Some believed the third, unrevealed secret was a doomsday prophecy foretelling the end of the world.
But a top Vatican cardinal said
otherwise on Saturday as the pope visited Fatima to beatify the two
shepherd children from the story. Cardinal Angelo Sodano said the
"interpretations" of the children spoke of a "bishop clothed in white"
who, while making his way amid the corpses of martyrs, "falls to the
ground, apparently dead, under a burst of gunfire."
The description recalled the 1981
assassination attempt against John Paul, who was wounded when a Turkish
gunmen opened fire in St. Peter's Square. The shooting came on May 13
-- the same day as the first of the reported Fatima visions in 1917.
Sodano recalled that John Paul has
credited the Virgin of Fatima with intervening and saving his life. He
quoted the pope as saying a "motherly hand" guided the bullet's path,
enabling the "dying pope" to halt "at the threshold of death."
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