, we returned from Fatima in the same state of mind in which we went there—in doubt.

Was there a miracle, were there apparitions? It is possible but between possibility and reality there is an abyss.

We will therefore continue with an open mind, benevolent, if so desired, but nothing more.

And let us be permitted to advise those who by their position and intelligence can influence others not to go beyond this limit.

(pp. 59-60)

After this article was published on Oct. 16^th, 1917, Coelho published another article the next day Oct. 17, again, talking about Fatima.

If miracles are rare today, it does not mean that they can no longer occur. For example, the lives of Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, and of the Curé d’ Ars were full of miracles. The history of Lourdes is also a series of miracles verified with the greatest rigor. …

St. Augustine says: “A miracle should never be proclaimed when a natural explanation is possible”.

This rule has always been scrupulously observed by the Church, the teacher of truth.

Now what did we say about the case of Fatima? That we, the obscure author of these lines, had not observed any fact that would prompt us to consider as supernatural. But not only did we treat it from a personal and unauthorized point of view but in no way did we wish to disclaim the observations which others have made and which differ from ours.

We would want nothing more than to witness events to which no natural explanation can be fitted. Our disappointment was great, when on Sunday, as we said, we verified the vacuity of what on the day before had seemed to be miraculous; our disappointment was heightened since we were greatly impressed by the coincidence that the rain of three hours’ duration had stopped almost exactly at the moment when the children prayed, and that the sun then appeared in the clouds.

Simply put, it is necessary in a matter of such weight not to yield to the principle Quod vohumus facile credimus.

We therefore conclude as we did yesterday: it is fitting to replace premature enthusiasm with the most prudent reserve. If in Fatima there is something of the supernatural our holding back will not impede the march of events upon which god in His infinite wisdom has decided.

On the other hand, a fiasco following hasty exaltation would not fail to be exploited by the enemies of the Church; they are always numerous, very active, and constantly on the watch for the propitious moment for the attack.

End of Coelho.

Coelho called the “Miracle of the Sun” vacuous and he got backlash immediately by other papers. I included this report to show there was another side, which many apparitionists don’t include in their stories. Jaki was an exception.

The bottom line, the “miracle” of the sun doesn’t prove a heavenly apparition. To one devout Catholic who witnessed the event didn’t even think it was miraculous and publicly tells us so in two articles in a Catholic magazine within a week of the “miracle”. The same so-called miracle of the sun is seen at all the modern apparition sites, which we know are false. Yet, it was this very “miracle” that has convinced most Catholics that Fatima is a true apparition from Heaven.

Conclusion

The prophecies definitely failed. Is that the fault of Fatima or Lucia? It’s hard to separate the two. However, we know that Garabandal was false precisely because of the false prophecies. Why are the false prophecies of Fatima overlooked?

People would rather believe in a hoax, a deception of the devil, or any lie if it makes them feel better. The pope, many bishops, and many theologians and canonists have bought into Fatima but that doesn’t mean it’s true. It doesn’t mean it’s probably true.

Lastly, the Church has declared that nothing in the Fatima apparition is heretical or dangerous morally or doctrinally. However, is it possible the Fatima apparitions are a demonic deception as a distraction to something else? For instance, what was really behind the Spanish Flu and Vaccines? See page 27 of the COVID-Report-from-Rep.-Weyler-3.pdf

Both Jacinta and Francisco Marto were killed by the Spanish Flu. 100 million people died from this chastisement that’s never mentioned by Our Lady of Fatima. That’s as many or more people than both world wars put together! How could the Spanish Flu be overlooked? How is it still overlooked?

Another possible deception concerns what was then the future of the Church. Is Fatima a demonic plan hidden within the demonic plan? All kinds of ideas floating around Fatima predictions, consecration of Russia, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, etc. all of which have nothing to do with the real Gospel and confuse the end times as Scripture tells us.

These all are the bad fruits of Fatima.

We know how Pope Leo XIII in the 1880’s tells us how in his vision Christ gives the Devil the time and power to deceive the Church. Was Fatima part of that plan in the grand scheme of things? After all, the whole reason we pray the St. Michael prayer after mass is because of Satan’s plan to destroy the Church. Pius XI shorten the prayer in 1934 and leaves out those critical points Pope Leo XIII put in the prayer. See the Original St. Michael Prayer of Pope Leo XIII. Why was the crackdown on modernists put to an end after Pope Pius X?

I don’t know how you get around the false prophecies, but it looks to me to be another great deception of the devil to fool the masses to distract from something far greater.

Check out Footnote 3 to see more of the Fatima deception.

Footnotes:

[1] CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Private Revelations

[2] Problems with the Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe – Part I

Problems with the Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe – Part II

By Timothy Fitzpatrick
Feb. 23, 2022 Anno Domini
Book Review

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema” ‑Galatians 1, 8

The Lady of Fatima and the Anti-Christ—The Fatima narrative in the light of Catholic truth (2018) is a book that will no doubt anger many Catholics, but if the book has any truth, as the Latin maxim says, “Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.” Some angels, along with Satan, did fall from the heavens and posed as the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal in 1917 as part of a strategic apocalyptic setup—this is the theme of Bernal Diaz’s book.

He attempts to penetrate the official Vatican narrative of the so called apparition of the Virgin Mary (“Our Lady of Fatima”) at Fatima from multiple angles, including through the credibility of the primary witnesses (three young children); the contradictions in the apparitions’ messages and manifestations with traditional Catholic dogma; inconsistencies with the apparitions’ identities and behaviour; the similarities between physical phenomena at Fatima and demonic encounters; and the subversive effects from the cult of Fatima resulting in leading its members into paganism, Islam, and accepting a Crimean-based anti-Christ. (I’ve used apparitions in the plural form because we don’t know that it has been only one apparition to have appeared at Fatima multiple times. It could be multiple entities posing as the same person multiple times).

The latter angle may seem like a bit of a stretch as it pertains to Islam, especially for readers of Fitzinfo.net, but if one considers Islam as a subset of Jewish-Masonic world Noahidism, the author’s conclusions can work from, say, the Catholic worldview presented by Monsignor George F. Dillon in Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked (1885) or a similar one presented by La Civilta Cattolica in On the Jewish Question In Europe (1890). It seems that the Catholic Church has warned its flock more of the dangers of subversive Jewish behaviour than it has of Islamic. After all, it’s the “perfidious Jews” for whose salvation we ought to pray more so than the Islamic infidels, it seems. The passage of time has show Islam as the Jewish lackey that it is.

“Jews should rejoice at the fact that Christian Europe is losing its identity as a punishment for what it did to us for the hundreds of years we were in exile…. And now, Europe is losing its identity in favour of another people and another religion…. Even if we are in a major war with the region’s Arabs over the Land of Israel, Islam is still much better as a gentile culture than Christianity.” —Rabbi Baruch Efrati, 2012

To his credit, Diaz does touch on the Jewish-Islam partnership in the last chapter.

Nonetheless, Islam could play a larger role in the anti-Christ deception than we might imagine, as Diaz suggests. Perhaps it could be that Jewry loses control over Islam, and it takes on a bloody, revolutionary life of its own, like it has done many times in history. Furthermore, it’s becoming apparent that Judaism is nothing but repackaged ancient paganism with a special focus on racial identity. If Islam is a creation of Judaism, like many clerics believe, then all the more does it accomodate a push for revived paganism under the anti-Christ in the end days. If the devil chose “Our Lady of Fatima” to spread a false gospel—human and goddess co-redemption—because of its association with Mohammad’s daughter Fatimah and to facilitate the grotesque union of Catholicism with Islam, perhaps it explains why some Fatimists are so pro-Islam. According to these Islamophiles, like with the Judeophiles, Muslims are part of God’s plan of salvation. That’s quite an absurd conclusion, but it seems to be spreading among even so called traditional Catholics (E. Michael Jones anyone?). According to Diaz, it may be that Mary’s immaculate conception was hijacked and applied to Mohammad’s daughter Fatimah through the demon(s) posing as “our lady” at Fatima, Portugal as some sort of twisted mockery and blasphemy, and to blur the line between Catholicism and Islam. Fatimah is portrayed as a sinless goddess figure in the Islamic Quran.

“Satan appeared as Fatimah, the daughter of Mohamet, and called himself “Our lady of the Rosary” while others have given him the name “Our Lady of Fatima.” This last title implies a lady that is derived from Fatima. In other words, Satan came as the lady Fatima!”

A warning to readers who are already offended by the subject of this book but might be reading this review out of curiosity: the author makes even more controversy by taking sedevacantism (vacancy of the Holy See) back beyond it’s common starting year of 1958 to 1878, when the supposed last valid Pope, Pius IX, died. As extreme as this may sound, it’s a notion not entirely new in our time. Michael Hoffman’s 2017 book The Occult Renaissance Church of Rome seems to suggest that the last valid pope was some time before the Medicis took over the papacy. But the reader should not let this dissuade them from reading this book, as it largely deals with the technical and spiritual problems with the cult of Fatima. Diaz fully references his sources—all 301 of them. It’s worth reading, even if you believe Fatima was authentic. I found it difficult to put the book down.

Diaz draws an interesting conclusion from the name of one of the key players in the Fatima narrative, Fatima’s child witness Jacinta, which he sees as a providential clue as to the origins of the apparitions (Jacinta is Portuguese for Hyacinth).

“Saint Hyacinth cut the pagan ‘sacred’ oak tree down. Some accounts say there were visible demons that left the tree. In any case, given the satanic nature of the apparitions at Fatima, it isn’t difficult to understand the symbolic nature of this girl being named after the saint who cut the “great oak” tree down. The tree the “lady” of Fatima appeared on was yet another oak tree. One of the children was named after Saint Hyacinth who fell the first tree. It was left to Jacinta to “fell” the tree of these Satanic apparitions. Jacinta failed in this task. It is now the turn of each individual soul to comprehend and help others see and understand the evil nature of these apparitions.”

Phenomena associated with classic demonic encounters that was present at the Fatima apparitions includes buzzing sounds (that of a bee or fly); lightning, clouds, glowing globes, chilling of the air, and negative physiological and/or psychological effects in humans.

“Beelzebub is the god of flies and of course he is a devil. Buzzing is the sound they heard at the apparitions,” writes Diaz. “Not the Virgin Mary, not ‘UFOS.’ Islam’s false prophet had a similar experience….”

As the Fatima apparition came down to the Earth like lightning, so, too, does Satan:

“And the seventy-two returned with joy, saying: Lord, the devils also are subject to us in thy name. And he said to them: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven.” (Luke 10:17-18)

These are just some of the many disturbing revelations discussed in the book.

The biggest red flag seems to be the out-of-character display by the Fatima apparition supposedly posing as Mary. Mary has not and never would elevate herself above her Son, as she seems to do at Fatima. Everything else comes unglued from there, as Diaz demonstrates.

“The teachings of Antipope Pius X about the Virgin Mary being Co-Redemptrix was in preparation for the loathing false teachings coming from Fatima that turns the honest seeker of Mary’s intercession into an act of repugnant adoration of a false goddess.”

Here’s a final pair of quotes from the book that relates to the Soviet-Israel, perestroika-deception focus of Fitzinfo.net:

“It is very possible that the beast of Fatima will react to a “consecration” from the antipope by pointing to a man in Crimea/Russia as the answer to world peace either then or in the future.”

…

“Based on the book of Daniel, Bishop Wamesley believes the Antichrist will come from ‘Crim Tartary,’ the modern day Crimea, which was annexed from the Ukraine and joined with Russia on March 18, 2014. This may be the case since the demon of Fatima directed our attention to Russia. To this very day the followers of the Fatima lie are anxiously watching Russia and waiting for the “consecration” so we may see her ‘conversion’.”

Crimea happens to be part of the region that was the old Jewish kingdom of Khazaria—the middlemen between the Eastern Orthodox kingdom of Bynzantium and Kievan-Rus “Third Rome” in the north.

By Timothy Fitzpatrick
Jan. 22, 2019 Anno Domini

There are major theological and geopolitical inconsistencies presented by the alleged prophetic Marian apparition at Fatima in the early 20th century.

The much-touted apparition, which seems to be accepted as authentic by the Vatican and is highly touted in the traditional Catholic movement, tends towards not only private interpretation but also millenarianism (an earthly kingdom)—both of which are anathema to both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Before I go on, let me first point out that I am a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, so I have no dog in this fight when I say that the Fatima prophecies are actually anti-Catholic. Furthermore, my eschatological position is that of the majority of the Church Fathers, which is a post- or amillennial view based in some type of Preterism, perhaps partial Preterism. This is important to note, because the Fatima prophecies tend towards a futurist and even pre-millennial view—inconsistent with the majority view of the Fathers. In fact, Fatima’s eschatology is more consistent with Protestantism and millennarianist philo-Semitism, perhaps similar to that of the Puritans and Hussites, for example. Millenarianism is a sort of Earthly messianic expectation in the spirit of racially supremacist Jews.

The timing of Fatima is very suspicious—the same year of Lenin’s anti-Christ October Revolution in Russia (1917) and Europe. But more on that later.

Russia’s false conversion, false consecration
The major red flag with the prophecies is its prediction that the Russian empire will come back to the Catholic faith in the near future. First, it presupposes a continuation of Christ’s millennial reign on Earth (One thousand years of the Church’s rule, be it through Rome or Byzantium), even though it is clearly already at an end.  Second, it requires that Russia will either completely abandon Eastern Orthodoxy or modify Eastern Orthodoxy to fit in with Roman Catholicsm (and vice versa)—the latter of which is currently happening through ecumenism. Last but not least, Russia’s current perceived shift to the Right seems to corroborate the Fatima’ prophecy of the consecration of Russia. Why, Russia could only be consecrated if it finally abandoned its Godless communism, and that supposedly happened in the 1990s. In reality, Russia is merely feigning a turn to the Right as part of its old Leninist strategy of leading its opposition, namely conservatives/Christians/nationalists, into a trap.  To lure them into this trap, the Soviets must pretend to be like their opponents. Russia is still communist, although it is a much more developed and chameleonic collectivism, which is spreading to each corner of the world. Therefore, Fatima could not be fulfilled by a fake consecration.

Russia to heal Great Schism, create world religion?

During the Revolution, a big part of the Leninist strategy was to infiltrate and control not only the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) at home but also the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) abroad. The former was achieved in 1918 with the ousting of St. Tikhon, the latter achieved with the communist Judeo-masonic subversion of the Vatican no later than the 1960s, culminating in the anti-Christ Second Vatican Council.
However, the communists learned that since “the gates of hell will not prevail” against Christ’s Church (they couldn’t eradicate altogether Christianity from the hearts of all of the Russian people), they would have to infiltrate it, instead of trying to destroy it. With both Churches already under Soviet, Cultural Marxist control by the end of the 1960s, the next step in the Soviet plan was to unite the two Churches—something I imagine we will eventually see soon. What’s more, it appears the following step in this Soviet plan involves creating a world religion (this is consistent with New Age-Jewish messianism/millennarianism), likely to be based in Jerusalem, home to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim shrines. Today, Russia is home to large amounts of devotees to all three faiths, and has been promoting multiculturalism and inter-faith dialogue since the Revolution began. Russia is still very much a philo-Semitic, philo-Islamic nation. Russia has the largest Muslim population in all of Europe and is still run by mainly Jewish oligarchs and mobsters. Unfortunately, it seems that the great majority of Christians in Russia identify as such out of tradition and nationalism, not so much out of sincere belief. While the Church may appear to be growing in Russia, it is a shallow, false revival based in a revived National Bolshevism. Indeed, true Russian Orthodox authorities warned their flocks that the Soviets would, in the future, build grand churches with which to deceive the masses.

Fatima’s carnal message
Instead of looking to Christ’s superior, spiritual Kingdom, which is here with us now, these sincere yet misguided traditional Catholics take seriously this Fatima consecration of Russia and look to a future Earthly kingdom where Russia and, presumably, the world are consecrated to the RCC and peace is brought in.

“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world,” reads the end of the so-called second secret of Fatima.

Wow! That’s a rather convenient narrative if your Vladimir Lenin in 1917 looking for a way to fool the Catholic world (the majority in Christendom in terms of numbers) into accepting that Russia’s chameleonic communism is a return to God. Theologically speaking, Fatima’s message is outright Protestantism. True Catholicism has never been millenarianist, nor has it given credence to such fantastical privately interpreted visions. This alleged message from the Holy Mother suggests a restoration of the Church on Earth, despite that the Book of Revelation says basically the opposite would happen following Christ’s one thousand-year reign on Earth (the Church age).

It seems to say that following the Church Age, Satan would be unleashed for a short time to deceive the world, leading to a great apostasy before the final judgment. We appear to be in this phase right now. So instead of some imagined revival, we can only expect to slide further and further into apostasy before the final judgment.
Revelation carries a harsh warning to anyone who would add or take away even one word from the Holy Scriptures. Does Fatima violate this? It appears so. Fatimists are so dedicated to the Fatima message, they seem to hold it on the same level of authority as the Scriptures and Tradition.

The geopolitical inconsistency with Fatima is perhaps even more pronounced. Today, the world is on a terrible and colossal slide into full-fledged apostasy. The momentum is such that it’s hard to believe any God-fearing person could honestly think that a turning point were right around the corner. This fatal error is likely also responsible for the seemingly traditional Catholic support for Putinist Russia and its crypto-Soviet expansion and destruction of Western Civilization. Tainted with the pro-Russian sentiment inherent in the Fatima prophecy, traditional Catholics can only view world events from a pro-Russia view. Thus, if and when Russia and its current Eurasianist agenda succeed in overthrowing the West and the entire world, are tradcats going to believe this will be Christ’s rule on Earth, the time of peace Fatima said it would be? Are they being set up to accept the anti-Christ world religon? We have countless Soviet defectors corroborating the narrative that the Soviets feigned the collapse of communism and are feigning a return to Christianity and conservatism.

Hijacked Vatican brought Fatima’s message to the world
Tradcats also need to realize that it was the Judeo-masonic, communist-infiltrated post-Vatican-II-occupied Holy See that brought these alleged secrets of Fatima to the world. If the secrets were authentic, one would think that anti-Christ Vatican II church would go to any length to suppress these secrets. The logic just doesn’t follow.

There is controversy over whether the third secret was fully disclosed by the Vatican (in the year 2000), and all kinds of speculation surrounds what the complete secret says, one of which is that it spoke of the RCC being infiltrated and becoming the throne of anti-Christ. Well, if this is true, we don’t really need this missing part of the third secret, because it is already very obvious that the RCC, and much of Eastern Orthodoxy, have been hijacked by anti-Christs. Again, Revelation warned that instead of a revival of the Church, she would go into apostasy leading up to the final judgment. Furthermore, the Holy Scriptures seem to suggest that before the final judgment, there would remain only a remnant of the true Church. These revelations appear to be coming true right before our very eyes, as in both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, there are only remnants staying true to the faith and tradition. In the RCC, we have tradcats, sedevacantists, etc. In Eastern Orthodoxy, we have the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA) and individual parishes throughout the Eparchy staying true to tradition. But none of these, unfortunately, make up the majority of the Churches today. They are mere remnants.

Now, if Fatima is indeed a communist ruse to fool tradcats, where does it lead? It can only lead to a re-unified Church, where there is a pseudo healing of the Great Schism between the RCC and Eastern Orthodoxy.
Interestingly in Eastern Orthodoxy, some remnant believers and Saints have already warned that the Bolsheviks would one day appear to restore Russian Orthodoxy and rebuild these magnificent churches but that it would all be for show. Indeed, we now know that Leninist and Stalinist strategy involved giving concessions to the ROC. In fact, after the death of St. Tikhon—the last true Patriarch of the ROC, the Bolsheviks put in one of their own as the head of the ROC. This line of succession of impostor patriarchs continues to this day, with “Patriarch” Kirill. Kirill and Pope Francis appear to be on great terms and could be planning a re-unification soon. Eastern Orthodoxy, especially in the ROC, has its own kind of Fatima message. They, like the Fatimists, believe there will be a great revival of Christianity in Russia, despite warnings from the Bible and Remnant believers to the contrary.

There you have it. The heads of both the RCC and ROC are in the hands of the anti-Christ system. There is no sign of any kind of revival or restoration of Russia to either the Sacred Heart of Mary or to even traditional and true Eastern Orthodoxy.