The Last Secret of Fatima: The Revelation of One of the Most Controversial Events in Catholic History

Book by Bertone Cardinal Tarcisio

Chapter 1
 A RADIANT, CREDIBLE WITNESS
 
Cardinal Bertone, in your capacity as papal legate, you enjoyed more reg- ular contact than any other person with Sister Maria Lucia De Jesus e Do Coração Imaculado in her convent in Coimbra, Portugal. You met with her between 2000 and 2003, first in your capacity as secretary of the Congrega- tion for the Doctrine of the Faith, where you worked under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and then during your tenure as archbishop of Genoa. Some of the meetings were of an official nature, and were followed by either press conferences or media reports. Others were of a more private character. Fi- nally, after Lucia died at the age of ninety-seven on February 13, 2005, you presided at her solemn funeral Mass.

There  were  three meetings  that you  might  label “official.” The  first
one took place on April 27, 2000, just a few days before Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Fatima, where he was planning to beatify Lucia’s two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco. The pope had decided to reveal the third part of the so-called  Secret of Fatima, and he needed  a definitive inter- pretation  from  Lucia.  Then  I went  back  to Coimbra  on  November 17, 2000. At this point, the Secret had already been revealed. The reason for my second  trip was the hue and cry raised in the media about the sup- posed  omissis, the parts that had allegedly  been  left out  of the text re- leased by the Vatican. I wanted a confirmation  that the Fatima message had been completely revealed, and that Sister Lucia didn’t have any more notes  about  the Third  Secret pertaining  to, say, Pope  John  Paul I. The third trip was on December  9, 2003, according  to the official appoint- ment calendar I kept as Archbishop  of Genoa.
 
So there were three official meetings. How long did they last altogether?

At least ten hours. I met  with  Lucia  personally  on  other  occasions, but it was always during short stops in Coimbra  to celebrate Mass. After the liturgy, we would exchange  short greetings, but these brief meetings had absolutely no official significance or relevance to the Church.
 
How did the official visits come about? The first one, in particular, was pre- ceded by a letter from Pope John Paul II. “Sister Maria Lucia,” he wrote, “you may speak openly and candidly to Archbishop Bertone, who will re- port your answers directly to me.” 1   What a calling card! How willing did you find Sister Lucia?

Our  meetings  were very cordial. Of  course,  given  the wishes of the
pope,  Sister Lucia  was ready to confide  in me and, I would  say, to talk about the genuineness  of her recollection  and description  of the events in which she had played a part.
 
What sort of impression did this very punctilious, very persistent woman make on you? After all, for the first time in decades she was experiencing the joy of being listened to by a pope.

What was striking from my point of view was how fresh her memory
was, how trenchant her images were, how precise she was. When she re- counted  events, she would  paint a sequence  of images so vivid that you thought you were watching a movie. She was a “good  Samaritan” of the memory. I immediately sensed her radiant awareness of having received a very definite mission. She was humble  and obedient, but—as  you just said—she  was also persistently determined  to give a full explanation  of the messages that Our Lady had entrusted to her. As she was speaking, I thought: “Here  is a woman  who  never lets any difficulty stop her.” She had suffered, she had struggled, and now she was overcoming  the last resistance and persuading the world. After having stored in her heart the events in which she had participated and the message she had received, she  relived  and  reread  both  with  a lucidity  and  a calm  that  only  en- hanced her credibility. She was a witness in the fullest sense of the word. Are my remarks pertinent?
 
I would say that they’re fundamentally important, Your Eminence. Who is better qualified than you to describe what sort of person Lucia was? Mil- lions of people have looked up, and still look up, to Sister Lucia. She is a me- diator, a bridge, a messenger, an eyewitness. If Lucia is credible, then Fatima has a much more serious claim on our attention, and believers can be more confident that its mystery does not reflect darkness, but the light of God’s glory.

I noticed in our conversations that Sister Lucia was able to formulate
the heart of the message in a simple, clear fashion. I also noticed that she would  cite the Virgin’s exhortation  (from  the October  13 apparition)  as a kind  of  basic reference  point: “I have  come  to exhort  the faithful to change their lives and to stop offending the Lord by their sins. He is al- ready too much  offended.” Lucia found guidance  in her prayerful read- ing of Scripture, and her inspiration flowed from an interior listening to the Word  of God. She gave people the courage to convert. She also pre- sented a substantive vision of the nature and goals of the Christian life, a vision whose clarity strengthened  people’s  resolve to continue  believ- ing  and  living  moral  lives. She  had  thought  things  through  and  had reached a deep level of settled conviction.  She was persistent, stubborn, and exuberant. Such qualities are not at all in conflict with the ABCs of Christian behavior. On the contrary, if they’re properly channeled, they are very useful antidotes to anxiety, uncertainty, and doubt  about one’s earthly and eternal destiny.
 
How about her memory? Was it particularly accurate?

Her memory  was absolutely accurate.

 
Were you alone during the first conversation?

No. The first time I was accompanied  by the bishop of Leiria-Fatima, Serafin de Sousa Ferreira e Silva, who helped me with the languages. We spoke  a bit of Spanish  and a bit of Portuguese.  I’m not tremendous  in either language, but the conversation was perfectly comprehensible. Anyway, I also needed a witness who could vouch  for the precise mean- ing of Lucia’s statements, as well as of her questions to me and my replies to  them.  The  pope’s  letter cleared  away  every  hesitation  from  Lucia’s mind. She said: “Okay, I will tell you everything you ask.”
 
I imagine that she was very happy.

Yes she was. Don’t  forget that she had written several letters to John
Paul II’s predecessors.
 
 
And did they answer her?

I don’t think so. Correction:  at least not officially. They may have re- sponded through intermediaries, but I have never looked into it. What I do know is that in the last long letter she sent to John Paul II, Sister Lu- cia asked for three things. I don’t know, though, whether this letter is confidential or whether it is under lock and key in the CDF  archives.
 
Seeing as how you are piquing our curiosity here, perhaps you could give us some hints about the contents of the letter.

First off, Lucia requested the beatification of the two pastorinhos, Ja-
cinta and Francisco.  There  was a certain resistance to proceeding  with the beatification. Some argued that, if we beatified Sister Lucia’s cousins, it would  be like beatifying Lucia ante mortem, before her death, as well. The  counterargument  that  finally  prevailed  was  that  each  person  is judged on his own  virtues according  to the standard procedures  stipu- lated by the Holy See. We don’t make judgments about the holiness of a group, but decide who is a saint on a person-by-person basis. Now, as we all know, the two shepherd children were judged worthy of beatification because of their heroic virtue and their self-sacrifice for the Church  and the conversion  of sinners.
 
Can we say, though, that Sister Lucia’s testimony played a decisive role in getting them elevated to the glories of the altar?

I can’t deny that. The testimony of relatives, priests who knew them,
and the bishop was also important. Don’t forget the basic requirement, either.  God   had  to  give  his  seal  of  approval   by  granting  a  miracle through the intercession of the two pastorinhos, and the miracle had to be recognized  as such by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.