Let’s get this out of the way: I am not a Fatima conspiracy theorist. I do not read Fatima Crusader, I don’t write letters to Cardinal Bertone asking for the full secret, and I don’t hunker down in my bunker awaiting the return of the Ruskies.
But neither am I entirely convinced that all there is to know about The Third Secret is known. In fairness - Russia’s conversion is hardly evident, and through the consolidation of power Putin has managed, a definitive shift toward populist totalitarianism is under way. Russia remains friendly with China, the most masterful Communist state in the history of the damnable political philosophy.
Then, when I read something like this, my mind immediately envisions a scenario far more similar to that depicted in The Third Secret than what happened to Pope John Paul II:
A sermon last Friday by a prominent Muslim cleric and Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament openly declared that “the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital,” would soon be conquered by Islam.
The fiery sermon, delivered by Yunis al-Astal and aired on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV, predicted that Rome would become “an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe.”
“Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion,” al-Astal preached, “so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security and consolidation of power, and even to conquests through da’wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world.
“Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our prophet Muhammad,” he added.
Al-Astal last June preached how it was the duty of Palestinian women to martyr themselves by becoming homicide bombers.
“The most exalted form of jihad is fighting for the sake of Allah, which means sacrificing one’s soul by fighting the enemies head-on, even if it leads to martyrdom,” he said in a June 23, 2007 interview.
This is the kind of determination that it will take to create the scene that The Third Secret describes:
And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father’. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.
I am not convinced that we have yet seen this. The interpretation that has been given by the Vatican seems too much of a stretch to be entirely plausible. We are in the midst of a massive cultural and religious war, but only one side sees it that way.
I am reading Tom Kratman’s Caliphate, which is perhaps the most disturbingly dystopic science fiction novel I’ve ever laid hands on - the more disturbing because even though it is in some respects an exaggerated outlook on the future that is coming, it is so closely aligned with our present course that the story might not be as far fetched as some readers would like to believe. The novel examines the geopolitical reality of the world a century after jihadists manage to nuke three American cities. Europe is completely taken over by a new Caliphate, and America has become a genocidal empire, wiping out all enemies in its path and employing the sort of imperialism and ends-justifty-the-means military strategy its contemporary accusers can only dream of.
In brief flashback chapters, we are shown a love story - set in our present time - between a secular, liberal German artist and the nominally Muslim man from Egypt she falls in love with. This relationship is the lens through which we are given hindsight into how the world became the horrible place that the main storyline depicts. In one particularly telling scene (set in 2005, over a century prior to the main storyline) the Muslim man, Mahmoud, who has since converted to Christianity, has decided that Europe is doomed, leading him to the decision that he is leaving for America. Dealing with the insufferable tolerance of his politically correct girlfriend, Gabi, toward the actions of his former Muslim brethren, he grows frustrated with her willingness to make excuses for their vile actions and her simultaneous unwillingess to go with him to America. She has just explained away a kidnapping of a non-Muslim woman by Muslims in Iraq in which the victim willingly participated. She then accuses the Catholic priest that Mahmoud has been learning from of filling him with antipathy toward Muslims:
“You really believe both those things, don’t you?” Mahmoud seemed to wilt. Before her calm, he felt his rage melt away.
“What I believe is that since you took up this Christian nonsense you’ve gone from a very reasonable and very bad Moslem to a very unreasonable and altogether ‘too good’ Christian. Relax, Mahmoud; there are several hundred millions of us. It will be a very long time before the nuts take over here.”
“There are sseveral hundred million of you that are spiritually empty vessels that Islam is eager to fill,” Mahmoud said. “It’s your lack of faith that makes you, and Europe, vulnerable.”
This, ultimately, is the crux of the problem for Europe. In real life, just as in the story, Europe will probably fall to this assault of Islam, even if the main campaign consists primarily of overwhelming demographics. Europe may be beginning to halt its unchecked immigration and may even be looking at Islam - finally - as a threat, but Europe has not halted its population slide. It must allow immigration or it will implode. That the most willing immigrants seem to be coming from Islamic countries does not bode well. And yet, they are the ones having children.
Rome could, for obvious reasons, be in serious peril if the new jihad continues its European sweep. Though it disgusts me to imagine such a thing, I would not be remotely surprised to some day see St. Peter’s Basilica turned into a Mosque.
It happened to the Hagia Sophia. Why should we believe it can’t it happen in Rome?
