Stating that “there is no fourth secret nor are there other hidden secrets,” Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, delivered a lengthy address on the Fatima apparitions at the Pontifical University Antonianum on May 7.

The 20th century, said Cardinal Amato, was expected to be a time of “reason and brotherhood,” but instead saw the beginning of an era of Christian persecution: “the Armenian genocide, the Mexican repression, the Spanish persecution, the Nazi massacres, the Communist extermination, and, in this first part of the third millennium, Islamist persecution.”

“The message of Fatima in a visionary way evokes this drama, raising the veil on concrete historical events” in which God’s Providence opposes Satan’s evil will, he continued.

The former secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith discussed the contents and history of the Fatima apparitions, including devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the First Saturday devotion. After reviewing the history of the third secret, Cardinal Amato said that St. John Paul’s reading of the third secret following the assassination attempt of May 1981 was the “decisive turning point of his pontificate.”

The prelate recalled that St. John Paul then entrusted the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Rome in June 1981 and again in Fatima the following year. In 1984, “in spiritual union with all the bishops of the world,” the Pope again entrusted the world to Mary, and this “solemn and universal act of consecration” corresponded to “the will of Our Lady,” Fatima visionary Sister Lucia affirmed in a 1989 letter.

In 2000, Cardinal Amato recalled, St. John Paul ordered the publication of the third secret, in which a Pope is shot dead. “Sister Lucia, referring to Mary’s protection of John Paul II, fully endorsed the statement that ‘it was a mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path and his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death.”

After recalling Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s commentary on the third secret, Cardinal Amato said that “the mother’s hand, which led the bullet not to kill the Pope, indicates that there is no immutable destiny and that the power of faith and prayer can influence history: prayer is more powerful than bullets of a gun.”

Cardinal Amato concluded by offering two considerations.

First, “the secret of Fatima lifted the veil on the real opposition, on the plane of being and acting, between Mary, all-holy and effective cooperator with Christ, and the enemy of the good, the serpent (Gn. 3”14-15), the red dragon, Satan, the devil (Revelation 12:1-9), the anti-Christ (1 John 2:18; 2 Jn. 1:7).” Second, the message of Fatima is a powerful appeal to the good, and especially to holiness and forgiveness, which requires “sacrifice and mortification.”

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=24857

NUNS WHO LIVED WITH SISTER LUCIA AND SERVED AS CONFIDANTES REPORT MENTION OF ‘PORTUGAL’ IN FAMOUS SECRET PERTAINED TO ABORTION, THAT THE SECRET WAS FULLY REVEALED, AND THAT CONSECRATION OF RUSSIA WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY JOHN PAUL II

By Michael H. Brown

We’ve been reporting on a new book about Fatima visionary Lucia dos Santos — the best book pertaining to the apparitions in recent  memory — but there’s too much to summarize in an article or even a series of them. The book has to be read in its length.

Nonetheless, as far as the most galvanizing aspect of those appearances — the legendary three secrets — we can summarize that several mysteries and controversies apparently have been solved, according to the nuns who lived with Lucia and authored this book (A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary, published by the World Apostolate of Fatima).

For decades, those who followed the apparitions have been puzzled by a cryptic remark that Sister Lucia later said was at the end of the second secret or the beginning of the third and stated, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” That was followed by the famous and mysterious third secret that was not revealed until June of 2000. When it was finally made public, the image reported bore no relation to Portugal, leaving the mystery and confusion intact.

In the book, however, the nuns say that on one occasion, as she was meditating, Sister Lucia, who virtually never spoke about the messages, had “let slip” that “if Portugal does not approve abortion, then it is safe, but if approved it will have much to suffer.

“For the sin of the person, the person is responsible and pays for it, but for the sin of the nation all the people pay for it because rulers who enact unjust laws do so on behalf of the people who elected them.”

Add the nuns, in the book, “Today Portugal is under the weight of the three social sins that require reparation and conversion: divorce, abortion, and the civil marriage between persons of the same sex. It is a great moral crisis that explains all other crises. A body sick with gangrene does better with treatments, but while the disease improves, treatment does not eradicate the source of evil, and death will be the end.”

Thus: abortion appears to be integrated into the Fatima appearances, at least in Sister Lucia’s later interpretations.

As reported earlier this week (5/5/15), the book also reveals that Sister Lucia had an “enlightenment” which adds details to the third secret. It had to do with the angel’s flaming sword touching the earth — not just to start what appeared to be a potential fire or war, most probably a nuclear holocaust (until Mary quenched it) but to affect the axis of the earth [see previous account]. Not just a fiery nuclear war but some form of global disaster seems to have been implied by what the three children (Lucia and two cousins) saw.

The book also makes clear Sister Lucia believed, apparently based on further communication with the Blessed Mother, that while consecrations of Russia to the Immaculate Heart — as requested at Fatima — were not fully accomplished by Pope Pius XII in 1942 nor the first such ceremony conducted by John Paul II in 1981, John Paul’s second consecration, on March 25, 1984 (after he was shot on the Fatima feast day and became intently involved with the Fatima messages), was indeed accepted by the Blessed Mother, who continued to appear to Lucia after the famous 1917 apparitions.

Russia was mentioned prominently in the first two Fatima secrets and it was immediately after the 1984 consecration that Communism fell in the Eastern Bloc nations and then — incredibly — Russia itself.

The nuns say that Sister Lucia was alternately amused and upset by those who argued that the formal part of the third secret, given to her in 1917, was not revealed by the Vatican in 2000. She told them repeatedly that it was. The seer also confided that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state — often accused by critics of covering up the true third secret — was as earnest in seeking what it said as others.

“The secret was fully revealed in 2000, just as Sister Lucia wrote it and sent it enclosed in a sealed envelope to Bishop José Correia da Silva,” says the book. “She herself attested to its authenticity several times before its revelation to the public May 13, 2000, in Fatima. She confirmed her writing several times in front of witnesses after receiving news that its authenticity was questioned. Then, in December of 2003, His Eminence Cardinal Bertone visited her and she again gave him the answer: the secret has been fully revealed. She then added, Some people are never happy! It is no matter.” Add the nuns: “It was painful for Sister Lucia to hear the insistence by some that the third part of the Secret was not fully revealed. She lamented: ‘If only they live what is the most important thing, which has already been said… They only concern themselves with what is left to be said, instead of complying with the request that was prayer and penance.'”

In fact, Our Lady’s request for First Saturday devotion — conveyed in the secrets — is rarely spoken about or followed.

While not part of the formal secret, there remains the intriguing “enlightenment” that she revealed to her confreres in 1944 (on the earth’s axis): “The tip of the spear as a flame unlatches and touches the axis of the earth. It shudders. Mountains, cities, towns, and villages with their inhabitants are buried. The sea, the rivers, and the clouds emerge from their limits, overflowing and bringing with them in a whirlwind houses and people in numbers that are not possible to count. It is the purification of the world as it plunges into sin. Hatred and ambition cause the destructive war!”

Thus does Fatima continue to play out.

Axis of the earth. Abortion. In the opinion of her colleagues, same-sex marriage.

Have the three secrets something further in store for the world?

[resources: A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary and The Final Hour]

[see also: Michael Brown retreat in Vancouver, Canada and Spirit Daily pilgrimage to Lourdes, Avila, Fatima]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ojmMxQdNsI#t=148

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PyyY1Z8fg0

Alfonso Sánchez Hermosilla, Spanish doctor in forensic medicine, stated this at the annual conference of the International Centre of Syndonology, which took place in Turin today

ANDREA TORNIELLI
turin

“All the information obtained from the studies and research” carried out on the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo “is in tune with what one would expect – from a forensic medicine point of view – to happen to cloths with these characteristics were they to cover the head of a body featuring the kind of lesions Jesus of Nazareth suffered, just as the Gospels tell us.” Alfonso Sánchez Hermosilla, Doctor in Forensic Medicine, stated this at a conference held by the International Centre of Syndonology in Turin today. The conference looked at updates to the “main themes” regarding the Shroud.

The conference was not open to the public but reserved for members of the Centre, though this year the invitation was extended to groups and organisations, based in various parts of the world, that work with the Centre in Turin. More than 300 scholars and experts came from France, England, Spain, Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia. “Once again, it is not the authenticity of the Shroud that is at the centre of the debate and various speeches,” explained Gian Maria Zaccone, scientific director of the Museum of the Holy Shroud. “The point of this meeting is to discuss updates regarding certain areas of Shroud research which require further examination. For example, the role of pollen research and the significance of historical and informatics research on the Shroud.”

Sánchez Hermosilla, director of the Research Team of the Spanish Centre for Syndonology (EDICES) was among the experts who spoke at the conference. Hermosilla is the forensic expert who took over the study of the Oviedo Sudarium from Mgr. Giulio Ricci, who began examining it in the 1960s. “The similarity in the morphology and dimension of the stains” between the Sudarium of Oviedo and “the Turin Shroud”, led Ricci to believe “that he had actually found the relic St. John speaks of” in his Gospel, when he mentions the sudarium in the tomb. “From a forensic anthropological point of view and a forensic medicine point of view,” Hermosilla continued, “all the information that emerged from the scientific investigation is compatible with the theory that the Turin Shroud and the Sudarium covered the corpse of the same person.”

The Sudarium of Oviedo is a relic that is kept in “El Salvador” Cathedral in Oviedo, Spain, in the Holy Chamber used as the building’s chapel during the reign of King Alphonse II. The Holy Chamber is adjacent to the building and was built by the king for the purpose of housing the Sudarium and various other relics. “This cloth was present in the region of northern Spain from the year 812 or 842” and “is made of linen; it measures approximately 84 x 54 centimetres.” The “composition” of the textile structure of the Shroud and the Sudarium “is the same – substantially linen – the thickness of the fibres is identical, the fabric is hand spun with a “Z” twist, although they were woven differently: the Shroud has a herring-bone weave, while the Sudarium is taffeta.”

The Sudarium has nothing of the mysterious image present on the Shroud which was produced after the body that had been wrapped in it stained the sheet with blood and other fluids. All that there is, are traces of blood and other bodily fluids “from a human corpse”, just as Professor Pierluigi Baima Bollone had stated in 1985, confirming the blood group as AB. This was later corroborated by Dr. José Delfín Villalaín Blanco.

“The morphological study of stains in both linens reveal an obvious similarity between them, due to the corpse which created them was manipulated very carefully in both cases.” The Spanish scholar admits that the morphological similarity between the blood stains do not need to be the same: different heads may produce very similar stains and the same head may produce very different stains. However, both group of stains match very well,” he reiterated, “not only in their relative position but also in their superficial size.” In addition, there is a “correspondence on the distances between the staining injuries which originated the stains”.

Hermosilla pointed out that the Sudarium of Oviedo “covered the face of the corpse” before it was wrapped in the Turin Shroud. “There are a high number of matches between the injuries which can be appreciated in the image of the Shroud of Turin, and those which can be appreciated in the criminologist research of the Sudarium of Oviedo.” Furthermore, all these lesions correspond with the discoveries previously made by STURP using VP8.

One of the pieces of evidence which the Spanish doctor considers most important, are the blood stains attributable to the crown of thorns. “The blood stains attributed to the thorns of the crown can be appreciated in both relics with a high similarity in the distance which separates them.” “The surface of the nose in both linens is very similar; in the Sudarium of Oviedo it has an area of 2.280 mm2, and in the Shroud of Turin 2.000mm2. Moreover, by the middle of the right area of the nose there is a zone which is inflamed which measures 100mm2 in the Sudarium of Oviedo and 90mm2 in the Shroud of Turin.”

One of the stains on the Sudarium of Oviedo “seems to be compatible with some of the wounds inflicted by the Flagrum Taxilatum” – the whip used to beat the man on the Shroud – “on the right hand side of the neck and also proves compatible with some of the imprints on the Turin Shroud, attributed to the same reason. In the occipital region there are stains of vital blood, that is to say blood that was shed when the convicted man was still alive, are very similar on both cloths and seem to relate to the lesions on the scalp; they also seem to correspond to the kind of lesions that a crown of thorns would cause.”

“In the area of the 7th cervical vertebra or vertebra prominens in the Sudarium of Oviedo there is a stain with the shape of a butterfly, which could have been produced as a consequence of sewing carefully the linen from Oviedo to the hair of the corpse covered with fresh blood. This way of sewing the linen to the hair made that this one adopted the shape that can be appreciated in the image of the shroud. Some authors believed it could be a kind of ponytail or braid, setting up another proof of the influence that the previous use of the Sudarium of Oviedo may have had over the Shroud of Turin. On both sides of the stain there are other ones, produced by corpse fluids, which are similar in the Sudarium and the Shroud.”

 Rest of the story here.

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/sindone-40815/

Raised Roman Catholic, Manny strayed from the church as he rose to fame in his boxing career. “I went to church on Sunday, but from Monday through Saturday I was in the bar drinking,” he told CBN. “I was gambling. Careless words came out of my mouth. I committed adultery. I didn’t care.”

But one day he read a letter that gripped his heart. “I received a letter from my mother saying my sister stopped going to school because I stopped sending them the money. I cried, blaming myself for spending all the money on alcohol.”

That same night in 2011, not long after his third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, God visited Manny in a powerful dream. “I heard the voice of God in my dream. His voice was 10 times louder than thunder. He said to me, “My child, my child, why have you gone astray?” he recounted to CBN.

In the dream, which unfolded in a beautiful forest amid flowers, he also saw two angels, according to an interview with The Blaze. “When I heard the voice of God I felt like I died. … I was in the middle of the forest and I was kneeling and praying with my face on the ground and then I saw a light, a very white light and I heard the voice.”

He said the angels had “white, long, big wings” and said that God revealed to him “about the end of time.”

“I felt I was melting when I heard the voice of God. It was the turning point in my life. God spoke to me and he told me what He wanted me to do and I had to follow (Him).”

For a while, Manny tried to ignore the dream. But one day he felt compelled to pick up the Bible and begin reading it for himself. “I forgot about that dream, but when I started reading the Bible, the first verse I read said that God talked to a man through dreams. I realized, wow, my dream was real,” he told CBN.

http://www.charismanews.com/culture/49419-when-boxing-champion-manny-pacquiao-saw-angels-and-heard-god-s-voice

Father Nicholas Gruner, RIP

Father Nicholas Gruner, RIP

It is my sad duty to announce the sudden death of Father Nicholas Gruner
He died suddenly late today of a heart attack while working at his Fatima Center office.
At the moment, I do not know more than this. Please re-visit our page for updates.
He was truly the world expert on Fatima. He was more knowledgable on this subject, and on the true nature of the Fatima Message than anyone else.
Father Gruner’s Fatima Center will have more information tomorrow.
Please remember Father Gruner in your prayers, a good friend and a true Catholic Crusader.
– John Vennari

– John Vennari