During a private visit with Father Fuentes, on December 26, 1957, Sister Lucia, the seer of Our Lady of Fatima (Portugal), alluding to the third secret, confided to the priest:
"Only the Holy Father and the Bishop of Fatima are permitted to know the Secret, but they have chosen to not know it so that they would not be influenced."
She also said: "That which afflicts the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Heart of Jesus is the fall of religious and priestly souls. The devil knows that religious and priests who fall away from their beautiful vocation drag numerous souls to hell. The devil employs all tricks, even going so far as to suggest the delay of entrance into religious life."
"The Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world, but She made me understand it…She told me that the devil is engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin…Either we are for God or we are for the devil. There is no other possibility. God is giving two last remedies to the world. These are the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others."