Vatican cardinal: There is no fourth secret of Fatima

The prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, rejected claims this week that the Church is hiding a supposed “fourth secret” of Fatima and recalled that the third secret was revealed on May 13, 2000. 

Speaking on Vatican Radio, the cardinal said, “The third secret is the last part of the message. There is no reason to claim that a fourth part exists. I know many people have made the claim and someone has even written a book making the argument, but I find no basis for such a claim.”

During the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the Fatima seers, on May 13, 2000, Pope John Paul II asked Cardinal Angelo Sodano to read the contents of the “third secret.” It was then published on the following June 26, together with a theological commentary by then-Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

The interpretation of the text centered mostly on Communism’s fight against the Church and on the sufferings of the victims of the anti-Christian persecutions of the 20th century.

One portion of the third secret speaks of a “priest dressed in white” who climbs a mountain covered with the bodies of thousands of people, and when he reaches the summit he is pierced with arrows and falls to the ground.

John Paul II understood this to be a reference to the assassination attempt against him by Ali Agca on May 13, 1981, which he survived thanks to the intervention of Our Lady of Fatima.