That Pope Benedict XVI has left this world without further explanation of Fatima and the Third Secret is sad and tragic. It is yet another disappointment that Benedict caused the faithful. We have already reflected here that Benedict has already deviated from the content and intent of the Message of Fatima and muddied the truth about Fatima with the statement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Fatima (June 26, 2000) and with his endorsement (preface) of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's book of lies The Seer of Fatima: My Conversations with Sister Lucia (2007).
In view of this, and of course for other reasons, calls for the prompt beatification of the Pope "emeritus" seem unfounded. -
This site has already published three articles on the identity of Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima, that is, on the question of whether, say, after 1957, a new person with a new message should play the role of the seer (on September 21, 2019, October 12, 2019, and October 23, 2019). From all the investigations - and, of course, from the apparition itself of two totally dissimilar persons - one can only conclude that Sister Lucia completely disappeared from the public scene after the December 26, 1957, interview with Fr. Agustin Fuentes. After Paul VI's visit to Fatima on May 13, 1967, another person posed as the visionary.
Incidentally, the complete ineffectiveness of "Sister Lucia" from 1967 onwards in the sense of the original Fatima message (conversion, penance and vicarious expiation on the part of individuals and nations, consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Saturdays of Atonement) proved that the original messenger could no longer have acted there. For she would undoubtedly have protested vehemently against the rampant apostasy. -
We do not know to what extent Pope Benedict XVI knew the person of Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima and her whereabouts. But it would be surprising if such an intelligent person had never thought of the discrepancy between "Sister Lucia 1" and "Sister Lucia 2" and their respective messages. After all, in the 1950s and 1960s the original Fatima message was widely known to the faithful. The young priest and professor Joseph Ratzinger must have known it. It would also be astonishing that a prefect of the faith and pope, who with his nunciatures has at his disposal the oldest enlightenment network in the world, had never heard anything about the background of this mysterious discrepancy. Pope Benedict's role in relation to Fatima and Sister Lucia remains to be investigated and is not the subject of the brief remarks that follow.
What is at issue here is that investigations into Sister Lucia's Truth are increasingly gaining traction. The founder of this initiative, American Catholic philosopher Dr. Peter Chojnowski, is regarded by more and more authors, journalists and Youtubers as a serious interlocutor. The topic itself seems worthy of serious treatment, and not just the cricket of a contemporary bizarro.
Below, we briefly refer to three video contributions from recent months that reinforce the credibility of the investigations of Chojnowski and his surgery, forensic facial recognition and graphology contractors. The unanswerable question this raises is: What happened to Sister Lucia dos Santos?
In the meantime, he investigated Prof. Chojnowski's investigations into Sr. Lucia's identity. In a May 19, 2022 video on his channel, he elaborates on the findings and the now long-standing observations of Tradition in Action.
Schoeman cites a Carmelite Sisters website (Secretariatus generalis pro monialibus O. C. D., at the beginning of the video, among others), according to which Sr. Lucia died on May 31, 1949. This is not true and Schoeman himself came to this conclusion ("SINCE I RECORDED THIS, I DETERMINED THAT THE 1949 NOTICE OF LUCIA'S DEATH WAS NOT LEGITIMATE").
But how could this death notice have been produced in the first place? Should it be "1959" at best? This is another mystery in the question of the dates of the life of the seeress of Fatima.
Be that as it may: should a world-renowned author, speaker and scholar risk his reputation on a strange idea? Although Schoeman is cautious about drawing conclusions, he demonstrates by his engagement with this topic that it deserves to be addressed.
John-Henry Westen and Lifesitenews
Somewhat more recent is John-Henry Westen's conversation with Dr. Chojnowski on December 5, 2022. Westen is a Canadian and co-founder of the Catholic website Lifesitenews. For 25 years, this apostolate has been especially concerned with the protection of life and the family. Numerous collaborators and correspondents guarantee a high quality of research. Under the impression of Bergoglio's catastrophe, Lifesitenews has in recent years shifted towards pro-life positions.
Somewhat more recent is John-Henry Westen's conversation with Dr. Chojnowski on December 5, 2022. Westen is Canadian and co-founder of the Catholic website Lifesitenews. For 25 years, this apostolate has been especially concerned with the protection of life and the family. Numerous collaborators and correspondents guarantee a high quality of research. Under the impression of Bergoglio's catastrophe, Lifesitenews has shifted in recent years towards pro-traditional positions. For example, the site offers a podium to the former nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. Even "canceled" priests such as Father James Altman of the Diocese of LaCrosse (Wisconsin) and Father Jesusmary Missigbètò of Opus Dei are published there.
That Dr. Chojnowski is interviewed extensively by John-Henry Westen is a mark of quality. Lifesitenews also has a reputation to lose. Clearly, the editors consider Sister Lucy Truth's research worthy of consideration.
John-Henry Westen of Lifesitenews addressed the Sister Lucy issue in a conversation with Peter Chojnowski last December
The Sedisvacantist Catholic Family Podcast
This conversation from a sedisvacantist, and therefore problematic for Catholics, website was published last June. Since it addresses two important issues that go beyond the content of the two interviews, it is appropriate to mention it at the end. It should be noted that sedisvacantism is, of course, to be rejected. The interview is mentioned and discussed here only for its relevance to our question.
Dr. Chojnowski mentions (at 13:50) a 1990 PBS Portuguese public television report, in which an older sister of Sister Lucia, named Teresa, was interviewed. Her statements about Lucia's childhood were very vague and general. According to Chojnowski's analysis, she bears no resemblance to Sister Lucia's biological sisters, who are known from photographic documents. Chojnowski suspects fraud (not necessarily committed by the TV station).
Of particular relevance is Chojnowski's information at 45:25 that the Sisters of the Carmel of Coimbra, i.e., the convent Sister Lucia had entered with the permission of Pope Pius XII on March 25, 1948, had been "cooperators" of Opus Dei. Chojnowski concludes that the founder of Opus Dei, Bishop Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer (1902-1975, canonized in 2002), must therefore have known the person and whereabouts of Sister Lucia.
Summary
The affair of Sister Lucia of Fatima remains, for the moment, a dark secret. Unfortunately, since the 1970s, dark secrets began to accumulate in the Vatican environment, such as the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I, the alleged suicide of Vatican banker Roberto Calvi and the still unexplained disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, to name the best known. According to influential voices, it is also unclear who actually commissioned Ali Agca to assassinate the Pope. It is also somewhat paradoxical that he is apparently not a popular interlocutor for investigative journalists.
We wonder: what happened to Sister Lucia? Why have the Popes made such a big deal about Fatima? Can the "Third Secret" published by the Vatican really be all there is?
In short:
In our dark times we should all take the message of Fatima very seriously.