Father Nicholas Gruner, one of the Catholic Church's more controversial priests, was the main guest on Thursday night. A tireless advocate for devotion and interest in the messages delivered at Fatima in 1917, Gruner believes they hold the key to the fate of mankind.
According to Father Gruner, the last surviving Fatima seer, Sister Lucia, was told a three-part secret in 1917 that she was to reveal over time. The first two parts were released in 1941, and included a vision of hell that was thought to refer to the first two world wars; and the second was a prediction that Russia would return to Christianity. The third secret was given out by the Vatican in 2000, and was said to be a vision of the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II. However Father Gruner said this wasn't the real third secret.
He believes it was a vision of a universal crisis for the whole Catholic Church. The "faith is in danger," he said, echoing the words of the late Father Malachi Martin. Alluding to parts of the church hierarchy being in collusion with a "New World Order" or "one-world religion," Gruner painted a dire picture of humanity's enslavement along with a massive depopulation effort. And yet, he said if the "consecration" of Russia could be accomplished, as seen in the Fatima vision, this could instead bring in an era of peace.
Fatima: The UFO Interpretation
The mass visions that took place in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 have long been the subject of fascination. Father Nicholas Gruner believes these events were miraculous communications from the Virgin Mary, as does the Catholic Church. However, a number of ufologists over the years, have looked at the incidents as possibly being an example of a UFO visitation. The events at Fatima took place over number of months, and were predicted by a young peasant girl named Lucia, who said she received messages from a brilliantly luminous Lady whom she understood to be Mary. As more and more people heard about the events, some 70,000 people gathered on October 13, as Lucia instructed. As the crowd huddled on this rainy day, they saw an astonishing display, where the sun seemed to come down out of the sky, and spin around on itself, in a mad whirl that lasted 10 minutes.
Proponents of the UFO theory, say this bright globe could have been a huge disc-shaped craft, and that many aspects of the incidents, such as reports of unusual beings, ridicule of the witnesses, and dire messages about our planet, parallel current UFO cases. The well-known researcher Jacques Vallee, drew further connections, comparing the weakness and loss of memory some of the witnesses reported, to the kinds of paralysis and lost time that alien abductees experience. And yet, "there is some danger of creating a stereotyped idea of UFOs…and imposing this on the evidence," writes the insightful UFO author Richard L. Thompson.
Marian Apparitions
Writer Tom Chase discussed Marian apparitions during the first hour of Thursday's show. He reported on his recent trip to Milton, Mass. where he photographed the image of Mary seen in a hospital window. He also commented on an apparition seen in Clearwater, Fla. For more details on Chase's work in this area, click here.