Our Lady of Fatima

At the "Consecration Now!" Conference in Rome, Father Paul Kramer spoke about the Mystery of Iniquity in our time. This subject is spoken about both in the Third Secret of Fatima and in the Holy Bible. At his talk, Father Kramer presented his new book titled The Mystery of Iniquity. This brief excerpt is from the beginning of his book and is about the Fatima Message. In it, he shows that the Consecration of Russia is the one and only way that mankind, the world over, can be delivered from the terrible pain and suffering about to overtake us all in the very near future.

Our Help Is in the Name of the Lord

Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini; thus with our faith in God firmly rooted in the all-powerful name and infallible word of OUr Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who assures us, "Have confidence, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33), and with the certitude of our hope participating in the infallibility of faith, we look to Mary.

We Must Look to Mary

She, who the Divine Wisdom established by the inscrutable design of His providence has been chosen and designated to be the instrument by which Christ conquers the world, establishes His kingdom and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords because it is She who crushes the head of the infernal serpent. (Gen. 3:15)

We profess that, pronounced and promulgated with the authority of the infallible magisterium as a truth revealed by God, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instant of. Her conception was free from all stain of Original Sin and, therefore, in virtue of this singular prerogative She merited by the power of Divine grace to become the Mother of God and the Mother of all the living, i.e., the Mother of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.

The Mother of Grace

She is therefore the Mother of Grace, Mater de Gratia, as the liturgy proclaims. 1 "Mary," says St. Louis M. de Montfort, "gave being and life to the Author of all grace and that is why She is called the Mother of Grace." "God the Father," Montfort continues, "...has given all graces to Mary by giving Her His Son... and in Him, God has given, His will to Mary." Thus, in no. 56 of Lumen gentium it is set forth that the Mother of Jesus "gave to the world the Life that renews all things".

"God," St. Montfort states further, "has entrusted Mary with the keeping, the administration and the distribution of all His graces, so that all His graces and gifts pass through Her hands; and... as St. Bernardine teaches, Mary gives to whom She wills, the way She wills, when She wills, and as much as She wills, of the graces of the Eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost." 2
Since She who is "full of grace" (Lk. 1:28) merited to become the mother of Him who is "full of grace and truth" On. 1:14), She is the Mother of Grace who has given us the source of all grace, and is therefore constituted as the Mediatrix of all Grace who is omnipotent by grace (as St. Alphonsus Liguori explains). Hence, and in an even fuller sense than in the original context where the words first appeared, it is stated in no. 56 of Lumen gentium that "Rightly... the Fathers see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God but freely cooperating in the work of man's salvation", and quoting Irenaeus, She "became the cause of salvation for Herself and for the whole human race."

Mary Actively Dispenses All Graces

In Her apparition to the Carmelite postulant Teresita Castillo in Lipa City, Philippines in 1948, the Mother of God revealed Her title of Mediatrix of all Grace. The sacred Liturgy has already professed Her to be the Mediatrix Omnium Gratiarum. St. Pius X explains that "the dispensation of these treasures is the particular and peculiar right of Jesus Christ, for they are the exclusive fruit of His Death, who by His nature is the mediator between God and man. Nevertheless," Pius X continues, "by the companionship in sorrow and suffering, and entirely participating in His Passion, 'She merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world, ...Dispensatrix of all the gifts that Our Savior purchased by His Death and His Blood... (and) it has been allowed to the august Virgin to be the most powerful mediatrix and advocate of the whole world with Her Divine Son' (Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus)." 3 Hence, St. Pius X continues, "far from attributing to the Mother of God a productive power of grace --- a power which belongs to God alone, yet... She merits 'de congruo' what Jesus Christ merits for us 'de condigno', and She is the supreme minister of the distribution of graces. Jesus 'sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high' (Hebrews 1:3). Mary sitteth at the right hand of Her Son --- a refuge so secure and a help so trusty against all dangers that we have nothing to fear or to despair under Her guidance, Her patronage, Her protection. (Pius IX, in the Bull Ineffabilis Deus)."

Mary Can and Did Promise by Her Power to Save Us and the Whole World If We Obey

In Lipa, 4 under the title Mediatrix of all Grace, Our Lady stated, "What I ask here is the same I asked at Fatima." As Mediatrix of all Grace She has the authority to make the requests She made at Fatima and the power to fulfill the promises She made if Her requests are fulfilled by the Pope, the faithful of Christ and the peoples of the world. In Lipa; as in Fatima, Our Lady has warned of dire chastisements for the world if Her requests are not fulfilled. Her requests are ultimately ordered to save souls from perdition and the world from ruin, which is to be accomplished by converting all humanity to God in Jesus Christ. It is only through Her that this can be accomplished, and therefore She declared at Fatima that: "Only She can help you." 5 In the same above-quoted encyclical St. Pius X pointed out "that the Virgin is more powerful than all others as a means for uniting mankind with Christ ... it is through Mary that we attain to the knowledge of Christ through Mary also we most easily obtain that life of which Christ is the source and origin."

The same Holy Pontiff concludes: "True, we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: 'There is no truth and no mercy and no knowledge of God on the earth. Blasphemy and lying and homicide and theft and adultery have inundated it.' (Os. 4:1-2). Yet in the midst of this deluge of evil, the Virgin Most Clement rises before our eyes like a rainbow. As the arbiter of peace between God and man: 'I will set My bow in the clouds and it shall be the sign of a covenant between Me and the earth' (Gen. 9:13)."

We Must Trust the Virgin Most Powerful

"Oh yes, if we trust as we should in Mary ... we shall recognize in Her that Virgin most powerful 'who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent.' (Off. Immac. Conc. )" 6 However, as St. Augustine says, "God, Who made us without us, will not save us without us" --- so if we are going to be saved from the evils that engulf the world and threaten to bring the world to ruin and perdition, we must cooperate with God's grace according to the design of His wisdom which has ordained that the saving grace be granted through Mary in the manner that She has requested. It behooves us urgently therefore to examine the precise nature of the requests Our Lady made at Fatima.

Let Us Look More Closely at Our lady's Fatima Requests

The first thing to consider in examining the nature of the request concerns the nature of the message. Is it a simple private revelation given to the three children or is it a public prophetic message that imposes an obligation on the pastors of the Church?

Let Us Clarify an Oversimplification

By and large there seems to be prevalent an oversimplified understanding of the distinction usually made between 'public revelation' and 'private revelation'. The concepts are without doubt valid in themselves, but the terms are somewhat restrictive and awkward and tend therefore to lead to an incomplete understanding of the complexity of the subject matter that falls under these terms.

What is commonly meant by the term 'public revelation' is clear enough in so far as it has been well explicated by theologians. The term denotes the official body of sacred doctrine revealed by God to the Church for our salvation and set forth by the magisterium of the Church as divinely revealed and thus to be believed with the assent of Divine and Catholic faith. 'Private revelation', on the other hand, in a general sense customarily refers to revelations made to persons that are not strictly necessary for salvation and do not pertain to the Deposit of Faith and therefore are accordingly to be evaluated and believed on human faith if they are found to be worthy of belief. Such revelations generally are not binding on the conscience of the faithful since salvation does not ultimately depend on them.

When Heaven Speaks We Must Listen

However, the fact that they are not to be believed with the assent of Divine and Catholic faith does not necessarily mean that they are always and everywhere completely optional for the individual conscience to accept or reject. I remember reading a text of St. Alphonsus Liguori in which it is explained that when a person receives a revelation from God, that person is bound to believe and obey. The belief would not be an assent of faith, but the obligation to believe would be a moral obligation binding that person. When God speaks we have the moral obligation to listen, believe and obey even if the revelation does not pertain to the Deposit of Faith.

The Fatima Message Is from Jesus and Mary to the Whole Human Race

The Message of Fatima is not a merely private revelation in the sense that it is not something that concerns only the recipients of the message or a restricted number of persons. It is not a 'public revelation' in the theological sense in which the term is customarily used to denote truths that pertain to the Deposit of Faith, but it is not a simple private revelation either, in the sense of consisting of matters of secondary importance and being directed only to a restricted number of persons.

Bishop Rudolf Graber of Regensburg, Germany and the theologian Father Joseph de Sainte Marie referred to Fatima as a 'public prophetic revelation' 7 since it is destined to be heard by the entire human race as Pope John Paul II once stated in his discourse of May 13, 1982. Our Lady Herself on July 13, 1917 promised to perform a miracle on October 13 so that all people would believe.

We Must Believe and Obey Fatima

Pope John Paul II declared (on May 13, 1982) that the Message of Fatima imposes a commitment on the Church because there exists a moral obligation to accept and obey the message, although such acceptance and belief does not involve the assent of Divine and Catholic faith. When Heaven speaks we must listen as did the prophet Samuel when he said, "Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth." (1 Kings 3:9) We may not simply turn our backs on God Who speaks through His emissary, His holy Mother, merely because the revelation does not pertain to the Deposit of Faith. We have the moral obligation to listen, believe and obey when God makes it clear that He is communicating a message to us.

Terrible Consequences for Disobedience

In the Message of Fatima Our Lady made specific requests: Some more or less general and others particularly targeting specific sectors and individuals. The context of the requests is not political or geopolitical but moral and spiritual; however, there is a geopolitical dimension that touches upon such issues as war, persecution of the Church, famine, oppression and the annihilation of entire nations.

The most basic and important request per se is that "people must stop offending God", because "God is already too much offended." There are two great consequences of sinful humanity's rebellion against God: Temporal punishment in this life such as war, famine and persecution of the Church; and eternal punishment --- "You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go."

God Provides a Most Powerful Remedy

Our Lady states plainly that the primary purpose of Her requests is to provide a remedy in order to prevent souls from going to Hell, so She says, "To save them, God wills to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart." By establishing this particular devotion in the world, sinful humanity will undergo conversion and stop offending God. The benefits of such conversion will be both temporal and eternal: "If My requests are heeded Russia will be converted and there will be peace." There will be peace and tranquility instead of war, destruction, hunger and oppression. The Church will be renewed in the splendor of her traditions, the nations will convert to Christ and His Church, while the financial and political domination of the powers of darkness --- i.e., the Neo-Pagan, Masonic 'mystery of iniquity' (2 Thess. 2:7) --- will be crushed under the heel of Her who is "terrible as an army set in battle array." (Canticle 6:3, 9) Thus, the damnation of a multitude of souls would be averted and their salvation secured --- accomplishing the principal mission and duty of the Church as expressed in its supreme law: "Salus animarum suprema lex" (Can. 1752).

Fatima's Very Specific Requests to Avert Worldwide Disasters

In order to bring it about that such benefits be merited, Our Lady has made particular requests, so that the efficacious grace to bring about global conversion and global peace can be secured; She has asked for the recitation of the Rosary, the devotions of reparation (specifically the Five First Saturdays devotions) to be promoted in the Church and practiced by the faithful. Sister Lucy, quoting Our Lady, stated that '' 'The moment has come when 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 world-wide reparation." 8 "God", says Our Lady of Fatima, "is going to punish the whole world by means of war, famine and persecution of the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent it I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If they attend to My requests, Russia will be converted and the world will have peace. If not, Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, fomenting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be annihilated." 9

Consecration of Russia Absolutely Necessary by God's Decree

In May of 1952 Our Lady reiterated to Sister Lucy of Fatima the unconditional demand for the Consecration of Russia as a condition sine qua non for the conversion of Russia and world peace: Make it known to the Holy Father that I am still awaiting the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart. Without the Consecration, Russia will not be able to convert, nor will the world have peace. 10

Useful Reflections on Why God Wants Specifically Russia Consecrated

Before we examine the question of whether or not the Consecration of Russia has been validly performed in the manner specifically requested by Our Lady, and pointing out the fallacies in the arguments of those who contend that it has been performed, it will be useful to examine why it is that Our Lady requests specifically the Consecration of Russia and not the whole world or some other nation that on the surface and from a spatially and temporally circumscribed perspective might appear to be more in need of such a consecration.

From the moral perspective this question can really only be examined speculatively, since it would be presumptuous and hypocritical for anyone to require God and Our Lady to justify and explain, as a basis and prerequisite for obedience, why They are making this specific request. Such behavior would be analogous to that of a child who would refuse to obey the command of a parent unless the parent would provide a satisfactory explanation to the child why it is being so commanded. That would be an attitude of rebellion, insubordination and disobedience. Just as parents usually respond to such insubordinate demands of their children for explanations to the question "Why?" by saying: "Because I said so!", so likewise God, Whose authority is infinitely more offended by such rebellious insubordination, has declined to provide any more information than is needed for the pastors of the Church to reasonably obey and carry out the requested Consecration of Russia with a sufficiently informed conscience. Nevertheless, it is useful for our understanding to examine the question.

Our Lady Spoke of "Russia's Errors" Not Just One Error

On Friday, July 13, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima revealed that if Her requests are fulfilled then Russia will be converted and there will be peace. On the other hand, if Her requests are not fulfilled, then there will be war, famine and persecution of the Church --- there will be martyrdom, persecution of the Pope and the annihilation of nations. It is especially important that the words spoken by Our Lady be understood in a manner that is not circumscribed according to a historically restricted frame of mind that existed during the Soviet period of the Twentieth Century. Our Lady never spoke of 'atheistic Communism' or the 'Soviet Union'; yet since during the Soviet period and especially during the Cold War the expression 'errors of Russia' was narrowly interpreted to mean' atheistic Communism' and 'Russia' was interpreted as strictly denoting the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, these historically conditioned interpretations continue to stubbornly remain fixed in the minds of many who have attempted to understand what Our Lady meant by the term 'errors of Russia'.

Many Remain Fixed in Misleading, Historically Conditioned Interpretations of Our Lady's Words

Interpreting the message in this fashion has led to the tendentious and dogmatized belief that the matters dealt with in the message and most specifically what is dealt with in the July 13 Secret are matters that as Cardinal Sodano maintained, "seem to pertain to the past." One wonders if he was gazing into a crystal ball when the thought struck him, since such a blunt statement as that would require definite knowledge of future events, yet Cardinal Sodano has never claimed any special prophetic gift. This sort of arbitrary and overly simplistic understanding of the terms and the false conclusion they lead to, might have been justified if the errors of Marxist- Leninist-Russia had somehow risen from a pipe directly from the pit of Hell straight up into the Bolshevist headquarters in Moscow, only to be brought to an abrupt end with the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1991. But the Soviet period did not come into being and subsequently end in such a simple manner.

Russia's Errors Are Historically Rooted in the Mystery of Iniquity and Guided by It Still

The movement that led to the establishment of the USSR had already existed in Europe and America for a long time and its roots are historically traced back many centuries. Now, two decades after the formation of the constitutional democratic Russian Federation and the restructuring of the former Soviet Union into a Commonwealth of Independent States, that movement --- like a multi-headed hydra --- lives on even after the scheduled decapitation of one of its masked heads. That movement is in fact what St. Paul refers to as the "Mystery of Iniquity" (2 Thess. 2:7) which "already operates" among us.

The modem phase of the progression of that movement has its origin in the emergence of the institution known as Freemasonry. Freemasonry is a religion, as is plainly admitted in the letter of excommunication of the Grand Lodge of Uruguay by the mother lodge of England. 11 What that religion consists of is described by Albert Pike in his magnum opus, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Freemasonry is described by Pike and all the authoritative writers of Masonry as 'the Ancient Mysteries'. What this term denotes is a syncretic amalgamation of the ancient pagan mysteries. The modem elaboration of the cosmology and metaphysics of the Masonic Ancient Mysteries is set forth in the philosophical systems of Spinoza and Hegel as is plainly evident in Pike's elaboration in Morals and Dogma, and the religious and mystical elaboration of the sect has been acknowledged by Masonic luminaries to be represented in the works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. 12 The 'sacred scriptures' of Freemasonry are, as Pike declares in Morals and Dogma, the occult pseudo-Jewish pantheistic writings of the Cabala, and principally the Book of Zohar (as is documented below).

Our Lady of Fatima Will Crush the Devil and His Mystery of Iniquity

The radical incompatibility between the religion of both the Old and the New Testament on the one hand, and both the ancient mysteries of antiquity and the neo-pagan 'Ancient Mysteries' of Masonry on the other, is rooted in the essential opposition and enmity between "the Woman and Her seed" (Gen. 3:15), and the serpent and his seed. This statement is neither hyperbole nor allegory --- Pike explains in his official work on Masonry that Freemasonry is a solar cult, identifying the deities of ancient Egypt with those of Babylon and Canaan. The 'god' of Freemasonry is, as set forth in Masonic ritual and acknowledged by Pike, a mongrel deity known as 'Jabulon'. The name combines the Hebrew name Yahweh with that of Baal, thus establishing the pantheistic dualism that characterized the ancient religions, the gnosis that invaded and' infiltrated into Judaism and Christianity, and which in turn survived in such sects as Manicheism and Albigensianism (among others) and finally re-emerged again in modem times as the Sect of Freemasonry, where the mask of ancient Baal worship (i.e. Beelzebul, 'Prince of the Earth') is shed and the demonic visage of the 'prince of this world' (John 12:31) is revealed at its highest degrees in undisguised Luciferianism ---"Lucifer the Light-bearer," exclaims Pike, "Doubt it not!" 13

Notes: (1) Mass of June 9, in the Tridentine Missal. (2) St. Louis M. de Montfort, The Secret of Mary, (Makati, Manila, Philippines, 1965) pp. 16-17. (3) St. Pius X, Ad Diem IlIum, 12, 13, 14. (4) Lipa is a city in the Philippines not very far from the capital city, Manila. In Lipa,Our Lady appeared to Teresita Castillo in 1948 and subsequently. The apparition has been approved by the Philippine bishops in the past 10 years. There are various important messages and prophecies regarding our times, given by Our Lady during these apparitions. (5) Sister Lucia, Fatima in Lucia's Own Words, Fourth Memoir, Message of July 13, 1917, p. 161. (6) Ad Diem IlIum, p. 33. (7) Joseph de Ste. Marie, D.C.D., "Fatima is the Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy", in World Enslavement or Peace ... It's Up to the Pope, pp. 12-21, c.f; The Fatima Crusader, Issue 17, Feb.-April 1985, p. 13; Bishop Rudolf Graber, "Why this Pall of Silence Regarding Fatima", The Fatima Crusader, Issue 19, p. 4. (8) On June 13, 1929, in Tuy, Spain, Our Lady of Fatima, according to one of two versions of the text of the request, made the request for the Consecration of Russia in precisely these words (as noted by Father Martins when, in September of 1984, he introduced a previously unpublished account of the vision of Tuy in Fatima eo Coraçāo de Maria): "'Lemoment est venu oil Dieu demande au Saint-Pere de faire et d'ordonner qu'en union avec.lui et en meme temps tous les eveques du mondefassent la consecration de la Russie a mon Coeur Immacule', promettant de la convertir, a cause de ce jour de priere et de reparation mondiale." Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite, Toute la verite sur Fatima --- Tome II: Le Secret et l'Eglise, second edition, (Renaissance Catholique, Contre-Reforme Catholique, 10260 Saint-Parres-Les-Vaudes, France, 1987) p. 350. Cf. Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite, The Whole Truth About Fatima --- Vol.ll: The Secret and the Church, (Buffalo: Immaculate Heart Publications, 1990) p.555. The first published version of the text of Our Lady's request is as follows: "The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means." ["E chegado o momento em que Deus pede para o Santo Padre fazer, em uniao com todos os Bispos do Mundo, a Consagraçāo da Russia ao Meu Imaculado Coraçāo, prometendo salva-la por este meio."] Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite, The Whole Truth About Fatima ---Vol. II: The Secret and the Church, (Buffalo: Immaculate Heart Publications, 1990) p. 464. Memorias da Irma Lucia, Appendice II, "Texto do pedido da consagraçāo da Russia", p. 233. (9) Message of July 13, 1917, Memorias da Irma Lucia, Historiadas Aparições, "5. Treze de Julho". (10) Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. III, The Third Secret, p. 327. Cf. II pellegrinaggio delle meraviglie, (Rome, 1960) p. 440.. (11) William Whelan, Christianity and American Freemasonry. (12) Wolfgang Smith, Teilhardism and the New Religion: A Thorough Analysis of the Teachings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Rockford, Illinois, 1988). (13) Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, p. 321.

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