The Third Secret of Fatima (more precisely called the third part of the secret revealed by Our Lady of Fatima) is a visionary description written down by Sister Lúcia (the surviving visionary of the 1917 apparitions in Portugal) in 1944. It was officially released by the Vatican in June 2000, along with an interpretation from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The text describes a symbolic, apocalyptic-style vision: An angel with a flaming sword appears to the left of Our Lady, the sword emitting flames that seem capable of setting the world on fire, but the flames are extinguished by the light and splendour radiating from Our Lady’s right hand.
The angel cries out loudly: “Penance, Penance, Penance!”
In an immense light (representing God), the children see something like people reflected in a mirror: a Bishop dressed in White (understood as a pope) walking through a ruined city filled with corpses, climbing a steep mountain toward a large Cross.
Along the way, the pope (and others, including bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople) is attacked by soldiers who shoot bullets and arrows at him; he suffers greatly, falls to the ground as if dead, and is killed by soldiers.
At the same time, other martyrs (bishops, priests, religious men and women, and various lay faithful) are killed in similar ways.
Beneath the arms of the large Cross stand two angels, each holding a crystal aspersorium (a vessel for holy water), collecting the blood of the martyrs and sprinkling it on souls making their way to God.
The official Vatican interpretation (from 2000) links this vision primarily to 20th-century persecutions of the Church (especially under atheistic regimes like communism), the suffering of Christians, and specifically the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II (who survived being shot and saw himself as the “bishop dressed in white” protected by Our Lady). It views the events as largely belonging to the past, emphasizing themes of penance, prayer, conversion, and trust in God’s mercy rather than as a prophecy of inevitable future catastrophe. The call to “penance” is presented as the core message. Some Catholics and Fatima devotees accept this fully, while others have questioned whether the released text is complete (citing earlier hints from Sister Lúcia or archivists about a crisis of faith), though the Vatican and Sister Lúcia herself (before her death in 2005) affirmed it as the full and authentic secret. Overall, the Church presents it not as a deterministic prediction but as a call to prayer (especially the Rosary), repentance, and devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart to help avert or mitigate suffering in the world.
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