During the four years before his death, which occurred in 1999, I was privileged to meet Father Malachi Martin. After listening to your interviews and reading some of your books, I started by asking your opinion about the disturbing changes in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He ended up offering to guide me spiritually. I then had a substantial interaction with him over the next four years, and during that time, he often talked about Fatima. Fatima was the most important event of the twentieth century, and that the fulfillment of its mandate was the most urgent task that the Church and the world face. Listening to his interviews, I noticed that when he spoke about Fatima, he spoke with authority, like our Lord's contemporaries about His teachings. And so, during our first telephone conversation, I said, "I have the impression that you know the Secret of Fatima"! And Father Malaquias replied, "I know." 

When we meet next week, citing skepticism about the charismatic movement, I asked as a joke: "Did the Holy Spirit reveal the Third Secret"? "Oh, no," he replied. "They showed me a copy of the Third Secret, when Pope John XXIII opened in 1960 and asked the opinion of a group of cardinals. One of them was Cardinal Augustin Bea." So I dared to ask: "The Third Secret is about apostasy in the Church, isn't it? This hypothesis was based on the few data dispersed in Fatima, which came to be known during the years of spiritual hunger in the 70s and 80s, and the Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité's reasoning "Material punishments are already provided for in the second part of the Secret." The Third Secret provides for "a punishment of a spiritual nature." 

I was surprised when Father Malaquias replied: 

"Apostasy in the Church forms the background or context of the Third Secret. Apostasy now begins. But the punishment envisaged for the Secret is very real, physical punishment is, and they are terrible!" "Just kill a billion people" 

I then said the conversation that Cardinal Bea had, when the cardinal left the meeting with the Pope and his advisers reported that Pope John XXIII went pale as death: "What is it, Eminence" I asked. 'Just kill a billion people. Look at this! 'He handed me a sheet of paper with 25 handwritten lines. Since that day, every word of the text remains indelibly engraved in the mind. "

Cardinal Bea made this statement about the "millions of people", because the Pope had decided not to reveal the Third Secret, and to consecrate Russia. I asked Father Malaquias if I could say anything more about these "terrible" punishment that would kill a billion people. He explained that, before reading the Secret, he was asked to take an oath not to reveal, but he thought it should have been revealed, and that Our Lord and Our Lady wanted it to be known. So I mentioned the Third Secret whenever I could; spoke around him, giving maximum information about him, as well as the maximum number of tracks on him, without actually revealing the text. Then, very quickly he cited a list of possible calamities and said that some of them were in the Secret! Although the list included things like World War 3, the Pope's death, and the Three Days of Darkness, it was not particularly instructive, because not all of the punishments were on the list, and not everything that was listed was part of the punishment.  

Spiritual punishment The spiritual punishment apparently started shortly after 1960 resulted in the Holy Father's refusal, Father Martin said: "Cardinals, bishops and priests are falling like leaves in hell." 

"Faith disappears in several countries and continents." "Many of the elect will lose their faith .... Things will be so bad that, if Our Lady does not intervene, no one would be saved." 

"God will withdraw grace" Father Malachi told me that apostasy in the Church was the background or context of the Third Secret. But he also said that this spiritual punishment was part of the punishment that God would inflict if Our Lady's orders were not obeyed. In this regard, he said a disturbing thing several times: "God will withdraw Grace". This seems to be a very difficult thing for God, such as sabotaging His own will "that all men be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth." But it must be considered before a vicious circle. When the Pope refused to reveal the secret and refused to consecrate Russia, he lost the right of thanks to himself and to the Church ..., and apparently, he was also punished for his disobedience ... " Satan will gain power in the upper echelons of the Church 

Another part of the spiritual punishment that he mentioned several times was: 

"Satan wants to gain power, even in the highest echelons of the Church." 

The strongest statement came from a person who called Art Bell, saying that an old Jesuit had told him that: "The last pope will be under the control of Satan." Father Martin replied that this man "would have a means of reading, or that he had been given the contents of the Secret. However, he said that the quote was inaccurate. And that is because no one was authorized to quote the Secret exactly. But while the quote "The last pope will be under Satan's control" is accurate, Father Martin changed the last two main components of that sentence. "The last Pope," he said, does not necessarily mean the last Pope before the end of time, but the last Pope "of these times." Did you mean the last pope before the Consecration of Russia? And after the words "under the control of Satan" it can have several meanings. Father Martin used to explain when talking about exorcisms and demonic activities, there are several ways in which Satan can control a human being, partially or totally. The person may have "sold the soul to the devil" in exchange for a favor, or Satan can control these people and circumstances surrounding that person .... Pope Benedict's lament to several visitors in his papal office, "my authority ends after that door! " raises the question of how far has the Church achieved this status? We can see that spiritual punishment has been on the increase since 1960. This terrible punishment "... does not come without warning," he said, "but ... only those who have been renewed in their hearts - and will probably be a minority - will recognize him for what he is and prepare for the tribulations that will follow. "