CDF / Cardinal Ratzinger – The Message of Fatima (June 26, 2000): The Revelation of the Third Secret

On June 26, 2000, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect, Monsignor Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary) published the document Il Messaggio di Fátima, featuring Mons. Bertone’s introduction, the full text of the “Third Secret” of Fátima (written by Sister Lúcia on January 3, 1944), and a Theological Comment by Joseph Ratzinger. This is historically the most anticipated Marian document of the 20th century. Text in Enchiridion Vaticanum vol. 19 (2000), paragraphs 974ss.

Italian text, Introduction by Mons. Bertone

As we move from the second to the third millennium, Pope John Paul II has decided to make public the text of the third part of the “Secret of Fátima.” After the dramatic and cruel events of the 20th century, one of the most crucial in human history, culminating in the brutal attack on the “sweet Christ on earth,” a veil is lifted on a reality that makes history and interprets it deeply, according to a spiritual dimension to which modern mentality, often clouded by rationalism, is resistant.

Portuguese Translation

Na passagem do segundo ao terceiro milênio, o papa João Paulo II decidiu tornar público o texto da terceira parte do «segredo de Fátima». Após os eventos dramáticos e cruéis do século XX, um dos mais cruciais na história do homem, culminado com o atentado brutal ao «doce Cristo na terra», abre-se então um véu sobre uma realidade que faz história e a interpreta em profundidade, segundo uma dimensão espiritual a que a mentalidade moderna, frequentemente marcada de racionalismo, é refratária.

n. 975: Aparições e Sinais Sobrenaturais

Italian: Apparizioni e segni soprannaturali punteggiano la storia, entrano nel vivo delle vicende umane e accompagnano il cammino del mondo, sorprendendo credenti e non credenti. Queste manifestazioni, che non possono contraddire il contenuto della fede, devono convergere verso l’oggetto centrale dell’annuncio di Cristo: l’amore del Padre che suscita negli uomini la conversione e dona la grazia per abbandonarsi a lui con devozione filiale. Tale è anche il messaggio di Fátima che, con il suo accorato appello alla conversione e alla penitenza, conduce nella realtà al cuore del Vangelo.

**English:**

Appearances and supernatural signs mark the history, enter into the vicissitudes of humanity, and accompany the path of the world, surprising both believers and non-believers. These manifestations, which cannot contradict the content of faith, should converge towards the central object of Christ’s announcement: the Father’s love that prompts men to conversion and grants grace for them to abandon themselves to Him with filial devotion. Such is also the message of Fatima, which with its ardent appeal to conversion and penance, actually leads to the heart of the Gospel.

The text of the third part of the secret contains the complete written document by Sister Lúcia on January 3, 1944. The main elements:

> “We saw a Bishop dressed in white, ‘we had the feeling that it was the Holy Father’, several other Bishops, Priests, religious and nuns ascending a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a large Cross… The Holy Father, before reaching the summit, passed through a city half-ruined and half-trembling, with a faltering gait, weighed down by pain and sorrow… Upon reaching the peak of the Mountain, prostrated on his knees at the feet of the great Cross, he was murdered by a group of soldiers who shot and pierced him multiple times, and in the same way died one after another all the other Bishops, Priests, religious and nuns, as well as several laypeople…”

Cardinal Ratzinger’s Theological Comment is fundamental to understanding this document. Three key points:

– **Literary Genre Symbolic:** The vision employs typical biblical apocalyptic images; it should not be read literally as a prediction of specific events.

– **Assassination Attempt of May 13, 1981:** “The Bishop dressed in white” was interpreted by John Paul II as referring to his own attempted assassination on May 13, 1981, the anniversary of Fatima’s first appearance 64 years earlier (1917). The Pope attributed his survival to Mary’s intervention from Fatima.

– **Central Message:** The Third Secret confirms Fatima’s central message: an appeal to conversion, penance, daily recitation of the Rosary, and consecration to the Immaculate Heart.

The *Message of Fatima* (June 26, 2000) contains:

– Introduction by Monsignor Tarcisio Bertone (Secretary of the CDF)
– Letter from Pope John Paul II to the Bishop of Leiria-Fátima
– Complete text of the Third Secret (Sister Lúcia, January 3, 1944)
– Letters from Sister Lúcia to the Pope (May 12, 1982 and November 8, 1989)
– Announcement of publication in Fatima by Cardinal Sodano (May 13, 2000)
– Theological Comment by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

Mariological Significance:

## June 26, 2000: The Fulfillment of the Public Revelation of Fatima’s Messages

The publication on June 26, 2000, marks the completion of the public revelation of Fatima’s messages:

– **1942:** Pius XII dedicates the world to the Immaculate Heart.
– **1952:** Pius XII dedicates Russia.
– **1981:** Attempted assassination of John Paul II on May 13 (the anniversary of the apparitions).
– **1982:** John Paul II dedicates the world to the Immaculate Heart in Fatima.
– **1984:** John Paul II, along with all the bishops of the world, collectively dedicates the world to the Immaculate Heart in Rome.
– **2000 (May 13):** Announcement in Fatima of the imminent revelation of the Third Secret.
– **2000 (June 26):** The CDF publishes the full Third Secret.
– **2000 (May 13):** Beatification of Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
– **2017 (May 13):** Canonization of Francisco and Jacinta Marto by Pope Francis on the centenary of the apparitions.

## Legacy

The 2000 document concluded an 83-year cycle of gradual revelation about Fatima. The full publication demonstrated that Fatima did not contain apocalyptic predictions of catastrophe, but, as interpreted by Ratzinger, an evangelical call to conversion in biblical prophetic language. The Fatima Message is fundamentally a Marian re-reading of the core of the Gospel: prayer, penance, conversion, and consecration.

## Further Reading

– [Fatima Apparitions (Fátima)](/aparições-marianas-magistério-guadalupe-lourdes-fatima-aparecida/)
– [Act of Dedication to the Immaculate Heart, 1983-1984](/joão-paulo-ii-atto-affidamento-coração-imaculado-1983-1984/)
– [Redemptoris Mater](/redemptoris-mater/)
– [Unrecognized Apparitions (Amsterdam)/](/cdf-pretensas-aparições-madonna-amsterdam-1974/)
– [Rosary of the Virgin Mary](/rosário-virginis-mariae/)