Apostasy... From the Top?

In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things,
that the great apostasy in the Church begins at the top.

—Cardinal Luigi Ciappi,
—cited in The Still Hidden Secret,
Christopher A. Ferrara, p. 43

IN a statement on the Vatican’s website, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone provided an interpretation of the so-called “Third Secret of Fatima” suggesting that the vision had already been fulfilled by the attempted assassination of John Paul II. To say the least, many Catholics were left perplexed and unconvinced. Many felt there was nothing in this vision that was too astonishing to be revealed, as Catholics had been told in decades prior. What exactly disturbed popes so much that they allegedly kept the secret hidden all those years? It’s a fair question.

American lawyer and journalist, Christopher A. Ferrara, investigated the many controversies surrounding the Third Secret. Among them, he recounts a conversation between Pope John Paul II and Sr. Lucia.

As Sister Lucia informed Cardinal Oddi, while the Cardinal was in Fatima for the annual May 13th celebration of the apparitions in 1985, the Pope told her that the Secret had not been divulged “because it could be badly interpreted.” Here the Pope provided a further hint that the Secret would be embarrassing to Church authorities because it concerns a crisis of faith and discipline for which they themselves are responsible. —The Still Hidden Secret, Christopher A. Ferrara, p. 39

In his book, Ferrara then cites the above quote from Cardinal Luigi Ciappi who was papal theologian to Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II. Allegedly echoing Ciappi was Pope Paul VI in a famous quote that has been widely cited:

The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church. —Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13, 1977; said to be reported in the Italian paper Corriere della Sera on Page 7, October 14, 1977 issue

However, I have been unable to recover the original source of this statement on the Vatican’s website, which would have been in either Italian or Latin. Moreover, archives of Corriere della Sera do not record this passage. Was this controversial statement scrubbed from the archives? Was it misquoted? Fabricated?

And then there is the alleged message given in 1846 to Melanie Calvat in La Salette, France:

Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.

However, this does not necessarily mean a valid pope is occupying the seat or still present in Rome (see A Black Pope?).

Returning to the Third Secret of Fatima, which I discussed in Francis and the Great Shipwreck, several scholars maintain today that there is a portion of the Third Secret that has simply not been revealed. Is it because a message that apostasy could begin at the top — ie. with a pope himself — could indeed cause embarrassment, confusion, scandal, and conflict within the Church?

The Present State of Things

Regardless of the Third Secret or not, we are living through a papacy that has caused embarrassment, confusion, scandal, and conflict itself within and without the Church.

I am not “anti-Francis.” I have compiled the orthodox statements of Pope Francis here on most things Catholic. I maintain, based on solid arguments, that his election was valid (though there may come new evidence that would suggest otherwise), as does every cardinal who voted in the conclave:

I’ve had people present to me all kinds of arguments calling into question the election of Pope Francis. But I name him every time I offer the Holy Mass, I call him Pope Francis, it’s not an empty speech on my part. I believe that he is the pope. And I try to say that consistently to people, because you’re correct — according to my perception also, people are getting more and more extreme in their response to what’s going on in the Church. —Cardinal Raymond Burke, interview with The New York Times, November 9th, 2019

At the same time, I do not share the rose-colored glasses of self-professed “popesplainers” who nearly divinize the Pope, attributing infallibility to everything he utters. From the “Pachamama” scandal to the contorted language of Amoris Laetitia and Fiducia supplicans (both apparently ghost-written by the highly controversial Cardinal Victor Fernandez) to the endorsement of global agendas,^[1]cf. What Have You Done? there has arguably been no papacy as controversial as this since medieval times. Nor do I subscribe to the “resistance” in the Church that refuses to listen at all to the Pope, if not openly mock him.

And here’s why — Jesus unequivocally stated:

Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. (Luke 10:16)

Note, even Judas was among the Twelve to whom this passage refers to. Indeed, after stating this, Jesus sent them out two-by-two and they returned exclaiming: “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name” (verse 17). Sadly, Judas became subject to a demon himself and betrayed Christ.

And not only him— Peter denied Jesus three times.

A Rock or Stumbling Stone?

Here, we are confronted with a seeming contradiction. How can Peter be that rock upon which is built the Church and that the “gates of hell” cannot prevail against (Matt 16:18), and yet seemingly assist hell in its mission against Christ? Indeed, as Benedict XVI wrote:

The post-Pentecost Peter… is that same Peter who, for fear of the Jews, belied his Christian freedom (Galatians 2 11–14); he is at once a rock and a stumbling-block. And has it not been thus throughout the history of the Church that the Pope, the successor of Peter, has been at once Petra and Skandalon — both the rock of God and a stumbling block? —POPE BENEDICT XIV, from Das neue Volk Gottes, p. 80ff

Bishop Joseph Strickland (CNS/Bob Roller)

Bishop Joseph Strickland was removed from his post in Tyler, Texas on November 11, 2023, by the Vatican. Known for his faithfulness and outspokenness against a godless global agenda, his removal (without public disclosure of why) came as a shock to the faithful (while progressive priests and bishops have remained virtually unscathed). In a recent open letter on his website, Bishop Strickland raises this issue of the Third Secret of Fatima and the warning that apostasy will “begin at the top”:

In 2019, Pope Francis, when asked why God “allows” so many religions in the world, answered that “…there are many religions. Some are born from culture, but they always look to heaven; they look to God.” He said that “what God wants is fraternity among us,” and he said “we must not be frightened by difference. God has allowed this.” However, if there was really no difference in the religions of the world, and if what God wanted was just “fraternity among us,” then one might conclude that the Catholic Church is no longer the one true religion, and that it is indeed not the ark of our salvation. However, we know that this is not the truth. Therefore, we must be concerned about the reported words of the Virgin about an apostasy which would begin at the top. —August 23rd, 2024; bishopstrickland.com; see the Pope’s comments here: vatican.va

Dialogue with other religions is nothing new and began with St. Paul’s interactions with the Greeks, even citing their own philosophic texts.^[2]cf. Acts 17:22-34 But that dialogue did not stop at mere fraternity. It called the Greeks to repentance:

God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent… some did join him, and became believers. (Acts 17:30, 34)

In fact, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI felt compelled to emerge from his retirement silence to address religious indifferentism:

Would it not be more appropriate for the religions to encounter each other in dialogue and serve together the cause of peace in the world? …Today many, in effect, are of the opinion that the religions must respect each other and, in dialogue among themselves, become a common force for peace. In this way of thinking, most of the time there is a presupposition that the different religions are variations of a single and identical reality; that “religion” is a common genre that takes on different forms according to the different cultures but nonetheless expresses the same reality. The question of truth, which in the beginning moved Christians more than all the rest, is here put in parentheses… This renunciation of the truth seems realistic and useful for peace among religions in the world. And nonetheless this is lethal to faith… —message to the Pontifical Urbaniana University on its dedication of the great hall to Benedict XVI; read remarks, October 21st, 2014; chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it

Benedict’s remarks, made a decade earlier, appear as almost a prophetic rebuke of Francis’ later remarks highlighted by Strickland. At the same time, other remarks of Francis somewhat temper and contexualize his approach to dialogue with unbelievers:

If you find yourself in front of — imagine! — in front of an atheist, and he tells you he doesn’t believe in God, you can read him a whole library, where it says that God exists and even proving that God exists, and he will not have faith. But if in the presence of this atheist you bear consistent witness of Christian life, something will begin to work in his heart. It will be your witness that will… bring this restlessness on, which the Holy Spirit works. —POPE FRANCIS, Homily, Feb. 27th, 2014, Casa Santa Marta, Vatican City; Zenit. org

True openness involves remaining steadfast in one’s deepest convictions, clear and joyful in one’s own identity, while at the same time being “open to understanding those of the other party” and “knowing that dialogue can enrich each side”. What is not helpful is a diplomatic openness which says “yes” to everything in order to avoid problems, for this would be a way of deceiving others and denying them the good which we have been given to share generously with others. Evangelization and interreligious dialogue, far from being opposed, mutually support and nourish one another. —Evangelii Gaudium, n . 251, vatican.va

Confess the Faith! All of it, not part of it! Safeguard this Faith, as it came to us, by way of Tradition: the whole Faith! —POPE FRANCIS, Zenit.org, January 10th, 2014

Can the Pope Lead an Apostasy?

A fair question, however, is when will Francis clearly confess the Faith? When will “dialogue” become “invitation” to the one and only true religion, which is Christianity? When will the parameters of the Gospel, which must be preached “in season and out of season” be reaffirmed — namely, repentance, baptism, and incorporation into Christ’s Church? In a word, when will Jesus Christ be clearly proclaimed and faith in Him as the one true mediator between us and the “Abrahamic God” be enunciated as necessary for salvation?

The message from the Vatican, rather, seems to be one of merely achieving peaceful coexistence and love for the planet.

If we took the planet’s temperature, it will tell us that the Earth has a fever. And it is sick, just like anyone who’s sick.… Let us pray that each of us listen with our hearts to the cry of the Earth and of the victims of environmental disasters and climate change, making a personal commitment to care for the world we inhabit. —Pope Francis, video, intention for September 2024

Putting aside the growing number of scientists and evidence that utterly refute the Pope’s embrace of global warming ideology, it is not so much what is said but left unsaid that causes so much controversy. The mission of Jesus, though it indeed involves the restoration of creation, is ultimately not to heal the planet but sinners.

Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.” (Luke 5:31-32)

That is, therefore, the mission of the Church as well. A message of universal fraternity, environmentalism, and global peace, though bearing elements of Christian truth, is virtually identical with that of Freemasonry, expressed pragmatically in Communism:

The Communism of today, more emphatically than similar movements in the past, conceals in itself a false messianic idea. A pseudo-ideal of justice, of equality and fraternity in labor impregnates all its doctrine and activity with a deceptive mysticism, which communicates a zealous and contagious enthusiasm to the multitudes entrapped by delusive promises. —POPE PIUS XI, Divini Redemptoris, n. 8

Notably, the message of Fatima warned that Communism (ie. the “errors of Russia”) was an existential threat to the world.

So can a Pope at once be the rock upon which the Church is built, and yet, lead many into apostasy? If so, it would not be by a pope defining erroneous dogmas — something the charism of infallibility protects him against. Rather, it could very well be when chief shepherds promote worldly ideologies ^[3]cf. The Great Scattering that, while noble in appearance, are empty of the power of the Gospel:

…we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor 1:22-23)

In the words of Pope Francis himself:

…worldliness is the root of evil and it can lead us to abandon our traditions and negotiate our loyalty to God who is always faithful. This… is called apostasy, which… is a form of “adultery” which takes place when we negotiate the essence of our being: loyalty to the Lord. —POPE FRANCIS from a homily, Vatican Radio, November 18th, 2013

Should even a pope go down this path, the answer is not to separate oneself from the papacy, ie. enter into schism. Rather, says St. Catherine of Siena:

Even if the Pope were Satan incarnate, we ought not to raise up our heads against him… I know very well that many defend themselves by boasting: “They are so corrupt, and work all manner of evil!” But God has commanded that, even if the priests, the pastors, and Christ-on-earth were incarnate devils, we be obedient and subject to them, not for their sakes, but for the sake of God, and out of obedience to Him. —St. Catherine of Siena, SCS, p. 201-202, p. 222, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: “The Book of Obedience”, Chapter 1: “There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope”). Nb. Catherine is speaking of obedience to the just dictates of the Magisterium, not to anything sinful.

They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. —POPE PIUS XII, Mystici Corporis Christi (On the Mystical Body of Christ), June 29, 1943; n. 41; vatican.va