CHAPTER XII

SISTER LUCY’S TESTAMENT?

SGR. Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was well informed of the measures taken by his own Congregation against the seer of Fatima. In a press conference on June 26, 2000, he pointed out that «from 1955, the Holy Office had prohibited her from granting interviews and disseminating her writings»¹. Nevertheless, he made out that she had recently regained her freedom of speech: «We know about her letters and her Memoirs, and now a book is about to be published…»

Six months later, in December 2000, Apelos da mensagem de Fatima, Calls from the message of Fatima², were published with an introduction by Father Castellano Cervera, Consultor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who presented this three-hundred page book as the seer’s «testament»³. But that is a manifest deception, for this book does not contain the message of Fatima in its totality.

In the first part of our critical analysis we will show that this work was indeed written by Sister Lucy and that it allows us a better knowledge of her true character. For, although she may not know it, it reveals to us her heart, her virtues, her rich mystical life. Almost on every page she manifests her indefectible attachment to “the dogma of the faith”.

In the second part, we will demonstrate that this book presents but an incomplete version of the Fatima message: essential elements of Our Lady’s revelations are passed over in silence because Sister Lucy wrote it in obedience to precise orders from her directors. Her status as a seer and the special insights she received did not lead her to act in a wholly independent manner, that is, in opposition to the instructions of her legitimate superiors who, albeit unworthy, remained for her God’s representatives.
 

URGENT CALLS TO CONVERSION

Sister Lucy began writing this book, with the authorisation of the Holy See, back in 1976, at a time when she was prohibited from replying in her correspondence to the slightest question about Our Lady’s apparitions and requests⁴.

«I address this», she indicates in her introduction, «to all those who have faith and also to all who have not the happiness of possessing this gift of God, because we are all pilgrims on our way to eternity, whether we know it or not. I have received countless letters containing a great many questions and requests. I should have liked to be able to reply to each one separately, but, as this was not possible, I am replying now to all in general with Calls from the Message of Fatima which God chose to entrust to me on behalf of all. I do so in the conviction that this is God’s will, recognised as such by legitimate authority, and I offer for all the sacrifice that this work will require of me.

«It is not an interpretation of the Message; this pertains to God’s Church. Neither is it an historical account of the Apparitions, as this is already known to you. Many authors have told the story better than I could ever have done, and it is contained in many books that have been spread throughout the world. All I wish to do is to reply to the questions, and clarify the doubts that have been put to me. Please do not look upon this communication as something that comes from myself. Look upon it rather as the echo of the voice of God […]. I shall endeavour to explain the Message to you exactly as God entrusted it to me, and gave me to understand what it means and to which souls it is addressed.⁵»

Sister Lucy would only complete the writing of her book twenty years latter, on March 25, 1997.

In the first part entitled “In the presence of God”, she begins by answering a question about life in the seers’ homes. She probably wrote these pages before writing her fifth and sixth Memoirs where, in sketching the portraits of her father and her mother, she so effectively presented, even down to the slightest detail, rural Christian life in Fatima at the time of the apparitions. It is always enchanting to read her when she recalls, in her typically tender and poetic style, the happy days of her childhood in Aljustrel, where all the families were so profoundly united that they formed but «one single family»⁶!

On one page, when she is describing the attire of the young girls of Fatima, she suddenly exclaims in an aside: «Would that the clothes people wear in our own day had even a touch of the modesty, the respect for human dignity, displayed by those worn by the village women of those days!⁷» And Sister Lucy’s tone changes: she denounces fashion, «a trick of the Devil, a clever trap in which the Devil catches souls, in the same way as hunters catch game in the woods and fields»⁸.

The Carmelite then transcribes the biblical account of Original Sin, going on to recall its painful consequences and the penances «that God imposed on us in punishment for our sin»⁹. In a simple, clear and lively style she reveals herself exacting and even severe: she challenges and interrogates her «dear pilgrims», that is, her readers, urging them to observe the divine precepts.

The second part of the book contains an exposition of the twenty “Calls from the message of Fatima”, in twenty short chapters which follow the Fatima apparitions chronologically, beginning in the spring of 1916 and going up to October 13, 1917. One will not find in this book the slightest mention of the great revelations of later times, those of Pontevedra, Tuy and Rianjo, nor of the Third Secret.

Here the seer presents, in a catechetical and biblical form, the great truths of the Creed with a strong emphasis on the existence of Heaven and hell. Justly alarmed by the current diminution and loss of the faith, she makes the following type of observation in almost all her chapters: «The Message came to remind us of this truth and to restate it for us so that we would not let ourselves be deceived or taken in by false assertions.¹⁰» And she stresses that «there are unbelievers in the world who deny these realities, but this does not make them any the less real.¹¹»

The messenger of Heaven relates in full all the words of the Angel in his apparitions of 1916, and the first five Calls, namely to faith, adoration, hope, love of God, and forgiveness, are directly inspired by the prayer taught by the Angel to the three little shepherds: «My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I ask pardon of Thee for those who not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee.»

Sister Lucy addresses us with her customary simplicity and, reading her, we have the impression of being in conversation with her… With what solicitude does she not bend over every one of our souls to draw us to Heaven! In her calls to prayer and sacrifice, she proposes some very concrete solutions.

At the end of the chapter on the Eucharist, she transcribes the prayer of the Angel: «Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly and offer Thee the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.»

Then she comments: «Why is that, since the merits and prayer of Jesus Christ are sufficient to make reparation for and to save the world, the Message invokes the merits of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and calls on us, too, to pray, to make sacrifices, to offer reparation?

«I have to say that I do not know! Nor do I know what explanation the theologians of the Church would give me if I were to ask them. But I have meditated on and thought about this question.

«I open the Gospel and I see that from the very beginning Jesus Christ united to His redemptive work the Immaculate Heart of Her whom He chose to be His Mother. The work of our redemption began at the moment when the Word descended from Heaven in order to assume a human body in the womb of Mary. From that moment, and for the next nine months, the blood of Christ was the blood of Mary, taken from Her Immaculate Heart; the Heart of Christ was beating in unison with the Heart of Mary. And we can think that the aspirations of the Heart of Mary were completely identified with the aspirations of the Heart of Christ. Mary’s ideal had become the same as that of Christ Himself, and the love in the Heart of Mary was the love in the Heart of Christ for the Father and for all human beings; to begin with, the entire work of redemption passed through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, through the bond of Her close intimate union with the divine Word.

«Since the Father entrusted His Son to Mary, enclosing Him for nine months within Her chaste virginal womb — and “All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel’ (which means, God with us).” — and since Mary of Her own free will opened Herself entirely to whatever God willed too accomplish in Her — “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38) is what She said to the angel — in view of all this and by God’s disposition, Mary became, with Christ, the co-Redemptrix of the human race.

«Thus, having led us to offer to the Most Holy Trinity the merits of Jesus Christ and those of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who is the Mother of Christ and of His Mystical Body, the Message then goes on to ask us to contribute also the prayers and sacrifices of all of us who are members of the one same Body of Christ received from Mary, made divine in the Word, offered on the Cross, present in the Eucharist, constantly growing in the members of the Church.

«Since She is the Mother of Christ and of His Mystical Body, the Immaculate Heart of Mary is in some sense the Heart of the Church; and it is here in the heart of the Church that She, always united with Christ, watches over the members of the Church, granting them Her maternal protection. Better than anyone, Mary fulfils Christ’s injunction: “Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (Jn 16:24). It is in the name of Christ, present in the Eucharist and united with us in Holy Communion, that we unite our humble prayers with those of Mary so that She can address them to the Father in Jesus Christ, Her Son. Hence it is that over and over again we beseech Her: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” Ave Maria!¹²»

How can we not marvel at the riches of such a meditation in which we rediscover the theology of Saint John Eudes on the union of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary which form but one Heart! Clearly Sister Lucy has meditated upon the Gospel, but if she displays such a knowledge of this mystery, if she speaks with such ardour and fervour, it is surely because she received special graces during the heavenly manifestations of 1917.

The seer was not ordered to write her autobiography¹³. She therefore speaks little of the graces that were granted to her, and when she does speak of them, it is often in the third person.

Nevertheless, her account of the first apparition of Our Lady, in her tenth Call, manages to recreate its incomparable atmosphere:

«When they had gone a few steps down the slope they saw another flash of light, which they took to be a second flash of lightning, and this made them hurry even faster and urge the flock on even more. A few steps further on, about half way down the slope, they stopped in surprise when they saw a lovely Lady of light on a small holm oak. They were not afraid, because the supernatural does not arouse fear; causing instead a pleasant surprise of absorbing fascination.

«The lovely Lady opened her lips as if about to speak and said to the children: “Do not be afraid. I will do you no harm.” I think that these words of Our Lady – Do not be afraid – did not refer to any actual fear we might have had of Her, because She knew well we were not frightened of Her. The words must have referred to the fear that had caused us to hurry away from the supposed thunderstorm in which we thought we were going to get caught.¹⁴»

In these Calls, we come across several anecdotes as well as disclosures of the seer’s which are highly revealing of her virtue. As for example when she recalls the circumstances of the oblation to which she so courageously consented on May 13, 1917: «Our Lady then asked the three children the following question: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?” To which I replied in the name of all three: “Yes, we are willing!”

«At the time, this reply was given spontaneously and in ignorance, because I had not the remotest idea what it really meant nor what its full implications were. But I never regretted it; on the contrary I renew it every day, asking God for the grace and strength that I need to keep it faithfully until the end.¹⁵»

When she mentions Our Lady’s promise, «the grace of God will be your comfort», she is exultant: «What a beacon of light these words of Our Lady are for us! In fact, we know our own weakness and we know that, of ourselves, we are not capable of producing the fruits of eternal life […]. Yes, we must have confidence, the grace of God will help us to suffer everything, purifying our souls in preparation for their encounter with God. If we understand this, then we live in the living Light of God.¹⁶»

As her pen flows, her reflections testify to her mystical fervour. As for example when she recalls the terror of the Israelites, terrified of being consumed by the fire of God visible on Mount Sinai: «As for me, how much I would give to be absorbed in that divine flame!¹⁷» But was she not so already? For she writes: «O Holy Trinity, whom I adore, whom I love, whose eternal praises I am to sing! In me You are light, Your are grace, You are love! Plunge me into Yourself and I plunge deeply into the love of Your Being.¹⁸»

It is above all her “Call to holiness” that reveals to us her intimate knowledge of the true mystical life: «To walk in the presence of God is to realise that His gaze is upon us, and that our whole being is, as it were, in front of the mirror of the light of God.» We know that, from Our Lady’s first apparition on May 13, 1917, the pious child was privileged with this very special knowledge of God. It was a mysterious vision which she describes in her Memoirs: «Our Lady communicated to us a light so intense that, as it streamed from Her hands, its rays penetrated our hearts and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in God, Who was that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors.¹⁹»

But let us continue our reading of her “Call to holiness”. Sister Lucy declares that only «consecrated souls» can rise to the highest degree of union with God:

«By giving themselves in this way, their encounter with God becomes permanent and familiar. The soul relates with God as with a friend or a father who is always available, communicating to Him its desires, its aspirations, its ideals and its difficulties. And it is in this intimacy that God gives Himself to such souls and makes them holy. Moreover, such souls are aware of God’s presence within them, experiencing God as their temple and the place where they dwell. Hence, they take refuge there every moment and day of their lives. And even when God’s presence does not make itself felt, they plunge themselves into His immense Being and abandon themselves in His Fatherly arms; by faith they know that He is listening to them and is leading them by the ways that He wants them to follow. United to Christ, they offer their sacrifice to God, in accordance with the Apostle’s teaching that I love so much, namely: “Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. Do no neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (Hb 13:15-16)

«Unfortunately, we have to admit that very few people attain to this degree of intimate union with God. The temptations of the Devil penetrate even into the cloister and succeed in diverting some souls from the one sublime aspiration that led them to strip themselves of many things. Then the tempter comes along and succeeds in blinding them with pathetic ambitions for places and positions of honour, to such an extent that, if they do not succeed in getting them, it seems to them the end of the world. So they have to be given the places and positions they seek, in order to reassure them. A poor kind of reassurance this, when it is derived from the chains of pride, vanity and I don’t know what else, which are the plague of monasteries and religious houses! And the Devil deceives very many with such chains! The “Imitation of Christ” had already said this, and St Teresa of Jesus repeated it, but to what effect? The Devil does not give up, because that is where he reaps his harvest!

«That is why Jesus Christ says to us that “Whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20:27-28)

«And those who know how to overcome these temptations immerse themselves in the immense Being of God as in an ocean of grace, strength and love; they penetrate the divine secrets with heightened clarity, and understand them even though they cannot understand them fully. God reveals Himself to such souls with a certain delight, and communicates to them knowledge of a part of Himself according to the capacity of each one to attain to the essence of the divine Being. Thus the soul identifies itself with the holiness of God to the extent to which it gives itself generously, and God takes it to Himself and enriches it with His gifts.²⁰»

The third part of the work treats of the commandments of God. «They are among the chief aims of the Message. In fact, Our Lady ended the series of Her apparitions in Fatima with these words: “Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended.” And, previously on the 13^th July, She had already said: “In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want.” Thus, what Our Lady wanted and, therefore, the main object of the Message, was to beg us not to continue to offend Our Lord because He was already so deeply offended. There can be no doubt that what offends God most is the breaking of His law; all Sacred Scripture confirms this. All the Prophets protested against the breaking of God’s law; and, in the same way, Jesus Christ condemns it also, as does the Church, which continues to speak in His name in our own day.²¹»

The last part of the book is wholly dedicated to the Chaplet and the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. In it we rediscover the teaching that Sister Lucy often developed in her correspondence. Here let us treasure one of her remarks: «What is missing in the people who think the Rosary monotonous is Love; and everything that is not done for love is worthless.²²»

When Sister Lucy meditates upon the mysteries of the Rosary, contemplating the agony of Jesus, she opens her heart up to us: «Oh! If I only could have been there beside the Lord at that moment, to wipe His face with a soft towel and then to keep such a relic of the Blood of my God! But what I could not do then, I want to do today, because, every day, from His wounded face, from His pierced hands and feet, from His open heart, flows the blood of our Redemption, present in the consecrated bread and wine on the altar of sacrifice; and I have the happiness of being nourished on that Body and that Blood.²³»

We could go on quoting many other passages in the book where we rediscover Sister Lucy’s truly ardent heart and soul. But we must now examine to what extent the message of Fatima has nonetheless been obscured in it, and we must ask ourselves why it has not been set forth in all its parts.
 

GRAVE OMISSIONS

We need only leaf through the work to notice an element that is novel when compared to the seer’s previous writings. She is constantly referring to Sacred Scripture. Her text is a series of biblical quotations: more than six hundred of them can be counted.

Here is how she introduces them, at the beginning of her book, where she is answering a question about the initial apparitions of the Angel in 1915: «Until now, I have not wished to say any more about those apparitions than I needed to say in order to reply to the questions that were put to me. Today, however, I am doing so, not in order to confirm whether or not they were the Guardian Angel, but in order to tell you that Guardian Angels truly exist, and that they were created by God to serve, adore, praise and love Him. It is equally certain that God, in His abundant goodness and mercy, has given each of us an Angel to accompany us, help and guard us.

«I tell you this categorically, not simply because it was given to me to see; if such were the case, my words would not be very convincing. I am telling you what God have revealed to us in the sacred pages of the Old and New Testaments. You are free not to believe in what I myself say, but you cannot doubt the Word of God contained in Sacred Scripture. So let’s have a look at some of the passages in which God reveals to us this truth about Guardian Angels.²⁴»

Sister Lucy quotes a great number of them and, in the second part of her book, she will apply the same approach to each theme, displaying a remarkable knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures. Since entering the Carmel, she must very frequently have meditated upon them²⁵.

But if it is true that the revelations of Fatima recapitulate the biblical Revelation, they also make it real and explicit for our times. Yet it is this truly novel aspect of the Message that is entirely buried in the seer’s so-called “testament”. Apart from the Holy Rosary, everything which properly belongs to Fatima, and which is not spelt out plainly in the Bible, is systematically overlooked and ignored. The Calls of the Message restrict the mystery of Fatima to the confines of the Cova da Iria, as though it were simply a reminder of the Gospel, dated 1917. There is no sign of the Fatima event being accomplished in the revelations of Pontevedra and Tuy, nor assuming a global significance with regard to the increasingly tragic facts of the religious and political history of our time.

For the idea that inspired and dictated the writing of this book conforms strictly to the directives given by Pope John Paul II himself in his homily of May 13, 1982²⁶ and, to be more precise, in the following passage:

«In the light of the mystery of Mary’s spiritual motherhood, let us seek to understand the extraordinary message, which began on May 13, 1917 to resound throughout the world from Fatima, continuing for five months until October 13 of the same year.

«The Church has always taught and continues to proclaim that God’s revelation was brought to completion in Jesus Christ, who is the fullness of that revelation, and that “no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord” (Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, no. 4). The Church evaluates and judges private revelations by the criterion of conformity with that single public Revelation.

«If the Church has accepted the message of Fatima, it is above all because that message contains a truth and a call whose basic content is the truth and the call of the Gospel itself.

«“Repent (do penance) and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15): these are the first words that the Messiah addressed to humanity. The message of Fatima is, in its basic nucleus, a call to conversion and repentance, as in the Gospel. This call was uttered at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it was thus addressed particularly to this present century. The Lady of the message seems to have read with special insight the “signs of the times”, the signs of our time […].

«In harmony with the tradition of many centuries, the Lady of the message indicates the Rosary […]. The words of the message were addressed to children aged from seven to ten.²⁷»

Sister Lucy, or her director and corrector, have even assumed Pope John Paul II’s vocabulary, namely the words “call” and “message”. She often uses the word “message” where she would normally have said “Our Lady”. That is a great pity because the Apparition then becomes an abstraction, presented as something static, without spontaneity or warmth.

In his Book of Accusation against John Paul II, commenting upon the homily of May 13, 1982, the Abbé de Nantes identified this manner, odd to say the least, of designating the Apparition:

«The historical events are reduced to practically nothing. It is not really the Most Blessed Virgin who appeared, so all your bizarre expressions give us to understand. “The words of the message were addressed... In the words of Fatima.... The Lady of the Message, the Lady of Fatima...” A hypocritical unbeliever, a modernist would speak no differently. But a devotee of Mary? Never! He would rather say outright: I do not believe in it! Or, if he did believe in it, he would use a different language! On your lips this impersonally rendered message loses all authority, all urgency, so much so that it becomes a sinister, yes sinister, banality: “It invites to repentance. It gives a warning. It calls to prayer. It recommends the Rosary, etc.”²⁸»

In our following analysis of several passages from the Apelos da mensagem de Fatima, we shall observe just how far this imperative for “conformity with the Apostolic Revelation” results, in practice, in neglecting, if not rejecting, essential elements of the Fatima revelations.

Thus, in the tenth chapter, entitled “Call to share in the Eucharist”, Lucy commences by quoting the words of the Angel: «Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.» She comments: «This call which the Message addresses to us is very explicit in the Gospel»…

The exposition that follows, at once catechetical, scriptural and dogmatic, reveals a personal and exact knowledge of the mystery of the Eucharist. But Sister Lucy will not speak of the new practice requested by the Virgin of Fatima, namely the Communion of Reparation of the First Five Saturdays of the Month.

After having recounted, in her tenth Call, the apparition of May 13, she will only refer very partially to that of June 13. The seer retains only two sentences from the revelations with which she was favoured that day. Under the title “Call to devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary”, she reports, without indicating the date, the words of Our Lady: «Jesus wants… to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart.» The section of the sentence that has been left out relates to her own vocation: «Jesus wants to make use of you to make Me known and loved.»

The seer will not even allude to the infused virtue that was granted to her as well as to Francisco and Jacinta on June 13, 1917: «I think», she writes in her Memoirs, «that, on that day, the main purpose of this light was to infuse within us a special knowledge and love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary, just as on the other two occasions it was intended to do with regard to God and the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. From that day onwards our hearts were filled with a more ardent love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary.²⁹»

She does not repeat her testimony about that exceptional grace, but she does develop considerations and elevated reflections of a theological and mystical character that might have been inspired in her by any preacher or spiritual director. We quote them in our appendix to this chapter. One will no longer find in them all those aspects of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary that were revealed to her during the apparition of June 13. On that day, when Our Lady opened Her hands and communicated to the three little shepherds the rays of the «immense light» emanating from Her, it was given to them to contemplate the secret of Mary, to see Her pierced Heart: «In front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled by thorns which seemed to pierce it. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, and seeking reparation.³⁰»

On three occasions at least, the Immaculate Heart revealed Itself in this manner to Sister Lucy: on June 13, 1917 at the Cova da Iria; on December 10, 1925 in Pontevedra; and on June 13, 1929 in Tuy. Describing this latter Apparition, the seer wrote: «It was Our Lady of Fatima with Her Immaculate Heart in Her left hand, without a sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames.³¹»

However, throughout the 280 pages of the Apelos da mensagem de Fatima, no mention will ever be made of this revelation of the Immaculate Heart surrounded by thorns, nor of reparation for the ingratitude and sins which offend, outrage, wound and afflict it. And yet this is a specific element of the Fatima revelations.

The revelation of July 13, 1917, that is to say the great Secret in its three parts, is almost entirely passed over in silence. There is no mention of it except in one solitary passage in the book, on page 141. We shall quote it in extenso. Having transcribed numerous texts from the Bible, «where God speaks to us of the existence of an eternal life», Sister Lucy writes:

«In Fatima He sent us His Message as further proof of these truths, bringing them to our minds so that we do not allow ourselves to be deceived by the false teaching of unbelievers who deny them, and of those who have left the true path, who distort them. With this end in view, the Message assures us that hell does truly exist and that the souls of poor sinners do in fact go there: “You have seen hell (the Message said to the three little shepherds from Aljustrel) where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.” (Our Lady, 13^th July 1917)

«Moreover, after showing the children the horrible vision of hell, the Message once again points to devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the way of salvation: “To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.” Peace with one’s own conscience, peace with God, peace in our homes, peace within families, peace with one’s neighbours and peace between the nations. This is the peace that the world ardently longs for, and from which it is so far removed because it does not listen to, or follow, the word of God!»

The seer has correctly written «the word of God» and not “the requests of Our Lady”…

Sister Lucy continues: «Hence the words of the Message: “If what I say to you is done…”. And what is it that Our Lady says to us?»

The question is paramount. Sister Lucy replies: «We shall continue to see what it is She says in the description of the Calls of the Message.³²»

Now, in the following chapters, we will learn that Our Lady implores, with bitterness, that men «do not offend the Lord our God any more»… But the two requests addressed to the Holy Father, concerning the consecration of Russia and the approval of the Communion of Reparation of the First Saturdays, are totally suppressed. There will be no reference to Heaven’s great plan to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, nor to the two possibilities open before us, either that of the Holy Father’s obedience, which will be miraculously rewarded, or that of his culpable and catastrophic refusal. We will not find in this book any of the prophecies of the Secret relating to the request for the consecration of Russia. Nor the announcement of the chastisements to fall on us for as long as this consecration remains undone, that is to say wars, famines, the annihilation of nations, persecutions, and the sufferings of the Holy Father. Nor the marvellous promises, namely the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the collegial consecration of Russia followed by her conversion, as well as the period of peace to be granted to the world.

After this stalling reply to the question «And what is it that Our Lady says to us?», the seer continues: «For the moment, let me remind you of a passage from the Gospel of St John, in which we find what we might call “Mary’s commandment”.» She is referring to the account of the wedding at Cana, in the course of which the servants obeyed Mary’s order: «Do whatever He tells you.» And Lucy concludes: «It was thus that the servants deserved to see the miracle of the changing of the water into wine; they did what Mary told them to do and they obeyed the word of Jesus. That is the way of salvation: to hear the word of God and keep it.³³»

The following Calls are linked to the three last apparitions of 1917. But note the following words, prophecies and warnings of Our Lady which are simply passed over in silence:

«In the last month, I will work a miracle so that all may believe. If you had not been taken away to the city, the miracle would have been even greater. Saint Joseph will come with the Child Jesus, to give peace to the world. Our Lord will come to bless the people. Our Lady of the Rosary and Our Lady of Sorrows will also come.» (August 19, 1917)

«I will cure some, but not others, because Our Lord does not trust them. In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.» (September 13, 1917)

«I am Our Lady of the Rosary. The war will end soon and the soldiers will return to their homes. Some, yes [I will cure them]; others no. People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins.» (October 13, 1917)

These omissions are deeply regrettable. For these words of the Immaculate concern concrete interactions between Heaven and earth. Moreover, there is little evidence in these Calls of the gentleness, goodness and power of Our Lady, to whom we direct our prayers, and who, according to Her warnings, only grants them on certain conditions.

Sister Lucy draws new lessons from the three visions which she enjoyed on October 13, 1917, «while the people were gazing in astonishment at the sun which had gone pale in the light of the presence of God»³⁴:

«I do not know whether or not the Church’s theologians and thinkers have attached any special significance or interpretation to these apparitions. They would certainly be able to do so in more precise language based on sacred doctrine. I am only speaking about them here in order to do what I have been asked to do, and within the limits imposed by my humble ignorance and poverty.³⁵»

Here is one of her novel interpretations:

«In my view, the apparition of Our Lady of Mount Carmel means total consecration to God. By showing Herself clothed in a religious habit, She wished to represent all the other habits by which those who are totally consecrated to God can be distinguished from ordinary secular Christians.³⁶» Sister Lucy next goes on vigorously to justify and defend the wearing of the religious habit, and then develops a small treatise on the religious life, presenting the evangelical counsels with great enthusiasm and wisdom. But she will not make any explicit mention to the scapular of Mount Carmel.

Previously, when she had not been forced to identify the message of Fatima with the Gospel, she had given this Apparition a different interpretation. Thus, on October 15, 1950, she said to Father Howard Rafferty: «Our Lady held the scapular in Her hands because She wants us all to wear it.

– In many books on Fatima, remarked Father Rafferty, the authors never mention the scapular when they present Our Lady’s message.

– Ah, they are wrong, exclaimed the seer. The scapular is the sign of our consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.»

Father Rafferty wanted to know whether the leaders of the Blue Army are right to insist on the wearing of the scapular. «Yes, replied Lucy, this practice is indispensable for fulfilling the requests of Our Lady of Fatima.

– Is the scapular as indispensable as the Rosary?

– The scapular and the Rosary are inseparable.³⁷»

To the wearing of the scapular, as a sign of consecration, is attached the promise of obtaining the grace of final perseverance. Now, this wonderful promise of the Blessed Virgin’s, which was made to Saint Simon Stock³⁸ in the thirteenth century, is confirmed by the revelations of Fatima. We remember Our Lady’s words to the three seers on June 13, 1917: «To whoever embraces this devotion [i.e. devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary] I promise salvation; these souls shall be dear to God, as flowers placed by Me to adorn His throne.» And in 1925, in Pontevedra: «I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their soul.» Alas, there is not even an allusion to this promise in the Calls from the Message. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is not presented as a divine wish, something that is new and particular to our time, nor as the necessary condition for today obtaining temporal and eternal salvation.

Nevertheless, Father Castellano Cervera, Consultor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, makes out in his preface to the Calls that the book contains an «authorised explanation of the whole of the Fatima message»³⁹. It is supposed to be the «seer’s spiritual testament»⁴⁰.

Such allegations are clearly untruthful. No, the Calls from the Message do not constitute Sister Lucy’s testament: there the seer does not renew her testimony on the supernatural communications she transmitted to the hierarchy, during the twentieth century, for the accomplishment of the divine plan announced on June 13 and July 13, 1917 for the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These Calls present only a watered-down version of Our Lady’s message.
 

THE PATIENCE OF AN AUTHENTIC EMISSARY OF GOD

It is Sister Lucy’s directors and superiors who bear the full weight of responsibility for this dilution of the Fatima message, albeit carried out by the seer herself. It is notable that, paradoxically, her submission to their directives guarantees the authenticity of the divine messages she had to communicate to them and which she did effectively communicate to them. Msgr. Languet de Gergy, an expert in the discernment of spirits, who, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, wrote one of the first biographies of Saint Margaret-Mary, distinguished several «marks» indicating that a soul was favoured with «divine operations»:

«According to the learned Gerson, the first of these marks, and that which may take the place of all the others, and to which all the others report, is humility. We refer to that constant humility of a soul whom God’s favours do not puff up, which, far from glorifying in them and seeking them out, fears them and runs away from them; which conceals them insofar as it can; which only reveals them out of obedience and from the distrust it has of itself; which does so with simplicity when so commanded, and which is always ready to put obedience before these favours. It is by the authority of its superiors that such a soul is regulated, and not by its revelations and its own intelligence; it is always ready to sacrifice its own insights, even its supernatural insights, to obedience, to the judgment of its superiors and their wishes; this it does without murmur, without soul-searching, without any hankering after its own glory. Such humility, according to Gerson, is not only an excellent mark of the truth of its revelations, but is a mark so certain that it is sufficient in the absence of any other.⁴¹»

Sister Lucy displayed this kind of humility more than once in her life, and notably in writing Calls from the Message of Fatima, where she certainly “sacrificed her own insights, even her supernatural insights, to obedience, to the judgment of her superiors and their wishes”.

We should not think, for all that, that Sister Lucy failed in her mission through pusillanimity. For the fact is that her behaviour corresponds to the teachings and recommendations of Saint John of the Cross: «God wills that no one should hold fast of himself to the communications he believes to receive from Him, nor become attached thereto nor dependent thereon, without the counsel and guidance of the Church or her ministers.» Basing himself on Sacred Scripture, the Doctor of Carmel justified this intervention of ecclesiastical authority thus: «God is so desirous that the government and direction of every man be undertaken by another man like himself, and that every man be ruled and governed by natural reason, that He earnestly desires us not to give entire credence to the things He communicates to us supernaturally, nor to consider them as being securely and completely confirmed until they pass through this human aqueduct of the mouth of man. And thus, whenever He says or reveals something to a soul, He gives this same soul to whom He says it a kind of inclination to tell it to the person to whom it is fitting that it should be told […]. For this is a characteristic of the humble soul, which dares not converse alone with God, and can only find security in the direction and counsel of one like itself.⁴²»

To understand Sister Lucy’s attitude, it is very enlightening to recall Our Lord’s warning to Saint Margaret-Mary: « I am pleased that you prefer the will of your superiors to Mine, when they forbid you to do what I have ordered you⁴³. Let them do whatever they want with you, I will find a way to make My plans succeed, even by means that seem opposed and contrary to them.⁴⁴» The Jansenists would criticise this recommendation of Our Lord’s, countering it with Saint Paul’s words: «We must obey God rather than men.» (Ac 5:29) Msgr. Languet de Gergy replied to them that to submit oneself, as Saint Margaret-Mary had, was in reality «to obey God who had Himself instructed that His Will as known through the ministry of the superior was to be preferred to that same Will as known solely through a vision. However favoured by God a soul may be through heavenly revelations or visions, it must obey its legitimate superiors rather than the orders it believes it has been prescribed in its visions.⁴⁵»

What is more, by submitting to the commands of her superiors, Sister Lucy has practised the virtue of patience to an heroic degree⁴⁶. Now, «patience, not ordinary patience, but an heroic and constant patience, even in the midst of mockery, contempt and contradictions» is, in the words of Msgr. Languet de Gergy, another distinctive mark of souls favoured with authentic divine revelations:

«It is here in fact that a man will ordinarily suffer the greatest pain; and contradiction will at the least draw from him self-justification and protest. If the person enlightened from on high suffer in peace that his situation and revelations be despised, if he be content to wait on God’s moments and, in the confusion he feels, joyfully to withdraw into himself without murmur, without complaint, without defending himself, and to endure this state for a long while, then one may judge that the spirit that guides him is of God.⁴⁷»

Everything would seem to indicate that, in regard to Fatima, Our Lord, as He previously stated to Saint Margaret-Mary, is “making His plans succeed by means that seem opposed and contrary to them”. Indeed, by obliging the holy Carmelite to neglect significant elements of Our Lady’s message, her directors have inadvertently paved the way for the triumph of the cause of Fatima. For Sister Lucy’s heroic patience and her unfailing obedience to those who represent and embody for her the Authority of Holy Church, from her prioress and her confessor right up to the reigning Pope, provide further proof of the supernatural origin of the apparitions, visions and interior locutions to which she has witnessed in the past: assuredly, all the requests she has addressed to her directors, to the bishops of Fatima and to the Popes themselves, were and remain still today authentic demands from the Queen of Heaven and earth.

Admittedly, it was sometimes very painful for her to accomplish her mission, but Sister Lucy always transmitted to her superiors the messages she was charged to communicate to them. In 1982, she would tell her regular visitors, in this case Maria do Fetal Neves Rosa, on August 13, and Mrs. Eugenia Pestana, on August 15:

«I am old, I am seventy-five, I am preparing myself to see God face to face. I have given all my texts to Holy Church. I will die at peace. But if they want my advice, it is this: “The consecration of Russia, as Our Lady requested, has not been done.”⁴⁸» Furthermore, in those days she reminded her friends what Our Lord had revealed to her in August 1931: «They will do it, but it will be late.»

The “texts” which Heaven’s messenger gave to Holy Church may be found in Father Joaquin Alonso’s monumental work, Fatima, Texts and Critical Studies, kept in the archives of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima. It is regrettable that the publication of these volumes was deferred to 1975, but fortunately Fathers Alonso and Martins published numerous articles, pamphlets and books at that time, disclosing some of the seer’s correspondence with her spiritual directors. This correspondence reveals to us the wishes of Heaven. You will find it reproduced and commented upon in the first volumes of The Whole Truth about Fatima.

Let us finally recall that Sister Lucy’s “texts” are filed within the archives of the Holy Office, particularly her letter to Paul VI in the summer of 1967, the contents of which have to date remained secret, and her letter to John Paul II of May 12, 1982, of which only nineteen lines have been disclosed. These two documents probably contain an explanation of everything that God awaits from the Holy Father for the fulfilment of His wonderful design of grace and mercy. The publication of these two letters would be a means, and even the providential means, of openly manifesting what has been obscured in the Apelos da mensagem de Fatima, namely Our Lady’s great requests to the Holy Father to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. Clearly nothing can be achieved as long as the Sovereign Pontiff fails to comply with Heaven’s commands. The Church is hierarchical, and even the sum of all the individual wills of her members cannot replace this act of submission and obedience of her head to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

APPENDIX

THE CALL TO DEVOTION
TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

In Sister Lucy’s book, Calls from the Message of Fatima, the eleventh Call treats of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Here is the text in full:

«To establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means to bring people to a full consecration through conversion, self-dedication, intimate esteem, veneration and love. Thus, it is in this spirit of consecration and conversion that God wishes to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

«We all know that a mother’s heart represents love in the bosom of a family. In fact, it is love which makes the mother bend over her baby’s cradle, sacrifice herself for it, give herself, rush to the defence of her child. All children trust in the heart of their mother, and we all know that we have in her a place of special affection. The same applies to the Virgin Mary. Thus the Message says: “My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” Hence, the Heart of Mary is the refuge and the way to God for all His children.

«This refuge and this way were proclaimed to all humanity immediately after the fall of our first parents. To the Devil, who had tempted the first human beings, and had induced them to disobey the divine order they had been given, the Lord said: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gn 3:15). The ‘new generation’ that God foretold would be born of this woman, will triumph in the battle against the progeny of Satan, to the point of crushing its head. Mary is the Mother of this new generation, as if She were a new tree of life, planted by God in the garden of the world so that all Her children can partake of Her fruit.

«It is from the heart of their mother that children receive their natural life, their first breath, their life-giving blood, the beating of their heart, as if the mother were the spring of a clock impelling movement to two pendulums. When we see how dependent the child is on its mother in those early months of its formation in the womb, we could almost say that the heart of the mother is the heart of the child. And we can say the same of Mary, when She carried the Son of the Eternal Father in Her womb. Hence, it follows that the Heart of Mary is, in some sense, the heart of all that other generation, the first fruit of which is Christ, the Word of God.

«And it is from this fruit that that other generation of this Immaculate Heart is to be fed, as Jesus said: “I am the Bread of life. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As (...) I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will live because of Me.” (Jn 6:48, 56-57). And to live thus because of Christ is also to live because of Mary, since Jesus had received His body and Blood from Mary.

«It was in this Heart that the Father placed His Son, as if in the first Tabernacle. Mary was the first pyx that held Him, and it was the blood of Her Immaculate Heart which communicated to the Son of God His life and His human nature, from which we all, in turn, receive “grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16).

«This is that new generation born from this wonderful mother: Christ in Himself and in His Mystical Body. And Mary is the Mother of this progeny chosen by God to crush the head of the infernal serpent.

«Thus we see that devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary must be established in the world by means of a true consecration, through conversion and self giving. In the same way, through the consecration, the bread and wine are converted into the Body and Blood of Christ, which were drawn with His very life from the Heart of Mary.

«Hence it is that this Immaculate Heart must be for us a refuge and the way that leads us to God.

«We thus constitute the retinue of the new generation created by God, drawing our supernatural life from the same life-giving source, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who is the Mother of Christ and of His Mystical Body. Thus we are truly brothers and sisters of Christ, as He Himself said: “My mother and My brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Lk 8:21).

«This word of God is the bond which links all the children in the Heart of the Mother; there we hear the echo of the word of the Father, because God enclosed His eternal Word in the Heart of Mary; and it is from this Word that life comes to us: “If any one thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’.” (Jn 7:37-38). In fact, we read in the Book of Isaiah: “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.” (Is 44:3).

«This blessed and watered land is the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and God wants our devotion to take root there, because it was for this very purpose that God placed so much love within the Heart of the Mother of all human beings, who consecrates and converts Her progeny into the Body and Blood of Christ, Her First-born, Son of God, the Word of the Father: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (…) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” (Jn 1:4, 14).

«God began the work of our redemption in the Heart of Mary, given that it was through Her “fiat” that the redemption began to come about: “And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to Me according to Your word.’” (Lk 1:38) “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (Jn 1:14) Thus, in the closest union possible between two human beings, Christ began, with Mary, the work of our salvation. Christ’s heart-beats are those of the heart of Mary, the prayer of Christ is the prayer of Mary, the joys of Christ are the joys of Mary; it was from Mary that Christ received the Body and Blood that are to be poured out and offered up for the salvation of the world. Hence, Mary, made one with Christ, is the co-Redemptrix of the human race. With Christ in Her womb, with Jesus Christ in Her arms, with Christ at Nazareth and in His public life; with Jesus Christ She climbed the hill of Calvary, She suffered and agonised with Him, receiving into Her Immaculate Heart the last sufferings of Christ, His last words, His last agony and the last drops of His Blood, in order to offer them to the Father.

«And Mary remained on earth in order to help Her other children to complete the redeeming work of Christ, preserving it in Her Heart as a wellspring of grace – Ave gratia plena – in order to pass on to us the fruits of the life, passion and death of Jesus Christ, Her Son.

«Ave Maria!¹»

In these last lines, we rediscover Sister Lucy’s lively faith in the Mediation of the Most Blessed Virgin. But the theological explanations she has elaborated in this Call bear no direct relation to the heavenly requests concerning the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays, the consecration of Russia, and the establishment of the Feast in honour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary «as one of the main feasts of the Holy Church»². We know, however, from the great Secret of July 13, 1917 and from other divine communications to which Sister Lucy has so firmly testified in the past, that it is the miracle of Russia’s conversion, after her consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Pope and the bishops, that will permit devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be established in the world.

In February 1946, in one of his conversations with the seer, Father Jongen reminded her of Father de Montfort’s “three theses”: The reign of Christ will come, through the reign of Mary, after the spread of the true devotion throughout the world. Sister Lucy immediately added: «and after the conversion of Russia»³.
 

Endnotes

(1) Zénith, June 28, 2000.
(2) Irma Lucia, Apelos da mensagem de Fatima, Secretariado dos Pastorinhos, 2000, 304 pages, translated into English, under the title Calls from the Message of Fatima, by the Sisters of Mostreiro de Santa Maria and Convento de N.S. do Bom Sucesso, Lisbon. Page references are to this English edition published by the Secretariado dos Pastorinhos.
(3) Ibid., p. 8.
(4) Supra, p. 238 sq.
(5) Ibid., p. 35.
(6) Ibid., p. 39.
(7) Ibid., p. 44.
(8) Ibid, p. 45.
(9) Ibid., p. 47.
(10) Ibid., p. 152.
(11) Ibid., p. 138.
(12) Ibid., p. 114-116.
(13) Ibid., p. 4-5.
(14) Ibid., p. 125-126.
(15) Ibid., p. 129-130.
(16) Ibid., p. 130-131. The two last sentences paraphrase Sister Lucy’s text.
(17) Ibid., p. 208.
(18) Ibid., p. 124.
(19) Toute la vérité sur Fatima, vol. 1, p. 178.
(20) Ibid., p. 197-198.
(21) Ibid., p. 207.
(22) Ibid., p. 271.
(23) Ibid., p. 282.
(24) Ibid., p. 52-53.
(25) «In fact», indicates Sister Lucy, «only long after those events took place, and after I had written about them, was I allowed to read Sacred Scripture. Only then did I understand the true meaning of the Message, although it had been given to me to understand it earlier, but in a less concrete way.» (ibid., p. 59).
(26) Fr. Castellano Cervera suggests this connection in the book’s introduction (p. 7).
(27) D. C., 1982, p. 540.
(28) Georges de Nantes, Livre d’accusation à notre Saint Père le pape Jean-Paul II, CRC, May 1983, p. 126.
(29) Toute la vérité sur Fatima, vol. 1, p. 213.
(30) Ibid., p. 209.
(31) Toute la vérité sur Fatima, vol. 2, p. 293.
(32) Calls From the Message of Fatima, p. 140-141.
(33) Ibid., p. 142.
(34) This is the only allusion in the Apelos to the great miracle of the sun on October 13, 1917.
(35) Ibid., p. 162.
(36) Ibid., p. 180.
(37) Roger Rebut, Les messages de la Vierge Marie, Téqui, 1968, p. 217. John Haffert, Fatima, apostolate mondial, Téqui, 1984, p. 87, 91-92.
(38) Although the apparition to Saint Simon Stock and the promise of salvation to those who wear the scapular are certainly authentic, the sabbatine privilege on the other hand is doubtful, questionable. Cf. Brother François de Marie des Anges, Fatima, joie intime, 2nd ed., CRC, 1993, p. 165-166.
(39) Furthermore, the book’s illustrations give the false impression that the revelations in it are presented in their totality. For there are photographs of the Dorothean convents in Pontevedra and Tuy (p. 26-28). On page 29, beneath a photograph of the Pope performing the act of offering of the world in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome, the legend reads: «Pope John Paul II, together with all the bishops of the Church, consecrates the world and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (25th March, 1984).» In short, Pope John Paul II is supposed to have accomplished the collegial consecration of Russia in… the year 1984!
(40) Calls from the Message of Fatima, p. 8. Father Castello Cervera also writes: Sister Lucy «undertook important tasks in her community, such as Prioress of the Carmel in Coimbra.» (p. 11) But the seer never became Prioress! (NB. The English version corrects this error and reads “Sub-Prioress” - translator).
(41) Jean-Joseph Languet de Gergy, La vie de la vénérable Marguerite-Marie, 1st ed. 1729; republished in 1890, Poussielgue, p. 33.
(42) Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Chapter 22.
(43) Let us remember that Our Lord gave a similar order to Marie des Vallées. Cf. Émile Dermenghem, La vie admirable et les révélations de Marie des Vallées, Plon, 1926, p. 58, 122.
(44) Sainte Marguerite-Marie, Sa vie par elle-même, Saint-Paul, 1979, p. 69.
(45) Languet de Gergy, op. cit., p. 29.
(46) On April 13, 2000, in a parlour conversation with the Bishop of Fatima, D. Serafim Ferreira, Sister Lucy told him: «I have always been obedient and I have no regrets about this.» (Christus, May 2000, p. 8).
(47) Languet de Gergy, op. cit., p. 36.
(48) Caillon, La consécration de la Russie, Téqui, p. 45-46.
 

Appendix

(1) Calls from the Message of Fatima, p. 135-137.
(2) Toute la vérité sur Fatima, vol. 2, p. 471.
(3) Médiatrice et Reine, October 1946, p. 112.