I have been on the run all this month between graduations, work travel, etc. I guess some stuff happened?
Two credible accounts rehashing anew the Fatima double secret non full-disclosure disclosure HERE and HERE. If you’ve never studied this controversy, it boils down to the existence of a second text, not yet revealed, and what it might say. The evidence for its existence is strong, but what it might say is hearsay/rumor. Here is the thought that always comes to my mind on this subject: If parts of the secret or its interpretation from Our Lady have been deliberately withheld by six popes since 1960, against the direct orders of Our Lady, that’s a pretty big deal. Think about it objectively. If you were pope, just how bad would the secret have to be for you to intentionally disregard a direct order from the Mother of God. I mean, provided you actually believe in your own religion, taking that decision would be the single most terrifying act of your life, right? It would have to be something so over the top, so unbelievable, so unthinkable, that even as I sit here pondering the question, I’m probably still shooting low.
What happens next? The Vatican Press Office, at warp speed, issues a denial of the Hickson account HERE. The structure of the announcement is very strange, as it’s made to appear as excerpting an interview with Benedict. Except those quotes! Seriously? Could they have at least made it sound just a little like it was actually him? “Pure inventions, absolutely untrue.” Yeah, okay.
Next it was +Ganswein out of the blue with the “expanded Petrine ministry” HERE. What kind of move is this? No way he comes out with this without the full blessing of Benedict, or in fact at the direction of Benedict. So was this concept created intentionally by Benedict in the particular manner with which he resigned? It sure sounds like that’s what’s being promulgated. It’s like a computer programmer who writes a ‘back door’ into the code, so he can get back in if necessary. If that’s the case, make popcorn. And the concept itself, the expansion of the ministry into a duality? Sounds a lot like the expansion of the Latin Rite into two Forms, Ordinary and Extraordinary, doesn’t it?
Then the Vatican Press Office, at warp speed, issues a retrac….. oops. Nope. Nothing.
It can’t be said we live in uninteresting times. If anyone should preach normalcy bias, let him be anathema.
Stay confessed.