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Appendix
III
Reprinted with permission from The Fatima Crusader Issue 19.
A Prophetic Interview with
Sister Lucy of Fatima
Introduction: This interview given by Sister Lucy to the Mexican priest, Father Fuentes on December 26, 1957 is extremely important especially today. We see with the benefit of looking back over 40 years to the time of this interview just how accurate Sister Lucy was regarding the defections and betrayals of so many priests and nuns. This plea of Sister Lucy is today for us all even more timely than when she gave it in 1957. Until the Pope allows Sister Lucy to again speak to the world we should treasure and ponder this important message.
When it was first published by Father Fuentes it drew widespread interest from many of the faithful around the world. However, as a result of the courageous publication of this serious message, Father Fuentes received a totally unmerited and unprecedented persecution from some anonymous officials in the Diocese of Coimbra, where Sister Lucy lives.
In light of various similar events in the more recent past, in other Curias, we should not be too surprised to learn that a nameless official of the Curia in Coimbra on July 2, 1959 released a statement to the world press saying that the report of Father Fuentes was not true. Common sense, as well as the principles of law, inform us that a statement made by an anonymous official has no real authoritative value.
Father Fuentes Defended: In Mexico, the Archbishop of Vera Cruz, His Grace Manuel Pio Lopez came to the defense of Father Fuentes. Cardinal Jose Garibi y Rivera, the Archbishop of Guadalajara also publicly defended Father Fuentes against the unjustified attack of unnamed diocesan officials. Whoever these persons were who did this, we know that it could not be a Cardinal or Archbishop because there was no Cardinal or Archbishop in that Portuguese Curia. Neither did the authors of this grossly misleading statement of the Curia of Coimbra ever have the courage to identify themselves.
First Father Alonso, the official archivist for the Bishop of Fatima in 1971, adopted the “official” position of the Curia of Coimbra. However, he too, after studying the matter in depth came to the defense of Father Fuentes by 1976. He then said, “The authentic text, which in justice is the only one attributable to Father Fuentes, in my opinion contains nothing which gave rise to the condemnatory note of Coimbra. Much to the contrary, it reinforces a doctrine which is very apt to piously edify the Christian people.”
Father Alonso had ample opportunity to speak to Sister Lucy from 1971 to 1976 so as to come to a more accurate understanding of this affair. He, by 1976, knew that neither Father Fuentes nor Sister Lucy has misled the world by this statement of 1957 which we have published below.
Sources: This matter has been documented at length by Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité in his recently published Volume III of his series The Whole Truth About Fatima. The text published here is The Fatima Crusader*s translation of the Spanish and English texts published in Frère Michel*s book The Third Secret (Vol. III, pages 336-338).
The Report By Father
Fuentes
“I
wish only to tell you about the last conversation which I had with Sister
Lucy on the 26th of December (last year). I met her in her convent.
She was very sad, very pale and emaciated. She said to me,”
“No One Has Paid Any Attention”
“Father, the Most Holy Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to Her message, neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on their way but without giving any importance to Her Message. The bad, not seeing the punishment of God actually falling upon them, continue their life of sin without even caring about the message. But believe me, Father, God will chastise the world and this will be in a terrible manner. The punishment from Heaven is imminent.”
The Secret Not Revealed
“Father, how much time is there before 1960 arrives? It will be very sad for everyone, not one person will rejoice at all if beforehand the world does not pray and do penance. I am not able to give any other details because it is still a secret. According to the will of the Most Holy Virgin, only the Holy Father and the Bishop of Fatima are permitted to know the secret, but they have chosen to not know it so that they would not be influenced.
“This is the Third part of the Message of Our Lady which will remain secret until 1960.”
Russia, the Scourge of God
“Tell them Father, that many times, the Most Holy Virgin told my cousins Francisco and Jacinta, as well as myself, that many nations will disappear from the face of the earth. She said that Russia will be the instrument of chastisement chosen by Heaven to punish the whole world if we do not beforehand obtain the conversion of that poor nation.”
“The Decisive
Battle” Between Mary and Satan:
The Falling Away of Consecrated Souls and Priests
Sister Lucy also told me: “Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. And the devil knows what it is that most offends God and which in a short space of time will gain for him, the greatest number of souls. Thus the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God because in this way, the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them.
“That which afflicts the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Heart of Jesus is the fall of religious and priestly souls. The devil knows that religious and priests who fall away from their beautiful vocation drag numerous souls to hell... The devil wishes to take possession of consecrated souls. He tries to corrupt them in order to lull to sleep the souls of laypeople and thereby lead them to final impenitence. He employs all tricks, even going so far as to suggest the delay of entrance into religious life. Resulting from this is the sterility of the interior life, and among the laypeople, coldness (lack of enthusiasm) regarding the subject of renouncing pleasures and the total dedication of themselves to God.”
That Which Sanctified Jacinta and Francisco
“Tell them also Father, that my cousins Francisco and Jacinta sacrificed themselves because in all the apparitions of the Most Holy Virgin, they always saw Her very sad. She never smiled at us. This sadness, this anguish which we noted in Her penetrated our souls. This sadness is caused by the offenses against God and the punishments which menace sinners. And so, we children did not know what to think except to invent various means of praying and making sacrifices.”
“The other thing which sanctified these children was to see the vision of Hell.”
The Mission of Sister Lucy
“Father, that is why my mission is not to indicate to the world the material punishments which are certain to come if the world does not pray and do penance beforehand. No! My mission is to indicate to everyone the imminent danger we are in of losing our souls for all eternity if we remain obstinate in sin.”
The Urgency of Conversion
Sister Lucy also said to me: “Father, we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call to penance to come from our bishops in our diocese, nor from the religious congregations. No! Our Lord has already very often used these means and the world has not paid attention. That is why now, it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform himself spiritually. Each person must not only save his own soul but also all the souls that God has placed on our path.
“The devil does all in his power to distract us and to take away from us the love for prayer; we shall be saved together or we shall be damned together.”
Last Times
“Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world but She made me understand this for three reasons.”
The Final Battle:
“The first reason is because She told me that the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. And a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. Also from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil. There is no other possibility.”
The Last Remedies:
“The second reason is because She said to my cousins as well as to myself that God is giving two last remedies to the world. These are the Holy Rosary and Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others.”
The Sin Against the Holy Spirit:
“The third reason is because in the plans of Divine Providence, God always before He is about to chastise the world, exhausts all other remedies. Now, when He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever then, as we say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offers us with ‘certain fear* the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother. It is with ‘certain fear* because if you despise and repulse this ultimate means we will not have any more forgiveness from Heaven because we will have committed a sin which the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Spirit. This sin consists of openly rejecting with full knowledge and consent, the salvation which he offers. Let us remember that Jesus Christ is a very good Son and that He does not permit that we offend and despise His Most Holy Mother. We have recorded through many centuries of Church history the obvious testimony which demonstrates by the terrible chastisements which have befallen those who have attacked the honor of His Most Holy Mother how Our Lord Jesus Christ has always defended the Honor of His Mother.”
Prayer and Sacrifice and the Holy Rosary
Sister Lucy told me: “the two means to save the world are prayer and sacrifice.” Regarding the Holy Rosary, Sister Lucy said: “Look, Father, the Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Holy Rosary. She has given this efficacy to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves. We will sanctify ourselves. We will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.”
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
“Finally, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Most Holy Mother, consists in considering Her as the seat of mercy, of goodness and of pardon and as the certain door by which we are to enter Heaven.”
