Cardinal Ratzinger: Penance is the Key to the “Secret”
1. Vatican City, Jun 26, 2000 (VIS) - Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, writes that the “key word’’ of the third secret of Fatima “is the triple cry, ‘Penance, Penance
27
Penance!’” These words appear in his “theological commentary’’ published at the end of the document made
public today by the Holy See. Cardinal Ratzinger goes on to state that other key words are “my Immaculate
heart will triumph,’’ and “the Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns
and weapons of every kind. The ‘fiat’ of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world.’’
The theological commentary of the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is divided
into three parts: Public Revelation and private revelations—their theological status”; “The anthropological
structure of private revelations” and “An attempt to interpret the ‘secret’ of Fatima.”
2. “The term ‘public Revelation’ refers to the revealing action of God directed to humanity as a whole and
which finds its literary expression in the two parts of the Bible: the Old and New Testaments. It is called
‘Revelation’ because in it God gradually made himself known to men, to the point of becoming man himself,
in order to draw to himself the whole world and unite it with himself through his Incarnate Son, Jesus
Christ.…In Christ, God has said everything, that is, he has revealed himself completely, and therefore
Revelation came to an end with the fulfillment of the mystery of Christ as enunciated in the New
Testament.’’
3. ‘Private revelation’, on the other hand, “refers to all the visions and revelations which have taken place
since the completion of the New Testament. This is the category to which we must assign the message of
Fatima. …The authority of private revelations is essentially different from that of the definitive public
Revelation. The latter demands faith.” Private revelation, on the other hand, “is a help to this faith, and
shows its credibility precisely by leading (one) back to the definitive public Revelation.”
Quoting the Flemish theologian E. Dhanis, Cardinal Ratzinger affirms that “ecclesiastical approval of
a private revelation has three elements: the message contains nothing contrary to faith or morals; it is lawful
to make it public; and the faithful are authorized to accept it with prudence. Such a message can be a
genuine help in understanding the Gospel and living it better at a particular moment in time; therefore it
should not be disregarded. It is a help which is offered, but which one is not obliged to use.’’
Cardinal Ratzinger also highlights that “prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean to predict the
future but to explain the will of God for the present, and therefore show the right path to take for the
future.’’
4. The most important part of the theological commentary is dedicated to: “An attempt to interpret the
‘secret’ of Fatima.” In the same way as the key word of the first and second part of the ‘secret’ is to ‘save
souls,’ “the key word of this third part is the threefold cry: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’ The beginning of
the Gospel comes to mind: ‘Repent and believe the Good News.’ To understand the signs of the times means
to accept “the urgency of penance—of conversion—of faith. This is the correct response to this moment of
history, characterized by the grave perils outlined in the images that follow. Allow me to add here a personal
recollection: in a conversation with me Sister Lucia said that it appeared ever more clearly to her
that the purpose of all the apparitions was to help people to grow more and more in faith, hope and love—
everything else was intended to lead to this.’’
5. The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith then considers the “images’’ of the secret:
“The angel with the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls similar images in the Book of
Revelation. This represents the threat of judgement which looms over the world. Today the prospect that
the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his
inventions, has forged the flaming sword.
“The vision then shows the power which stands opposed to the force of destruction the splendor of the
Mother of God and, stemming from this in a certain way, the summons to penance. In this way, the importance
of human freedom is underlined: the future is not in fact unchangeably set, and the image which the
children saw is in no way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed. Indeed, the whole
point of the vision is to bring freedom onto the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction.…Its
meaning is to mobilize the forces of change in the right direction. Therefore we must totally discount fatalistic
explanations of the ‘secret’, such as, for example, the claim that the would-be assassin of May 13, 1981
was merely an instrument of the divine plan guided by Providence.…Rather, the vision speaks of dangers
and how we might be saved from them.’’
Cardinal Ratzinger explains that “the place of the action is described in three symbols: a steep mountain,
a great city reduced to ruins and finally a large rough-hewn cross. The mountain and city symbolize
the arena of human history: history as an arduous ascent to the summit, history as the arena of human
28
creativity and social harmony, but at the same time a place of destruction, where man actually destroys
the fruits of his own work.…On the mountain stands the cross—the goal and guide of history. The cross
transforms destruction into salvation; it stands as a sign of history’s misery but also as a promise for history.“
At this point human persons appear: the Bishop dressed in white: (‘we had the impression that it was
the Holy Father’), other Bishops, priests, men and women Religious, and men and women of different ranks
and social positions. The Pope seems to precede the others, trembling and suffering because of all the horrors
around him. Not only do the houses of the city lie half in ruins, but he makes his way among the
corpses of the dead. The Church’s path is thus described as a ‘Via Crucis’, as a journey through a time of
violence, destruction and persecution. The history of an entire century can be seen represented in this
image. Just as the places of the earth are synthetically described in the two images of the mountain and
the city, and are directed towards the cross, so to time is presented in a compressed way.
6. “In the vision we can recognize the last century as a century of martyrs, a century of suffering and persecution
for the Church, a century of World Wars and the many local wars which filled the last fifty years
and have inflicted unprecedented forms of cruelty. In the ‘mirror’ of this vision we see passing before us the
witnesses of the faith decade by decade.’’
The cardinal also states that “in the Via Crucis of an entire century, the figure of the Pope has a special
role. In his arduous ascent of the mountain we can undoubtedly see a convergence of different Popes.
Beginning from Pius X up to the present Pope, they all shared the sufferings of the century and strove to
go forward through all the anguish along the path which leads to the Cross. In the vision, the pope too is
killed along with the martyrs. When, after the attempted assassination on 13 May 1981, the Holy Father
had the text of the third part of the ‘secret’ brought to him, was it not inevitable that he should see in it
his own fate? He had been very close to death, and he himself explained his survival in the following words:
‘... it was a mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold
of death’ (May 13, 1994). That here ‘a mother’s hand’ had deflected the fateful bullet only shows once more
that there is no immutable destiny, that faith and prayer are forces which can influence history and that
in the end prayer is more powerful than bullets and faith more powerful than armies.”
The conclusion of the secret, continues the cardinal, “uses images which Lucia may have seen in devotional
books and which draw their inspiration from long-standing intuitions of faith. It is a consoling
vision, which seeks to open a history of blood and tears to the healing power of God. Beneath the arms of
the cross angels gather up the blood of the martyrs, and with it they give life to the souls making their way
to God. Here, the blood of Christ and the blood of the martyrs are considered as one: the blood of the martyrs
runs down from the arms of the cross. The martyrs die in communion with the Passion of Christ, and
their death becomes one with his.’’
“The vision of the third part of the ‘secret’, so distressing at first, concludes with an image of hope: no
suffering is in vain, and it is a suffering Church, a Church of martyrs, which becomes a sign-post for man
in his search for God.…From the suffering of the witnesses there comes a purifying and renewing power,
because their suffering is the actualization of the suffering of Christ himself and a communication in the
here and now of its saving effect.’’
7. “What is the meaning of the ‘secret’ of Fatima as a whole (in its three parts)?’’ asks the Cardinal: “First
of all we must affirm with Cardinal Sodano: ‘...the events to which the third part of the ‘secret’ of Fatima
refers now seem part of the past.’ Insofar as individual events are described, they belong to the past. Those
who expected exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or the future course of history are
bound to be disappointed. Fatima does not satisfy our curiosity in this way, just as Christian faith in general
cannot be reduced to an object of mere curiosity. What remains was already evident when we began
our reflections on the text of the ‘secret’: the exhortation to prayer as the path of ‘salvation for souls’ and,
likewise, the summons to penance and conversion.
8. “I would like finally to mention another key expression of the ‘secret’ which has become justly famous:
‘my Immaculate Heart will triumph.’ What does this mean? The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation
of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The ‘fiat’ of Mary, the word of her heart,
has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Savior into the world—because, thanks to her
‘Yes’, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world,
as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away
29
from God.
“But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good,
the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this:
‘In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world.’ The message of Fatima
invites us to trust in this promise.’’
Presentation of the Message of Fatima
1. VATICAN CITY, JUN 26, 2000 (VIS) - At midday today in the Holy See Press Office, Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., respectively prefect and secretary of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, presented the document “The Message of Fatima.”
2. During the conference, the cardinal explained the themes presented in the text concerning the “third
secret,’’ particularly highlighting the role of the Mother of Christ in the history of salvation.
“There exists a synergy between Mother and Son that spans all history,’’ said the cardinal, and he mentioned
the Gospel account of the wedding of Cana when Mary “induced (her Son) to the first sign that manifested
His glory. The poverty of the guests is what inspired Mary to intervene then. Poverty at any time
is a motive for the Mother of the Lord to intervene.’’
The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith continued saying, “Mary stands next to
the cross of her Son, sharing in the suffering and in the power of salvation.…The publication of this third
part of the secret of Fatima at the beginning of the new millennium proposing once more the center of the
Gospel message, also reminds the Church and the world of the meaning and importance of the Mother of
the Lord in the history of salvation, and thus of the meaning and value of women, all women, in human
history.’’
3. Archbishop Bertone then spoke. He explained the reasons for which his congregation had been charged
with making the third part of the secret public.
“These reasons,’’ he said, “may be easily deduced: connections of the literary genre ‘apparitions’ and
‘supernatural manifestations’…with the doctrine of the faith and the great public revelation.…The specific
area of expertise of the dicastery that through a special office traces and examines, in collaboration with
diocesan bishops, all real or imagined supernatural phenomena that are indicated to the local Churches."
4. Following the presentation, Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Bertone answered journalist’s questions.
Archbishop Bertone made it clear that John Paul II did not read the message until after May 13, 1981—
in other words, after the attempt on his life—and emphatically rejected the hypothesis that he may have
read it before.
For his part, Cardinal Ratzinger highlighted that the decision not to publish the “third secret’’ over the
years was not inspired by reasons of dogma but of prudence. He recognized that the price paid for this was
the possibility of speculation as to the content. Even so, having waited to divulge it until after the beatification
of the shepherd children Jacinta and Francisco and at the end of a century that had seen the greatest
number of martyrs in history and an almost infinite series of wars and disasters, was a signal of hope
and allowed, in the light of history, to places Lucia’s vision in a global context.
The prefect also made it clear that in order to understand the message’s reference to Russia, it was necessary
to bear in mind what he had said about the recipient of the vision’s limited capacity of comprehension.
“In fact, Sr. Lucia said that we (the shepherds) knew nothing of Russia, we did not even know the
word Russia. They understood that something dangerous was meant and, naturally, to the limited capacities
represented by the mind and soul of three shepherd children the Virgin did not refer to Russia as a
country with many Christians, rather (she referred to) an anti-Christian system. This is not a condemnation
of Russia, we know the great faith of the Russian people, it is a condemnation of a classical atheist
system that threatened humanity. In reality, other systems, especially Nazism, were radically anti-theist
and threatened both the Church and humanity, there is no exclusive right over that word. As I said, each
word of the vision does not have an exact historical correlation.’’
(Printed with permission L’Osservatore Romano)
No comments:
Post a Comment