Fatima. Lucia. Silence of Lucia

On February 3, 1946, Father Hubert Jongen, a Dutch Montfort Father, had along talk with Sister Lucy.

Father Jongen (FJ): Are you absolutely sure that the Angel appeared to you?
Sister Lucia (SL): I saw him.

FJ: The total silence of you three children concerning these apparitions prevents many from giving them credence.
SL: It is not true that we never spoke to anyone about them.

FJ: To whom then did you reveal the apparitions?
SL: First to the Dean of Olival. I trusted him and did not hide anything from him. He advised me to keep them secret.

FJ: Did you follow his advice?
SL: Yes, and we revealed them only to the Bishop of Leiria.

FJ: What did he say?
SL: He too advised secrecy.

FJ: Why did you not speak to anyone about the Angel at the time of the apparitions?
SL: I and the other girls saw the Angel vaguely in 1915. Francisco and Jacinta were not with us. I did not speak of this apparition to anyone but the other girls did and people mocked us. It was a lesson which I had not forgotten when the Angel appeared to us in 1916. We decided to keep it secret.

FJ: That is natural, but the priest who interviewed you recently on the matter finds it hard to explain the fact that three children so young could have kept a secret for so long.
SL: He would not if he had gone through all we did.

FJ: What do you mean?
SL: After hearing through Jacinta of Our Lady’s first apparition, many plagued us unceasingly with detailed and captious questions. As they ridiculed everything, we decided to say only that we had seen Our Lady. If they asked us what Our Lady said, we would answer that She desired that everyone say the Rosary and we added nothing else.

FJ: That was a good reason for not divulging the apparitions but only for a while. Why were they not made known before 1936?
SL: The Dean of Olival, the Bishop of Leiria, circumstances, everything urged us to be silent. Shouldn’t I wait until the bishop made me speak?

FJ: When did you receive permission from Heaven, as you say in your Memoirs, to reveal the Secret?
SL: It was in 1927, here in Tuy, while in the Chapel.

FJ: Did you tell your confessor about it?
SL: Immediately.

FJ: What did he say?
SL: He told me to write the Secret with the exception of the third part. I think he did not read it; he returned it to me. A little later, I had another confessor who ordered me to burn it. Then he told me to write it again.

FJ: It is regretful that the Secret was not published before the war, for then Our Lady’s prediction would have had more value. Why did you not make it known before?
SL: No one asked me for the Secret.

FJ: To whom else did you reveal the Secret before the war?
SL: To Mother Provincial, the Bishop of Leiria, and the Reverend Joseph Galamba.

FJ: Did you reveal everything without exception?
SL: I cannot remember.

FJ: Did you give only the general sense of what Our Lady told you, or did you quote Her words literally?
SL: When I speak of the apparitions, I limit myself only to the general sense of the words. When I write, on the contrary, I take care to quote literally. And so I wanted to write the Secret word by word.

FJ: Are you sure you kept everything in your memory?
SL: I think so.

FJ: Were the words of the Secret revealed in the same order they were communicated to you?
SL: Yes. a Dutch Montfort Father, had along talk with Sister Lucy.

Father John De Marchi, I.M.C., The Crusade of Fatima

— P.J. Kenedy & Sons, — New York, 1948, pp. 168-171
online: Mark Fellows, Sister Lucia, Ch.XXIX

From the Third Memoir (1941-08-31)

8. Lucia Explains her Silence

It may be, Your Excellency, that some people think that I should have made known all this some time ago, because they consider that it would have been twice as valuable years before hand. This would have been the case, if God had willed to present me to the world as a prophetess. But I believe God had no such intention, when He made known these things to me. If that had been the case, I think that in 1917, when He ordered me to keep silent, and this order was confirmed by those who represented Him, He would on the contrary, have ordered me to speak.

I consider then, Your Excellency, that God willed only to make use of me to remind the world that it is necessary to avoid sin, and to make reparation to an offended God, by means of prayer and penance. Where could I have hidden myself in order to escape from innumerable questions they would have asked me about such matters? Even now I am afraid, just thinking of what lies a head of me! And I must confess that my repugnance in making this known is so great that, although I have before me the letter in which Your Excellency orders me to write everything else that I can remember, and I feel convinced that this is indeed the hour that God has chosen for my doing this, I still hesitate and experience a real inner conflict, not knowing whether to give you what I have written, or to burn it. As yet I do not know what will be the outcome of the struggle. It will be as God wills.

For me keeping silent has been a great grace. What would have happened had I described hell? Being unable to find words which exactly express the reality- for what I say is nothing and gives only a feeble idea of it all. I would therefore had said, now one thing, now another, wanting to explain but not succeeding in doing so. I might thus perhaps have caused such a confusion of ideas as even to spoil, who knows, the work of God. For this reason, I give thanks to the Lord, and I know that He does all things well. God usually accompanies His revelations with an intimate and detailed understanding of their significance. But I do not venture to speak of this matter, for fear of being led astray, as can all to easily happen, by my own imagination. Jacinta seemed to have this understanding to quite a remarkable degree.

FATIMA in Lucia's own words [pdf]

Third Memoir
8. Lucia Explains her Silence

Fatima. Lucia. Silence of Lucia

From the Third Memoir (1941-08-31)

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