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 3
In the lead-up to the year 1960, various people—including Fátima authorities—made statements that were published in different languages. Within the English-speaking world, one of the more notable publications that discussed this matter was the 1954 book Fátima: Pilgrimage to Peace by April and Martin Armstrong.[1] The book recounts a pilgrimage they made to Fátima in 1954 along with some friends. They had the support of various church officials, and this support opened some doors for them—including meeting with Bishop José and Sr. Lúcia herself.
Regarding the meeting with Bishop José, the conversation was conducted between the Armstrongs speaking in English, a friend translating it into Italian, and a priest would then translate from the Italian into Portuguese. Still another priest spoke directly to Bishop da Silva in Latin. Later in the meeting, Canon Galamba de Oliveira entered the room. He spoke English and Portuguese fluently and was a well-known Fátima authority. The conversation (now with Canon Galamba) turned to the year 1960 and went as follows: “‘You have heard,’ asked Canon Galamba, ‘that the secret cannot be opened till 1960?’ We nodded. On that one date every report had agreed. [But then Canon Galamba said,] ‘That is not quite true. The Bishop could open it at any time he wishes. Now. Yesterday. Even years ago. But he will not.’” After a minor remark by the Armstrongs, they quoted Canon Galamba:
I was with him visiting Lucy one day years ago. Lucy said that now she could reveal the last part of the secret if the Bishop wanted her to. He did not want to hear it. He asked her finally to write it down and seal it. He could have read it then, but he would not. So Lucy agreed. But she made him promise that it would definitely be opened and released to the world at her death, or in 1960, whichever came first.[2]
After a little further conversation, Canon Galamba answered a question about whether Bishop da Silva was shirking his responsibility by not opening the text. Galamba replied “No. He believes that if God wanted it revealed right now, He would have said so specifically. Lucy only said she could reveal it now if the Bishop asked. She did not say it must be now. The dates were set after a discussion between the Bishop and Lucy.”[3]
From these texts, we see that things were not as black and white as was previously discussed. Canon Galamba is one of the earliest authorities on Fátima, one who worked closely with Bishop da Silva. For him to relay the above story to the Armstrongs and their friends creates some difficulty for the history of the third part of the Secret. Let us pause and look at this matter a little more in depth through the lens of three observations.
The first observation concerns the accuracy of the Armstrongs’ relaying of Canon Galamba’s words. There appears to have been no transcript or audio recording. However, the Armstrongs were writers who were attentive to details. I spoke with one of their surviving children and he mentioned how Martin Armstrong was a lawyer and very exacting of his children when they were recounting information to him. April, according to the same child, was a professional writer and careful with details. From their son’s description, I am compelled to conclude the strong likelihood that April and Martin were providing the ipsissima verba (or close to it) of Canon Galamba.
A second observation concerns the timing of the events recounted by Canon Galamba. The Armstrongs wrote that he said the conversation between Bishop José and Lúcia (for which Galamba was present) happened “years ago.” This claim is not specific to establish its placement on a timeline. Some indication of the time might be divined from Canon Galamba’s point about Bishop da Silva ordering Lúcia to write down the text. It is presumed that the order came after Lúcia said she could reveal the third part to Bishop da Silva. An additional note about the timing comes in the statement attributed to Canon Galamba “He asked her finally to write it down.” If we take this statement at face value, the “years ago” conversation likely took place sometime before Bishop José gave the official order. This order came in 1943, before the apparition of January 1944.
If the above accounting of time is accurate, why would Lúcia offer the third part to Bishop José before she had permission from heaven? We saw how much she struggled just to fulfill the bishop’s order and yet there seems to have been no struggle within Lúcia before the order. The picture painted by the Armstrongs of Canon Galamba’s discourse was Lúcia willing and without reservation or constraint to reveal the third part to Bishop José verbally. If we take careful note of the Armstrongs’ characterization, they say that Canon Galamba stated that Bishop da Silva “did not want to hear it.” Was Lúcia willing to relay the third part of the Secret orally to Bishop da Silva? This possibility is likely because she had known the bishop for many years and enjoyed a close relationship with him. It could have been that Lúcia believed it possible for her to relay the third part of the Secret verbally to Bishop José, just not in writing without heaven’s permission.
There is much room for discussion on this second observation, and it remains the subject of some scrutiny. What we can take away from it for our purposes here is that there is a larger picture, a context, that is easily neglected. Knowing that picture and the background is imperative to have a proper understanding of events, people, and the actions they chose.
Moving along, the third observation concerns Canon Galamba’s point that the text would “definitely be opened and released to the world at her death, or in 1960, whichever came first.” It is entirely possible that there was some arrangement between Sr. Lúcia and Bishop José regarding the publication of the third part of the Secret. In the light of what Our Lady’s words were to Lúcia in 1944, we must note that such an arrangement would be separate from the Virgin’s command that it be opened in 1960. The matter of what to do with the text after opening it was left entirely to the discretion of the pastors of the Church.
As things go, the issue here is not whether there was some kind of arrangement between Bishop José and Lúcia. One could very well have been made and with the background of the January 1944 command of Our Lady somewhere behind the arrangement. For our purposes though, there is no need to focus upon the existence of an arrangement. An unexpected development took place after the visit of the Armstrongs to Bishop José: a turn in the fate of the famous text and its envelopes. We will discuss this development in the next article.
[1] April Oursler Armstrong and Martin F. Armstrong, Fátima: Pilgrimage to Peace (Garden City, New York: Hanover House, 1954).
[2] Armstrong and Armstrong, Fátima: Pilgrimage to Peace, 104.
[3] Ibid., 105. See also António María Martins. “A Proposito del Secreto de Fatima.” Ephemerides Mariologicae Vol. XXXVI, Fasc. III-IV (1986): 348.