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