Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the Third Secret

The interpretation of the third secret given by the Virgin Mary to the young seers of Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, was made in 2000 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. We will retain the following points:

- The purpose of all apparitions is to bring about an increase in faith, hope and charity.

- The future is not immutably determined, and the vision seen by the children is not a film of anticipation of the future, to which nothing could be changed. This vision was given only to stress the role of freedom and to orient it in a positive direction.

- The vision has a symbolic character. We can recognize in it the past century, as being a period of martyrs and persecutions of the Church.

- In the way of the cross of this century, the figure of the Pope holds a special place.

- In the same way that the Church was born from the open side of Christ on the Cross, so the death of witnesses is fruitful for the future life of the Church. Their martyrdom happened in solidarity with the passion of Christ, and forms a whole with it.

In Fatima 1917-2017, La dévotion au cœur immaculé de Marie, de 1917 à la Venue glorieuse du Christ (Fatima 1917-2017, The Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, from 1917 to the Glorious Second Coming of Christ), Editions Hovines, March 2017