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Appendix XIII
Reprinted with
permission from The Fatima Crusader Issue 53.
Third
Fatima Conference
Rome
1996
Questions
and Answers
“The
Message of Fatima is ...
-
more relevant and more urgent today ...
-
addressed to every human being ...
-
imposes an obligation on the Church ...”
... His Holiness Pope John Paul II
May 12, 1982, Fatima, Portugal
The Fatima Crusader Magazine has extended
an invitation to the world’s bishops to attend the Third Fatima Conference
in Rome — as our guests and without expense to themselves or their dioceses.
Priests and laity will also be attending.
At this conference, a large number of
the faithful will gather to consider the Message of Our Lady of Fatima,
especially as it concerns Her Peace Plan for the world: the Consecration
of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, as She requested at Fatima.
The Third Fatima Conference Rome 1996
The Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate
Heart is a subject of intense controversy in the Church today. There
are those who insist that it was accomplished in 1984, when the Holy
Father consecrated the world, but not Russia specifically,
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We believe that world events since
1984 should demonstrate to any objective Catholic that the Consecration
has not occurred; that Russia is not converting. Far from it! That is
why the Third Fatima Conference is taking place.
Here we answer some questions about the
Third Fatima Conference, in the hope of counteracting the efforts of
those who seem determined to prevent any public discussion of the full
Fatima Message, and most especially the need for the Consecration of
Russia:
Q Does a bishop, priest or member of the lay faithful require “authorization” or “permission of ecclesiastical authority” to attend a private congress of the faithful to promote the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
A NO! Under canon law all the Christian faithful (including priests and bishops) “… are free to make known their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires to the pastors of the Church.” — including, of course, the Pope. [Canon 212 (2)] They also have “the right ... to make their views known to others of Christ’s faithful …” [Canon 212(3)]
What is more, all of the faithful “have the right, indeed at times the duty . . . to manifest to the sacred Pastors (including the Pope, as Supreme Pastor) their views on matters which concern the good of the Church.” [Canon 212 (3)]
Thus, absolutely no “authorization” or “permission of ecclesiastical authority” is required for the faithful, including their bishops, to gather together at a private conference on Fatima, or to communicate the results of that conference to the pastors of the Church, including the Pope.
In short your right to attend gatherings
like the Third Fatima Conference is guaranteed to you by the law of
the Church.
Q Does the Fatima Crusader apostolate need “authorization”
or “permission of ecclesiastical authority” to conduct the Third Fatima
Conference?
A “Christ’s faithful may freely establish
and direct associations which serve Charitable or pious purposes
… and they may hold meetings to pursue these purposes by common
effort.” (Canon 215)
In keeping with their right, and duty,
to express their views on Church affairs to the sacred pastors, including
the Pope, the Christian faithful also have “the right to promote
and support apostolic action by their own initiative.” [Canon
216]
In pursuing “their own initiative” for
apostolic work, all the members of the Church are “free, by means
of private agreement made among themselves, to establish associations...”
[Canon 299] The formal recognition of such private associations by ecclesiastical
authority is purely optional; such recognition need not be
sought, and is not necessary for the existence of the private
association or the conduct of its activities. [Canon 299(3)]
Thus, the Fatima Crusader apostolate needs
no authorization or permission of ecclesiastical authority whatsoever
to stage the Third Fatima Conference or to invite the bishops of the
world to attend it.
Q Is Father
Nicholas Gruner, the head of the Fatima Crusader apostolate, a priest
in good standing?
A YES! Certain members
of the hierarchy and the Catholic press who oppose Father Gruner’s work
have accused him of being “without faculties”, and have claimed that
he is “not a priest in good standing with the Church.” This is an old
lie, constantly employed in an effort to discredit Father Gruner without
ever discussing the merits of his apostolic work, which no Church authority
has ever forbidden him to conduct.
The simple truth of the matter is this:
Father Nicholas Gruner has been a priest in good standing continuously
since his ordination in Italy in 1976. He has never been suspended
front the priesthood or subjected to any other canonical penalty whatsoever.
It is also true that since 1994 Father
Gruner has been contesting through the legitimate canonical channels
an unjust order to return to the Diocese of Avellino, Italy after an
approved absence of sixteen years, during which time he built up
a worldwide Marian apostolate with the full knowledge and toleration
of three successive bishops of Avellino. It must be noted that never
in those sixteen years did any of these bishops forbid Father Gruner
to engage in his apostolic work as head of the Fatima Crusader apostolate.
In fact, the only basis for the
order to return to Avellino after an approved absence of sixteen years
is Father Gruner’s alleged “failure” to become incardinated in another
diocese. But Father Gruner has obtained at least three offers
of incardination in other dioceses, including a formal decree of incardination
from a holy and kindly Archbishop who believes that Father Gruner is
“a chosen vessel of election for propagating the devotion to our Blessed
Mother and proclaiming the Message of Fatima to the four corners of
the world.”
Every time a benevolent bishop offers
incardination to Father Gruner, the incardination is blocked by certain
Vatican bureaucrats. These same bureaucrats now cite Father’s “failure”
to be incardinated as grounds for recalling him to Avellino, where
he is apparently expected to remain in exile until death.
Of course Father Gruner has every right
— indeed, the duty — to contest this cynical attempt to destroy
a worldwide Marian apostolate by subjecting him to virtual life imprisonment
in a foreign diocese which has absolutely no need of his services. Father
Gruner will take every recourse available to him under the law of the
Church, including an appeal to the Holy Father himself. And while
that canonical process continues, Father Gruner remains a priest in
good standing, protected by canon law from the operation of any penalty
against him. [Canons 1353, 1638, 1734]
Thus, anyone who says that the Third Fatima
Conference in Rome should be avoided because Father Gruner has “no faculties”
or is “not a priest in good standing” is guilty of calumny against him.
Q Why is it important to attend the Third Fatima
Conference in Rome?
A Because it is
becoming clearer with each passing day that failure to heed the full
Fatima Message has brought the world to the brink of an apocalypse.
As Sister Lucy, the only surviving Fatima
seer, told Father Fuentes:
“Many times the Blessed Virgin told me
and my cousins Jacinta and Francisco that Russia is the instrument of
chastisement chosen by Heaven to punish the whole world
if we do not beforehand obtain the conversion of that poor nation.”
Consider the words of Our Lady at Fatima,
approved as authentic and worthy of belief by the Church, and acknowledged
as such by every Pope since the Fatima apparitions took place:
“If people heed My commands, Russia will
be converted and the world will have peace … If not, Russia will spread
its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions against
the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much
to suffer. Various nations will be annihilated.”
“The moment has come when God asks the
Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, to consecrate
Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.”
“In the end, My Immaculate Heart will
triumph, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me and she will
be converted and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”
The words of Our Lady could not be clearer:
If Russia is consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart, Russia will convert,
peace will be granted to the world and Her Immaculate Heart will triumph.
If not, global disaster will ensue.
Are we seeing today the conversion of
Russia and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart? Hardly. Consider the
following:
The great “Russian Bear” is emerging from
its seeming hibernation over the past few years. Still armed to the
teeth, Russia cheats on disarmament treaties while America obediently
dismantles her defenses.
The Russian military is constructing a
huge command center deep inside Kovinsky Mountain with U.S. financial
assistance, and Russian military authorities refuse to disclose its
purpose.
Even liberal secular newspapers like the
NY Times have warned that, as seen in the recent Russian Presidential
election, Russia could soon relapse into overt totalitarianism, and
that Russian nationalism may erupt into the forcible reintegration of
the former Soviet republics, which have never really escaped Russian
domination.
Far from converting, Russian society is
a growing cesspool of abortion, contraception, divorce, alcoholism,
and crime. Like our own society, Russia shows absolutely no signs of
repentance and conversion to Christ, but only an ever-accelerating decline
into total depravity.
As the years go by, the claim that the
Consecration of Russia has been effected and that Russia is converting
becomes harder and harder to sustain against reality. It is clear that
the conversion of Russia is simply not occurring because
the consecration of Russia — Russia! — to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
by the Pope, in union with all of the world’s bishops, has not been
done as Our Lady requested at Fatima.
Can we not see that our time is nearly
at an end? While the Russian bear rumbles in the East and prepares for
new conquests, euthanasia and homosexual marriages have been promoted
in our country; and our President refuses to sign a law which would
prohibit the brutal murder of newborn babies by “partial birth” abortion.
What society in the history of the world has ever recovered from
such abysmal moral depravity? How long will we go on ignoring Our
Lady’s warning about the consequences of failing to perform the consecration
as She requested:
“The good will be martyred, the Holy Father
will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.”
Now, with greater urgency than ever, we
must petition our Holy Father to step through the phalanx of Vatican
bureaucrats which surrounds him and do precisely what Our Lady
requested at Fatima — in an apparition the Church has declared authentic
and worthy of belief, an apparition confirmed with a miracle witnessed
by 70,000 people.
Our Third Fatima Peace Conference: Rome
The Fatima Crusader has invited
the world’s bishops, priests and faithful to assemble for five days
of prayer and discussion about the urgent need to accomplish the Consecration
of Russia — now, while there is still time.
With good reason is the conference being
held in Rome: By gathering in Rome, we pray the Holy Father will hear
our petitions without “filtering” by a few Vatican bureaucrats who have
labored constantly to block the carrying out of the Peace Plan of Our
Lady of Fatima.
We expect that it will be opposed by the
same Vatican bureaucrats who attempted to undermine the previous two
conferences by advising the world’s bishops that the conferences were
not “authorized by ecclesiastical authority.” “Authorized” by which
authority, exactly? They never said. Nor could they say,
because no such “authorization” is required, as we have shown.
And so, when the bishops receive our invitation to attend our Third Fatima Peace Conference in Rome, we pray they will not be dissuaded from attending by the furious campaign of disinformation which seems to arise against any effort by the faithful to remind the world of the need to fulfill Our Lady’s requests at Fatima. Now more than ever.
Note: This
article was published in pamphlet form in six languages and sent to
every Catholic bishop of the world. No one ever objected to its contents.
