Letter to Friends and Benefactors no. 86

1917-2017, the Relevance of the Fatima Message
 

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

In 1917, Our Lady deigned to visit the earth. She entrusted to the three visionaries of Fatima a message composed of several parts, some of which are classified under the name of “secret” so that the “message” and the “secret” of Fatima have become almost synonymous. It is necessary, however, to distinguish between them. The message was communicated immediately. The parts belonging to the secret were supposed to be divulged later, at various dates, the latest being 1960. The secrets concern major events in the Church and in the world, in relation to the way in which mankind behaves toward God. They deal with wars, the disappearance of entire nations, serious errors spreading over all the continents, the consecration of Russia by the pope and the bishops, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, and a time of peace.

Establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary worldwide

One year before the celebration of the centenary of the Fatima apparitions, which have been recognized by the Church as authentic, allow me to reiterate the importance of this event and this message, which remind us of a number of fundamental truths of the faith and show us God’s real intervention in human history.

1) The essence of the message is found in these words of the Blessed Virgin to Sister Lucy on June 13, 1917: “Jesus wants to use you to make Me known and loved. He wants to establish the Devotion to My Immaculate Heart in the world. I promise salvation to those who embrace it and their souls will be loved by God as flowers placed by Myself to adorn His Throne.”

When we reflect on the Fatima message as a whole, with its secret, while considering the influence that it has had and still has in the history of the Church and of the world, it becomes obvious that everything revolves around a divine intervention: “He (Jesus) wants to establish Devotion to My Immaculate Heart in the world.” Later, when Sister Lucy asked the Sacred Heart why He wants the consecration of Russia, Our Lord replied: “Because I want My whole Church to recognize this consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so as then to spread devotion to Her and to place devotion to the Immaculate Heart alongside devotion to My Sacred Heart” (Spring 1936).

2) The second fundamental truth that emerges from the Fatima message is, of course, the real intervention of Almighty God in human history, both of individuals and of nations. This is an obvious truth for us, but today it is widely under attack in an atheistic, liberal, or socialist-communist world—a Masonic world that claims to carry out its activities and accomplish its plans without any regard for the Creator and Savior, God, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many Church leaders, too, are steeped in this idea that the world, nation states, and civil governments have no accounting to render to Christ to King, the King of Nations. Many elements of the Fatima message show us exactly the opposite. Here are three of them:

1.a) The Most Blessed Virgin explains to the children of Fatima that God has placed the peace of nations in the hands of Mary. Whether they enjoy peace or suffer from war depends in the first place upon Our Lady, by an explicit arrangement of Divine Providence.

2.b) Responding to the Blessed Virgin’s request for consecration to her Immaculate Heart, the bishops of Portugal obeyed, but Spain ignored this request. Sister Lucy herself explains that the misfortunes that afflicted Spain afterward (which Portugal escaped) were consequences of the Spanish bishops’ failure to make this consecration.

3.c) After the announcement that if the world did not convert there would be another, more terrible war, World War II took place. If we consider carefully the most important dates of that war, we must note that they correspond to feasts of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. In particular May 8, the Feast of Mary Mediatrix—formerly the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel—was the date of the German surrender; and August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, was the date when the Emperor of Japan accepted the defeat of his country.

God’s real intervention in human history

3) “God is not mocked” (Gal 6:7). Here, according to the testimony of Sister Lucy, are the words of Our Lord Himself, two years after Our Lady came to tell her, in 1929, that the time for the consecration of Russia had arrived—a request that was left unheeded: “Make it known to My ministers, given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My command [to consecrate Russia], they will follow him into misfortune” (August 1931). These words recall the request made by the Sacred Heart to Louis XIV in 1689, which the King of France disdained to carry out. One hundred years later, the French Revolution broke out, which resulted in the ruin of King Louis XVI and his decapitation. The threats made by Our Lord to His ministers are terrible, therefore . . . they will follow the King of France into misfortune. The current persecutions of many, many Christians, the attacks against consecrated persons, give us reason to think that unfortunately the priests and the bishops, the ministers of Our Lord, have not yet drunk this chalice of misfortune to the dregs.

All this shows the importance that Our Lord Himself gives to Fatima and to its message about devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

We can conclude that the history of the 20th and 21st centuries is profoundly dependent on this divine intention: devotion to the Immaculate Heart, and on the gross negligence of the world and of many Church leaders in carrying out this intention, which however was manifested with such great clarity and accompanied by truly extraordinary miracles.

Based on Our Lady’s words themselves, we must conclude also that God’s plans will lead to the crowning glory of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary when Russia is consecrated by the Holy Father, united by the bishops from all over the world. With this triumph, a time of peace is promised to the world and to the Church.

So far the many attempts to make the consecration have not obtained the effects promised by Mary. And despite an undeniable religious renewal of Orthodox Russia in recent years, we see today neither its consecration nor any increase of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the world. Quite the contrary.

A year to prepare for the centenary of Fatima

To prepare properly for the centenary of the Fatima apparitions, we have decided to launch a new Rosary crusade, the prayer that the Immaculate Heart of Mary requested so urgently.

In order to correspond as closely as possible to the divine intentions, and given Our Lady’s insistence on the need to make reparation for sins, we will set our hearts on combining our rosaries with many sacrifices. We do hope to be able to offer a crown of twelve million rosaries and fifty million sacrifices. With all our heart we want to work to spread devotion to the Immaculate Heart, particularly during this time of prayer and penance. This is the primary intention of our crusade, to which we join also the filial request for the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart and for the consecration of Russia according to the directions of Our Lady. And finally, in the troubled times that we are going through, both in the world and in the Church, we ask our heavenly Mother for special protection for the Society of Saint Pius X, all its works, and all its affiliated religious communities.

We invite you all, for love of the Mother of God, of Her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, to multiply these acts, which we ourselves will do, to practice this devotion more intensely and to spread it. Thus we recommend that, after diligent preparation, you consecrate your homes and your works to the Immaculate Heart, and practice the devotion of the Five First Saturdays of the month, and personally wear the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and spread the Miraculous Medal given by the Blessed Virgin on rue du Bac in Paris—a medal which, on the reverse, shows the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

May we thus offer our small contribution to Heaven’s requests, receive divine protection, and above all obtain in due time the fulfillment of the most beautiful of all promises: our salvation, the salvation of sinners.

May Our Lady deign to bless you with the Child Jesus, as a beautiful, pious prayer from the Breviary says: “Nos cum prole pia benedicat Virgo Maria.”

On the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16, 2016
 

+ Bernard Fellay