Fatima Inquest - August 1990

by David Boyce

This article is by Mr. David Boyce of Surrey, England. He is a professor

and the English translator of the CRC magazine. He is very familiar with
the Fatima apparitions and has examined in detail the theory of those
few persons who recently claim the consecration of Russia is done as
Our Lady of Fatima requested. He decided to go to Fatima last August to
conduct his own enquiry. He came back with some very interesting
findings which were first published in the Oct. - Nov. 1990 French
edition of La Contre Reform Catholique.
We could say that this inquest of his has done much to unravel the plot
of those who try to have us believe the greatest hoax against Fatima. In
order to make our press deadline we have, with the permission of CRC,
put together from various translators our own translation before the
official translation of this article was available. The footnotes also are
from the CRC.
Having reflected for so long on the message of Fatima through the pages of the
CRC, I decided to make the pilgrimage myself at the beginning of August.
Fatima immediately impresses by the devotion of the Portuguese people, who
walk for miles to reach the shrine and on arrival approach the chapel of
apparitions (the Capelinha) on their knees, begging Our Lady's help as they
proceed, still on their knees, around the spot where Our Lady appeared in 1917.
Witnessing this fervor, I understood Our Lady's words that in Portugal "the
dogma of the faith would always be kept." Theirs is a faith that knows no
human respect, has its eyes fixed on Heaven and is unlikely to be seriously
affected by the purely human considerations of the conciliar religion.

My Visit with Father Fox

In Fatima at the same time was Father Robert Fox with about twenty of his
young American followers.1 Preaching at the Capelinha a pious sermon, Father
Fox digressed by reiterating what he has published in his Fatima
Family Messenger for some time, namely that "Russia was solemnly consecrated
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by His Holiness Pope John Paul II in union with
all the world's bishops on 25 March 1984; hence the collapse of Communism in
Eastern Europe and the opening of a peaceful era." That was on 7th August
when few of the vacationers would have been aware of the ominous news from
the Middle East at the beginning of the month. After Mass, I approached Father
Fox to ask him how he knew that Sister Lucy had said the consecration had
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been done as Our Lady requested. In his written reports, he had relied heavily
on the testimony of Sister Lucy's niece, Maria do Fetal, but this time he
answered, "I have that information from the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima and I have
documentation provided by the Prioress of the Coimbra Carmel." I expressed
surprise, saying that this information was not known in England as it surely
would be had the consecration been performed with due solemnity. At this, he
tensed and retorted that I must be taking my cue from Father Gruner. "No, I
have never read the writings of Father Gruner." He appeared annoyed. He said,
"I must attend to my young people." I was about to ask him another question
about the words of Sister Lucy's niece, Maria do Fetal, and about which this
Apostolic Delegate had supposedly visited Sister Lucy in 1984, Archbishop
Portaluppi or Archbishop Asti2 , as referred to in his own report, when he turned
his back on me and walked away.
Not a happy start to the inquiries I was hoping to make in Fatima, but at least
Father Fox's categorical statement that the Consecration had been done gave
me a useful approach when meeting the other people I wished to see, in the
company of my daughter Lucy.

My Visit to Father Kondor

That same day, 7 August, I was seen by Father Kondor, the Vice-Postulator for
the beatification cause of Jacinta and Francisco, who kindly agreed to answer
questions. The conversation developed in a cordial atmosphere, with laughter
from time to time. He understands English but prefers to answer in Hungarian
through his secretary. As his prime interest is the beatification cause, I began
by asking how the process was proceeding. "The process is complete," he told
me. "We are awaiting a miracle and the beatification will then take place, on a
significant date, perhaps in 1992."
I was aware that Father Kondor is one of those rare ecclesiastics who have had
permission to talk with Sister Lucy in the course of the last thirty years. Now, in
the latest edition of Sister Lucy's Memoirs (March 1990), Father Kondor has
added the note which reads: "Sister Lucy affirms that the consecration made by
John Paul II, in union with all the bishops, on 25 March 1984, corresponded with
Our Lady's request and was accepted by Heaven" (Memorias da Irma Lucia,
page 114, note 11). Furthermore, the CRC had reported that Father Kondor had
made similar declarations to a community of American Benedictines.3
Referring, therefore, to Father Fox's sermon of that same morning, I asked
when Sister Lucy had first mentioned that the consecration had been done
according to Heaven's request. There was no direct answer,4 but a long account
of all the events leading up to 25 March 1984, beginning with the Pope's visit to
Fatima in 1982, and ending with the arguments against the consecration's
validity, which apparently did not include the fact that several of the world's
bishops refused to be united to the Pope on that day. The main objection to the
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act of March 25, 1984 is that it was not at all a consecration of Russia. This
objection he sought to eliminate by saying "at the moment when John Paul II
was to pronounce the word 'Russia' the loudspeakers were cut off and the Pope
mumbled in an inaudible manner".5

Crusader Editor's Note:

The published facts are quite the
contrary. After consecrating the
world, Pope John Paul II twice on
March 25, 1984, publicly
acknowledged that Our Lady of
Fatima was still awaiting the
consecration of certain peoples.
Since Our Lady of Fatima only
asked for the Consecration of
Russia these remarks of the
Pope, one in the morning and one
in the afternoon both pronounced
before Our Lady of Fatima's statue
and both published the following
day in the official Catholic Press,
demonstrates clearly that the Pope
himself knows that he has not
fulfilled the solemn Request of Our
Lady of Fatima asking for the
Consecration of Russia. The Fatima
Crusader has many times published
these words of the Pope by
photographically
reproducing L'Osservatore Romano
of March 26, 1984. (ask us for your
copy) These remarks of Father
Kondor show that the plot to
silence Our Lady of Fatima indeed
goes deep into certain "official"
Fatima circles.

I then produced photocopies of letters alleged to have been written by Sister

Lucy, and in which it is stated that the act of 25 March 1984 corresponded with
Our Lady's request. You will remember that these were published and criticized
in the CRC last winter. The first is addressed to Maria de Belem and dated 29
August 89, the second to Walter M. Noelker and dated 8 November 89 and the
third to Father Paul Kramer and dated 22 November 89. Father Kondor
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immediately replied without being asked, as did the other people I visited, that
they were authentic. Yes, Sister Lucy does use a word processor6 and is free to
write to anyone. However, he did not justify the errors contained in those
letters, such as the mention of a consecration of the world made by Paul VI in
1967, which is a pure invention. "The Carmel of Coimbra," he added, "passes on
to me certain letters addressed to Sister Lucy, especially the correspondence
concerning the causes of beatification of Francisco and Jacinta, to which I
myself reply." And these letters are passed to Father Kondor for him to answer
and sign with his own signature. I asked Father Kondor this question: "To whom
must one ask permission to speak to Sister Lucy?" He answered, "One must ask
only Cardinal Ratzinger, for neither the Bishop of Fatima nor the Bishop of
Coimbra can grant it."7 "But Sister Lucy is free to write. You can write her." I
remain surprised that we cannot converse with Sister Lucy but on the other
hand she can write very freely.
To have us believe that the act of 1984 has satisfied Heaven's demands, Father
Kondor has had a video made of himself reading to the Coimbra Carmelites the
text of the consecration of the world.
I showed Father Kondor a passage from an article by Father Antonio Maria
Martins entitled "Fatima Mensagem de Fe, Esperanca e Amor". This is the
passage:
"I am happy to report what was told to me by a friend who has several times
visited Sister Lucy in her Carmel at Coimbra: 'One day, he told me, I asked her:
Sister Lucy, the little shepherds are said to have seen hell. Is that true?' His
face lit up and was transformed in a way that for me was most convincing."
"This friend who has often visited Sister Lucy, I asked, is that you?" He laughed
and then explained: "Father Martins does not say so. He is very discreet ...
unlike Father Fuentes who was reprehended for his indiscretions." 8 Father
Kondor insisted that it is for the Church to judge Heaven's messages and not for
the seer herself.
At the end of the interview he leafed through, before me, the pages of the
dossier of the process of beatification of Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the
original of which is kept in Rome. Father Kondor told me "The definitive work of
Father Alonso on Fatima, cannot be published because he had drafted it before
the process was completed. There was lacking in the work of Father Alonso
certain documents which are found in this dossier."9
Without being precise, Father Kondor gave the impression that it was Rome's
will that we regard the consecration as done and desist from further
questioning.

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Cardinal Ratzinger is
identified by Father
Kondor as the only one
who can grant
permission to speak to
Sister Lucy.

The Carmelites at Coimbra

Two days later, I had an opportunity to visit the Carmelite Convent at Coimbra,
where Sister Lucy is a member of the Community. The Prioress was too busy to
receive visitors, but my daughter and I were invited into the chapel to say a
prayer. After about half an hour, an extern sister approached to ask what we
wanted. She spoke very good French, and I began by relating how Father Fox
had only the other day declared at Fatima that the consecration of Russia to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary had been done, despite the fact that this most
important act for the world today is unknown to the Catholic world at large.
After all, the Pope's encyclicals reverberate throughout the world as soon as
they are pronounced, why not this all important pronouncement? The Sister
replied that the statue of Fatima had been transported to Rome for the occasion
and that anyway a consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart
encompassed Russia.
Shown the three photocopies of letters alleged to have been written by Sister
Lucy concerning the act of March 1984, the Sister glanced at them and declared
them authentic. "Yes, we do have a word-processor," she told me. And yet, the
letters refer to a nonexistent act of consecration supposedly made in 1967. And
why is it affirmed in the letter to Noelker that the consecration requested by Our
Lady cannot be achieved during the course of a council? She acknowledges that
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she is incapable of replying. "When did Sister Lucy say, for the first time, that
the Consecration of 1984 had satisfied the requirements of Heaven?" There
again she was not able to reply. What troubling and suspicious elements there
are in this affair! And the good Carmelite, who was already too painfully
conscious of all this mysteriousness when I asked her "Why have they waited
five years before announcing that the Consecration of Russia had been
effected?" she concluded our interview in making to me this avowal, "I think like
you do but the Church is like that. We must pray." I asked her once more to
know if the Mother Prioress would give me the same responses to my questions.
She replied, "Yes."

Father Cristino - The Fatima Archivist

The following day, I was able to meet Father Cristino in his study at Fatima. He
is a diocesan priest, about fifty years old, who is now responsible for the Fatima
archives. He speaks French fairly well and so we conversed in that language.
"You who worked with Father Alonso, do you know whether his work on the
history of Fatima will be published before long?" He replied: "The complete work
will never be published. A synthesis of it is being made by a committee working
on it now."
I then referred to Father Fox's sermon of 7 August, whereupon Father Cristino
declared that he himself would be more prudent and would not venture such a
statement in public. By August 10th, news from the Middle East was already
making an impact, and Father Cristino was all too aware that things might turn
out disastrously for the predicted era of peace ... He too insisted that the Fatima
revelations were essentially private but admitted that they are of capital
importance for the 20th Century.
I produced the photocopies of the three letters and showed them to him. He
knew them and pronounced them authentic, although he added that Abb de
Nantes and Father Gruner had reasons for doubting their authenticity. Knowing
him to be one of the best informed authorities on Fatima: "Why do these letters
contain the mention of a Consecration of the world which Pope Paul VI had
made during his pilgrimage to Fatima on May 13, 1967? Is this not a pure
invention? Why was it affirmed in the letter to Noelker that the Consecration of
Russia requested by Our Lady must not be done during the course of a
council?..." Father Cristino could not reply, except by shrugging his shoulders.
In the introduction to her Vth Memoir, edited in February 1989, Sister Lucy
writes to Msgr. Luciano Guerra, Rector of the Fatima Sanctuary, in these words:
"The answers to your questionnaire will have to wait until later. But even now, I
should warn you that there are certain questions I cannot answer for they refer
to the apparitions, which I am not allowed to speak of without the Holy See's
authorization. Unless you request and obtain a dispensation from this
restriction, I shall have to leave these questions blank." (Memorias da Irma
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Lucia, March 1990, p. 192) Whence my question: Between February and August
'89 that is at the end of August '89 when the seer is reputed to have written
the letter to Maria de Belem did Sister Lucy receive permission from the Holy
See to enter into correspondence over the questions concerning the apparitions
and the message of Fatima?
Father Cristino wished to change the subject and talk about England: the new
appointment to Canterbury, Cardinal Newman's canonization cause. The
conversation was very cordial and warm.
The interview being completed, we got up and when I had left his office, he took
me by the arm to acknowledge to me that he shared our uneasiness. "I
understand your objections," he told me, "That troubles me ... It is strange that
they have let five years elapse before saying that the Consecration was
accomplished."

Maria Do Fetal
I had hoped to see Sister Lucy's niece, Maria do Fetal, whilst I was in Fatima,
but to no avail.10I called at her apartment several times during the day and
evening too, but she never answered her interphone. I left a note under her
door, but without result. Yet she was in Fatima because my host had seen her in
the bank. He kindly rang one of his friends and was told that Maria do Fetal
would make no further declarations. She has even had her telephone
disconnected. Presumably, she is shocked at having seen her photograph in
Father Gruner's publication illustrating the articles entitled "Father Fox's
Fabrications", "The Inventions of Maria do Fetal".11
FOOTNOTES:
1.

This is an American youth pilgrimage organized by Father Fox. This American priest,
whose Fatima Family Messenger has yet to reach a circulation of 15,000 (cf. Voz da
Fatima, 13 August 1990, no.815) would have remained a great unknown in the United
States had he not been commissioned to obstruct the work of Father Gruner who
"importunes the Holy Father" with his petitions for the Consecration of Russia to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.

2.

Remember that, contrary to what Father Fox says, neither Apostolic Nuncio
Archbishop Portaluppi, who died on 31 March 1984, nor his successor, Archbishop
Salvatore Asti, spoke with Sister Lucy after the official act of offering the world made
on 25 March 1984. (cf CRC 228 Apr. 90. Eng. ed) We know that all the steps taken by
a French priest and devotee of Fatima to get the Nuncio to question Sister Lucy ended
in failure. In October 1985, this same French priest suggested to Archbishop Salvatore
Asti that he visit Sister Lucy in her Carmel at Coimbra to ask her about Heaven's will.
The answer he received was Holy Church has plenty of time ahead of her. She has
the promise of eternal life. Let's be patient. Everything will come in due time. (Personal
correspondence dated 4 November 1985). Again, this same priest was in Rome during
the second half of November 1985 and had occasion to see Cardinal Oddi. This is

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what he relates: "When I said to Cardinal Oddi that the Nuncio in Lisbon should return
(as in 1983) to see Sister Lucy, he answered: 'Whatever you do, don't mention that in
the Vatican. They would immediately telephone the Nuncio to stop him from going to
see Lucy' [...]. The telephone call to the Nuncio [ordering him to question the seer] is
dependent on the Pope and on the Secretary of State, who are in no way prepared to
give such an order." (personal correspondence dated 22 Nov. 85).
3.

As far as we know, before January 1990 Father Kondor had never stated that Sister
Lucy regarded the 'Consecration of 1984 as sufficient to fulfill Our Lady's request for
the consecration of Russia'.

4.

Father Kondor's embarrassment and inability to answer such a question corroborate

our conviction that Sister Mary Lucy of the Immaculate Heart has never told Father
Kondor that the Consecration of Russia has been done in accordance with Our Lady's
wishes.

5.
Father Kondor is reduced to giving a desperate explanation. We would point
out that those who are in any way informed about the Fatima message and
who knew the official text of offering the world, (even before 25 March
1984), from which the word "Russia" was omitted, were perfectly aware
that neither the Pope nor the bishops would be fulfilling Our Lady's request
on that day.
Bishop do Amaral was among the informed who in February 1984 had yet
to receive the order from Rome that the March '84 consecration be
presented as conforming with Heaven's will since "the Pope was doing all
that it was possible for him to do." On 14 February 1984, Bishop do Amaral
confided to Brother Michael, in the course of a twenty minute conversation:
"The Pope will make a further consecration on 25 March. It will be another
step forward ..." Brother Michael noted that the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima said
nothing about the Pope finally responding to Our Lady's request.
Again, Sister Lucy, who on 22 March '84 had already read John Paul II's
letter to the world's bishops together with the text of the official offering,
told her old friend Madam Maria Eugenia Pestana de Vasconcelos Costa:
"This act of consecration cannot be decisive because Russia does not
appear in it as the sole object of the consecration." (cf CRC 226. Feb.90.
Eng. ed)
And then, our French priest returned to Portugal at the beginning of March
1984 to encourage his friends Dr. Lacerda and Father Messias Dias Coelho
to urge the Apostolic Nuncio to visit Sister Lucy shortly after 25 March so
that Heaven's messenger might explain to the Holy See's representative
(as had been done at the Parlor of 19 March 1983 after the act of offering
the world made on 13 May '82) why Heaven's will remained unsatisfied.
Unfortunately, there was no time for this excellent plan to be put into action
since the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Portaluppi, a great devotee of Our
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Lady of Fatima, took to his bed in the evening of 25 March and died six
days later.
6.

This word processor, or computer, was given to the Carmelite community by Father
Kondor himself, who told this to our Brother Augustine of the Holy Saviour on 22
February 1990. Father Fox did not omit to tell his readers that the Coimbra Carmel
possessed a computer (cf. Fatima Family Messenger Jan-March 90 p.10).

7.

On 19 February 1990, Msgr. A. Duarte de Almeida, chaplain to the Coimbra Carmel,

gave the same answer to our Sisters Theresa, Marie-Angelique and Margaret Mary
from our houses of Sainte Marie and of Saint Georges, telling them that "in order to
meet Sister Lucy, it is necessary to obtain Cardinal Ratzinger's permission."

8.
We recall that Father Kondor succeeded Father Fuentes in 1961 after Father
Fuentes had been relieved of his office as postulator for revealing to the
press declarations by Sister Lucy in which she gave the main lines of Our
Lady's message announcing the grave crisis about to confront the Church
(cf. Brother Michael The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. III p.503-510). It
is notable that Father Kondor speaks of Father Fuentes' 'indiscretions' and
not of 'fabrications', indicating that he recognizes the authenticity of Sister
Lucy's words as reported by Father Fuentes. When Father Fuentes was
dismissed, a note was issued by the Coimbra diocesan curia to say that the
Postulator of the beatification cause of the Fatima seers Francisco and
Jacinta had invented words which he attributed to Sister Lucy. Let's quote a
few extracts from this note:
"The Rev. Father Augustine Fuentes, postulator of the beatification cause of
the Fatima seers, Francisco and Jacinta, visited Sister Lucy in her Carmel at
Coimbra and spoke with her exclusively of matters concerning the
beatification process. But, on his return to Mexico, his country of origin,
this priest made sensational declarations of an apocalyptic, eschatological
and prophetic nature, which he claimed to have heard from Sister Lucy
herself [...] This is what was reported in A Voz of 22 June last and again on
1 July in a translation made by M.C. de Braganca. In order to calm all those
who had read the articles in A Voz and who had been left alarmed by
reports of cataclysms which, according to the documentation, will befall the
world in 1960, and above all to put an end to the tendentious campaign of
"prophecies", whereby the authors, without realizing it, heap ridicule on
themselves and on those things relating to Sister Lucy, the Coimbra
diocesan curia is publishing Sister Lucy's words in answer to questions put
to her by one in authority: "Father Fuentes spoke with me in his capacity as
postulator of the beatification cause of the Servants of God, Jacinta and
Francisco Marto. We spoke only of things to do with this subject. As for the
rest, to which we refer, it is neither exact nor true. This I deplore, for I do
not understand how any good can be done for souls with things that are
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not based on God who is Truth. I know nothing and consequently could say
nothing about chastisements falsely attributed to me." (Ibid. p.549-550)
In the declaration of 2 July 1959, therefore, the Coimbra episcopal curia
publicly accused Father Fuentes of having lied. Father Alonso's
rehabilitation of Father Fuentes led Brother Michael to the following
conclusion concerning this declaration: "Everything is explained if a Roman
authority demanded the Bishop of Coimbra to make a formal and
immediate denial. It is a sad business in which doubtless neither Sister
Lucy nor Father Fuentes lied. And if the Coimbra curia lied, it was doubtless
through obedience to a higher command." (Ibid. p. 553)
We shall remember that ecclesiastics have already lied in the history of
Fatima. In this case, it was members of the Coimbra episcopal curia who
lied shamelessly to the point of issuing a supposed denial on the part of
Sister Lucy, forged from nothing on the order of Roman Authority.
9.

This was the only argument advanced by Father Kondor to justify the decision taken
by Bishop do Amaral to not at all publish the work of Father Alonso. The Bishop of
Leiria-Fatima obtained the endorsement of a Commission of Portuguese University
Professors for this decision. Father Joaquin Maria Alonso, a Spanish Claretan and a
Council peritus, had been officially commissioned by the Bishop of Leiria, Msgr.
Venancio, in 1966, to establish a complete critical history of the apparitions and
message of Fatima. After ten years' work, he had collected, classified and commented
on 5,396 documents. It was an irreplaceable work, whose particular merit was to
demonstrate the falseness of the modernist theories developed by Father Dhanis
against Fatima. According to Laurentin, who had consulted the work, the manuscripts
of "Fatima, texts and critical studies" were "very well prepared."- (cf Le Secret de
Fatima Historia May 1982. p.48). This scientific work was ready for publication in 1974
(cf. Father Cristino, "La documentation critique de Fatima": Voz de Fatima, January
89) and in November 1976 Fr. Kondor issued the following statement: "The work
'Fatima, texts and critical studies', which has been announced for some time, will at
last begin to appear. The first volume, in Portuguese, will appear shortly." (The Seers
of Fatima, 1976 no. 6) But then nothing came. It is permissible to think that if the
Fatima Sanctuary did not publish the work after all, it was especially to avoid lending
credit to Fr. Alonso's thesis on the Third Secret. The official historian of Fatima had in
fact devoted one of the fourteen volumes of "Fatima, texts and critical studies" to
demonstrating that the Third Secret announces "the crisis of faith in the Church" and
"deficiencies among the Church's leading hierarchy". In the third volume of his The
Whole Truth About Fatima, Brother Michael resumed and developed this thesis of
Father Alonso. To the best of our knowledge, only Father Geraldes Freire and Father
Antonio Maria Martins continue to hold a different hypothesis. Father Martins
addressed Brother Michael a critique of his third volume, but was confounded by our
brother's magisterial reply. (cf "The Third Secret of Fatima" CRC No. 190 May 1986.
Eng. ed.)

10. In December 1989, Father Fox launched his disinformation campaign relying
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essentially on accounts of supposed parlor meetings between Sister Lucy and Maria
do Fetal. (cf. CRC 224 Dec. 89 p. 22 Eng. ed.)
11. Father Gruner published the English translation of this article, which appeared in
the CRC between January and May 1990, in his publication The Fatima Crusader. In a
booklet soon to be published entitled The Fatal Fox Consecration Hoax more of the
same material will be published by The Fatima Crusader.
Editor's Note: Due to lack of space two introductory paragraphs and one
concluding paragraph were deleted.

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