0:00

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0:02

Deadly Diocese, early and ad-free

0:04

on Amazon Music. Download the app

0:06

today. Whenever

0:16

we had momentum,

0:19

within a couple of weeks, I'd

0:22

get a death threat, or something

0:24

that could be construed as a death threat. Like, a letter would

0:26

show up in the in the mailbox that hadn't

0:28

been mailed. Somebody clearly,

0:31

physically was at my house and dropped

0:33

it in the mailbox, because there was no postmark and

0:35

other things like that. And there would be little notes

0:37

like, like

0:40

stop digging, one of them shortly after the exclamation,

0:43

when it became apparent

0:45

that I was involved, Father Rob was involved

0:47

after his exile, there

0:50

was a three by five card that showed up in my mailbox

0:53

that said stop digging.

0:56

And that's all I'm saying. Are you serious?

1:27

There's an evil that exists on God's

1:29

green earth. It lingers

1:32

in the darkness and lives in

1:34

the shadows of the setting sun. Pope

1:37

Paul VI famously referred to this

1:39

evil

1:40

as smoke when he said,

1:43

the smoke of Satan has entered the

1:45

church. I think that analogy

1:47

fits. The smoke of Satan

1:50

creeps unintelligently from shadow

1:52

to shadow, searching for a lost

1:54

soul or a weak mind to infect.

2:00

It's been said that the diabolical can

2:02

infiltrate the biological, taking

2:05

hold of a self-centered man, even

2:07

a man of the cloth, if he isn't

2:09

careful. And

2:12

as we showed in the last episode, Father

2:14

Rob was not a weak man, but

2:16

he was a threat to the diocese and

2:19

their secrets. Some

2:21

have speculated that Father Rob's death was

2:24

the result of diabolical interference

2:26

with his biological system, dark

2:30

magic being practiced against

2:32

him. Yeah, and

2:35

Father Rob at first said he didn't

2:37

get any, and then when I got the third

2:39

one, then he confessed, ironically enough,

2:41

a priest, confessed

2:44

that he had gotten a couple, and he got them

2:48

at St. Philomena at

2:51

the church. One

2:54

of his was mailed to him in an envelope,

2:57

no return address, but it was mailed

2:59

from Buffalo

3:00

and it was mailed from the same zip code

3:02

as the chancering.

3:08

These theories seem impossible to believe at

3:10

times, but in those dark

3:12

moments when negative energy

3:14

feeds on your doubt and anxiety,

3:17

the thought of prayer can be light

3:19

in the darkness. I'm

3:22

sure we've all been there. And

3:25

I've turned to prayer producing this podcast,

3:28

a practice that has ebbed and flowed in my

3:30

life, evolving and growing

3:32

out of my Catholic upbringing. I'm

3:35

not one to say the rosary, and

3:37

Rachel has her own secret prayer. She

3:40

invented that she has been reciting for

3:42

years before bed. But

3:44

I gotta tell you, when we

3:46

have prayed to Father Joe or Father

3:48

Rob during this podcast, Reaching

3:52

out to these priests who have passed on,

3:56

I swear we get responses back.

4:00

And this week was no exception. A

4:02

break. And answer to

4:05

a question, Sue and Joe Sr.

4:07

have been wanting since 2012.

4:22

Up top, we want to say that all parties

4:24

mentioned in this podcast are innocent

4:27

until proven guilty, or

4:29

just may be innocent.

4:31

And on that note, we'd like to start with

4:33

parties mentioned in a prior episode.

4:36

We've done considerable investigating,

4:39

and yesterday had a huge break.

4:42

The transfer of Father Joe's body without

4:45

his family's knowledge had

4:47

to have happened with someone signing

4:50

off for the family, claiming next

4:52

of kin. And now, next of

4:54

kin could have been the Diocese, perhaps

4:57

they are allowed to do that. Unethical,

4:59

sure, illegal, maybe not.

5:03

But what if someone who worked

5:06

at the ECMC, the morgue, didn't

5:09

like Father Joe, and in fact,

5:11

got in a huge, almost physical fight

5:14

with him the night before his death? Would

5:17

he have a reason to perhaps forge

5:20

the family's signature in order

5:22

to get Father Joe in the ground

5:24

as quickly as possible. I'm

5:28

not accusing, I'm just going down

5:30

the list of possibilities. The

5:37

funeral home seemed to genuinely believe

5:39

the family signed off, plus

5:41

the owner himself was genuinely

5:43

in grief, as Father Joe

5:45

was a friend,

5:47

a good friend of his. And

5:49

so I'd like to apologize if

5:52

any speculation was made on the podcast

5:54

about Lombardo's funeral home.

5:57

I think you'll hear in his voice. This

5:59

does not sound like a man that knowingly

6:02

helped in the cover-up of his friend's

6:04

death. He

6:09

didn't pick up Father Joe from ECMC's morgue.

6:12

He didn't do the embalming. In fact,

6:15

as we'll hear later, he didn't enter

6:17

the embalming room, likely

6:20

not wanting to see his friend in that state.

6:25

Hi, is this Joe? Speaking.

6:28

Hi Joe, this is Rachel giving you a call back. I just got

6:30

your voicemail. I was returning

6:32

your call from yesterday. Oh,

6:35

okay. Well, the lady

6:37

I spoke to said that you just had a few questions

6:39

for me before she could

6:41

just release any paperwork

6:45

on... Well, what are you

6:47

looking for?

6:49

Well basically Sue

6:51

Moreno is missing some documents

6:54

but it's really her dad that wants them but I

6:56

feel a little bit embarrassed because she's

6:58

saying she doesn't know and it's

7:01

nothing to do with you guys who was at the medical

7:03

examiner's office that that that

7:05

signed him her brother out I think

7:08

that's the thing that she's missing and she

7:10

just wants to put into her files.

7:12

I don't have

7:14

that it would have been one

7:17

of our licensed funeral directors that were

7:19

on duty that day. But

7:23

we would have had a signed release from the family

7:25

to go there. And

7:28

the medical examiner would have that paper. Anytime

7:32

someone dies at the medical examiner, you

7:35

need written permission from the family to go there.

7:39

So we would have brought that paper,

7:41

and then we would have gave it to the medical examiner

7:43

to

7:44

do the removal.

7:46

Now, I know that this happened.

7:50

After Joe was buried,

7:52

you know, they still had

7:54

questions.

7:56

Mm-hmm.

7:57

and they called Amagon funeral home. It's

8:01

not our funeral home, they call the Emighan funeral home

8:04

to do a disinterment and

8:07

bring his body to Pittsburgh for another autopsy.

8:12

So we could tell Mr. Lombardo was surprised,

8:15

and maybe even a little hurt, that he never heard

8:17

from the Moreno's during the exhumation process.

8:21

He's a stern man, but a sincere

8:23

man, and he let us know that he continued

8:25

to donate to Father Joe's foundation for

8:28

years. He goes on to fill us

8:30

in on how the checkout process works between

8:32

a funeral home and a morgue.

8:35

When a person is at the medical examiner, which

8:37

father was, father Joe

8:39

was at the medical examiner because of what happened.

8:42

Yeah. So you need written permission

8:44

from the family and there is

8:46

a release. There

8:48

is a release at the medical examiner signed.

8:52

But we had written permission. Our personal way to

8:54

get mixed up because if you died at

8:56

Buffalo General or Sisters Hospital, If

8:58

you gave me verbal permission to go there, I could just

9:01

go there. Okay. But

9:03

when a body's at the medical examiner, you

9:05

need written permission from the family. Okay.

9:08

If you're looking for the release, I

9:10

would call the medical examiner. As

9:12

we're going to come to find out, Joe

9:15

Lombardo was a real friend of Father

9:17

Joe. And we believe he wanted

9:19

nothing more than to lay this beloved

9:21

priest to rest with respect

9:24

and dignity. I don't know.

9:27

But can I just ask you one question,

9:29

you know, just from this is your profession. Why

9:31

doesn't that Salmon or not return the brain

9:34

to the body? What is there

9:36

a reason for that? Is that a decomposition thing

9:38

or is that not standard practice?

9:41

I'm not

9:45

I didn't know the brains were not returned I

9:48

don't know. I don't know why

9:50

they would have kept that only

9:52

maybe because that's where the shot was and

9:55

that was part of the investigation.

9:57

It would have said two shots for the head.

10:00

Yeah, that's what I was saying. So maybe they

10:02

kept it because of that, and for further

10:04

investigation? Yeah. Um,

10:08

but, um, but I,

10:10

that's a medical examiner's question.

10:12

And we noticed, uh, just

10:14

recently that the handwritten,

10:18

um, cause of death or manner of death or whatever

10:20

is different than the typed one. And it kind

10:22

of looks like

10:24

self-inflicted is added later.

10:26

It just says gunshot wound in one, in one

10:28

part. And then later it says

10:30

gunshot wound and

10:32

then typed above it. It says self-inflicte,

10:34

almost like I don't know.

10:36

OK, so let me explain

10:38

to the best of my knowledge. And again, this

10:40

might not be the right answer. When

10:46

the medical examiner first

10:48

issued the death certificate, because he has

10:51

to issue it for us to do the burial,

10:55

he might have put it down as a gunshot

10:58

wound, because he knew that's what it was.

11:00

But

11:01

he might have been undecided if

11:04

it was self-inflicted or a homicide. And

11:08

he probably wanted to look at

11:10

the autopsy reports before

11:12

he did that. It's very common that

11:14

they sometimes come back 30, 60 days

11:17

later and put a cause of death on

11:19

it.

11:20

Oh, I see. OK.

11:22

Because the medical examiner never

11:24

saw the person. So they're

11:27

relying on their autopsy reports. Oh, I

11:29

see.

11:31

So the medical examiner

11:33

is not the one that would have done the autopsy report?

11:36

He would have did it, but like, see, like,

11:39

they took everything they needed for the autopsy, but

11:41

to put the autopsy report together might have took like 30

11:44

days for results. I

11:46

see. Because they would have

11:49

been waiting for his blood work to come back. They

11:51

would have been waiting for a lot of different things. A

11:55

lot of times, you know, if it

11:57

wasn't a gunshot wound, They

11:59

would have... put on an IP investigation

12:02

pending and

12:04

they would have waited for their lab work to come back. But

12:07

this was obvious that it was a gunshot.

12:09

Yeah.

12:10

But what about, do you have the report

12:12

of the autopsy? Because I'm curious. I mean,

12:17

I'm like them. I don't believe that Father Joe did

12:19

this either. So, you

12:21

know, I mean,

12:23

I believe what the family believes. I mean, Father

12:26

Joe was a good friend and you know,

12:28

I don't believe it and there's a lot

12:31

of things that were being done nasty to him through

12:33

the bishop prior

12:35

to the death So I don't

12:38

believe it either. But do you also

12:40

have a copy of the Pittsburgh autopsy?

12:43

Yeah, I have all that you'd be perfectly honest.

12:45

I'm a family friend of theirs now, but I'm

12:47

hoping I'm helping them solve this case I'm

12:50

a I have a yeah

12:53

and I mean Millions of dollars.

12:55

Yeah, I know. I mean, there's

12:58

a lot of priests that don't

13:00

believe it. Yeah. Yeah.

13:02

I mean, I wish I could think of their names,

13:04

but there's a lot of priests. I wish I could give

13:06

you their names to interview because

13:10

they don't believe it. Yeah.

13:13

Yeah, I would. I mean, I wish I could think of the

13:15

priest names, but I know there's a few

13:17

different priests that said, you know, that never happened. I

13:20

mean, Father Joe was one of the best people

13:22

you'd ever want to meet.

13:24

You know,

13:27

if you saw him, and

13:30

the next day, he would

13:33

send a pizza to your house. That's

13:36

awesome. That's the way he was.

13:38

That's the way he was. He always ordered

13:40

his pizzas. Unfortunately, a person

13:43

who could have told you a lot is his friend

13:45

Tony Klikka, who owned Mr.

13:47

Pizza, but Tony has died since.

13:50

Oh, no.

13:51

And Tony would tell you, Father Joe called

13:53

me all the time. He goes, Father Joe would probably

13:55

send out 20 to 30 pizzas a month

13:57

to families. That's

14:00

so

14:00

nice. You

14:01

know, I mean, he was spending all of his

14:03

life savings. Oh

14:06

my God, and you know that he was

14:08

the police chaplain? Mm-hmm.

14:11

But you know, legally, he was not. Oh,

14:14

really?

14:16

He wasn't the police chaplain. Did they just like you

14:17

guys? He just...

14:19

No, he rode with them in the cars.

14:22

They loved them. He always

14:24

wanted to be there for victims and families to

14:26

help families. You know, if there

14:28

was like a shooting like this, a shooting or a

14:30

car accident or a house that caught

14:32

fire, he always wanted to be there to

14:34

console the families. So

14:37

the police looked at him as his chaplain, but he

14:39

wasn't their assigned chaplain, but

14:42

he was there more than any other chaplain.

14:44

Oh, that's the first time I've heard that. That's actually,

14:47

that says a lot about him.

14:48

Yep, he was not. If you look it up, he was not the

14:50

assigned chaplain. They referred

14:52

to him as their chaplain, but he was not their

14:55

chaplain through the dais.

14:57

Wow. You can

14:58

also say that. It was amazing. Yeah. Did

15:01

you know Father Joe?

15:02

No. We didn't even hear

15:04

about this story until after he had passed. I have

15:06

a- I gotta tell you a funny thing. I

15:09

met Father Joe like 35 years ago when he first

15:11

got ordained. Oh my gosh. I

15:13

didn't know who he was. But

15:16

the family wanted him to do a funeral service at the

15:18

funeral home. And Father Joe, if you knew

15:20

him, well, I'm telling you, he

15:22

was the nicest guy in the world, but his

15:25

appearance, he had hair buzzed

15:27

out like Bozo the Clown. And

15:32

he had a black sport coat, and

15:34

he had blue pants, white

15:36

socks, and his black shoes. And

15:39

I said, oh, my God, this guy's going to do this service?

15:42

So he went in to start the service.

15:45

He wasn't even in there like two minutes. And

15:49

this was a sad time a family lost a loved one. He

15:52

had everybody in the room laughing.

15:55

Oh, wow.

15:56

He had everybody in the room laughing. And

15:58

then I knew... why people always

16:01

wanted him to do services because he

16:04

was a people magnet and

16:06

he knew what to say, he had a gift to

16:08

give a hanowy and a message and

16:11

he had a gift and after that

16:13

I mean I used to have like four or five requests

16:15

a month for him for services you

16:18

know I'm gonna really try hard because I mean

16:20

this topic not

16:22

about Father Joe but Father Joe was included in the topic

16:25

it just came up within the last six months and

16:28

this priest said Joe you know know he didn't do it. We

16:31

were bringing up other things that were going

16:34

on in the dais and Father Joe just came

16:36

up in the conversation where

16:38

the priest said, he goes, you know, Father

16:41

Joe didn't do that. You know,

16:43

something about him being right-handed, left-handed, like,

16:45

you know. Yeah, he

16:47

couldn't have done it. He was, well, his left hand was,

16:49

he was robbed in his rectory

16:52

and stabbed in his left hand several

16:54

years prior. He didn't have the use of it.

16:56

And he was also right-hand dominant. So

16:59

he wouldn't have been able to be able to control the trigger with

17:01

his left hand. A woman who you'll hear from in a minute

17:04

not only worked at Lombardo's funeral

17:06

home and did the initial embalming

17:08

on Father Joe, but she also became

17:11

a Buffalo police detective two

17:13

years after. I

17:15

was extremely nervous

17:17

to speak to her, but she reveals

17:20

a lead that furthers this investigation

17:22

to the moon. She was also extremely

17:25

gracious and sweet and

17:27

genuinely interested

17:28

in following up with Father Joe's case

17:31

and helping the family. Plus,

17:34

how cool to be a female detective. Detective

17:38

Anne.

17:40

Oh, hi. Hi, Detective Anne. Hi.

17:43

I'm happy I finally got to reach you. I've tried to call you several times, but

17:45

I just called it the wrong time. Okay.

17:48

How are you? I'm good. My

17:51

name's Rachel O'Brien, And I am

17:53

working on a case for

17:55

a podcast about the death. of

18:00

Father Joseph Moreno. OK.

18:05

You were working at Lombardo's

18:08

at the time when he, and

18:11

I have heard some

18:13

documents. You did his

18:15

embalming? Yes, I did. Yeah.

18:19

Do you remember anything being suspicious

18:22

about, did you ever, like,

18:25

when they did a second autopsy on him, they found

18:27

a? on a second

18:29

day did they exhume him into

18:32

a second autopsy? Yeah, they exhumed him. Oh,

18:34

okay, I didn't know that, I'm sorry. No,

18:36

it's okay, zero left exhumed him. I mean, you

18:39

didn't do anything wrong, I'm sure you did a great job, but. Yeah.

18:43

But I was just curious if

18:45

you noticed anything suspicious

18:47

or what your feelings were about. I

18:50

do remember when that did happen that

18:52

the family was, I mean, this was

18:55

a while ago, right? How

18:57

many years ago was this? 2012.

18:58

Okay,

19:02

yeah. So two years later I became

19:04

a cop. So

19:06

it was like around the end of my career

19:08

but

19:09

I remember it being very weird

19:12

and

19:12

sudden and

19:15

the family was

19:17

asking like me a lot of questions

19:19

about his body. Oh Oh

19:22

really? I didn't know that they asked a bunch of

19:24

questions. Yeah, well because

19:26

I brought them out for their first viewing and

19:29

I remember them, they did ask

19:31

me questions about like where the bullet hole

19:34

was on his head and I

19:36

remember telling them at the time but I honestly

19:38

can't remember. He

19:41

had an autopsy check with him and he

19:43

found his second bullet hole. Okay,

19:47

yeah, I honestly couldn't even tell

19:49

you what side of the head the boat hole was

19:51

on even. I don't even remember that. I

19:54

mean, I am bound to 700 bodies a year, so... Yeah.

19:59

It was a big I do remember that but

20:02

I didn't know much about him and

20:04

I didn't know much about the situation

20:07

I kind of just did my job and went on

20:09

with it, but I do remember the family asking

20:11

me about that During

20:13

the like the wake Yeah,

20:15

they usually would have to like if

20:18

it's something that they don't think they have enough to

20:20

go against I don't know if they would reopen it But

20:24

that yeah, that's above my pay grade.

20:26

I'm just a local in-house

20:28

detective. I don't work for like homicide

20:30

or any specialty unit. I just

20:33

do like large things and all

20:35

the petty crimes. It's pretty

20:38

cool that you're a female detective though. I mean

20:40

yeah yeah I'm the only one in this

20:42

office so I guess I'll hold that. I found

20:45

a photo of you online. You look tiny

20:48

too. I'm like that. She's putting herself

20:50

in danger. You saw a photo

20:52

of me? I forgot

20:53

where you were at your

20:56

district or whatever.

20:58

Am I that Googleable?

21:03

Not, I mean, kind of. Shit. Now

21:05

I gotta know what picture it is.

21:07

I'll tell you one thing, you can't find a background

21:10

report on you. Well

21:11

that's good.

21:13

Yeah. My background

21:15

report still says I have a speeding ticket from when I was 16 which

21:18

I find really rude.

21:20

You did a background check too? I was

21:23

trying to find out your phone number because I I

21:26

was not reaching you in the, I was trying to find

21:28

like a cell phone number. Uh-huh.

21:31

Or a home phone number, which probably

21:33

would have been rude if I called. Because

21:36

I wasn't reaching you at the

21:38

detective's office. So I just thought

21:41

I'd try to find a phone number, but you

21:44

can't find, you can't find you. Okay, that's good. That's good

21:46

for you. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

21:48

so I wasn't trying to like run a, a back

21:50

report. It was just trying to find a phone number. Yeah, no,

21:53

I was just, I was just messing with you anyways.

21:55

Classic Rachel O'Brien move.

21:57

She's coming in hot with info.

22:00

share but just can't help herself.

22:30

paralyzed. Oh, I didn't know about that. But

22:32

I do remember if that's what they were talking about,

22:34

that they

22:37

thought it was weird because he was right handed

22:39

and it was on his left side.

22:43

Can I ask you one last question and I'll let

22:45

you go? I just, this is something we've been trying

22:48

to figure out because the ECMC

22:50

won't tell me. Do you, so,

22:53

and I've also heard different processes of how people

22:56

end up at funeral homes, but do

22:59

you remember who brought Father

23:03

Joe to Lombardo? I

23:05

picked him up from the morgue. You

23:08

picked him up from the morgue. So how

23:10

does that work with the sign off? I've

23:13

been told very different things with

23:15

like... When I worked

23:18

there, like I said, times might

23:20

have changed now, but it's

23:22

still when I was on patrol and we

23:24

would have, you know, dead bodies at houses,

23:26

it's all the same protocol. As long

23:29

as if it's a suspicious death,

23:32

we have the medical examiner come out,

23:34

they take pictures, they do their

23:37

scene investigation and then they

23:39

remove the body to the morgue. And

23:43

then the body can only

23:45

be removed from the morgue once the family

23:48

has given, it can either be verbal

23:50

or written permission to the funeral

23:52

home that is going to be taking care of the

23:55

services. So what would have happened is I

23:57

would have had a had

24:00

a release form from

24:03

the morgue signed. I don't know who would

24:05

have signed it, but

24:08

it allowed me to go to the morgue

24:10

and get the body. And

24:13

the morgue is different than the ECMC, correct?

24:15

The morgue is in, nope, that is the same

24:18

thing. The morgue is right in ECMC.

24:22

So we know how Father Joe got from ECMC

24:25

to Lombardo's funeral home now. and

24:28

we trust this police detective. And

24:31

she says that the medical examiner's office

24:33

would have had

24:34

to accept a release form signed

24:36

by the next of kin. So

24:39

who at the Erie County Medical Center

24:42

would have forged or perhaps

24:44

facilitated on behalf

24:45

of the diocese these documents?

24:50

And

24:50

let us remind you that Butch

24:53

Mazur, The priests taking

24:55

over at St. Lawrence after Father Joe

24:58

also happened

24:59

to be the chaplain at

25:01

ECMC. So

25:15

we left off the last time we were in Buffalo.

25:19

On the night of October 12th, we

25:21

were at Sue's house and we had just

25:23

met with Frank the day

25:26

before the 10 year anniversary of

25:28

Father Joe's passing on October

25:30

13th, 2012, which happens to

25:35

be quite a cosmic anniversary in

25:37

the Catholic world. A hundred and

25:39

five years earlier in Portugal,

25:41

the miracle of Fatima took place.

25:44

And as we were leaving Sousa that night, after

25:48

interviewing Frank for hours, the

25:50

clock strikes midnight. And

25:53

he mentions Fatima. A

25:56

miracle that Pope Pius XII himself

25:59

said he witnessed... in 1950 and

26:02

ruled it a true miracle. It's

26:05

a pretty epic modern miracle that occurred

26:07

in the 20th century and is recognized

26:09

by the church and we find it very

26:12

peculiar that the dates coincide

26:15

with Father Joe's passing.

26:19

The miracle of Fatima started

26:22

in the beginning of spring 1916. Three Three

26:25

Catholic shepherd children living near Fatima,

26:27

Portugal reported apparitions

26:30

of an angel. Then

26:32

starting in May 1917, the

26:34

apparitions began to resemble the Virgin

26:37

Mary, whom the children described

26:39

as the Lady of the Rosary. The

26:41

children reported a prophecy that

26:43

prayer would lead to the end of the Great War,

26:47

and that on the 13th of October of

26:49

that year, the Lady would

26:51

reveal

26:51

her identity and perform

26:54

a miracle so that all

26:56

may believe. Newspapers

26:59

reported on the prophecies and hundreds

27:02

of believers began making pilgrimages

27:04

to the area. The

27:07

children's accounts were deeply controversial,

27:10

drawing intense criticism from both local

27:12

and religious authorities. The

27:15

children were even briefly taken into custody

27:18

because the authorities believed the The prophecies

27:20

were politically motivated in opposition

27:22

to the officially secular First Portuguese

27:25

Republic established in 1910. The

27:30

three children were Lucia dos Santos

27:32

and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta

27:35

Marto. Keep

27:37

in mind I'm paraphrasing a lot of this

27:39

straight off Wikipedia so if I mispronounce

27:41

something, forgive

27:43

me. The

27:46

three children described her as a lady more

27:48

brilliant than the sun,

27:50

and when October came, the events

27:52

of October 13th, 1917 would become known as the miracle of

27:54

the sun. estimates

27:59

between four

28:00

40 in a hundred thousand people had

28:02

journeyed to Fatima to witness the event.

28:05

According to many, after a period of rain,

28:08

the dark clouds broke and the sun

28:10

appeared as an opaque, spinning

28:12

disk in the sky. It

28:14

was said to be significantly duller than

28:16

normal and to cast multicolored

28:18

lights across the landscape, the

28:21

people and the surrounding clouds. The

28:23

sun was then reported to have careened

28:25

towards the earth before zigzagging

28:28

back to its normal position. Witnesses

28:32

reported that their previously wet clothes

28:34

became suddenly and completely

28:36

dry, as well as the wet and muddy

28:38

ground that had been previously soaked because

28:40

of the rain that had been falling.

28:43

The Bishop of Lyria declared the events

28:46

worthy of belief on the 13th of

28:48

October 1930. The

28:51

leader of the Pact of Prophetic Children

28:53

was Lucia dos Santos, who

28:55

would go on to become a Carmelite nun

28:58

and published memoirs in the

29:00

1930s revealing two secrets

29:02

that she claimed came from the Virgin

29:04

Mary and a third secret

29:07

that was not to be revealed by the Catholic

29:09

Church until 1960.

29:19

Here are the three secrets of Fatima. On

29:22

the 13th of July, 1917, around

29:25

noon, the lady is said

29:27

to have entrusted the children with three

29:30

secrets.

29:31

Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in

29:35

a document written by Lucia

29:37

at the request of the Bishop of L'Irea.

29:41

When asked by the Bishop in 1943

29:44

to reveal the third secret, Sister

29:47

Lucia struggled for a short period,

29:50

being not yet convinced that

29:52

God had clearly authorized

29:54

her to act. She

29:58

was under strict obedience in a court of law. with

30:00

her Carmelite life and conflicted

30:02

as to whether she should obey

30:04

her superiors or the personal

30:07

orders she believed were from Mary. However,

30:11

in October 1943, she fell ill with influenza

30:15

and pleurisy, the same illness which

30:17

had killed her cousins and

30:20

for a time believed she was about to die.

30:23

The Bishop of Lyria, Bishop de

30:25

Silva, then ordered her to put the

30:28

third secret in writing. Lucia

30:30

then wrote down the secret and sealed it

30:32

in an envelope not to be opened until 1960.

30:35

She designated 1960

30:39

because she thought that by then it

30:41

will appear clearer. The

30:44

text of the third secret was officially

30:46

released by Pope John Paul II in 2000. The

30:50

Vatican described the secret as a vision

30:53

of the 1981 assassination

30:55

attempt on Pope John Paul II, which

30:59

I'm not sure I agree with. I think

31:01

it's possible that it's a

31:03

red herring to throw us off the scent of

31:06

the true happening or

31:08

what the third secret is actually

31:11

relating to, as you'll

31:14

hear just in a second. The

31:17

first secret. This was a

31:19

vision of hell which Lucia

31:21

said they experienced on the 4th of July, 1917.

31:26

The Virgin Mary opened her hands once

31:28

more, as she had done the two

31:30

previous months.

31:32

The rays appeared to penetrate the earth,

31:35

and we saw, as it were, a

31:37

vast sea of fire. Plunged

31:39

in this fire, we saw the demons and

31:41

the souls. The latter

31:44

were like transparent burning embers,

31:47

all blackened or burnished bronze,

31:50

having human forms. They

31:53

were floating about in that conflagration,

31:55

now raised into the air by the flames

31:58

which issued from within themselves.

32:00

together with great clouds

32:02

of smoke. Now they

32:04

fell back on every side,

32:07

like sparks and huge fires,

32:09

without weight or equilibrium.

32:13

Amid shrieks and groans of pain

32:15

and despair, which horrified us

32:17

and made us tremble with fright.

32:22

So that is secret number one. She

32:25

let them peer into the depths of hell,

32:28

perhaps to show them that it's real. I

32:31

don't know how a nine year old kid comes up with

32:34

that with their two cousins, unless

32:36

they found some psychedelic mushrooms while

32:38

they were herding sheep,

32:40

or it actually happened to them. The

32:44

second secret, it predicted

32:47

an end to the great war, but

32:49

predicted a worse one if people

32:51

did not cease offending God. This

32:54

second war would be foretold by

32:56

a knight illuminated by an unknown light

32:59

as a great sign that the time

33:01

of chastisement was near. To

33:03

avert this, Mary would return to ask

33:06

for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate

33:08

Heart and the establishment

33:10

of the first Saturday's devotion. If

33:13

her requests were heeded,

33:14

Russia would be converted

33:16

and there would be peace. If not,

33:19

Russia would spread her errors throughout the

33:21

world, causing wars and

33:23

persecutions of the Catholic Church.

33:26

The vision culminated with a promise that

33:28

in the end, the Immaculate Heart

33:31

would triumph, the Holy Father

33:33

would consecrate Russia to marry, and

33:36

a period of peace would be

33:38

granted to the world. Well

33:42

on January 25th, 1938,

33:45

bright lights, an Arroyo

33:48

Borealis appeared over

33:50

the northern hemisphere as far south

33:52

as North Africa, Bermuda, and

33:54

California.

33:56

It was the widest occurrence of the Aurora

33:59

since 17-

34:00

In 1909, people from Paris

34:02

to Portugal thought it was a

34:04

great fire and notified the departments.

34:08

Sister Lucia indicated that it

34:10

was the sign foretold and

34:12

so will prize her superior and the

34:14

bishop in letters the following day.

34:17

Just over a month later, Hitler

34:19

seized Austria and eight months

34:21

later invaded Czechoslovakia

34:24

And well, World War II started.

34:31

Again, pretty good prediction from a 10 year

34:34

old calling the second world war before

34:36

it happens. How

34:38

or why would a child make up this

34:41

extremely political prophecy? Consecrate

34:44

Russia to the immaculate heart, declare

34:47

Russia sacred. And if

34:49

not, there will be another great war. This

34:53

can be interpreted in so many ways, but

34:56

I can understand why Pope Pius XII

34:58

was quick to do just that after

35:00

the Second World War. There's

35:07

lots of controversy around the Third

35:09

Secret. Lucia declared

35:12

that the Third Secret could be released to the public

35:14

after 1960. Lucia

35:17

insisted to them it must be

35:19

released by 1960, saying that by that time it will

35:23

be more clearly understood and

35:26

because the blessed Virgin wishes it so.

35:29

Instead, in 1960 the Vatican

35:32

published an official press release stating

35:34

that it was most probable the

35:36

secret would remain forever under

35:39

absolute seal. This

35:42

announcement triggered widespread speculation.

35:45

The New York Times wrote that the speculation

35:47

over the content of the secret ranged from worldwide

35:50

nuclear annihilation to

35:52

deep rifts within the Roman Catholic Church

35:54

that led to rival papacies.

36:01

The Vatican did not publish the Third Secret,

36:04

a four-paged handwritten text until

36:07

the 26th of June, 2000.

36:14

The Third Secret is

36:16

a vision of death of the Pope and

36:18

other religious figures and

36:21

was transcribed by the Bishop of Lyria

36:23

and reads like this.

36:29

After the two parts which I have already explained,

36:32

at the left of our lady and a little

36:34

above, we saw an angel with

36:37

a flaming sword in his left hand flashing.

36:40

It gave out flames that looked as though they

36:42

would set the world on fire. But

36:45

they died out of contact with

36:47

the splendor that our lady radiated

36:49

towards him from her right hand.

36:53

Pointing to the earth with his right hand, the

36:55

angel cried out in a loud voice.

36:59

Penance, penance, penance.

37:03

And we saw an immense light that is

37:05

God, something similar

37:07

to how people appear in a mirror when they

37:09

pass in front of it. A bishop

37:12

dressed in white. We

37:14

had the impression that it was the Holy

37:16

Father. Other bishops,

37:19

priests, religious men and women

37:21

going up a steep mountain.

37:24

At the top, which there was

37:26

a big cross of rough-hewn trunks

37:29

as of a cork tree, before

37:32

reaching there the Holy Father passed through

37:34

a big city, half in ruins and

37:37

half trembling with halting step.

37:40

Afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed

37:42

for the souls of the corpses he

37:45

met on his way. Having

37:47

reached the top of the mountain,

37:49

on his knees at the foot of

37:51

the big cross, he was killed

37:55

by a group of soldiers who fired bullets

37:57

and arrows at him. And

38:00

in the same way there died one after

38:02

another the bishops, priests,

38:05

religious men and women, and various lay

38:07

people of different ranks and

38:09

positions.

38:12

Beneath the two arms of the cross

38:15

there were two angels, each

38:17

with crystal aspisorium in his hand,

38:20

in which they gathered up the blood of the martyrs,

38:23

and with it, sprinkled the

38:25

souls that were making their way

38:28

to God.

38:39

And so that's the third secret,

38:41

a premonition of this

38:45

apocalyptic scene

38:47

of revelation unfolding,

38:51

which could be interpreted in so many ways. The Catholic

38:53

Church is saying it foretold the assassination

38:57

attempt on Pope John Paul in 1981.

38:59

Like I said, I don't know

39:01

if I buy that. But

39:05

so it is. Father Joe's death

39:08

is in sync with the miracle of

39:10

Fatima. And some believe

39:12

the secrets of Fatima are

39:14

revealing the smoke of Satan

39:18

and the date of Father Joe's death is no coincidence.

39:22

And as we are standing in the doorway of Father

39:24

Joe's twin sister Sue's living

39:27

room

39:29

and

39:29

the clock strikes midnight,

39:32

the coincidence certainly felt like

39:34

cosmic coordination.

39:38

October 13th.

40:39

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