as pope, he was found dead, the vault of the papal desk open, the infamous letter lying in his lifeless hand. The anxious attendant nuns who found him dutifully removed the letter with trembling fingers and returned it in confidence to its leather case and the privacy of the vault.
But it was Pope John Paul II, Nicholas VI's immediate predecessor, who contributed the most extraordinary anecdotal footnotes. On May 13,1981, the anniversary date of the first appearance of the Virgin at Fatima, Pope John Paul II fell victim to the bullet of an assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square. That John Paul II survived the attack, the pope adamantly attributed to Our Lady of Fatima.
On the tenth anniversary of John Paul II's attempted assassination, the seventy-fourth anniversary of the Virgin's first appearance at Fatima, the pope did something Unprecedented in the annals of Catholicism. He consecrated his entire worldwide congregation to Our Lady of Fatima. In doing so, he dedicated all Catholics to pray for the fulfillment of the letter's secret stipulations, intimating that to do otherwise was to allow the realization of a very grim prophecy.
Nearly setting off a global panic, John Paul II. declared: “Repent and amend your ways, for the end of the world is nigh!” Standing alongside the pope for the ceremony was an eighty-six-year-old Carmelite nun, Sister Marie Lucia de Jesus, R.S.D., the last surviving visionary of Fatima.
The pontiff's alarming prediction only served to darken the ominous, millennial cloud then looming on the horizon. In 1995, perhaps to reassure the faithful that mankind might indeed survive the dreaded transition to the next century, John Paul had called for “a sacred Jubilee Year to begin at the commencement of the New Millennium, January 1, 2000.”
Yet now, with John Paul's January 1 deadline and the commencement of the new millennium behind him, Pope Nicholas was finding the Jubilee Year 2000 anything but jubilant. Stewardship of the disturbing letter had passed to him. And however disquieting the letter's contents may have been to his predecessors, Nicholas bore the misfortune of being the pope to whom its revelations ultimately accrued.
It had all come down to him and this moment. With a deep breath and rapidly pulsating heart, Nicholas VI lifted the yellowed parchment to search once more for an answer in its strange message:
23 November, 1929
These are the words of Our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, which I, her humble servant, do faithfully record:
“My sorrow is great and I am troubled deeply that little is done to end the deception and selfishness and misery in the world. Everywhere, the message of my Son is corrupted, and the spiritual is supplanted by the material. The patience of the Almighty is lapsing. My Son wishes to return but even now, His way is not made ready.
“Yet soon shall you understand that the time is near, as even you, the successors of Peter, shall know violence and injury and death in fulfillment of my prophecies. When these things happen as I say, so shall you remember my words and know that the time is nigh.
“But even now, it is not too late to repent and make right the way of the Lord. Return again to the scriptures given unto you by the Son of God. Hold carefully to the Word. Change your ways. Pray and do penance and raise your voice against pride and inequity.
“Do so and you may escape God's wrath. Yet two last prophecies do I bring to you-only one of which shall come to be. Whichever shall be fulfilled is by your doing, as the decision is still within your province to effect.
The First Prophecy-The Desolation
“If you fail to maintain your vigilance and keep faith with the Lord, then this First Prophecy shall befall you:
“The Almighty shall send His messenger bearing the sword of truth; and those who know the truth, by the purity of their hearts shall they also know the messenger. But woe be to you, hardened hearts, which fail to see and hear. For you who hold your head high with arrogance, so shall you stumble over that which lies conspicuous before you. Your people shall turn one against the other in bewilderment, accusation and rage. The Desolation shall commence and the sword shall smite you down and rend you asunder.
“Death and abomination shall reign. The great shall be laid low and the mighty shall be brought to ruin, and that which you glorified will be no more. By the sword of truth, the one who is sent shall again attempt to make straight the way of the Lord. For it shall be that you are not worthy. And you who survive shall not share in the promise of the scriptures and in the Second Coming of Christ-nor shall your progeny nor its progeny, until the twilight of time.
“In the eleventh hour shall these things be accomplished as I have prophesied. And nothing that has been revealed can then be changed.
The Second Prophecy-The Glorious Reign of One Thousand Years
“Nevertheless, if you heed my admonitions and honor the Word, the promises of the scriptures shall yet be fulfilled. But be forewarned: a great test shall be set before you. Unto your midsts shall come the Evil One, in comely guise, to spread before you the sweet fruit of perdition.
“You must choose between the hunger of good and the gluttony of evil. Deception shall embrace you like the snake its prey; and you shall be struck where you lie unprotected; and all manner of confusion and turmoil shall assail you. But in the darkness of the night, the light of the Lord shall come to you. You shall be emboldened to confront the Evil One and to command the armies of God against the legions of Satan.
“And, in the darkest hour, the Savior shall return in all His glory; and in His divine judgment shall He strike down the Evil One and divide the believer from the nonbeliever; He shall separate the righteous from the heretic; the allegiant from the apostate. And the unfaithful will he cast from Him forever with the Evil One into the fires of eternal damnation.
“But you who are soldiers in the army of God so shall you be raised up. And you who are generals shall be exalted above all the hierarchy of heaven; you shall sit in jubilation at the Lord's right hand to rule the earth for one thousand years in the glory of eternal life.
“Thus I bring you hope for that yet to be. With the authority and power that has been vested in you, balance carefully the truth. Know that in the last days, good shall appear as evil and evil as good. But if the First Prophecy is to be, it shall be fulfilled before the turn of the millennium; and if the Second Prophecy is to be, it shall be fulfilled thereafter.
“Yet I caution you not to speak of these words to anyone. Such are the admonitions and the promises the Father makes to you, his anointed apostles, who are entrusted with His Word. Hear the truth and act accordingly, and that which is to be, shall be in your power to effect.”
As was revealed to me this 23rd Day of November, in the year of Our Lord 1929.
Respectful servant of God, Marie Lucia de Jesus, R.S.D.
And there it was. The ultimate conundrum.
If this strange woman, Jeza, was as she said, a New Messiah, then the First Prophecy was being fulfilled. Mankind had failed God and fallen short of the Virgin's stipulations. Man would be denied, indefinitely, his promised reunion with Christ “until the twilight of time.” And this angry Jeza, God forbid, heralded a period of divine punishment and desolation.
On the other hand, if the Second Prophecy was the correct one, then Jeza was truly the Jezebel, the Antichrist, and she portended a violent struggle between good and evil. Armageddon. After which would come the Second Advent of Christ and the beginning of the long-awaited One Thousand Year Glorious Rule. The fulfillment of the scriptures.
So which was she, Messiah or Antichrist? Was it to be desolation or a thousand years of bliss? In his final reflection on the letter, the pontiff's choice had become no easier. There were certainly aspects of each prophecy that paralleled current developments, causing him to question any decision he might make.
