Pope Benedict XVI Assassination Plot in 2012?

Conspiracy or Prophecy? Cardinal Paolo Romeo's recent prediction that Pope Benedict XVI will die within twelve months has been causing somewhat of a media frenzy in Italy, stirring rumours of an assassination attempt on the pope. It appears to stem from a leak of a letter relayed to the Pope by Darío Castrillón Hoyos of Colombia dated to 30th December, 2011, which contained the contents of a recent conversation between Italian businessmen and Cardinal Paolo Romeo during a visit to China, during which he predicted the death of the Holy Father within the next 12 months:


Labelled "strictly confidential for the Holy Father", the detailed letter reports several conversations that Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo, allegedly had with Italian businessmen in Beijing on a trip last November during which he predicted the pope would die within 12 months and suggested his replacement would be Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan... (See the full report here)



The Italian media appear to be latching onto the idea of Pope John Paul I style assassination conspiracy theory, based on perceived power struggles within the Vatican. While the idea of murderous plots being concocted by high ranking Church officials is of course preposterous, the fact that this rumour began within the Vatican itself leaves us to ponder...

In my book, I summarise the rather complex and persuasive argument forwarded by various Fatima experts that the text released in June 2000 was only a part of the entire Third Secret, which judging by official documented sources, appears to have consisted of two separate parts. The first part is four pages long, and contains Sr Lucia's description of the vision during which the children saw "a bishop dressed in white", who they thought was the Holy Father, being killed by a group of assailants - which is the text that was released in the year 2000. Offcial documents show that this part of the text was stored in the Vatican Archives. A wealth of evidence suggests that there is a second part which is written on a single sheet of paper, and is kept in an envelope which is stored in a bedside cabinet in the Papal apartments. The theory that the Third Secret consisted of two parts was confirmed by Archbishop Capovilla, the personal secretary of John XXIII who was present when the secret was first opened in 1959, during an interview with Solideo Paolini in 2005, and was sensationally covered in Antonio Socci's book The Fourth Secret of Fatima.

In my book, I theorise that the real reason the hidden part of the Third Secret was suppressed is due to it containing reference to an exact date, thus explaining Pope John XXIII's stipulated reason for not publishing the secret, because it “does not concern the years of my pontificate” (cited in De la Sainte Trinite, M. The Whole Truth About Fatima Vol. III p557). This statement clearly suggests that the Third Secret contained a date for its fulfilment in the future, well outside the expected lifespan of John XXIII (see also the previous post The Fourth Secret of Fatima). Additionally, further reasons for the pope's refusal to publish the Third Secret at the date specified by Sr. Lucia was given by Mgr. Capovilla, which also suggests that its contents were of an exact nature:


“Pope John imposed the silence for two reasons: (1) it did not seem to him ‘to consist entirely of things supernatural,’ (2) he did not dare to risk an immediate interpretation, in the midst of the complex ‘Fatima phenomenon, ’prescinding from minute precisions….” (cited in Socci, A. The Fourth Secret of Fatima p154)


The inclusion of an exact date would make it impossible for the Church to release such material before the prophecy had taken place at the date specified, lest it open itself to scorn and ridicule if the prophecy failed to take place.

As I suggest in the book, this date could have referred to the turn of millennium, and evidence suggests that this part of the message is largely based on the struggle between the Dragon and the Woman adorned with the Sun in Rev 12. I argue that the Vatican has refused to publish it because some members of the hierarchy believe that it could be perceived to be a failed prophecy, since nothing immediately obvious occurred around this time period (however as I show the posts The Fall of Satan, Signs in the Sky, and The Year of the Dragon, the various prophecies concerning the turn of the millennium may be correct after all). And in the earlier post The Two Towers and the Sixth Seal, I show how Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, publicly stated that he believes that the "signs in the sky" described at the opening of the sixth seal in Rev 6 is connected to the 9/11 attacks at the turn of the millennium.
Yet it is also possible that the "hidden text" of the Third Secret contains another future date separate from the turn of the millennium - a date still yet in the future. This would give an additional motive for the continued refusal to fully divulge the entire contents of the Third Secret.

So it appears that Cardinal Romeo's prediction that Pope Benedict would die within the next 12 months is based on a prophetic source, rather than implicating him as being privy to the machinations of some sinister cabal within the Vatican. Could his prediction be based on the prophecies of authoritative Catholic visionaries? Such as those of Fatima, or some other prophetic source? This is of course speculation on my part - but the fact that the "12 months" deadline was given at the very beginning of the year suggests that his knowledge is limited to the confines of a specific year - this year - 2012, which is of course vague and precise at the same time. This would suggest that the height of his knowledge concerning this event is it would take place during the year 2012 - which is generally thought of as a prophetic turning point.

As I argue in the previous post Prophecies of the Martyr-Pope, the portion of the Third Secret concerning the assassination of a pope appears to be related to the martyrdom of the Two Witnesses  described in the Book of Revelation. And this in turn appears to be related to St. Malachy's list of popes, whose motto concerning Pope Benedict XVI is "Glory of the Olives", which I argued in last year's post St. Malachy's Glory of the Olives is a direct allusion to the Apocalypse's description of the Two Witnesses as the "two olive trees... that stand before the Lord of all the earth" in Rev  11:4. The martyr-pope prophecies can also be found in St. John Bosco's Dream of the Two Pillars, as well as the secrets of Our Lady of La Salette. And the fulfilment of the vision of Fatima is inextricably linked to the prophecies of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the dawn of the Second Pentecost.

UPDATE:

It is now the New Year (2013), and the concerns of an assassination plot against the Holy Father in the year 2012 have thankfully subsided. It turns out that the most likely prophetic source of information that Cardinal Romeo would have used to point to the year 2012 was in fact the "Worthy Shepherd Prophecy", allegedly made by Bl. Tomasuccio de Foligno, which runs as follows:

"One from beyond the mountains shall become the Vicar Of God. Religious and clerics shall take part in this change. Outside the true path, there will be only disreputable men; I shrug my shoulders when the Bark of Peter is in danger and there is no one to lend it help... The schismatic shall fall into the scorn of the Italian faithful... By about twelve years shall the millennium have passed when the resplendent mantle of legitimate power shall emerge from the shadows where it was being kept by the schism. And beyond harm from the one who is blocking the door of salvation, for his deceitful schism shall have come to an end. And the mass of the faithful shall attach itself to the worthy Shepherd, who shall extricate each one from error and restore to the Church its beauty. He shall renew it."


The above prophecy could be used to suggest that a papal election would take place around 12 years past the millennium, thus bringing about the pontificate of the "Worthy Shepherd". The clause "by about twelve years shall the millennium have passed", is rather more loose, and could just as easily point to the year 2013 as to the year 2012.

FURTHER UPDATE:

With the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI today, on Feb 11th, 2013, it seems that the Worthy Shepherd Prophecy may in fact have some truth behind it. This means that a papal election will indeed take place by "about twelve years shall the millennium have passed" (it is just over twelve years and one month past the millennium). Will this be the beginning of the Second Pentecost?
In the post A Medjugorje Link to the "Heavenly Annunciation"?, I attempt to show how the Worthy Shepherd Prophecy may tie into the 2000th anniversary of the "Finding in the Temple" - which will occur this year, at around the same time as the election of the new pope, on Easter 2013.

The Two Towers and the Sixth Seal

"Opening of the Sixth Seal", by Francis Danby

The opening of the sixth seal of the Book of Revelation is one of the most symbolically laden sections of the entire book. It combines, concentrates and expands upon a number of themes which recur throughout the Apocalypse, and acts as the central hub for the eschatological astronomical phenomena that form such an  important part of the book.  As we shall see, this passage may also be of paramount importance in recent history. In Unveiling the Apocalypse, I note a curious statement from the current Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisco Bertone, which seems to connect the Third Secret of Fatima with the "signs in the sky" spoken of at the opening of the sixth seal of the Book of Revelation - I'll take a quote from the relevant part of the book below:


Upon returning from celebrating the funeral mass of Sr. Lucia in February 2005, Cardinal Bertone was asked about the interpretation of the Third Secret in the journal La Republica. As part of his response, he gave the following statement: "prophecy must always be interpreted: It is enough to think of the Apocalypse, of the signs in heaven. Have these perhaps not already been seen with the airplanes that toppled the Twin Towers?" [La Republica, 17th Feb, 2005: cited in Socci, A. The Fourth Secret of Fatima p119] 
It is highly unlikely that Cardinal Bertone would think that the "signs in heaven" spoken of in the Apocalypse would symbolise the plane attacks on 9/11 alone. As we have already seen, the "signs in heaven" described in the Book of Revelation are unmistakably astronomical in character, and would undoubtedly be recognised as such by an expert in theology. There is simply nothing in the Apocalypse that would even remotely describe the attacks on 9/11. Yet the timing of the events of 9/11 in the year 2001 are remarkably close to the "signs in heaven" we have already suggested occurred between the years 1999-2000. Could these musings of the Cardinal Secretary of State contain an insight into the content of the hidden part of the Third Secret?

If the Third Secret did openly explicate that the fall of Satan or struggle between the Dragon and the Woman adorned with the Sun would occur at the turn of the millennium, it would be extremely difficult to maintain that such an event had occurred without some form of physical evidence. And unless someone knew what kind of evidence they were looking for, it would be easy to overlook the astronomical and geophysical events which occurred around this time. It would therefore be natural to connect such phenomena with 9/11, which was undoubtedly the most significant event of that general time period. (Unveiling the Apocalypse pp190-191)


So why would the Vatican Secretary of State, effectively the second-in-command of the Roman Catholic Church, connect the Third Secret of Fatima with the sixth seal of the Book of Revelation and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre?
As I noted in my previous post Signs in the Sky, each of the signs of the eschatological astronomical phenomena described at the opening of the sixth seal in Rev 6 all occurred at the turn of the millennium. An earthquake centred on the site of ancient Asia Minor - the location of the seven churches to which the Book of Revelation is addressed, a total eclipse of the Sun, a total lunar eclipse causing the moon to turn blood red, a meteor storm which occurs once every 33 years, as well as a rare alignment of planets, all took place between the years 1999-2000.

“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes". (Joel 2:30-31)

Since the Apocalypse tells us that the sealing of the saints takes place after the opening of the sixth seal, this implicitly suggests that the fulfillment of the prophecy of the mark of the Beast is also timed to occur in this same time period - which was specifically foretold by Fr Stefano Gobbi to be the era in which the mark of the Beast would be implemented (see the earlier posts The Mark of the Beast, and Fr Gobbi on the Mark of the Beast). The mark of the Beast is an antithetical parallelism of the sealing of the saints, and reflects on earth in microcosm the marcosmic events of the heavenly sphere.
Numerous prophecies, such as those of La Salette, and Pope Leo XIII, have also pointed to this date as either the moment of the coming of "a monster to disturb the peace", the coming of the Antichrist, or the time period of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - when the Woman adorned with the Sun would crush the head of the Serpent (see the earlier post Our Lady of Assuit). And when we look at the imagery of Rev 12 in more detail (the portion of the Apocalypse which describes Satan being cast to earth - see The Fall of Satan), we can see that it is in fact a dramatisation of the eschatological astronomical phenomena which occurs at the opening of the sixth seal.


It perhaps then not mere coincidence then that the most important and world-changing event of recent history also occurred in this same general time period - that of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. The reprecussions of the 9/11 attacks, and the divide they have created between the Western and Arab worlds, are deeply significant in the shaping of world politics today, and may yet have future implications which we cannot yet foresee.


For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again. On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the LORD of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.
(Isa 24:18-23)


If we compare the above passage in Isa 24 with the opening of the sixth seal in the Book of Revelation, we can see that they both refer to the same events. Isaiah mentions here an earthquake, and relates it to the punishment of the "host of heaven" - which is to be equated with the stars falling to earth in Rev 6, as well as the dragon sweeping a third of the stars from the sky in Rev 12. Importantly the Book of Isaiah also includes reference to phenomena which sounds similar to a solar and lunar eclipse: "the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed". Compare this with the opening of the sixth seal described in the Book of Revelation below:


When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Rev 6:12-17)


There also appears to be some connections here to Isa 51, which refers to the stirring up of the sea - which could be another reference to the mega-tsunami threat:


I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar - the LORD of hosts is his name.
And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’
Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.
(Isa 51:15-17)


And another mention of the earth "reeling from its place" is based on an oracle declaring judgment on Babylon given in Isa 13, which also contains reference to the eschatological battle:


The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The LORD of hosts is mustering a host for battle. They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the LORD and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.
(Isa 13:4-13)


It is interesting to note that there is another portion of the Book of Isaiah related to this material which mentions "sealed books" and the collapse of "towers":


And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
(Isa 29:11-12)


Compare this with the opening of the seven seals in the Book of Revelation:


And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Rev 5:2-5)


Shortly after the passage in Isaiah mentioning the "sealed book", we are then given a passage which describes the collapse of towers together with other allusions to the events at the opening of the sixth seal:


And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;
his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire; his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.
(Isa 30:25-30)


The Hebrew word for "towers" here is migdalim - the same word used for the description of the building of the tower of Babel in Gen 11.  Another passage in the Book of Isaiah connected with the sixth seal of Revelation (compare for example the shared themes of hiding in caves and holes) also mentions the bringing down of mountains and high towers on the Day of the Lord:


For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up - and it shall be brought low; against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills; against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away. And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. (Isa 2:12-19)



In Unveiling the Apocalypse, I argue that the opening of the sixth seal occurred during the turn of the millennium, and was heralded by each of the astronomical signs described in Rev 6. Could the above material help to explain Cardinal Bertone's otherwise bizarre words concerning the "signs of heaven" described in the Apocalypse and his connection of them to the Twin Towers attacks when asked about the Third Secret?
As I note in the book, the fact that Sr. Lucia specifically linked the Third Secret to chapters 8-13 of the Book of Revelation suggests that there is more to the message of Fatima than has been revealed so far. Chapter 8 of the Book of Revelation is where we find reference to the "huge mountain, burning with fire" being thrown into the sea, which I have linked to the threat of a future mega-tsunami posed by the collapse of Cumbre Vieja (see the earlier post Mega-tsunami). Could this explain the words attributed to Pope John Paul II at the Fulda conference that the Third Secret describes the oceans rapidly covering vast sections of the earth, resulting in the deaths of millions? (See John Paul II - The Third Secret and a Prophecy of a Mega-tsunami?) And we should also take note that chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation solely concerns the mark of the Beast.
If the Third Secret does contain a reference to the "signs in heaven" spoken of in the Apocalypse, then it is possible that it also contains a specific date relating to the turn of the millennium, explaining why it has been suppressed since the 1960's (See The Fourth Secret of Fatima).
If the events of 9/11 are indeed related to the opening of the sixth seal of the Book of Revelation, did they act as a harbinger of future events to befall the USA? It seems that each of the astronomical phenomena that took place at the opening of the sixth seal are inextricably connected to the Second Coming of Christ, and will possibly reoccur around this particular moment - which will this time cause "mountains and islands to be removed from their places", setting in motion a chain of events which will see the downfall of the eschatological world empire known as "Babylon".

In the post The Third Secret of Fatima and the Angel with the Flaming Sword, I attempt to show some further connections between the secrets of Fatima and the events of 9/11.

John Paul II - The Third Secret and a Prophecy of a Mega-tsunami?

Prior to the release of the Third Secret (or perhaps that should be "partial release"?) in the year 2000, many commentators looked to some words attributed to Pope John Paul II on Fatima in an attempt to gain some insight into its content.  The German magazine Stimme des Glaubens reported that the pope had commented on the Third Secret during a conference in Fulda, Germany in 1980. The most striking component of this report was the words: "it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired." The language used here, which tells a sudden and abrupt flooding of "whole areas of the earth" by the ocean - an event which will kill "millions", can only describe the aftermath of a mega-tsunami.
The deadiest such event in recorded history was that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed the lives of around 230,000 people after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. In order to claim "millions" of lives, this event would have to be on a vastly larger scale, and concentrated on densely populated areas. The Indian Ocean tsunami is possibly the greatest in size that can be generated by an earthquake - anything larger can only be caused by massive landslides, such as that of Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958, which reached a height of 524 metres (but given the confined geography of the lake the effects of this mega-tsunami was limited to a small area). It is these landslide-generated events, known as mega-tsunamis, that produce waves of such devastating heights. And mega-tsunamis with the capacity to cross oceans can only be generated by large-scale volcanic collapses.


The relevant text of the Fulda conference reported in Stimme des Glaubens can be found below:


The Holy Father was asked, "What about the Third Secret of Fatima? Should it not have already been published by 1960?"
Pope John Paul II replied: "Given the seriousness of the contents, my predecessors in the Petrine office diplomatically preferred to postpone publication so as not to encourage the world power of Communism to make certain moves.
"On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired."
The Pope continued: "Many wish to know simply from curiosity and a taste for the sensational, but they forget that knowledge also implies responsibility. They only seek the satisfaction of their curiosity, and that is dangerous if at the same time they are not disposed to do something, and if they are convinced that it is impossible to do anything against evil."
At this point the Pope grasped a Rosary and said: "Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray, and ask for nothing more. Leave everything else to the Mother of God."
The Holy Father was then asked: "What is going to happen to the Church?"
He answered: "We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ … With your and my prayer it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary."


It must be noted however that there is some dispute as to the legimacy of the Stimme des Glaubens report. Antonio Socci, the author of The Fourth Secret of Fatima, stated in issue 86 of The Fatima Crusader that the Vatican Press Office and Cardinal Ratzinger denied that this meeting took place (see here). However rather curiously, the most recent publication from sources inside the Vatican acknowledges that it did in fact take place. In his book The Last Secret of Fatima, Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State admits that John Paul II did in fact say these words (p48). The Fatima Network website is similarly assured that the Fulda conference did in fact take place, stating:


This report was originally published in German in the October 1981 issue of Stimme des Glaubens. It is given as a verbatim report of the meeting between His Holiness John Paul II and a select group of German Catholics at Fulda during his visit to Germany the previous November. The preface to the article states, "We know the name of the reporter and also that the document is authentic." This translation was made by Rev. M. Crowdy for Approaches Magazine, edited by Mr. Hamish Fraser of Scotland. It was translated from the Italian magazine published in Rome by Father Francis Putti. Both magazines are worthy of our trust. (See the full text here).


So there seems to be some ongoing confusion as to the reality behind these events. Whatever the truth is behind the above words attributed to John Paul II at Fulda, they tie in remarkably well with the various other predictions of a volcano-generated mega-tsunami. We must also question why, given that Cardinal Bertone would undoubtedly know the contents of any "hidden text" of the Third Secret, he did not refute that the Fulda conference took place altogether. If the "hidden text" of the Third Secret did not contain any references to the oceans flooding vast sections of the earth, then it would be immediately obvious to the Cardinal that the Fulda conference was a complete fabrication made by the German press. It would be easier to dismiss that it ever took place rather than attempt to explain the discrepancies between these words and the published text of the Third Secret. Does this implicitly suggest that there is some truth behind the Third Secret containing reference to a future mega-tsunami style event?
We also need to take into account the fact that Pope Benedict XVI wrote the forward to Cardinal Bertone's book, so would undoubtedly have been aware that it included reference to the Fulda conference. It would be highly unlikely that he would fail to correct Cardinal Bertone on this matter if he thought it did not take place. So either the pope glanced over this section (again highly unlikely), or he came across some information which changed his opinion as to whether John Paul II did indeed make these comments at Fulda.


See also the relevant articles:


Megatsunami
The Fourth Secret of Fatima