With an introduction by Pope Benedict XVI and including information previously suppressed, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, definitively reveals and explains one of the most controversial events in twentieth-century Catholicism—the 1917 apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima. During World War I, three Portuguese children received a vision in which Mary, the Mother of Jesus, foretold great global turmoil. The first part of their vision—warnings about World War II, communism, and the spread of atheism—were widely publicized, but Vatican officials were hesitant to reveal the vision’s concluding images, thus creating the "secret" of Fatima. Speculation about this secret gripped many Catholics, and the aura of intrigue surrounding Fatima grew when the Church hierarchy barred the last surviving visionary from speaking publicly. In THE LAST SECRET OF FATIMA, Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican equivalent of prime minister and a top advisor to Pope Benedict, breaks the Vatican’s official silence on the last secret. Rather than Armageddon, he claims, the final prophecy envisaged the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. Bertone argues the apparition at Fatima was a call to renewal for the Church, and he was assigned the task of promulgating this message by the Pope.

This is the book that has been electrifying Rome and the rest of Europe for three years! This fascinating inquiry into the theories and the truths of the most disconcerting mystery of the 20th Century was a huge best-seller in Europe. On June 26, 2000, Vatican officials (including Cardinal Bertone) released what they claim was the Third Secret of Fatima. They further said that it was a prediction of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981. Antonio Socci, an acclaimed Italian journalist and television personality, originally sided with the Vatican¿s interpretation of the Third Secret.Upon closer investigation of this matter, the evidence led him to the conclusion that there is another document of the Third Secret containing the actual words of Our Lady. So far, the Vatican is still hiding this text while claiming that all is released.Antonio Socci, for the first time, in this book produces the testimony of a still-living witness from the inner circle of Pope John XXIII, to prove his point. This book has caused a public sensation and debate. Far from being a ¿dead issue¿ the urgent message of Our Lady to the shepherd children of Fatima is now being more critically discussed and examined than ever before.

The truth about the vatican's most impenetrable secret, hidden for over eighty years! *On May 13, 1917, three young shepherds witness a vision of the Virgin Mary and hear the Holy Mother reveal three prophecies... *Elements of the first two prophecies have already come true: the end of World War I, the rise of Russia as a superpower, and the beginning of World War II... *The third secret was revealed in the year 2000, its details still shrouded in secrecy and controversy. What is the Vatican trying to hide? The Lady of Fátima left a final prophecy so powerful that no pope in over eighty years had dared reveal it. Why? The third secret is contained on a page of parchment written by the last surviving witness to the miracle...and hand delivered to the Pope. Even now, after the Vatican has released their version of the contents of the third secret, intense debate rages as to whether the Church has revealed the truth. Here, for the first time, is a complete inquiry into the mystery of Fátima: what the three shepherds really witnessed, the astonishing turn of their lives, the unfolding of the prophecies, and how the Fátima Secret has dominated Pope John Paul's reign and changed world history. Was the Fátima prophecy a warning to the Pope...or a vision so dire it must be suppressed at any cost?

In the past two centuries hundreds of apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been reported, drawing crowds to the seers and the sites and constituting events of great religious significance for millions of people worldwide. Here Sandra Zimdars-Swartz provides a detective-like investigation of the experiences and interpretations of six major apparitions, including those at La Salette and Lourdes in France during the mid-nineteenth century; at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917; and the more recent ones at San Damiano, Italy; Garabandal, Spain; and Medjugorje, Yugoslavia, where the apparitions continue. Adopting a phenomenological approach to these "encounters with Mary"--one that is neither apologetic nor antagonistic--the author explores the tension between the personal meaning of the events for their subjects and the public appropriation of this meaning by a larger religious community. Along the way she examines the backgrounds of the seers, their willingness or reluctance to talk about the apparitions and their messages, the amount of emotional support they received from family and community as news of the apparitions spread, the reports of miracles at apparition sites, the reactions of local authorities, and the steps taken by the Roman Catholic Church in officially recognizing or rejecting the apparitions as worthy of belief. The author concludes with a survey of religious worldviews based on Marian apparitions, focusing especially on the now-popular transcultural apocalyptic nature of these messages to the modern world. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

With an introduction by Pope Benedict XVI and including information previously suppressed, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, definitively reveals and explains one of the most controversial events in twentieth-century Catholicism—the 1917 apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima. During World War I, three Portuguese children received a vision in which Mary, the Mother of Jesus, foretold great global turmoil. The first part of their vision—warnings about World War II, communism, and the spread of atheism—were widely publicized, but Vatican officials were hesitant to reveal the vision’s concluding images, thus creating the "secret" of Fatima. Speculation about this secret gripped many Catholics, and the aura of intrigue surrounding Fatima grew when the Church hierarchy barred the last surviving visionary from speaking publicly. In THE LAST SECRET OF FATIMA, Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican equivalent of prime minister and a top advisor to Pope Benedict, breaks the Vatican’s official silence on the last secret. Rather than Armageddon, he claims, the final prophecy envisaged the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. Bertone argues the apparition at Fatima was a call to renewal for the Church, and he was assigned the task of promulgating this message by the Pope.

Explosive in both its pace and its revelations, The Third Secret is a remarkable international thriller. Bestselling author Steve Berry tackles some of the most controversial ideas of our time in a breakneck journey through the history of the Church and the future of religion. Fatima, Portugal, 1917: The Virgin Mary appears to three peasant children, sharing with them three secrets, two of which are soon revealed to the world. The third secret is sealed away in the Vatican, read only by popes, and not disclosed until the year 2000. When revealed, its quizzical tone and anticlimactic nature leave many faithful wondering if the Church has truly unveiled all of the Virgin Mary’s words–or if a message far more important has been left in the shadows. Vatican City, present day: Papal secretary Father Colin Michener is concerned for the Pope. Night after restless night, Pope Clement XV enters the Vatican’s Riserva, the special archive open only to popes, where the Church’s most clandestine and controversial documents are stored. Though unsure of the details, Michener knows that the Pope’ s distress stems from the revelations of Fatima. Equally concerned, but not out of any sense of compassion, is Alberto Cardinal Valendrea, the Vatican’s Secretary of State,. Valendrea desperately covets the papacy, having narrowly lost out to Clement at the last conclave. Now the Pope’s interest in Fatima threatens to uncover a shocking ancient truth that Valendrea has kept to himself for many years. When Pope Clement sends Michener to the Romanian highlands, then to a Bosnian holy site, in search of a priest–possibly one of the last people on Earth who knows Mary’s true message– a perilous set of events unfolds. Michener finds himself embroiled in murder, suspicion, suicide, deceit, and his forbidden passion for a beloved woman. In a desperate search for answers, he travels to Pope Clement’s birthplace in Germany, where he learns that the third secret of Fatima may dictate the very fate of the Church–a fate now lying in Michener’s own hands. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Steve Berry’s The Columbus Affair.

"We stopped, astounded, before the apparition. We were so close that we were inside the light which surrounded her, or rather, which radiated from her."--Lucia de Jesus There may be no person on the globe who knows more about the story of Fatima than Sr. Angela de Fatima Coelho. As a little girl growing up in Portugal, she used to pray at the tombs of Jacinta and Francisco Marto. Many years later as a sister of the Alianca de Santa Maria, she would become the postulator for their cause of canonization. This journey would lead her to visit with Sr. Lucia several times and eventually become the vice postulator for her cause as well. Sr. Angela brings this unique and privileged perspective to the story of Fatima, going beyond a chronicle of the events to the theological meaning of the Fatima message, as well as taking a deeper look at the lives and spiritualities of each of the three seers. Relying on her extensive research as a postulator advice postulator for their causes and on her own personal story touched early by suffering only to be healed by the embrace of Our Lady of Fatima, she helps readers discover the relevancy of this message for our post-modern world. For many years, Sr. Angela has traveled the world and spoken to thousands of people. Now, for the first time in print, she gives her profound testimony about Fatima. Her hope is that she may take each of us inside the light--the light that is God--that washed over the three shepherd children on that miraculous spring day in 1917.