"No danger"...?! Is that so, Your Excellecy?
On 11 May 2010 - In answer to the question [pre-selected by Pope Benedict XVI], if the abuses were part of the pain included in the vision of the Third Secret released on the 26 June 2000? Pope Benedict XVI (traveling on the plane to Fatima, Portugal) replied, [...] Consequently, I would say that, here too,
beyond this great vision of the suffering of the Pope, which we can in the first place refer to Pope John Paul II,
an indication is given of realities involving the future of the Church, which are gradually taking shape and becoming evident. So it is true that, in addition to moment indicated in the vision, there is mention of, there is seen, the need for a passion of the Church, which naturally is reflected in the person of the Pope, yet the Pope stands for the Church and thus it is sufferings of the Church that are announced. The Lord told us that the Church would constantly be suffering, in different ways, until the end of the world. The important thing is that the message, the response of Fatima, in substance is not directed to particular devotions, but precisely to the fundamental response, that is, to ongoing conversion, penance, prayer, and the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity. Thus we see here the true, fundamental response which the Church must give – which we, every one of us, must give in this situation.
As for the new things which we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on the Pope and the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin existing within the Church. This too is something that we have always known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church, and that the Church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice. Forgiveness does not replace justice. In a word, we need to relearn precisely this essential: conversion, prayer, penance and the theological virtues. This is our response, we are realists in expecting that evil always attacks, attacks from within and without, yet that the forces of good are also ever present and that, in the end, the Lord is more powerful than evil and Our Lady is for us the visible, motherly guarantee of God’s goodness, which is always the last word in history.
Apostolic Journey to Portugal on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Beatification of Jacinta and Francisco: Meeting of His Holiness Benedict XVI with journalists during the flight to Lisbon (Papal Flight, 11 May 2010) | BENEDICT XVI“He deceives himself who thinks that the prophetic mission of Fatima is concluded.”[ …] “May the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the apparitions hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.” - Pope Benedict XVI Homily at Fatima on 13 May 2010
13 de maio de 2010: Viagem Apostólica a Portugal no 10º aniversário da beatificação de Jacinta e Francisco, pastorinhos de Fátima - Santa Missa na Esplanada do Santuário de Nossa Senhora de Fátima | Bento XVI"The very future of the world is at stake." - Pope Benedict XVI, 20 December 2010
"...as the Roman Empire was in decline. The disintegration of the key principles of law and of the fundamental moral attitudes underpinning them burst open the dams which until that time had protected peaceful coexistence among peoples. The sun was setting over an entire world. Frequent natural disasters further increased this sense of insecurity. There was no power in sight that could put a stop to this decline."
"Today, [...] For all its new hopes and possibilities, our world is at the same time troubled by the sense that moral consensus is collapsing, consensus without which juridical and political structures cannot function. Consequently the forces mobilized for the defence of such structures seem doomed to failure."
"Alexis de Tocqueville, in his day, observed that democracy in America had become possible and had worked because there existed a fundamental moral consensus which, transcending individual denominations, united everyone. Only if there is such a consensus on the essentials can constitutions and law function. This fundamental consensus derived from the Christian heritage is at risk wherever its place, the place of moral reasoning, is taken by the purely instrumental rationality of which I spoke earlier. In reality, this makes reason blind to what is essential. To resist this eclipse of reason and to preserve its capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true, is the common interest that must unite all people of good will. The very future of the world is at stake."
- From an Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI on the Occasion of Christmas Greetings to the Roman Curia on 20 December 2010
Christmas greetings to Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and Directors of the Governorate of Vatican City State (December 20, 2010) | BENEDICT XVIPope Benedict XVI proclaimed the need for a “Year of Faith” that seeks to awaken humanity at a critical moment.
“In vast areas of the earth the faith risks being extinguished, like a flame without fuel,” the pope warned,
“We are facing a profound crisis of faith, a loss of a religious sense which represents one of the greatest challenges for the Church today … The renewal of faith must, then, be a priority for the entire Church in our time.” - Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican City, 27 January 2012 from his address to the participants in the plenary session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
To participants in the Plenary Meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (January 27, 2012) | BENEDICT XVI"One can only see the power of Antichrist spreading, and one can only pray that the Lord will give us powerful shepherds to defend His Church against the power of evil in this hour of need." - Pope Benedict XVI from a letter to Catholic statesman Vladimir Palko in 2015
"When he was still a young theologian, Joseph Ratzinger studied the thinking of Tyconius, a theologian of the fourth century, who said that the body of the Church is divided into a dark and evil church and a righteous one. In the present state, the two bodies of the Church are inseparably commingled, but they will divide at the end of time." - Giorgio Agamben, philosopher
"The Church is until the Last Judgment both the Church of Christ and the Church of the Antichrist: “The Antichrist belongs to the Church, grows in it and with it up to the great separation, which will be introduced by the ultimate revelation.” - Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, in 1956
Benedict XVI: It Is The Time Of Antichrist