Customer Reviews

The Last Secret of Fatima

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you're wondering what all the fuss over Fatima is all about, than this book is for you. I had often heard people talk about Fatima but didn't know why people had such a devotion to it. This book showed me the beauty and mystery surrounding Fatima. Most of it is in a question and answer interview form with Cardinal Bertone, who met with Sister Lucia and was heavily involved in all the Fatima business. It tells the story of Fatima from the beginning with the three peasant children, the apparitions, the three secrets and how different popes handled it etc. This is all private revelation but never before (according to the book) has a pope headed a request that was made in a private revelation (consecrating Russia to Mary's Immaculate Heart.)

This was an uplifting book which gives a lot of hope for our troubled times now. The world now offends God just as much as it did back then, and this book encourages a real devotion to Our Lady to ask our Lord to have mercy on us.

This book only deals with the subject of the Last Secret of Fatima for a short while and the focus seems to want to deterr from the story of Fatima. A few nice insights into the Fatima visionary Sister Lucia, but overall it seems to be a bit of a let down. There are remarkable insights into the mind of Cardinal Bertone, the Author - who is a brilliant man - however this seems like it was two small books of different subjects, mashed together.

First off, the editing of the book needs work. I was reading through the introduction, and kept wondering who had written it. There was nothing at the end of the introduction, nor at the beginning. I finally deduced that it was written by the interviewer (Giuseppe de Carli). This is very confusing. Also, sometimes the questioning seems disjointed, as if the editor mixed up the questions. I thought as well that the book ended rather abruptly. If they were shooting for a similar style as "Salt of the Earth", or "Ratzinger Report" (both interviews with then Cardinal Ratzinger, both of which I have read), they failed miserably at doing a good imitation.

Speaking of the interviewer, Giuseppe, he was so aggressive, almost confrontational in his interview style that several times I almost stopped reading and would have except for two things. One was just the sheer information that Cardinal Bertone was sharing, information I had never had knowledge of, or my knowledge was so limited (like the miracles surrounding the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II on pages 51-53). Other good advice was given on apparitions (under 'Medjugorje' pages 92-96). It was also so good to come to know more about Sister Lucia (I expect I'll be picking up her book next) and her most needed common sense. Other worthwhile from the book are the appendices: the secrets themselves, commentary from Cardinal Ratzinger, and Pope John Paul II's act of entrustment.

The second thing was the attitude of Cardinal Bertone himself: so common sense, so approachable and accessible. I will be looking for books of his as well.

So, I definitely recommend this book but only if you can stand the interviewer's style.

I don't recommend this book. This is just another poor soul trying to disprove what happened here in Fatima. This author tries to explain that the Church will no longer revisit this subject. This is simply not true. The subject will be revisited again and again because the requests by Our Lady of the Rosary have not been done.

I found the book easy to read, and it did contain a lot of interesting information. However, I did find the structure a bit confusing (who was asking questions, whose opinion was being expressed?). Although I am an educated Catholic who knows more than the average person (and even the average Catholic) there were often references to people or events that were unfamiliar to me, and since they were not explained (the book was sorely in need of annotations) and since I didn't have a computer handy to constantly Google information, I often was left with incomplete information. I liked the interview format, and the length was about right. It just seemed incomplete. I did learn new things (for example the connection and importance of the name Fatima with Islam)

This was one of the most boring books I ever read. The author tried to build to a suspense, but ended up with a flop. I wanted to figure out what was the big deal about Fatima and the Last Secret, as when I went there, I was touched by the devotion and the surrender that I witnessed in some of the pilgrims there. But this book revealed very little that makes you wonder what was the big deal about the last secret in the first place.

It is unfortunate the Secretary of State representing the Vatican has elected to issue this less than honest account of the third secret of Fatima. The Vatican have held in their possession the three secrets of Fatima for decades, however elect to wait until the last visionary, Sister Lucia, passes away to comment on it. I strongly recommend everyone read Antonio Socci's brilliant, yet unintended rebuttal to Cardinal Bertone in his title, "The Fourth Secret of Fatima". With the skills of the investigative journalist he is, who actually set out to support the Vatican position, he drew a conclusion in opposition.

First of all, the English version of Bertone's book (The Last Secret of Fatima) has a mistranslated title! The Italian original reads "L'ultima veggente di Fatima" which can be translated as "The Last Seer of Fatima." "Veggente" does not mean "secret," but "segreto" does.

As for the Third Secret controversy, only one chapter in the whole book is dedicated to it (a mere 9 pages). Unfortunately, his Imminence Cardinal Bertone, continues to ignore and casually dismiss the substantial evidence in favor of (really undeniable) a separate text which is part of the Third Secret that has not been published. If you want all the facts about this issue read Christopher Ferrara's "The Secret Still Hidden," for he analyzes this book, as well as other public testimony from the Cardinal on this subject, and ultimately, shows how Bertone fails to prove his case.

VERY HAPPY WITH THIS ORDER.
IT WAS THE BEST PRICE I COULD
FIND AND CAME IN THE MAIL QUICK.

Imagination and subjectivity under a Catholic guide, this is the core of this book. Poor document as History, because the distortion toward what was described by Lucia dos Santos in the first original report made in 1917: a very different "entity" description was then reported; not that one that inspired the Virgin Mary statue today in the Fatima shrine. A fatal lack that suffers all this kind of apologetic books, with the bless of the Catholic marian-hiperdulians. The Truth about this kind of religious experience is very different of they think: the human being "saw" NOT with only his eyes but essentially with his education within his belief system. Is that so difficult to understand ? Why this obsession with more and more secrets, ever not revealed ? Its a classic answer of all the messianic expectations.