It was terrifying and so through several pontificates, the Catholic church hierarchy have been opting not to reveal the full secret revealed by the Blessed Mother in her Fatima apparitions in 1917 in Portugal. Such a reason has topped a speculative list that has become longer over the years.
But stitching together more recent developments in the Church, the quench to unravel the full secret should be put to rest…terrifyingly, indeed, but for purposes that Heaven itself has been emphasizing repeatedly through modern day mystics: to convert mankind and, should conversion be lacking, for mankind to prepare spiritually, even materially.
Recall that in Fatima, the Blessed Mother gave three secrets. The first was the vision of hell and the second was the prophecy on the end of the First World War and the coming of another to be preceded by a sign in the sky which came in 1938 in a strange occurrence of the northern lights seen in various parts of the world before World War II erupted.
The first two secrets were already revealed years ago, but the third one was kept secret until the year 2000 as Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See’s secretary of state to make it public. The Vatican announced that the third secret spoke of a bishop in white who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him. John Paul II had the impression that the bishop in white referred to him, as he was indeed shot but survived assassination at St. Peter’s square in 1981.
But prominent Catholic leaders who allegedly saw the original letter written by Sister Lucia on the third secret insisted that not all the contents of the third secret were revealed. Thus, over the years since 2000, speculations mushroomed on what was lacking in the released third secret.
The Vatican release of the purported third secret did not settle curiosity amid allegations that not all had been made public. In the 1970’s, no less than the Blessed Mother herself seemed to have confirmed this in her apparitions to Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in Akita, Japan where her wooden statue wept 101 times (the tears confirmed by the most modern Japanese technology as being human) and where She also revealed a conditional chastisement, terrifying indeed, should mankind not convert.
In 1988. then Cardinal Ratzinger, who was to become Pope Benedict XVI, declared that the messages of Fatima and Akita are essentially the same. In 1984, just before retiring, the diocesan Bishop of Niigata, Japan Bishop John Shojiro Ito, in consultation with the Holy See, wrote a pastoral letter in which he recognized as authentic the Marian events in Akita from 1973 to 1981, In 1988, Cartinal Ratzinger (the future pope) approved Akita as “reliable and worthy of belief”.
In his pastoral letter, Bishop Ito said: “After the inquiries conducted up to the present day, one cannot deny the supernatural character of a series of unexplainable events relative to the statue of the Virgin honored at Akita. Consequently I authorize that all of the diocese entrusted to me venerate the Holy Mother of Akita.”
And so knowing what happened in Akita bears importance in unraveling the third secret of Fatima. What did the Blessed Mother reveal in Akita?
The first message received by Sister Agnes on June 6, 1973, was a call for prayer and sacrifice for the glory of the Father and salvation of souls. The second, on August 3, 1973, was for prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices to soften the Father’s anger.
The third message on October 13, 1973, the actual anniversary of the final visions and miracle of Fatima, seems to have completed the unrevealed Fatima’s third secret. Here are the exact words of the Blessed Mother:
“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before.
Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son.
“Each day, recite the prayers of the rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and the priests. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their Confreres. The Church and altars will be vandalized. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.
“The demon will rage especially against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will no longer be pardon for them.”
The credibility of the Akita messages was bolstered when Bishop Ito also said: “As for the content of the messages received, it is no way contrary to Catholic doctrine or to good morals. When one thinks of the actual state of the world, the warning seems to correspond to it in many points.”
Ito also said it took him eight years to finally decide on Akita because of the weight of the messages to Sister Agnes. He noted that “the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith has given me directives in this sense that only the bishop of the diocese in question has the power to recognize an event of this kind.”
Take note that Bishop Ito also said that the Akita messages were basically a repetition of the messages in Fatima.
But he pointed out that the terrible chastisement warned at Akita was conditional, as would be evident in the quote “If men do not repent and do not better themselves . . .” (End of quote.)
And so the relevant question: Has there been enough conversion? Let’s go to a recent message on Jan. 21, 2024 (just last month) from mystic Valentina Papagna who wrote her experience in encountering souls from Purgatory as follows:
“This morning, the Angel took me to visit some souls in Purgatory. First, the Angel took me to a part of Purgatory, where I encountered and spoke to many different groups of younger women. Calling and begging me to help them, they said, ‘Valentina, can you help us? Can you pray for us?’
“I asked some of them, ‘What is the reason for you to be here? What did you do?’
“The women answered, ‘We were wearing fashionable clothing and dressed provocatively—wearing short skirts and dresses. Now, we are punished very much for that. We didn’t know that we offended God so much.’
“I said to them, ‘Fashion is evil. It is not from God.’
“‘Nobody wrote about that or told us. We thought it was alright, and now that we are here, we cannot help ourselves. We have to suffer,’ they lamented.
“I said to them, ‘I did put a message out about how to dress.’
“They said, ‘Yes, but not in the churches and other places. Nobody put it in writing for people to read.’
“I said, ‘That really offends God to show the flesh, especially for the women.’
“They said, ‘We have to be here for a long time. Now we regret it.’
“I said, ‘Blessed Mother always teaches me and tells me to tell people that we should be covered—not above the knees but below the knees and even longer, to cover up our flesh and not to be exposed.’
“It’s also the fault of the churches, as they do not teach people how not to dress—some people dress like they are going to the beach.” (End of quote.)
And this concerns only proper dressing for women in a world going more mad.