http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=13293Full Text of Third Fatima Secret
Jun. 26, 2000
VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- On Monday, June 26, the Vatican released the full text of the "third secret" of Fatima, complete with a commentary by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (bio - news).
(CWNews.com will provide details on Cardinal Ratzinger's commentary in a second Feature story today.)
The "third secret was written down by Sister Lucia, the only survivor among the three children to whom the Virgin Mary appeared at Fatima in 1917. Sister Lucia-- now a Carmelite nun-- wrote down the text in 1944, at the request of the local bishop. The following is the full text of the "third secret" in its original translation:
I write in obedience to you, my God, who command me to do so through his Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your Most Holy Mother and mine. " After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: "Penance, Penance, Penance!" And we saw in an immense light that is God: "something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it" a Bishop dressed in White "we had the impression that it was the Holy Father." Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspergilium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.
CARDINAL RATZINGER: PENANCE IS THE KEY TO THE "SECRET"
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, 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".
"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."
'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."
Continued
http://frpat.com/fatima.htm#ratzinger