Part I: On the Third Part of the Secret of Fátima: Introduction to Recent Scholarship
Part II: A History of the Third Part of the Secret of Fátima: Composition
On the Third Part of the Secret of Fatima, part 4:
Order Given, Order Thwarted?
Between 1956 and 1957, there was an order from the Vatican for copies of all Lúcia’s writings to be sent to the Vatican. Of course, the issue of the third part of the Secret had arisen. It was not 1960 and the text was still within the sealed envelopes. When the matter of the third part was brought to Bishop da Silva, he ordered that the original, not a copy, be sent to Rome. To make a copy, that would have entailed the wax seals to be broken, the text removed, and a great temptation for people to read the text as it was being copied.
In addition to the earlier discourse in the Armstrongs’ book, they also attributed further statements to Canon Galamba about Bishop da Silva’s thinking about the third part. The Armstrongs wrote that they asked Canon Galamba “‘But why doesn’t he want to know what it is? Why doesn’t he tell the world what it is?’ ‘I asked him that many times,’ said Canon Galamba. ‘And always he says: ‘It is not for me to interfere. Heaven’s secrets are not for me, and I do not want that responsibility too.’”[1]
By the time of the order from Rome for copies, Bishop José was close to death. His death came in December 1957.[2] Some decades prior, he had suffered tremendously in hatred of the Faith and bore the consequences of that suffering in his old age. He had also shouldered the responsibility of overseeing the formal Church examination into the claims of the three visionaries and approved the events of 1917 in October 1930. He further bore the weight of guiding proper devotion and the dissemination of the message of Our Lady. Simply put, by the end of his life, he was tired and did not want to meddle in affairs that he believed were not his to bear.
It is no surprise, then, that Bishop da Silva ordered the sending of the original text to Rome without making a copy. In doing so, control of the document was given to the Holy See. It is a matter for debate among Fátima scholars whether Bishop José’s decision respected Our Lady’s stipulation to Lúcia in January 1944 as to whom she wanted to open the envelope. If he didn’t think heaven’s secrets were for him, then it could have been done by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon (then Cardinal Cerejeira). Conversely, what objection could there be if the text was given to the Holy Father who enjoys full and immediate jurisdiction over the Church?
Regardless of which side someone is on with the above debate, the fact remains the document went to Rome. It was now in the hands of the Holy Father, and the fate of the text lay with him. It arrived in April of 1957, late in the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, who appears never to have opened it. He died and the text was brought to Pope St. John XXIII in August of 1959 at Castel Gandolfo. The story here is well known and so there is no need to go into all the details. It is enough to say that the pope read the text with his trusted advisors and decided against publishing.
From various testimonies, it is likely that information was lost in the transfer of the third part from Leiria to Rome. For example, Pope John’s personal secretary, Mons. Loris Capovilla, stated in 1970 that the authorities in Rome had seen nothing about publishing the text in 1960.[3] This statement is accurate because the envelopes containing the third part stated they could be opened, not published, in 1960. If there was, as we saw earlier, some arrangement between Bishop José and Sr. Lúcia, it might have been unknown to Vatican authorities. Even if it was, what bound the Holy Father to uphold the arrangement? If he took a different outlook, then that was the end of the discussion.
Additionally, when Pope John read the text, it was a description of the vision that Lúcia had seen. There was no interpretation of the images. Imagine being the pope and reading a text that clearly shows a “bishop dressed in white” being shot and killed, along with numerous other Christians of various walks and vocations in life. Without a proper interpretation, there was no way to understand accurately what the text was meant to convey. So, the ultimate decision of Pope John was to make no judgment upon the matter. If things happened later and his successors could make better sense of it, then that would be a safer way to proceed.
History happened as we know it: the year 1960 came and went with no publication of the third part of the Secret. There was a news article in February of 1960 that was reported to be based upon opinions of various “Vatican circles.” According to these opinions, the text would not be published and for different reasons. To say that people were dismayed might be an understatement. Despite numerous calls for the text to be released, it remained under lock and key. It was discussed at some length in February of 1967 by the head of the former Holy Office, Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani during a talk he gave at the Antonianum in Rome.[4] A prominent feature of this address was a justification for why the text was not published.
In the next, and final, article, we will wrap up this history with the developments leading up to the publication of the third part in the year 2000.
[1] April Oursler Armstrong and Martin F. Armstrong, Fátima: Pilgrimage to Peace (Garden City, New York: Hanover House, 1954), 104-105.
[2] Cf. “Bishop José Alves Correia da Silva.” Catholic Hierarchy.
[3] Cf. Kevin J. Symonds, On the Third Part of the Secret of Fátima, 2nd ed. (St. Louis, Missouri: En Route Books & Media, 2025), 122.
[4] Acta Pontificiae Academiae Marianae Internationalis vel ad Academiam quoquo modo pertinentia. Volume 4 (Romae: Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis, 1967), 44-49.