Except, it’s not. And this time, even people in the “harder hit” regions aren’t buying it.
Allow me to address the misinformation about Arizona that is being spread by certain pundits?
Background: Arizona has been fully open for one month. Fully open. In reality, the only businesses closed here back in March were restaurants’ indoor dining rooms, salons, and gyms. No one stopped going out, ever. Surface streets have been bustling the entire time, except for a very short lull in that third or fourth week of March. Packed supermarkets, home improvement stores, and drive thru windows throughout.
My first post-corona dining experience was on May 18, indoors. Employees wearing masks. Since then, some establishments are actively promoting that their employees are NOT wearing masks, and if you’re uncomfortable with that, please don’t come. Citizens are taking philosophical decisions and FLOCKING to these places. I was at one such last Friday, that was absolutely packed at 4:30pm. It is located next to a hospital, you see, and shift change is at 4pm. So all the doctors and nurses come to this place, still in their scrubs. Instead of social distancing, they sit at the bar. A few of them were shooting pool. They know.
Are you starting to see the picture? With a two week incubation period, shouldn’t we all be dead by now? The corona has had a full month to do its dirty deadly job, and everyone here knows it has really had three months or more, because no one was locked down or shamed into staying home, ever. If anything, people went out MORE, because gyms were closed. They had to alter the parking regulations at the mountain parks, because they were overflowing. I can’t stress this enough. There was an intentional non-enforcement of the “stay at home” order.
We do have more reported cases now, which tends to happen when you do a testing blitz with tens of thousands of tests, you’re going to get a few positives. AZDHS.GOV is reporting 36K total “cases related to” corona as of this morning, in a state with 8,000,000 people. If you click the website and look at hospital capacity, keep in mind that the +50% surge capacity is in addition to what you see in the charts.
Of 6600 total occupied hospital beds, 1450 are “covid related.”
Of 1300 total occupied ICU beds, 452 are “covid related.”
We have tons of extra capacity, and hospitals have not even had to implement surge procedures. Yes, our number of confirmed cases continues to rise. Why? Because we are averaging over 10K tests PER DAY over the last month. The testing blitz coincides with the date everything opened back up. But I repeat myself.
We now have 470K completed tests, 36K confirmed cases, and 1186 deaths.
Who died?
So is it safe to assume the 21-54 year old demographic can go out to eat?
Folks, look for Arizona to come under ever more scrutiny. There will be massive pressure, nationally, for Governor Ducey to reinstate lockdown, force public chin diapers, close businesses, etc. You know the preternatural is involved here. Pray for Ducey and for AZ director of public health, Cara Christ.
The life of St. Anthony, who was actually from Portugal, not Italy, is a lesson in how the plans we make, even if they are good and noble, are sometimes not what God wants from us in the long run. For some people, the play really doesn’t end until the third act. Sometimes God takes time to reveal to us where things are going, and seemingly coincidental circumstances can result in sharp turns of destiny.
St. Anthony was born in 1195 and given the name Fernando. He entered the Augustinian order at a young age. After ten years as a friar, of which we know little, he was given instant inspiration upon the martyrdom of five Franciscan missionaries at the hands of the Muslims in Morocco. Now earnestly desiring martyrdom himself, he begged to switch his habit, and it was granted. He changed his name to Anthony and entered the Franciscans, and he was sent to Morocco to preach, and tempt fate.
It seems God had other plans. Anthony fell seriously ill, and had to return home. But that wasn’t the plan either, as he was shipwreck at Sicily and ended up traveling into the Italian mainland. After his recovery, his life was transformed into one of solitude and prayer. Act II. But then his fame debuted while attending a Dominican ordination, where the assigned homilist failed to show. Anthony was asked to fill in, and he brought the house down.
So much for solitude. He was sent to Padua, and he became so famous as a preacher that the churches just weren’t big enough. And when even the piazzas couldn’t contain the crowds, the sermons were moved to nearby hillsides. By all accounts, this is not pious legend, this really happened. Over 30,000 people on some days.
We have some of these sermons today, but very little of his writings. Yet he is a Doctor of the Church. He was Canonized just a year after his death, and his intercession is very powerful. He is most commonly invoked over lost material things. But he is much, much better than that. It is best to think about him as Patron Saint of The Lost. Lost material objects, yes, but also spiritual things. A lost spouse, apostate children, apostate parents or grandparents, friends in dissolute lifestyles, etc. Beg St. Anthony to bring them back. Go ahead and team him up with St. Monica; they make a great pair, Anthony starting out as an Augustinian, you know.
This is the lead story on east coast news sites this morning:
BLOOD RED GRAPHICS OF FEAR AND DEATH. WIND IS HITLER.
AP Friday, June 12, 2020 6:29AM
In Arizona, hospitals have been told to prepare for the worst. Texas has more hospitalized COVID-19 patients than at any time before. And the governor of North Carolina said recent jumps caused him to rethink plans to reopen schools or businesses.
There is no single reason to explain all the surges. In some cases, more testing has revealed more cases. In others, local outbreaks are big enough to push statewide tallies higher. But experts (who have been wrong about everything and completely incompetent at best, criminally negligent or criminally complicit at worst) think at least some are due to lifting stay-at-home orders, school and business closures, and other restrictions put in place during the spring to stem the virus’s spread. The virus is also gradually fanning out.
“It is a disaster that spreads,” said Dr. Jay Butler, who oversees coronavirus response work at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
I now quaketh in my boots. Here is what the article says about Arizona specifically:
ARIZONA
Republican Gov. Doug Ducey ended Arizona’s stay-at-home order on May 15 and eased restrictions on businesses. Arizona residents who were cooped up for six weeks flooded Phoenix-area bar districts, ignoring social distancing guidelines.<<<MURDERERS>>> The state began seeing a surge of new cases and hospitalizations about 10 days later.
“It seems pretty clear to me that what we’re seeing is directly related to the end of the stay-at-home order,” said Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association. <<<MURDERERS>>>
It wasn’t just that the order ended: There were no requirements to wear face masks, no major increases in contact tracing… <<<MURDERERS>>>
The AP analysis found Arizona had a rolling average of fewer than 400 new cases a day (almost all of them mild) at the time the shutdown was lifted, but it shot up two weeks later (because testing became available) and surpassed 1,000 new cases a day (almost all of them mild) by early this week. Hospitalizations have also risen dramatically, hitting the 1,200 mark last week (a small fraction of the hospital capacity in AZ). The state also passed another grim milestone last week, recording it’s 1,000th death. Meanwhile Arizona hospitals on Tuesday reported they were at 83% of capacity, up from 78% the previous day. That could force affected hospitals to cancel elective surgeries.
It’s outrageous how they lie, isn’t it? But did you catch the tell at the end? Yes, hospitals could be forced to cancel elective surgeries. That’s what you do in a real emergency. The fact that they have NOT cancelled them means…
You see, every hospital is mandated to have a surge capacity of +50% of their normal capacity. This goes for regular admit, ER, and ICU. So if hospitals normally operate at 75% of regular capacity, and are now 83%, that is the biggest nothingburger you can imagine. Not only that, but the corona-related portion of the overall hospital numbers is really small. But we all know that the longer you can manage to not discharge a corona patient, more Fed$$.
Governor Ducey had to go on TV yesterday, put up all the data charts, and plead with the media to stop spreading fake news. Arizona is open, Arizona is prepared, everyone needs to relax. When it was over, a reporter stated a completely false talking point, to which the governor replied (paraphrasing), “That’s not true, I literally just showed you the charts.”
All this attention has crashed the Arizona Dept of Health website. Once it is back running, I will post the real story. Spoiler alert: We are not all dying. We are not all in the hospital. There is no panic here, other than some prominent panic mongers in blog world. I will post all the data, which has been publicly available this entire time.
But for now, I have to finish up some other work. I’m due to meet some folks for happy hour at 4pm, and the place fills up fast, if you know what I mean.
Happy happy Feast of Corpus Christi. Falling on 11 June this year, it coincides with the sixth anniversary of the murder of Fr. Kenneth Walker, FSSP. I’ve been trying to write something about it, and I’m coming up a bit short. We do know for a fact that Fr. Walker was able to receive the sacraments before he died, thanks be to God. We also know that Fr. Walker had a great devotion to our Blessed Mother, and the Rosary. So he would have prayed the fourth glorious mystery three days a week, at minimum. The fruit of the mystery is a well provided death.
Folks, keep your head on a swivel, and stay confessed. In this world of chaos, you really don’t know what is coming next. This goes for everyone, of course, but especially priests.
Fr. Z. wrote a piece related to this a few years ago, on the third anniversary of Father’s murder. Fr. Z repeats words of advice he gave at the time HERE.
About three years ago, Fr. Kenneth Walker, FSSP, was murdered in Phoenix and another priest (Fr. Joseph Terra, the pastor) badly injured by assault. Pray for Fr. Walker. RIP. At that time I posted the following, which seems no less urgent today than it did then. Indeed, it could be more urgent still, given the trajectory of current events.
Reverend gentlemen, the murder of one priest and the assault on another in Phoenix compels me to remind you to…GO TO CONFESSION. Our schedules are busy. Sometimes we have to drive even farther than lay people. But go to confession. Take the time to do this for yourself. Much has been given to us. Our accounting before God will be more severe than that of lay people…Moreover, consider well your living conditions and security. If you haven’t done so yet, begin to develop a situational awareness. Seek advice from professionals. This is not just a matter of personal concern. It is also a concern for those who depend on you for the sacraments. A priest in the ground or in the hospital is one priest fewer to see to the spiritual needs of people in these darkening times. You, Fathers, are a precious resource, only slowly “renewable”. If you are not concerned for the sake of your own person, be concerned for the sake of those who need you…I might now add to seek, along with advice, perhaps also training.
This was mentioned briefly by Dr. Mazza during the last Barnhardt podcast. Recent events have brought it into much sharper focus.
June 9, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – There is a small part of an interview conducted by the well-respected American historian and book author, William Thomas Walsh, with the Fatima seer Sister Lucia that might now strike a special note with us, in light of the ongoing disorderly and revolutionary conditions in the U.S.
Speaking with the seer in 1946 about the Blessed Mother’s earlier request that Russia be consecrated by the Pope together with the bishops in the world to Her Immaculate Heart, Sister Lucia told Professor Walsh:
“What Our Lady wants is that the Pope and all the bishops in the world shall consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart on one special day. If this is done, she will convert Russia and there will be peace. If it is not done, the errors of Russia will spread through every country in the world.”
“Does this mean,” Walsh then asked, “in your opinion, that every country, without exception, will be overcome by Communism?” And Sister Lucia answered: “Yes.”
As the translator of this interview, Father Manuel Rocha, was later to reveal, Walsh then asked explicitly about the United States of America, adding: “and does that mean the United States of America, too?” Whereupon Sister Lucia responded once more time with “yes.”
The entire article at LSN is well worth your time. It’s a handy reference on the past three months, and how we got to this. HERE
Absolutely nothing will satisfy those who would want to change the past, because even changing the past would not actually satisfy them. See how this works? They hate you, and they want you dead. If you think it’s within your power to appease the ideology, while you yet live, then you’re on the wrong side. And dead.
Now, on a separate but altogether related matter:
Minor quibble with Steven’s timeline. The first major protests/riots were on 29 May. So we really should start seeing something like +100K new cases PER DAY starting in FOUR days.
The White House said Sunday that Washington’s archbishop was invited to attend an event with President Donald Trump several days before it took place, amid media reports that the archbishop did not learn of the event until it was announced publicly the night before it took place.
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNA June 7 that “Archbishop Gregory received an invitation to the President’s event at the St. John Paul II Shrine the week prior to the President’s visit. He declined due to other commitments.”
Correspondence between Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s office and the White House indicates the same.
In correspondence dated May 30th and obtained by CNA, Gregory’s office declined “the kind invitation to attend the event celebrating International Religious Freedom on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 at the Saint John Paul II Shrine.“
The correspondence further stated that the archbishop had “a prior commitment on his schedule at Catholic University and unfortunately must decline,” and added that Gregory had personally conveyed his regrets at being unable to attend when he spoke to a member of the White House staff directly on the evening of Friday, May 29.
Crux reported June 7 that Gregory had not been told of the visit until June 1, when it was publicly announced by the White House.
…
On June 2, before Trump arrived at the John Paul II Shrine, Gregory issued a statement denouncing the visit.DC Archdiocese@WashArchdiocese
“I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree,” the archbishop wrote.
Blessed be the holy Trinity and undivided Unity; We will give glory to Him, because He hath shown His mercy to us.
V. O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is Thy Name in all the earth! R. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Blessed Trinity, hear us. Adorable Unity, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us. God the Holy Ghost, etc. Holy Trinity, One God, Father from Whom are all things, Son through Whom are all things, Holy Ghost in Whom are all things, Holy and undivided Trinity, Father everlasting, Only-begotten Son of the Father, Spirit Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Co-eternal Majesty of Three Divine Persons, Father, the Creator, Son, the Redeemer, Holy Ghost, the Comforter, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, Who art, Who wast, and Who art to come, God Most High, Who inhabitest eternity, To Whom alone are due all honor and glory, Who alone doest great wonders, Power infinite, Wisdom incomprehensible, Love unspeakable,
Be merciful, Spare us, O Holy Trinity. Be merciful, Graciously hear us, O Holy Trinity.
From all evil, Deliver us, O Holy Trinity. From all sin, Deliver us, O Holy Trinity. From all pride, etc. From all love of riches, From all uncleanness, From all sloth, From all inordinate affection, From all envy and malice, From all anger and impatience, From every thought, word, and deed contrary to Thy holy law, From Thine everlasting malediction, Through Thine almighty power, Through Thy plenteous loving kindness, Through the exceeding treasure of Thy goodness and love, Through the depths of Thy wisdom and knowledge, Through all Thy unspeakable perfections, We sinners Beseech Thee, hear us.
That we may ever serve Thee alone, We beseech Thee, hear us. That we may worship Thee in spirit and in truth, We beseech Thee, hear us. That we may love Thee with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength, etc. That, for Thy sake, we may love our neighbor as ourselves, That we may faithfully keep Thy holy commandments, That we may never defile our bodies and souls with sin, That we may go from grace to grace, and from virtue to virtue, That we may finally enjoy the sight of Thee in glory, That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to hear us,
O Blessed Trinity, We beseech Thee, deliver us. O Blessed Trinity, We beseech Thee, save us. O Blessed Trinity, Have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy, Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Our Father [silently]. Hail Mary [silently].
V. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, in the firmament of Heaven, R. And worthy to be praised, and glorious, and highly exalted forever.
Let Us Pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, Who hast granted Thy servants in the confession of the True Faith, to acknowledge the glory of an Eternal Trinity, and in the power of Thy majesty to adore a Unity: we beseech Thee that by the strength of this faith we may be defended from all adversity. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. R. Amen.
“The American people are mature and have now understood how much the mainstream media does not want to spread the truth but seeks to silence and distort it, spreading the lie that is useful for the purposes of their masters. However, it is important that the good – who are the majority – wake up from their sluggishness and do not accept being deceived by a minority of dishonest people with unavowable purposes. It is necessary that the good, the children of light, come together and make their voices heard. What more effective way is there to do this, Mr. President, than by prayer, asking the Lord to protect you, the United States, and all of humanity from this enormous attack of the Enemy? Before the power of prayer, the deceptions of the children of darkness will collapse, their plots will be revealed, their betrayal will be shown, their frightening power will end in nothing, brought to light and exposed for what it is: an infernal deception.”
Supplemental Quotes in relation to the Third Secret of Fatima:
“The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts so new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarrez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatise from the faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. …Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.” – Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, pp. 88-90
On 15 July 1946, Catholic historian Professor William Thomas Walsh interviewed Sister Lucia at her convent of the Dorothean Sisters at Vilar, Portugal. This interview clearly demonstrates that Our Lady’s request for the Consecration of Russia will only be fulfilled when the Pope and together with the world’s Catholic bishops consecrate specifically Russia. “Sister Lucia made it plain that Our Lady did not ask for the consecration of the world to Her Immaculate Heart. What She [Our Lady] demanded specifically was the consecration of Russia. Sister Lucia stated more than once and with deliberate emphasis: ‘What Our Lady wants is that the Pope and all the bishops in the world shall consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart on one special day. If this is done, She will convert Russia and there will be peace. If it is not done, the errors of Russia will spread through every country in the world’.” Professor Walsh asked, “Does this mean, in your opinion, that every country [including the USA and the VATICAN CITY STATE], without exception, will be overcome by Communism?” Sister Lucia replied, “Yes.” [this was her precise answer] – William Thomas Walsh, Our Lady of Fatima 4th printing, (1947) p. 226; See also Louis Kaczmarek, The Wonders She Performs, 1986, p. 160
There is the little-known revelation of Our Lady of Fatima to Sister Lucia in the early 1950s. Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucy in May 1952 and said: “Make it known to the Holy Father that I am always awaiting the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart. Without that Consecration, Russia will not be able to convert, nor will the world have peace.”- Il Pellegrinaggio Della Meraviglie, p. 440. Rome, 1960. This same work, published under the auspices of the Italian episcopate, affirms that this message was communicated to Pope Pius XII in June. Also, Canon Barthas mentioned that apparition in his communication to the Mariological Congress of Lisbon-Fatima, in 1967; see De Primoridiis cultus marianae, Acta congressus mariologici-mariana in Lusitania anno 1967 celebrati, p. 517. Rome, 1970. See Frère François de Marie des Anges, Fatima: Intimate Joy World Event, Book Four, Fatima: Tragedy and Triumph, pp. 21 and 37.
Russia has not embraced the Catholic Faith and thus cannot possibly be said to have converted. Father Joaquin Alonso, probably the foremost Fatima expert of the 20th Century, had many interviews with Sister Lucy. In 1976 he wrote: “… we should affirm that Sister Lucia always thought that the ‘conversion’ of Russia is not to be limited to the return of the Russian people to the Orthodox Christian religions, rejecting the Marxist atheism of the Soviets, but rather, it refers purely, plainly and simply to the total, integral conversion of Russia to the one true Church of Christ, the Catholic Church.”- La Verdad sobre el Secreto de Fatima, Fatima sin mitos, Father Joaquin Alonso, (2nd edition, Ejercito Azul, Madrid, 1988) p. 78. English translation by Joseph Cain. Original Spanish reads: “… podriamos decir que Lucia ha pensado siempre que la conversión de Rusia no se entiende solo de un retorno de los pueblos de Rusia a la religion cristiano-ortodoxa, rechazando el ateismo marxista y ateo de los soviets, sino que se refiere pura y llanmente a la conversion total e integral de un retorno a la unica y verdadera Iglesia, la catolica-romana.”
“I cannot reveal anything about what I have learned at Fatima about the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts: the one concerns the Pope. The other, logically – although I should say nothing – should be the continuation of the words: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.’” – Father Joseph Schweigl 1952 (Pope Pius XII sent him to interrogate Sr. Lucia on September 2, 1952); Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima: The Third Secret, Vol. III, p. 710, p. 337-338
We know that Cardinal Ottaviani read the Third Secret and made reference to one of its themes on the 15th of December 1960. In an allocution to the members of the Marian International Academy he declared, “It suffices to cast a rapid glance at what is happening at this moment in the world, in order to recognize that without the intervention of the Mother of all mercy near the All-Powerful, the world risks becoming pagan once more, a paganism more deplorable than the first paganism, because it is aggravated by apostasy. We are witnessing a veritable deluge of sins, a deluge which leaves behind it a nauseating quagmire, infected by immorality, lies and blasphemy…” – “Documentation Catholique,” 1961, col. 244, (15 December 1960 – Allocution de S. Em. Le cardinal Ottaviani à l’Académie Mariale Internationale)
In 1963 during a public admonition to his spiritual sons amidst the Second Vatican Council Padre Pio said: “Due to the rampant injustice and abuse of power, we have reached a compromise with atheistic materialism [Communism], a denial of the rights of God. This is the punishment foretold at Fatima … All the priests who support the possibility of a dialogue with the negators of God and with the Luciferian powers of the world [Freemasonry] are mad, have lost their faith, no longer believe in the Gospel! In so doing they betray the word of God, because Christ came to bring on earth perpetual covenant only to men of heart [good will], but did not join with the men thirsty for power and dominion over the brothers … The flock is dispersed when the shepherds ally with the enemies of the Truth of Christ. All the forms of power made deaf to the will of the authority of the heart of God are rapacious wolves that renew the passion of Christ and make the Madonna shed tears … ” – Published in “Avvenire” August 19, 1978; partial quote also in “The Fourth Secret of Fatima” 2006 by Antonio Socci)
“It is therefore completely probable that the text makes concrete references to the crisis of faith within the Church and to the negligence of the pastors themselves [and the] internal struggles in the very bosom of the Church and of grave pastoral negligence of the upper hierarchy … “In the period preceding the great triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, terrible things are to happen. These form the content of the third part of the Secret. What are they? If ‘in Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,’ … it can be clearly deduced from this that in other parts of the Church these dogmas are going to become obscure or even lost altogether. … “Does the unpublished text speak of concrete circumstances? It is very possible that it speaks not only of a real crisis of the faith in the Church during this in-between period, but like the secret of La Salette, for example, there are more concrete references to the internal struggles of Catholics or to the fall of priests and religious. Perhaps it even refers to the failures of the upper hierarchy of the Church. For that matter, none of this is foreign to other communications Sister Lucia has had on this subject. “An inopportune revelation of the text would only have further exasperated the two tendencies which continue to tear the Church apart: a traditionalism which would believe itself to be assisted by the Fatima prophecies, and a progressivism which would have lashed out against these apparitions, which in such a scandalous manner would seem to put the brakes on the conciliar Church’s forward progress … Pope Paul VI judged it opportune and prudent to delay the revelation of the text until better times. Pope John XXIII declared that the text did not refer to his pontificate … And the following popes did not consider that the moment had come to lift the veil of mystery, in circumstances where the Church has still not overcome the frightening impact of twenty post-conciliar years, during which the crisis of the Faith has installed itself at every level.” – Father Joaquin Alonso (Official Archivist at Fatima); La Verdad sobre el Secreto de Fatima 1976. See also Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima – Vol. III, p. 687, 704-705. See also De nuevo el Secreto de Fatima 1982 Ephemerides mariologicae p. 93]
In an interview conducted in November 11, 1984, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) confirmed that, with the Pope’s permission, he had read the Secret and that it concerns, in his words, “a radical call to conversion, the absolute gravity of history, the dangers threatening the Faith and the life of a Christian, and therefore the world. And also the importance of the ‘novissimi’ (the last times).” The Cardinal went on to explain that “if it is not published… it is to avoid confusing religious prophecy with sensationalism. But the things contained in the Third Secret correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and are confirmed by many other Marian apparitions.” – Ecco perche la fede e in crisi in the review, Jesus, p. 79
Continuing his diagnosis, he [Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger] recalls that this “true” Council, “already during its sessions [Vatican II] and then increasingly in the subsequent period, was opposed by a self-styled ‘spirit of the Council’, which in reality is a true ‘anti-spirit’ of the Council. According to this pernicious anti-spirit [Konzils-Ungeist in German], everything that is ‘new’ (or presumed such: how many old heresies have surfaced again in recent years that have been presented as something new!) is always and in every case better than what has been or what is. It is the anti-spirit according to which the history of the Church would first begin with Vatican II, viewed as a kind of point zero.” – The Ratzinger Report: an exclusive interview on the state of the Church (Rapporto Sulla Fede), 1985, by Vittorio Messori, p. 34-35
The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against the apostasy in the Church.” “I would not be surprised if the Third Secret alluded to dark times for the Church: grave confusions and troubling apostasies within Catholicism itself…If we consider the grave crisis we have lived through since the Council, the signs that this prophecy has been fulfilled do not seem to be lacking…” – Silvio Cardinal Oddi, to Italian journalist Lucio Brunelli in the journal Il Sabato, Rome, March 17, 1990
“The Secret of Fatima contains a sad prophecy about the Church and, for this reason Pope John did not divulge it. And neither have Paul VI or John Paul II. It seems to me that what is basically written is that the Pope would convene a Council in 1960 which, contrary to expectations, would indirectly result in many difficulties for the Church.” – Cardinal Silvio Oddi, who was Prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy in the Pontificate of John Paul II and very close to John XXIII during his reign; 30 Giorni, November 11, 1990, p. 69
“Silvio Cardinal Oddi spoke with Sister Lucia in 1985. Afterward, Cardinal Oddi said [regarding the Third Secret] that ‘In my opinion, what is written is that in 1960, the Pope would have convoked a council from which, contrary to his intentions, there would arise many difficulties in the Church.’” – The Fourth Secret of Fatima, 2006 by Antonio Socci p. 123
“The prophecy of Fatima was completely defied! It is a lack of sense, I would say, because according to the interpretation that seems to me most worthy of consideration, the Third Secret – which John XXIII and his successors thought inopportune to reveal – […] regards the ‘revolution’ in the Catholic Church.” “From a Council convened to throw light on the beauty and profundity of the Christian mystery by presenting the Church as the spouse of Christ, […] so many innovations were born that they appear to constitute a true internal revolution.” – Cardinal Silvio Oddi, Il Tenero Mastino di Dio, Rome: Progetto Museali Editore, 1995, p. 217-218
“The Message of Fatima is a call to conversion, alerting humanity to have nothing to do with the “dragon” whose “tail swept down a third of the stars of Heaven and cast them to the earth” (Apoc. 12:4). […] In her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin came here to Fátima to ask men and women “to stop offending God, Our Lord, who is already very offended.” It is a mother’s sorrow that compels her to speak; the destiny of her children is at stake. For this reason she asks the little shepherds: “Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners; many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.” – Pope John Paul II Homily for the Beatification of Jacinta and Francisco at Fatima on May 13, 2000 http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20000513_beatification-fatima.html [NOTE: “a third of the stars of Heaven” has been traditionally interpreted as fallen clergy; cardinals, bishops and priests who are at the service of Satan]
“I believe that [Third] part of the secret concerns the Church from within, perhaps doctrinal difficulties, a crisis of unity, rebellion. The last sentence my aunt wrote, which precedes the part that is still unknown, says, In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved. Therefore, people elsewhere in the Church might waver on dogma. But this is just speculation.” – Father Jose dos Santos Valinho (nephew of Sr. Lucia) in 2000; Reportage su Fatima by Renzo and Roberto Allegri, Milan 2000
“I believe that there is a connection between that which is announced in the first part of the Secret, which concerns wars and sufferings which would be everywhere, and the second part which concerns the persecutions and a type of breakdown of the faith. Because where the ellipsis (the three dots, “…”) was placed, it means “Here is the third part, which is not revealed” and then the conclusion “In Portugal the dogma of the faith will always be preserved etc.” This suggests to me that there is a relationship between faith and the third part of the Secret. Therefore, it is something that relates to the Church. It is some kind of universal crisis which affects the whole Church and all of humanity.” – Father Jose dos Santos Valinho (nephew of Sr. Lucia); This public statement was made on the 14th of February, 2003 broadcast on the program ENIGMA, which was transmitted prime time, nationwide on RAI, the National TV Network of Italy, The Fatima Crusader, Issue 74, p.76
Raymond Arroyo: One of your jobs here at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is investigating the Marian apparitions that occur in history and in our present age. You, in 2000, released the so-called, “Third Secret of Fatima.” And part of that revelation was that there would be a hail of bullets, the Pope would fall and appear to be dead. The Congregation interpreted that as the assassination attempt on his Holiness, John Paul II. Is it possible – and I’ve gotten many letters asking me to ask this question – is it possible that this could point to a future Pope? Cardinal Ratzinger: We cannot exclude that this is clear. Normally, the private visions are limited to the next generation, and even Lucia, and all those in Fatima were convinced that in the time of one generation this would be realized. So, the immediate content of the vision is this, I would say. And it is expressed in a vision in an apocalyptic language. It is clear in all the visions, we do not have an historical language, as a report on television, that we have a visionary, symbolic language. We can understand this is indeed an indication of the crisis of the Church in the second part of the last century and in our time. But, even if the immediate sense of this prophecy, this vision is always in the next generations; it has also sense for future times. We cannot exclude – even I would say, we have to wait for, that even in other times we’ll have similar crises of the Church and perhaps also similar attacks to a Pope. – The World Over: Cardinal Ratzinger Interview, Raymond Arroyo with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger the future Pope Benedict XVI [Taken from the official transcript of the interview by EWTN News Director Raymond Arroyo of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, which first aired on EWTN on 5 September 2003. Cardinal Ratzinger was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, an office to which he was appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1981] https://web.archive.org/web/20190608220749/http://www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/RATZINTV.HTM @ 36:41 and following https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKVO_v2FbtE
“He deceives himself who thinks that the prophetic mission of Fatima is concluded.”[ …] “May the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the apparitions hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.” – Pope Benedict XVI Homily at Fatima on May 13, 2010 http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/pt/homilies/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20100513_fatima.html
Question: Is it reasonable to suggest that Pope Benedict XVI acted in light of (in conformity with and according to) the exact intelligence provided by Our Lady of the Rosary in the Third Secret of Fatima?
