Vatican reveals `Third Secret of Fatima'

Christian Century, May 24, 2000

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, disclosed May 13 that what is referred to as "the third secret of Fatima" foretold the attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981. The Virgin Mary is said to have revealed a three-part prophecy to three shepherd children in a 1917 apparition that took place in Fatima, Portugal.

Sodano made the revelation to some 600,000 pilgrims gathered at the sanctuary of Fatima for the beatification of two of the young shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who died aged 11 and ten, respectively, of influenza. The third, their cousin Lucia dos Santos, now a 93-year-old Carmelite nun, attended the papal mass.

"On this solemn occasion of his visit to Fatima, his holiness has directed me to make an announcement to you," Sodano told the pilgrims. He said the pope made his third pilgrimage to Fatima to renew his gratitude to the Madonna for her protection during his papacy, which "seems to be linked to the so-called third part of the secret of Fatima."

Right-wing Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca shot and seriously wounded John Paul during an audience in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, exactly 64 years after the Virgin's first reported apparition at Fatima. The pope has credited the Madonna of Fatima with saving his life by directing the bullets away from vital organs.

In the children's vision, the cardinal said, "the 'bishop clothed in white' makes his way with great effort toward the cross amid the corpses of those who were martyred. He too falls to the ground, apparently dead, under a burst of gunfire."

Sodano noted that the Vatican will publish the secret in full "after the preparation of an appropriate commentary" by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has custody of a letter from Lucia dos Santos containing the prophecy. During a prayer service at the Madonna's shrine May 12, the pope placed at the feet of her statue a ring that Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of Poland gave him after his election as pope in 1978. The cardinal, a staunch foe of communism, told the pope he would lead the Roman Catholic Church into the new millennium. --RNS