Cardeal Ottaviani

Padre Malachi

Why 1960? 

In 1955, Cardinal Ottaviani asked Sister Lucy why the letter should not be opened before 1960. She replied: "because then it will seem clearer". He had caused the Bishop of Leiria to promise that the Secret would be read to the World upon his death, but never later than 1960, "because the Blessed Virgin wants it so". And Canon Barthas wrote: "In addition, [the Third Secret] will soon be known, because Sister Lucy says that it is Our Lady's wish that it be published from 1960".

This testimony introduces a third crucial fact concerning the Secret: that was to be revealed in 1960. In fact, the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon declared in February 1960: Bishop D. José Alves Correia da Silva put [the sealed envelope by Lucia] in another envelope on which he indicated that the letter had to be opened in 1960 by himself, José Alves Correia da Silva, if he was still alive, or, otherwise, by Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon. [emphasis added] 

Father Alonso tells us:

Other Bishops also spoke - and with authority - about the year 1960 as the date indicated to open the famous letter. Thus, when the then Bishop of Tiava and Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon asked Lúcia when the Secret should be opened, she always received the same answer: in 1960. [emphasis added] And in 1959, D. João Venâncio, new Bishop of Leiria, declared:

"I think the letter will not be opened until 1960. Sister Lucy asked that it not be opened before her death, or before 1960. It is now 1959 and Sister Lucy is in good health." [emphasis added]

Finally, we have the Vatican statement of 8 February 1960 (released in a statement by the Portuguese news agency ANI) on the decision to suppress the Secret - The Vatican statement reads:

(...) it is very possible that the letter in which Sister Lúcia wrote the words that Our Lady entrusted to the three little shepherds, as a secret, will never be opened in Cova da Iria18. [emphasis added] 
 

Thus, all testimonies indicate that the Secret was written as a letter, on a single sheet of paper with 20 to 25 lines of handwritten text and margins of 7.5 mm on each side - a secret that should be revealed in 1960 and no more evening; and particularly this year because then "it would be much clearer". It was this document that Bishop John Venancio transferred to the Papal Nuncio that, in turn, transferred it to the Holy Office (now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) in 1957:

Arriving at the Vatican on April 16, 1957, the Secret undoubtedly was placed by Pope Pius XII in his personal desk, a wooden box with the inscription Secretum Sancti Officii (Secret of the Holy Office). It is important to note that the Pope was at the head of the Holy Office of the Vatican before reorganization by Pope Paul VI in 1967. So it was appropriate for the Pope to stay with the Third Secret in his possession and that the box where the put be labeled "Secret of the Holy Office". Once the Pope in front of the Holy Office, this box became part of the respective file. 

We conclude this point by drawing attention to the fact that there is still one more source from which we can infer this aspect of the Third Secret. In 1963, the German publication Neues Europa released something that appeared to be a part of the Third Secret: that it would be Cardinal against Cardinal, Bishop against Bishop. We know this because, when asked whether the Neues Europa report should be published or not, Cardinal Ottaviani, who had also read the Third Secret - although he was of a very dry personality and quite indifferent to most appearances -, exclaimed wholeheartedly the emphasis: «Publish 10,000 copies! Publish 20,000 copies! Publish 30,000 copies! »

Testimony of Fr. Malachi 

Then there is also the testimony of the late Father Malachi Martin, that the message from Garabandal (Spain) contains the Third Secret or some of its elements. Father Martin - who knew the Third Secret because he had read it himself, and who had also read Garabandal's message - said that it was due to the Vatican's decision not to divulge the Third Secret in 1960 that Our Lady had appeared in Garabandal in 1961 in order to reveal Him. What's in the Garabandal message? Among other things, Garabandal's message says: "many Cardinals, Bishops and Priests are on the road to Hell, and" drag "many souls with them." Notice once again the reiteration of the idea of ​​dragging souls to Hell. The same terminology appears in Sister Lúcia's repair to Father Fuentes: "The devil knows that the religious and the priests who fall into their beautiful vocation drag many souls to hell"; and in the Pope's homily, on May 13, 2000, which refers to the scene in the Book of Revelation in which the dragon's tail drags a third of the stars (consecrated souls) of Heaven.