Directly Betraying the Faith

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Let me make clear at the outset of this article that I believe wholeheartedly in Our Lady's Fatima Message, including that part which the Catholic Church has never officially pronounced upon, namely, Our Lady's visit to Lucia dos Santos in Tuy, Spain, on June 13, 1929, which included this wonderful vision of the Blessed Trinity that many of us have held close to our hearts since we were children in elementary schools. In my case, you see, I was given a holy card with this depiction when I was in first grade at Saint Aloysius Church in Great Neck, New York, in the 1957-1958 school year, just forty years, mind you, after Our Lady's apparitions in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal, and less than thirty years after her apparition to Sister Lucia, then a Dorothean Sister, in Tuy, Spain:

Our Lady gave Sister Lucia the following message on that twelfth anniversary of her second Fatima apparition to herself and her late cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto:

"The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, and to order that in union with him and at the same time, all the bishops of the world make the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to convert it because of this day of prayer and worldwide reparation."

 

Yes, this is a private revelation. So is the entirety of that part of the Fatima Message that the Church has said contains nothing contrary to Faith and morals and is thus worthy of belief. Consider this reflection written by Yves Dupont in his Catholic Prophecy: The Coming Chastisement (TAN Books and Publishers, 1970):

For my part I have studied no less that 300 different prophecies. Moreover, the more ancient of these prophecies describe accurately subsequent events such as the Reformation, the French Revolution, the rise of Capitalism and Democracy, and even Communism. The sceptic may say that these prophecies are nonsense, but the nonsense is in his own mind. Or again, he may say that they are only "private", but so are Lourdes and Fatima; so are the Scapular and the Rosary. It matters little, really, whether a revelation is private or public, so long as has given reasonable evidence of being true.

 

While understanding that there are many dedicated Catholics across the ecclesiastical divide, including in the various camps of sedevacantism, who believe that Pope Pius XII's 1952 Consecration of Russia without the bishops of the world fulfilled the request made by Our Lady to seers of Fatima on July 13, 1917, and who contend, as do the conciliarists themselves, that Our Lady never said explicitly that Russia would be converted to the Catholic Faith, my little pea brain believes that the Mother of God would not speak about conversion unless she meant to her Divine Son's one true Church that He founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope.

What took place in the Americas following Our Lady's apparitions to the Venerable Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill outside of Mexico City in 1531? The conversion of over nine million indigenous peoples, who were steeped in the throes of horrible pagan practices, including abominable human sacrifices, to the Catholic Faith, thus ushering in a period of Christendom in the Americas. The conversion that took place following Our Lady's apparitions to Juan Diego and her leaving the miraculous image of herself on his tilma on December 12, 1531, was not a simple cessation of hostilities against the Spanish missionaries and colonizers. The conversion that took place in the Americas was a conversion to the Catholic Faith. Period.

Similarly, Our Lady gave Saint Dominic her Most Holy Rosary (consisting of fifteen decades, thank you, you supporters of the "luminous mysteries," of Hail Marys, representing each of the 150 psalms) to defeat the heresy of Albingensianism and to convert the Albigenses to Catholicism. Our Lady appeared on January 20, 1842, in the Church of San Andrea della Fratte to effect the conversion of a young Jewish man, Alphonse Ratisbonne, who hated the Catholic Faith and who was enraged by the fact that his brother Theodore had converted to Catholicism. Our Lady appeared to young Alphonse Ratisbonne as she appeared on the Miraculous Medal he mocked and ridiculed and reviled. He was converted on the spot. It is truly novel to speak of the Mother of God and the word conversion without recognizing that there is only one sense of that word to her: conversion to the Catholic Faith.

Oh, yes, there are those across the divide even in traditional circles who speculate that the phrase "conversion of Russia" in the context of Our Lady's Fatima Message might mean simply a cessation of Russia's overt aggressive hostilities against its own people and the rest of the world. Even this rather limited, revisionist sense of the world "conversion" (which has only had one meaning since Saint Peter gave his first papal address on the first Pentecost Sunday) has failed to be realized. After all, I don't really think that one can be serious about the word "conversion" in a land where over three million babies are killed by means of surgical abortions each and every year, a land where many women have up to twenty-five and thirty abortions in their lifetimes.

Conversion? Peace? Peace is more than the absence of armed-conflict. Please, please take the time to read from Pope Pius XI's Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922, wherein he makes the distinction between the false peace of this world and the one and only authentic peace that comes from individual souls persisting in states of Sanctifying Grace and in nations of such men subordinating their civil affairs according to the Mind of the Divine Redeemer as He has deposited It exclusively in the Catholic Church:

Peace indeed was signed in solemn conclave between the belligerents of the late War. This peace, however, was only written into treaties. It was not received into the hearts of men, who still cherish the desire to fight one another and to continue to menace in a most serious manner the quiet and stability of civil society. Unfortunately the law of violence held sway so long that it has weakened and almost obliterated all traces of those natural feelings of love and mercy which the law of Christian charity has done so much to encourage. Nor has this illusory peace, written only on paper, served as yet to reawaken similar noble sentiments in the souls of men. On the contrary, there has been born a spirit of violence and of hatred which, because it has been indulged in for so long, has become almost second nature in many men. There has followed the blind rule of the inferior parts of the soul over the superior, that rule of the lower elements "fighting against the law of the mind," which St. Paul grieved over. (Rom. vii, 23)

Men today do not act as Christians, as brothers, but as strangers, and even enemies. The sense of man's personal dignity and of the value of human life has been lost in the brutal domination begotten of might and mere superiority in numbers. Many are intent on exploiting their neighbors solely for the purpose of enjoying more fully and on a larger scale the goods of this world. But they err grievously who have turned to the acquisition of material and temporal possessions and are forgetful of eternal and spiritual things, to the possession of which Jesus, Our Redeemer, by means of the Church, His living interpreter, calls mankind.

It is in the very nature of material objects that an inordinate desire for them becomes the root of every evil, of every discord, and in particular, of a lowering of the moral sense. On the one hand, things which are naturally base and vile can never give rise to noble aspirations in the human heart which was created by and for God alone and is restless until it finds repose in Him. On the other hand, material goods (and in this they differ greatly from those of the spirit which the more of them we possess the more remain to be acquired) the more they are divided among men the less each one has and, by consequence, what one man has another cannot possibly possess unless it be forcibly taken away from the first. Such being the case, worldly possessions can never satisfy all in equal manner nor give rise to a spirit of universal contentment, but must become perforce a source of division among men and of vexation of spirit, as even the Wise Man Solomon experienced: "Vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit." (Ecclesiastes i, 2, 14)

The same effects which result from these evils among individuals may likewise be expected among nations. "From whence are wars and contentions among you?" asks the Apostle St. James. "Are they not hence from your concupiscences, which war in your members?" (James iv, 1, 2)

The inordinate desire for pleasure, concupiscence of the flesh, sows the fatal seeds of division not only among families but likewise among states; the inordinate desire for possessions, concupiscence of the eyes, inevitably turns into class warfare and into social egotism; the inordinate desire to rule or to domineer over others, pride of life, soon becomes mere party or factional rivalries, manifesting itself in constant displays of conflicting ambitions and ending in open rebellion, in the crime of lese majeste, and even in national parricide.

These unsuppressed desires, this inordinate love of the things of the world, are precisely the source of all international misunderstandings and rivalries, despite the fact that oftentimes men dare to maintain that acts prompted by such motives are excusable and even justifiable because, forsooth, they were performed for reasons of state or of the public good, or out of love for country. Patriotism -- the stimulus of so many virtues and of so many noble acts of heroism when kept within the bounds of the law of Christ -- becomes merely an occasion, an added incentive to grave injustice when true love of country is debased to the condition of an extreme nationalism, when we forget that all men are our brothers and members of the same great human family, that other nations have an equal right with us both to life and to prosperity, that it is never lawful nor even wise, to dissociate morality from the affairs of practical life, that, in the last analysis, it is "justice which exalteth a nation: but sin maketh nations miserable." (Proverbs xiv, 34)

Perhaps the advantages to one's family, city, or nation obtained in some such way as this may well appear to be a wonderful and great victory (this thought has been already expressed by St. Augustine), but in the end it turns out to be a very shallow thing, something rather to inspire us with the most fearful apprehensions of approaching ruin. "It is a happiness which appears beautiful but is brittle as glass. We must ever be on guard lest with horror we see it broken into a thousand pieces at the first touch." (St. Augustine de Civitate Dei, Book iv, Chap. 3)

. There is over and above the absence of peace and the evils attendant on this absence, another deeper and more profound cause for present-day conditions. This cause was even beginning to show its head before the War and the terrible calamities consequent on that cataclysm should have proven a remedy for them if mankind had only taken the trouble to understand the real meaning of those terrible events. In the Holy Scriptures we read: "They that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed." (Isaias i, 28) No less well known are the words of the Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ, Who said: "Without me you can do nothing" (John xv, 5) and again, "He that gathereth not with me, scattereth." (Luke xi, 23)

These words of the Holy Bible have been fulfilled and are now at this very moment being fulfilled before our very eyes. Because men have forsaken God and Jesus Christ, they have sunk to the depths of evil. They waste their energies and consume their time and efforts in vain sterile attempts to find a remedy for these ills, but without even being successful in saving what little remains from the existing ruin. It was a quite general desire that both our laws and our governments should exist without recognizing God or Jesus Christ, on the theory that all authority comes from men, not from God. Because of such an assumption, these theorists fell very short of being able to bestow upon law not only those sanctions which it must possess but also that secure basis for the supreme criterion of justice which even a pagan philosopher like Cicero saw clearly could not be derived except from the divine law.

Authority itself lost its hold upon mankind, for it had lost that sound and unquestionable justification for its right to command on the one hand and to be obeyed on the other. Society, quite logically and inevitably, was shaken to its very depths and even threatened with destruction, since there was left to it no longer a stable foundation, everything having been reduced to a series of conflicts, to the domination of the majority, or to the supremacy of special interests.

Again, legislation was passed which did not recognize that either God or Jesus Christ had any rights over marriage -- an erroneous view which debased matrimony to the level of a mere civil contract, despite the fact that Jesus Himself had called it a "great sacrament" (Ephesians v, 32) and had made it the holy and sanctifying symbol of that indissoluble union which binds Him to His Church. The high ideals and pure sentiments with which the Church has always surrounded the idea of the family, the germ of all social life, these were lowered, were unappreciated, or became confused in the minds of many. As a consequence, the correct ideals of family government, and with them those of family peace, were destroyed; the stability and unity of the family itself were menaced and undermined, and, worst of all, the very sanctuary of the home was more and more frequently profaned by acts of sinful lust and soul-destroying egotism -- all of which could not but result in poisoning and drying up the very sources of domestic and social life.

Added to all this, God and Jesus Christ, as well as His doctrines, were banished from the school. As a sad but inevitable consequence, the school became not only secular and non-religious but openly atheistical and anti-religious. In such circumstances it was easy to persuade poor ignorant children that neither God nor religion are of any importance as far as their daily lives are concerned. God's name, moreover, was scarcely ever mentioned in such schools unless it were perchance to blaspheme Him or to ridicule His Church. Thus, the school forcibly deprived of the right to teach anything about God or His law could not but fail in its efforts to really educate, that is, to lead children to the practice of virtue, for the school lacked the fundamental principles which underlie the possession of a knowledge of God and the means necessary to strengthen the will in its efforts toward good and in its avoidance of sin. Gone, too, was all possibility of ever laying a solid groundwork for peace, order, and prosperity, either in the family or in social relations. Thus the principles based on the spiritualistic philosophy of Christianity having been obscured or destroyed in the minds of many, a triumphant materialism served to prepare mankind for the propaganda of anarchy and of social hatred which was let loose on such a great scale.

Is it to be wondered at then that, with the widespread refusal to accept the principles of true Christian wisdom, the seeds of discord sown everywhere should find a kindly soil in which to grow and should come to fruit in that most tremendous struggle, the Great War, which unfortunately did not serve to lessen but increased, by its acts of violence and of bloodshed, the international and social animosities which already existed?

Up to this We have analyzed briefly the causes of the ills which afflict present-day society, the recital of which however, Venerable Brothers, should not cause us to lose hope of finding their appropriate remedy, since the evils themselves seem to suggest a way out of these difficulties.

First, and most important of all, for mankind is the need of spiritual peace. We do not need a peace that will consist merely in acts of external or formal courtesy, but a peace which will penetrate the souls of men and which will unite, heal, and reopen their hearts to that mutual affection which is born of brotherly love. The peace of Christ is the only peace answering this description: "let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts." (Colossians iii, 15) Nor is there any other peace possible than that which Christ gave to His disciples (John xiv, 27) for since He is God, He "beholdeth the heart" (I Kings xvi, 7) and in our hearts His kingdom is set up. Again, Jesus Christ is perfectly justified when He calls this peace of soul His own for He was the first Who said to men, "all you are brethren." (Matt. xxiii, 8) He gave likewise to us, sealing it with His own life's blood, the law of brotherly love, of mutual forbearance -- "This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you." (John xv, 12) "Bear ye one another's burdens; and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians vi, 2)

From this it follows, as an immediate consequence, that the peace of Christ can only be a peace of justice according to the words of the prophet "the work of justice shall be peace" (Isaias xxxii, 17) for he is God "who judgest justice." (Psalms ix, 5) But peace does not consist merely in a hard inflexible justice. It must be made acceptable and easy by being compounded almost equally of charity and a sincere desire for reconciliation. Such peace was acquired for us and the whole world by Jesus Christ, a peace which the Apostle in a most expressive manner incarnates in the very person of Christ Himself when he addresses Him, "He is our peace," for it was He Who satisfied completely divine justice by his death on the cross, destroying thus in His own flesh all enmities toward others and making peace and reconciliation with God possible for mankind. (Ephesians ii, 14) Therefore, the Apostle beholds in the work of Redemption, which is a work of justice at one and the same time, a divine work of reconciliation and of love. "God indeed was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." (II Corinthians v, 19) "God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son." (John iii, 16)

Thomas Aquinas, the Angel of the Schools, also discovered in this fact the very formula and essence of our belief, for he writes that a true and lasting peace is more a matter of love than of justice. The reason for his statement is that it is the function of justice merely to do away with obstacles to peace, as for example, the injury done or the damage caused. Peace itself, however, is an act and results only from love. (Summa Theologica, II-II, Q. 29 Art. 3, Ad. III)

Of this peace of Christ, which dwells in our hearts and is, in effect, the love of God, We can repeat what the Apostle has said of the kingdom of God which also rules by love -- "the kingdom of Christ is not meat and drink." (Romans xiv, 17) In other words, the peace of Christ is not nourished on the things of earth, but on those of heaven. Nor could it well be otherwise, since it is Jesus Christ Who has revealed to the world the existence of spiritual values and has obtained for them their due appreciation. He has said, "For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. xvi, 26) He also taught us a divine lesson of courage and constancy when He said, "Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt. x, 28; Luke xii, 14)

This does not mean that the peace of Christ, which is the only true peace, exacts of us that we give up all worldly possessions. On the contrary, every earthly good is promised in so many words by Christ to those who seek His peace: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. vi, 33; Luke xii, 31)

This peace of Christ, however, surpasses all human understanding -- "the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding" (Philippians iv, 7), and for this very reason dominates our sinful passions and renders such evils as division, strife, and discord, which result solely from the unrestrained desire for earthly possessions, impossible. If the desire for worldly possessions were kept within bounds and the place of honor in our affections given to the things of the spirit, which place undoubtedly they deserve, the peace of Christ would follow immediately, to which would be joined in a natural and happy union, as it were, a higher regard for the value and dignity of human life. Human personality, too, would be raised to a higher level, for man has been ennobled by the Blood of Christ and made kin to God Himself by means of holiness and the bond of brotherly love which unites us closely with Christ, by prayer and by the reception of the Sacraments, means infallibly certain to produce this elevation to and participation in the life of God, by the desire to attain everlasting possession of the glory and happiness of heaven which is held out to all by God as our goal and final reward.

We have already seen and come to the conclusion that the principal cause of the confusion, restlessness, and dangers which are so prominent a characteristic of false peace is the weakening of the binding force of law and lack of respect for authority, effects which logically follow upon denial of the truth that authority comes from God, the Creator and Universal Law-giver.

The only remedy for such state of affairs is the peace of Christ since the peace of Christ is the peace of God, which could not exist if it did not enjoin respect for law, order, and the rights of authority. In the Holy Scriptures We read: "My children, keep discipline in peace." (Ecclesiasticus xli, 17) "Much peace have they that love the law, O Lord." (Psalms cxviii, 165) "He that feareth the commandment, shall dwell in peace." (Proverbs xiii, 13) Jesus Christ very expressly states: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." (Matt. xxii, 21) He even recognized that Pilate possessed authority from on High (John xiv, 11) as he acknowledged that the scribes and Pharisees who though unworthy sat in the chair of Moses (Matt. xxiii, 2) were not without a like authority. In Joseph and Mary, Jesus respected the natural authority of parents and was subject to them for the greater part of His life. (Luke ii, 51) He also taught, by the voice of His Apostle, the same important doctrine: "Let every soul be subject to higher powers: for there is no power but from God." (Romans xiii, 1; cf. also 1 Peter ii, 13, 18)

If we stop to reflect for a moment that these ideals and doctrines of Jesus Christ, for example, his teachings on the necessity and value of the spiritual life, on the dignity and sanctity of human life, on the duty of obedience, on the divine basis of human government, on the sacramental character of matrimony and by consequence the sanctity of family life -- if we stop to reflect, let Us repeat, that these ideals and doctrines of Christ (which are in fact but a portion of the treasury of truth which He left to mankind) were confided by Him to His Church and to her alone for safekeeping, and that He has promised that His aid will never fail her at any time for she is the infallible teacher of His doctrines in every century and before all nations, there is no one who cannot clearly see what a singularly important role the Catholic Church is able to play, and is even called upon to assume, in providing a remedy for the ills which afflict the world today and in leading mankind toward a universal peace.

Because the Church is by divine institution the sole depository and interpreter of the ideals and teachings of Christ, she alone possesses in any complete and true sense the power effectively to combat that materialistic philosophy which has already done and, still threatens, such tremendous harm to the home and to the state. The Church alone can introduce into society and maintain therein the prestige of a true, sound spiritualism, the spiritualism of Christianity which both from the point of view of truth and of its practical value is quite superior to any exclusively philosophical theory. The Church is the teacher and an example of world good-will, for she is able to inculcate and develop in mankind the "true spirit of brotherly love" (St. Augustine, De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, i, 30) and by raising the public estimation of the value and dignity of the individual's soul help thereby to lift us even unto God.

Finally, the Church is able to set both public and private life on the road to righteousness by demanding that everything and all men become obedient to God "Who beholdeth the heart," to His commands, to His laws, to His sanctions. If the teachings of the Church could only penetrate in some such manner as We have described the inner recesses of the consciences of mankind, be they rulers or be they subjects, all eventually would be so apprised of their personal and civic duties and their mutual responsibilities that in a short time "Christ would be all, and in all." (Colossians iii, 11)

Since the Church is the safe and sure guide to conscience, for to her safe-keeping alone there has been confided the doctrines and the promise of the assistance of Christ, she is able not only to bring about at the present hour a peace that is truly the peace of Christ, but can, better than any other agency which We know of, contribute greatly to the securing of the same peace for the future, to the making impossible of war in the future. For the Church teaches (she alone has been given by God the mandate and the right to teach with authority) that not only our acts as individuals but also as groups and as nations must conform to the eternal law of God. In fact, it is much more important that the acts of a nation follow God's law, since on the nation rests a much greater responsibility for the consequences of its acts than on the individual.

When, therefore, governments and nations follow in all their activities, whether they be national or international, the dictates of conscience

grounded in the teachings, precepts, and example of Jesus Christ, and which are binding on each and every individual, then only can we have faith in one another's word and trust in the peaceful solution of the difficulties and controversies which may grow out of differences in point of view or from clash of interests. An attempt in this direction has already and is now being made; its results, however, are almost negligible and, especially so, as far as they can be said to affect those major questions which divide seriously and serve to arouse nations one against the other. No merely human institution of today can be as successful in devising a set of international laws which will be in harmony with world conditions as the Middle Ages were in the possession of that true League of Nations, Christianity. It cannot be denied that in the Middle Ages this law was often violated; still it always existed as an ideal, according to which one might judge the acts of nations, and a beacon light calling those who had lost their way back to the safe road.

There exists an institution able to safeguard the sanctity of the law of nations. This institution is a part of every nation; at the same time it is above all nations. She enjoys, too, the highest authority, the fullness of the teaching power of the Apostles. Such an institution is the Church of Christ. She alone is adapted to do this great work, for she is not only divinely commissioned to lead mankind, but moreover, because of her very make-up and the constitution which she possesses, by reason of her age-old traditions and her great prestige, which has not been lessened but has been greatly increased since the close of the War, cannot but succeed in such a venture where others assuredly will fail.

It is apparent from these considerations that true peace, the peace of Christ, is impossible unless we are willing and ready to accept the fundamental principles of Christianity, unless we are willing to observe the teachings and obey the law of Christ, both in public and private life. If this were done, then society being placed at last on a sound foundation, the Church would be able, in the exercise of its divinely given ministry and by means of the teaching authority which results therefrom, to protect all the rights of God over men and nations.

It is possible to sum up all We have said in one word, "the Kingdom of Christ." For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example. Jesus reigns over the family when it, modeled after the holy ideals of the sacrament of matrimony instituted by Christ, maintains unspotted its true character of sanctuary. In such a sanctuary of love, parental authority is fashioned after the authority of God, the Father, from Whom, as a matter of fact, it originates and after which even it is named. (Ephesians iii, 15) The obedience of the children imitates that of the Divine Child of Nazareth, and the whole family life is inspired by the sacred ideals of the Holy Family. Finally, Jesus Christ reigns over society when men recognize and reverence the sovereignty of Christ, when they accept the divine origin and control over all social forces, a recognition which is the basis of the right to command for those in authority and of the duty to obey for those who are subjects, a duty which cannot but ennoble all who live up to its demands. Christ reigns where the position in society which He Himself has assigned to His Church is recognized, for He bestowed on the Church the status and the constitution of a society which, by reason of the perfect ends which it is called upon to attain, must be held to be supreme in its own sphere; He also made her the depository and interpreter of His divine teachings, and, by consequence, the teacher and guide of every other society whatsoever, not of course in the sense that she should abstract in the least from their authority, each in its own sphere supreme, but that she should really perfect their authority, just as divine grace perfects human nature, and should give to them the assistance necessary for men to attain their true final end, eternal happiness, and by that very fact make them the more deserving and certain promoters of their happiness here below.

It is, therefore, a fact which cannot be questioned that the true peace of Christ can only exist in the Kingdom of Christ -- "the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." It is no less unquestionable that, in doing all we can to bring about the re-establishment of Christ's kingdom, we will be working most effectively toward a lasting world peace.

Pius X in taking as his motto "To restore all things in Christ" was inspired from on High to lay the foundations of that "work of peace" which became the program and principal task of Benedict XV. These two programs of Our Predecessors We desire to unite in one -- the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Christ by peace in Christ -- "the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." With might and main We shall ever strive to bring about this peace, putting Our trust in God, Who when He called Us to the Chair of Peter, promised that the divine assistance would never fail Us. We ask that all assist and co-operate with Us in this Our mission. Particularly We ask you to aid us, Venerable Brothers, you, His sheep, whom Our leader and Lord, Jesus Christ, has called to feed and to watch over as the most precious portion of His flock, which comprises all mankind. For, it is you whom the "Holy Ghost hath placed to rule the Church of God" (Acts xx, 28), you to whom above all, and principally, God "hath given the ministry of reconciliation, and who for Christ therefore are ambassadors." (II Cor. v, 18, 20) You participate in His teaching power and are "the dispensers of the mysteries of God." (I Cor. iv, 1) You have been called by Him "the salt of the earth," "the light of the world" (Matt. v, 13, 14), fathers and teachers of Christian peoples, "a pattern of the flock from the heart" (I Peter v, 3), and "you shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. v, 19) In fine, you are the links of gold, as it were, by which "the whole body of Christ, which is the Church, is held compacted and fitly joined together" (Ephesians iv, 15, 16), built as it is on the solid rock of Peter.

 

The Mother of God wants men and nations to know no other peace than that of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. She desires to lead all men and their nations to the fountain of Divine Mercy that is His Most Sacred Heart by being totally consecrated to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. She does not abide by errors or heresies. She is an eternal foe of errors and heresies, as Saint Louis de Montfort noted in an exhortation to priests contained in The Secret of the Rosary:

Almighty God has given it to you because He wants you to use it as a means to convert the most hardened sinners and the most obstinate heretics. He has attached to it grace in this life and glory in the next. The saints have said it faithfully and the Popes have endorsed it. 

 

Russia has been a land of schism, heresy, error, apostasy and inhuman torture for centuries long before the emergence in its midst of the Russian form of Marxism under Vladimir Lenin and his murderous apparatchiks. It remains so today, lest one think that a place where three million children are killed annually by means of surgical abortion and a place where its chief executive, Vladimir Putin, a former head of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic's KGB, is acting like the Communist that he has always remained. Communism is not dead. It is alive and well in the Russian Federated Republic and in most of the former republics of the Soviet Union. Its spirit is alive and well in the European Union. Its spirit is alive and well in the minds and hearts of the leaders of both major political parties in the United States of America, men who may differ on occasion on some of the "details" of public policy but who agree in increasing the power of the state, mostly in the name of "national security" and frequently in the name of "protecting" us from ourselves, by the use of secret monitoring of our communications and activities that would make Joseph Stalin blanche, to say nothing of the confiscatory taxing power of all levels of government that make us but the effective wards of the state. Maxim-Leninism, as well as the Trotskyite version of it (which is really the principal ideology of many of the Talmudic "neoconservatives, as an article in Chronicles noted five years ago).

Mr. Peter W. Miller, a non-sedevacantist traditional Catholic who ran the Seattle Catholic website, described the meaning of conversion and the true state of "post-Communist" Russia in an article that appeared on the Catholic Apologetics International website in 2001 (Has Russia been Consecrated?):

Is Russia converting?

Continuing to humor the revisionists, if the consecration of Russia was completed in 1984, the conversion of Russia and period of peace in the world should have followed. Since obviously neither of those things have happened, the revisionists offer one of two ridiculous explanations:

1. Our Lady never said how long after the consecration the conversion and period of peace will be and it is happening very gradually;
2. "Conversion" does not necessarily mean conversion to the Catholic Church and could mean either the fall of communism or the conversion to Russian Orthodoxy.

When Sister Lucy asked Our Lady why Russia needed specifically to be consecrated, She responded that since Russia was heaven's chosen means of chastisement, Our Lord wanted the nation's conversion to be seen as an act of heaven. In a world consumed by naturalism, such an occurrence would surely be seen as miraculous.

While it is true that Our Lady never gave a detailed timeline for the promised conversion and period of peace, there's no way she would have us wait decades before they happened. If this were the case, it would almost eliminate the recognition of heaven's hand in the conversion and defeat the entire point of it being seen as a miraculous "act of heaven". If two events are separated by almost twenty years (or what's looking to be much, much longer), who would be convinced that the former caused the latter or that there was any correlation whatsoever?

Compare the current "conversion" of Russia with that of Mexico following Our Lady of Guadalupe's visit in 1531. Within nine years, nine million people (almost the entire nation) were converted to Catholicism. If we are witnessing the gradual conversion of Russia, there's a good possibility that we'll be waiting centuries rather than decades, if it will take place at all. Since 1984, Vatican bureaucrats have agreed not to seek conversions of the Russian Orthodox and the Russian government has outlawed the Catholic Church proselytizing (seeking conversions) in their nation. If Russia ever was converting, the government has outlawed any further progress and the Church has "given up" anyway.

Regarding what Our Lady meant when she said "conversion", there should be no debate. Through the history of the Church, conversion has always meant the shedding of errors and the faithful embracing of Christ's Church. This definition is so deeply rooted in Catholic Tradition that the very word "conversion" is no longer mentionable in our current ecumenical culture, except in disgust.

Those who claim that the conversion of Russia was witnessed by the "fall" of communism are bordering on blasphemy. Some go so far as to attribute significant events in the break-up of the Soviet Union to Our Lady due to the proximity of these events to various Marian feast days. Our Lady did not appear at Fatima with a message of chastisement and eternal hellfire just to offer prophesies about political designations. Again, "peace" is not heaven's code word for democracy but the Social Kingship of Christ.

It has also been claimed that the promised conversion meant the conversion to the schismatic Russian Orthodox Church.

"Of course Russia would not convert to Roman Catholicism. Their culture is rooted in Russian Orthodoxy and any conversion would need to be to that Church [sic]. The Vatican has been making progress in reconciliation with the Russia Orthodox."

While less preposterous than a "conversion" away from communism, this claim still lacks merit for several reasons. Until the onset of recent ecumenical confusion (which happened long after 1917), the Russian Orthodox were regarded by all in the Church as in need of conversion. Our Lady came with a message of Catholic doctrine for the world as a whole but primarily for the Catholic Pope and the Catholic Church. She spoke of purgatory, the papacy, the rosary and Her Immaculate Heart — all distinctly Catholic. She did not appear in Kiev with instructions for the Russian Orthodox patriarch in Moscow.

Schism is a sin and the Immaculate Queen of Heaven is not a Schismatic. [An editorial note here from Thomas Droleskey: Mr. Miller would, I believe, consider sedevacantists to be in schism from the Catholic Church.] She would not have offered the build-up of a schismatic church as a recognizable sign from heaven.

In 1917, Russia was already significantly Russian Orthodox so the claim that it would be converted was understood by no one to mean a "conversion" to its current condition. Our Lady even went so far as to request special reparation (First Saturday devotion) for those who offend her Immaculate Conception — a dogma rejected by the Russian Orthodox. Conversion means today what it meant in 1917 and meant in ancient Rome. Attempts to strip this word of its true meaning have failed and must continue to do so.

The hell that is Russia

Despite the claims of ignorant optimists, today's Russia is not converting and is far, far worse than it was in 1917 (and even 1984). Although 54 percent of Russians are baptized Russian Orthodox, those practicing their faith are less than 1/10th of 1 percent. Since the "fall" of communism, Russian society has been suffering through a diabolical spiral of crime, corruption, prostitution and abortion.

"In a recent interview in the Catholic World Report, Fr. Daniel Maurer of the Canons Regular of Jesus the Lord (CJD) spoke about the Russia he has seen during the last eight years he has spent in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. According to the personal missionary experience of Fr. Maurer, more than 75 years of Communist repression and a godless society have not only thoroughly eradicated the Catholic presence from Russia, but also left despair, poverty, an amoral populace, and religious indifference. With no incentive to be honest or to improve one's condition in life, the result has been literally 'the killing of the spirit of the Russians,' said Fr. Maurer.

"What appeared after Communism changed its face? According to Fr. Maurer, the disaster continued unabated: general hopelessness, a damaged sense of morals, and a lot of poverty (during the financial crisis of 1998 when the bottom fell out from the ruble, people lost everything they had — for probably the third time since perestroika in the late 1980's). In a society where the faith was practically destroyed, morality continued to sink to new lows. Abortions still abound, suicides have increased, and there are many more cases of sexually transmitted diseases. The same Russian who meets you on the street and genially offers directions and hospitality has no scruples about stealing your pocketbook. (There are bars on every window and doors with five locks everywhere). ... It was and is a real hell on earth, a breeding bed for despair.

"Statistically, the average Russian woman will have eight abortions in her childbearing years, stated Fr. Maurer, although he believes the actual number is more like 12 abortions per woman (and he has spoken to women who have had as many as 25 abortions). The reasons for these horrendous figures? Since other contraception methods have not been introduced or are not trusted, abortion is the cheapest way to limit the family size. Abortions are free, and births are not (the average cost of a birth is $20, a month's salary for the average earner)."

The former Soviet Union still poses a threat of war to the world. Changing a name does nothing but accomplish marketing and public relations objectives — the same reason the KGB has needed to change its name five times over the past eighty years. Just because Russians no longer call themselves "communists" doesn't mean they are harmless. No one should retain the myth of a new, peaceful Russia, especially after the Robert Hanssen spy case which woke many people up to the reality of current Russian policies.

Reliable sources maintain that Russia is still gearing up for war with the United States even after the "fall" of communism. Col. Stanislav Lunev, the highest-ranking military spy ever to defect from Russia, has repeatedly stated on NewsMax.com, CNN and even CBS Nightly News last Monday that Russia has not curtailed its military operations and has ready-to-detonate suitcase-sized nuclear weapons planted in American soil. He further claimed first-hand knowledge of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group acquiring tactical nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union.

 

The situation in Russia has actually deteriorated in the nearly six years since Mr. Miller's article appeared. Critics of Vladimir Putin are winding up deader than dead, including Alexander Litvinenko in London November 23, 2006, the victim of radiation poisoning caused by Polonium 210. "Conversion?" Putin is re-socializing the Russian economy and taking measures to restore repression at home as his missiles could be, as some of his generals readily admit, easily retargeted on cities in the United States of America. No honest obsever can look at Russia, devastated by niearly nine studies of Russian Orthodox submission to the state and then another seven decades of overt Boleshevk rule thereafter before the "apparent" changes of 1991, and say that there has been any kind of conversion pleasing to the Mother of God or iny way related to her Fatima Message.

These turn of events are due in no small measure to the fact that the conciliar Vatican has acquiesced time and time again to the demands of the schismatic and heretical Russian Orthodox Church on various points, including the prohibition against Catholic "proselytizing" of the Russian Orthodox, and to the fact that Catholics, both of the Latin and Eastern Uniat Rites, who lived in the former Soviet Union prior to 1991 have had their "liturgies" and "catechesis" "updated" by "missionaries" sent to them by Karol Wojtyla in the 1990s to immerse them in the conciliarist revolutions against the Catholic Faith that have enslaved them yet again to falsehoods and errors and abominations. "Freedom" for the Catholic Church in Russia is pretty much, although not entirely, as illusory as "freedom" is here in the not-so-free United States of America.

Begging the pardon, therefore, of those who believe that Russia has been "converted" as the result of Pope Pius XII's 1952 consecration, my own noninfallible judgment on this matter is that we have every good reason to believe that the July 13, 1929, apparition of Our Lady to Sister Lucia in Tuy, Spain, is true and that is conditions must be met. How are they to be met when there is no true pope? God will provide us with a true pope in His good time. Although this was a stumbling block for me that kept me from fully investigating the doctrinal claims of the sedevacantist position, I recognize now that, as Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., noted in his article on An Objection to Sedevacantism: 'Perpetual Successors' to Peter, man cannot bring an end to perpetual successors of Saint Peter. God will restore a true pope to the papal throne when He is through chastising us for our sins. The proper consecration of Russia, I believe (and, once again, this is a noninfallible personal judgment), will then take place with the restored Catholic hierarchy. A miraculous conversion of Russia to the Catholic Faith will then take place. The errors of Russia will cease to be spread.

The errors of Russia have been ratified by the counterfeit church of conciliarism, starting with the Metz Accord in 1962, whereby which Angelo Roncalli agreed to a prohibition of any criticism of condemnation at the "Second" Vatican Council in exchange the presence of "observers" from the Russian Orthodox Church, to the Balamand Agreement of 1993 that forbade proselytism to the surrendering of icons to the schismatic and heretical Russian Orthodox to constant protestations that the Catholic Church is not interested in converting Russia to Catholicism. Regardless of the position one takes with respect to the proper interpretation of Our Lady's Fatima Message and the terms necessary for the proper consecration of Russia to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, can we all agree that refusing to convert Russia to the Catholic Faith is a direct betrayal of this injunction that Our Lord gave to the Eleven before He Ascended to the Father's right hand in glory on Pentecost Sunday?

All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world (Mt. 28: 18-20)

 

The latest conciliarist reiteration betraying this Divine mandate came two days ago, Monday, June 18, 2007:

Vatican has no plans to convert Russia to Catholicism - cardinal Poupard

Moscow, June 18, Interfax - The Vatican does not want to convert Russia to Catholicism, and relations with the Moscow Patriarchate are improving, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture Cardinal Paul Poupard told students of the Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanitarian University on Monday.

Poupard said the Vatican never wanted to make Russia a Catholic country. The Holy See is praying for a Christian Russia and further preaching by Orthodox and Catholic disciples, he said.

The cardinal admitted differences between Orthodox and Catholic clerics as members of one and the same family.

The two churches want to speak about their belief, he said, adding that at the meeting he was wearing a cross he had received from Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II.

The atmosphere of inter-church relations has changed, Apostolic Nuncio to Russia Archbishop Antonio Mennini said. He said they could affirm Christian values together and be friends.

The Russian Orthodox Church feels that it is respected by the Holy See, the archbishop said. The Vatican regards the Russian Orthodox Church as the national church and welcomes the opportunity to meet and learn about the Russian religious tradition, he said.

 

Here we see a repudiation of the mission that Our Lord gave to the Apostles to convert all men and all nations to the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation. Here we see a merger of the conciliarist novelties of the "new ecclesiology" and "ecumenism" into a blithe acceptance of a heretical and schismatic church that denies the Revealed doctrines of papal primacy, papal infallibility, the Filioque, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as it has been promulgated and explained by the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, the dogma of Our Lady's bodily Assumption into Heaven as it has been promulgated and explained by the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, the definition of Purgatory as it has provided solemnly under the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost at the Council of Trent, to say nothing of pastoral practices of the Orthodox that vitiate the indissolubility of a ratified and consummated sacramental marriage and that permits the use of pills and devices to frustrate the conception of children, thereby violating the Sovereignty of God over the sanctity of marital relations. Such a view makes it possible for individuals to members of the "Church of Christ" without being a member of or adhering to the doctrines promulgated by the Catholic Church, a preposterously absurd notion that was condemned by Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928:

These pan-Christians who turn their minds to uniting the churches seem, indeed, to pursue the noblest of ideas in promoting charity among all Christians: nevertheless how does it happen that this charity tends to injure faith? Everyone knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new commandment "Love one another," altogether forbade any intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and corrupt version of Christ's teaching: "If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed you." For which reason, since charity is based on a complete and sincere faith, the disciples of Christ must be united principally by the bond of one faith. Who then can conceive a Christian Federation, the members of which retain each his own opinions and private judgment, even in matters which concern the object of faith, even though they be repugnant to the opinions of the rest? And in what manner, We ask, can men who follow contrary opinions, belong to one and the same Federation of the faithful? For example, those who affirm, and those who deny that sacred Tradition is a true fount of divine Revelation; those who hold that an ecclesiastical hierarchy, made up of bishops, priests and ministers, has been divinely constituted, and those who assert that it has been brought in little by little in accordance with the conditions of the time; those who adore Christ really present in the Most Holy Eucharist through that marvelous conversion of the bread and wine, which is called transubstantiation, and those who affirm that Christ is present only by faith or by the signification and virtue of the Sacrament; those who in the Eucharist recognize the nature both of a sacrament and of a sacrifice, and those who say that it is nothing more than the memorial or commemoration of the Lord's Supper; those who believe it to be good and useful to invoke by prayer the Saints reigning with Christ, especially Mary the Mother of God, and to venerate their images, and those who urge that such a veneration is not to be made use of, for it is contrary to the honor due to Jesus Christ, "the one mediator of God and men." How so great a variety of opinions can make the way clear to effect the unity of the Church We know not; that unity can only arise from one teaching authority, one law of belief and one faith of Christians. But We do know that from this it is an easy step to the neglect of religion or indifferentism and to modernism, as they call it. Those, who are unhappily infected with these errors, hold that dogmatic truth is not absolute but relative, that is, it agrees with the varying necessities of time and place and with the varying tendencies of the mind, since it is not contained in immutable revelation, but is capable of being accommodated to human life. Besides this, in connection with things which must be believed, it is nowise licit to use that distinction which some have seen fit to introduce between those articles of faith which are fundamental and those which are not fundamental, as they say, as if the former are to be accepted by all, while the latter may be left to the free assent of the faithful: for the supernatural virtue of faith has a formal cause, namely the authority of God revealing, and this is patient of no such distinction. For this reason it is that all who are truly Christ's believe, for example, the Conception of the Mother of God without stain of original sin with the same faith as they believe the mystery of the August Trinity, and the Incarnation of our Lord just as they do the infallible teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, according to the sense in which it was defined by the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. Are these truths not equally certain, or not equally to be believed, because the Church has solemnly sanctioned and defined them, some in one age and some in another, even in those times immediately before our own? Has not God revealed them all? For the teaching authority of the Church, which in the divine wisdom was constituted on earth in order that revealed doctrines might remain intact for ever, and that they might be brought with ease and security to the knowledge of men, and which is daily exercised through the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops who are in communion with him, has also the office of defining, when it sees fit, any truth with solemn rites and decrees, whenever this is necessary either to oppose the errors or the attacks of heretics, or more clearly and in greater detail to stamp the minds of the faithful with the articles of sacred doctrine which have been explained. But in the use of this extraordinary teaching authority no newly invented matter is brought in, nor is anything new added to the number of those truths which are at least implicitly contained in the deposit of Revelation, divinely handed down to the Church: only those which are made clear which perhaps may still seem obscure to some, or that which some have previously called into question is declared to be of faith.

 

Our Lady's Fatima Message is, I believe, the way that Heaven has given us to get out of the ecclesiastical and civil messes caused by the spread of Russia's errors in the world. Could I be wrong? Perhaps. However, begging to differ with people I truly respect and admire, I am gong to continue to pray that a genuine Catholic is restored to the papacy and that the first act of that next true pope will be to consecrate Russia to Our Lady' Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart with all of the world's bishops. Russia continues to be a den of iniquity. As is the case with all other men and nations, Russia needs to be converted to the Catholic Faith so that it can prosper under the Social Reign of Christ the King and of Mary our Immaculate Queen.

None of us can take the place of a Sovereign Pontiff and consecrate Russia with all of the world's bishops, as few in number as the true bishops in the world are at present. We must, however, continue to place trust in Our Lady's Fatima Message, living penitentially so as to undo the harm of our own sins and to offer everything we suffer and all of the prayers we offer to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, reciting frequently during each day these prayer that the children of Fatima learned from the Mother of God herself:

O Jesus, it is for the love of Thee for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary that I pray.

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I ask pardon of Thee for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee!

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I 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 sacrileges, outrages and indifference by which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.

 

We must also keep the Five First Saturdays on a perpetual basis, following these prescriptions that Our Lady gave to Sister Lucia on December 10, 1925:

"See, My daughter, My heart surrounded by thorns which ungrateful men pierce at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude... Say to all those who, for five months, on the first Saturday, confess, receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, in a spirit of reparation, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necesary for the salvation of their souls."

 

The leaders of the counterfeit church of conciliarism, including Joseph Ratzinger, have tried mightily to deconstruct, distort and misrepresent the Fatima Message, especially as pertains the Third Secret of Fatima that deals with their own apostasies and betrayals. We must, therefore, resolutely defend Our Lady's Fatima Message in our own personal lives and ask more and more people to join in praying all fifteen decades of the Rosary each day and to consecrate themselves totally to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, thereby surrendering our freedom and whatever merits we might gain for our prayers and good actions to her to be disposed of as she sees fit for the honor and glory of the Most Blessed Trinity and for the sanctification and salvation and conversion of poor sinners.

The Venerable Anne Katherine Emmerich wrote this on September 12, 1920, just a little less than ninety-seven years before Our Lady appeared to Jacinta and Francisco Marto and to Lucia dos Santos in the Cova da Iria in Fatima on May 13, 1917:

I saw a strange church being built against every rule. . . No angels were supervising the building operations. In that church, nothing came from high above. . . There was only division and chaos. It is probably a church of human creation, following the latest fashion, as well as the new heterodox church of Rome, which seems of the same kind. . .

I saw again the strange big church that was being built there (in Rome). There was nothing holy in it. I saw this just as I saw a movement led by Ecclesiastics to which contributed angels, saints and other Christians. But then (in the strange big change) all the work was being done mechanically (i.e. according to set rules and formulae). Everything was being done according to human reason. . .

I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions. There was something proud, presumptuous, and violent about it, and they seemed to be very successful. I did not see a single Angel nor a single saint helping in the work. But far away in the background, I saw the seat of a cruel people armed with spears, and I saw a laughing figure which said: "Do build it as solid as you can; we will put it to the ground" . . . . (as found in Yves Dupont, Catholic Prophecy: The Coming Chastisement, TAN Books and Publishers, 1970, p. 61)

 

Sister Emmerich had described the following vision that she had on May 13, 1820, exactly ninety-seven years prior to Our Lady's first Fatima apparition:

Once more I saw that the Church of Peter was undermined by a plan evolved by the secret sect, while storms were damaging it. But I saw also that help was coming when distress had reached its peak. I saw again the Blessed Virgin ascend on the Church, and spread her mantle [over it]. I saw a Pope who was at once gentle and very firm. . . I saw a great renewal, and the Church rose high in the sky.

 

I, for one, believe that the vision described by the Venerable Anne Katherine Emmerich is the Triumph of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary that will be the fruit of the proper papal consecration of Russia with all of the bishops of the world. Is this belief of mine infallibly received from the hand of God? No. I do, however, share a firm conviction with other Catholics about the matter of the form of the proper consecration of Russia and the fruits that will be derived therefrom. Indeed, I spoke on the telephone yesterday, June 19, 2007, with His Excellency Bishop Mark A. Pivarunas of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen, which was formed in 1967 to promote Our Lady's Fatima Message, on this matter, happy to hear His Excellency confirm my own belief concerning the nature of the proper fulfillment of Our Lady's request for the consecration of Russia by a pope with all of the bishops of the world.

It is no accident, I believe, that the conciliarists oppose the Fatima Message so fiercely. They must do so. They cannot admit that anyone or any nation, no less Russia, needs to be converted to the Catholic Faith. The Fatima Message is a contradiction of conciliarism which the Hegelians in the counterfeit church of conciliarism can deal with only by means of deceit and skullduggery.

Our Lady will have her victory, that of her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. It will be a victory that is glorious beyond all telling. We can help to bring it about by praying our Rosaries devoutly every day. Perhaps the scene described in a little booklet written by Monsignor Joseph A. Cirrincione, Ven. Francisco Marto of Fatima (published by TAN Books and Publishers, 1994), will be repeated when our bodies rise up on the Last Day if we remain faithful to the daily Rosary to the point of our own deaths:

The author states that he has it on good authority that when the verification of the mortal remains of Ven. Francisco Marto took place on March 13, 1952, the rosary that had been placed in his hands when he was put into the coffin was found imbedded in his fingers. (p. 41)

 

The Fatima Message is not only for our own sanctification. As important as is our own sanctification by our total consecration to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, thereby living penitentially and offering to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus our acts of love and reparation through the Heart out of which It was formed, we should ponder for a moment the terrible responsibility that is ours to make the Fatima Message known and observed as far as we can during our short time here in this passing, mortal vale of tears. What if Our Lady's Fatima Message really is the path to restore the Church and to restore the peace of her Divine Son in the world? Shouldn't we err on the side of Our Lady against all skepticism and simply continue fulfilling the Fatima Message n our lives with love and docility, leaving it to her Divine Son to make known to us in His time how He will bring about its complete fulfillment in the Church and in the world?

We can start by praying a set of five decades of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary right now. What are we waiting for?

Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Ephrem the Deacon, pray for us.

Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

Saint Basil the Great, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Philip Neri, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saints Monica, pray for us.

Saint Jude, pray for us.

Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.

Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint  Scholastica, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.

Saint Antony of the Desert, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.

Saint Peter Damian, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Monica, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Saint Genevieve, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Saint Rita of Cascia, pray for us.

Saint Louis de Montfort, pray for us.

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.

Francisco Marto, pray for us.

Jacinta Marto, pray for us.

Juan Diego, pray for us.

 

The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888

O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil.  Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.  Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with  the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven.  That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels.  Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage.  Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory.  That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.  These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered.  Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory.  They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude.  Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church.  Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations.  Amen.

Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.

Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.

Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.

Response: As we have hoped in Thee.

Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.

Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.

Verse: Let us pray.  O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls. 

Response:  Amen.