On the Way to the Unified World Religion:
A New Fatima
The new “Basilica of the Holy Trinity” was consecrated on October 13, 2007. That was the final day of the 90th anniversary celebrations that had already begun in 2006. The announced plan of the responsible ecclesiastical authorities in Portugal is to transform Fatima into an interreligious center; it must then be feared that the inauguration of this new building is meant to bury the “old Fatima” once and for all. For this new “church” displays not only no Christian symbols (let alone a cross), but rather embodies a Masonic and occult anti-theology.
A Brief Look Backward
On March 9, 2004, the then Bishop of Fatima-Leiria, D. Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva, consecrated the cornerstone of the new building: a stone from the grave of St. Peter, which Pope John Paul II had presented personally to the Rector of the Shrine, Msgr. Guerra. On this occasion the Bishop of Fatima expressed the wish that the new sanctuary should be a permanent invitation to “reconciliation and peace.” Who is to be reconciled here? Between what groups would peace be made?
The key to understanding this statement is given by the interreligious conference held in Fatima October 10-12, 2003. The symbol of this conference alone speaks volumes: At the center is a glowing circle, the border of which consists of silhouetted buildings. At the top of the circle is the old Fatima basilica. Around the rest of the circle one recognizes other places of worship, including pagan temples, all coexisting peacefully with one another. The circle represents the earth, the surface of which is blended in around and below the circle. Upon it stands a man who looks up at the circle with a gesture of enthusiasm. In the center of the circle the glowing sun is rising. Obviously all this depicts the dawn of a new age and of a “new Fatima” as well. Is it not reasonable to suppose that the circle of the conference logo also represents the new circular church, of which the cornerstone was laid five months later?
This appears to be a thoroughly realistic interpretation, if one keeps in mind the final declaration of the interreligious conference: “No religion may make itself great by belittling the others. An open dialogue is the way to build bridges and demolish the walls of centuries-old hatred. What is necessary is that each religion remain true to its integral beliefs and recognize that every other religion is equally valid.…”
The Rector of the Shrine sang the same tune when he said at the conference: “The future of Fatima or the veneration of God and his Mother in this shrine must be transformed into a shrine where the various religions can come together. The interreligious dialogue in Portugal and in the Catholic Church is still in its onic stage, but the Shrine of Fatima accepts its universalist calling.” Furthermore: “The fact that Fatima is a Moslem name shows that the shrine must be opened to a convergence of various religions.”1
The Masonic World Religion
With the above quotes the Masonic vision of a unified world religion acquires very concrete features. The words of the French Freemason Yves Marsaudon confirm this vision: according to him, one may say that ecumenism is the “legitimate son” of Freemasonry. He declared:
In our time our Br[other] Franklin Roosevelt demanded for all men the right to worship God in accordance with their own principles and according to their own convictions! That means tolerance and also ecumenism. We Freemasons of tradition will allow ourselves to clarify and revise these words of a famous statesman as follows: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Israelite, Moslem, Hindu, free-thinker, free-believer–these words are for us only first names. Our family name is: Freemason.2
Behind This Architecture Is No Christian Concept
If, in 2003, one could still ask how all this would come about, the answer is clear today when one takes a close look at the new “basilica.” It is only logical that a new religion needs a “new style” for a house of worship. Such a temple already stands before us in Fatima. At first glance it is evident that the architectural concept is not Christian. The cross has been removed from the top of the structure and placed to one side, so that the exterior appears “religiously neutral.” But it is not! The architecture itself conveys a message, just as did that of our old Christian churches with their wealth of architectural symbols. Here, however, the message is an occult and esoteric anti-theology.
What Is the Key to Understanding This Building?
In Southwest England stands a 3,000-year-old structure which New Age groups have invested with meaning as they have done with the Pyramids: Stonehenge.
To this day the purpose of Stonehenge has not been fully explained, but it is highly probable that this construction, a double stone ring with its several concentric earthen ramparts, served the rites of a religious cult. It measures over 115 meters in diameter. This is a very significant number, for if the circumference is calculated by multiplying the diameter by pi, the result is slightly more than 360, i.e. the number of days required for the earth to orbit the sun. (This is the origin of the division of a circle into 360 degrees!) In other words, the Stonehenge structure was built so precisely that for every day of the year there is a corresponding segment of its outer surface measuring one meter. It happens, therefore, that every year on the day of the summer solstice (June 21) the sun’s rays pass through a pair of upright monoliths outside the circle in the center of the site.
Although the precise meaning of this arrangement has not yet been fully explained, one may safely assume that it represents the harmony of the annual cycle of the earth, and with it human life, with the cosmos, the world of the pagan gods. The stars of the heavens were worshipped as deities by the heathens, especially the sun and the moon. It is thus understandable that the solstices had a special meaning for them (see below).
The New Church as Stonehenge II?
While a bird’s-eye view of the new church in Fatima shows some similarity to Stonehenge, one could still assume from this viewpoint that the likeness could be pure coincidence. However, such an assumption breaks down under the analysis of the ground plan of the new church. To begin with, it measures 115 meters in diameter! It also corresponds geocentrically with the sun’s orbit. A further parallel is obvious from the fact that as the sun shines into the heart of the Stonehenge circle, so it does in Fatima. A glass beam pierces the roof across the diameter line of the circular church. It resembles an upward-slanting staircase following the sloping roof from front to back. By means of this “light beam” the interior of the church, especially the altar area toward which it points, is illuminated. It is of further interest that within the church is a smaller concentric circle (105 meters in diameter), just as there is a second, smaller circle in Stonehenge. Mere coincidence?
An Attempt at Interpretation
In order to supply an exact interpretation of this architecture, one must become familiar with the occult language of symbols used by the Freemasons and the esoteric sects. It is apparently possible even for an outsider to identify the “rough outlines” on the basic of what is generally known about Masonic symbolism and the beliefs of New Age neopaganism.
At the present time we are witnessing a rebirth of the ancient heathen cult of witchcraft, called “Wicca,”3 in relation to the New Age movement. Each year at the summer solstice tens of thousands of Druids and witches come together at Stonehenge to await the “Beginning of the Sun.” On June 21, 2003, there were 30,000 people there! The name Wicca comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for a “practitioner of witchcraft,” wicca (masculine) or wicce (feminine). This phenomenon is directly connected to the rise of feminism as a social force since the 1960’s. The modern cult of witchcraft is essentially a nature religion with the Great Goddess as principal deity. Her symbol is the moon. The witches honor the natural lunar and solar cycles. The solar cycles are divided into eight “Sabbaths,” which together comprise the “Wheel of the Year.”
The Witches’ Sabbaths are the two solstices, the two equinoxes, and the four seasons in between. The Wheel of the Year represents not only the cycle of the seasons, but also concretely the fertility cycle in nature. This is reflected in the great Wicca initiations, which climax with the marriage of the god and the goddess, whose union brings forth new life.
Halloween or Samhain (October 31) is the traditional pagan New Year. Samhain means “summer’s end.” According to the myth, the dying god goes to sleep in the underworld and awaits his rebirth. In the womb of the Great Mother, the Queen of Darkness, the seed of new life ripens.
Imbolc (February 2) is the awakening of the year, the first onic movements of spring in the womb of Mother Earth. Imbolc means “in the [mother’s] belly.” The myth tells that the goddess becomes a virgin.
Walpurgis Night or Beltane (April 30) may have its second name from the Celtic deity Bell or Balor, god of light and fire. Beltane is the celebration of the meeting of the sun god with the fertile earth goddess, who now becomes pregnant.
Lammas or Lugnasad (August 1) marks the beginning of autumn and harvest time. Lugnasad brings, in the myth, the beginning of the death of the sun god, but also celebrates fulfillment and maturity.
Wicca is thus first and foremost a goddess-religion, but it is clearly recognizable that the role of the sun god in the mythical cycle of the great Sabbaths is no less important. The Celts recognized that the sun god goes through the phases of death and rebirth in the same way that the moon goddess has, in the course of her lunar cycles, ascending and descending phases.
Conformity of These Pagan Notions with Masonic Symbolism
Among the obligatory furnishings of a Masonic temple are three floor lamps that stand on three of the four diagonal points of the square platform on which rests the altar like a stone cube dominating the center of the room. These lamps signify the sun and the moon (!), and the Master of the Chair, who sits enthroned at the end of the room (where in a Catholic church the high altar with the tabernacle normally stands). Here again we find the heathen sun-moon principle of the deities. These two cosmic bodies represent, in Freemasonry as in heathenism, the “incarnation of the creative primeval forces.” The president of the lodge, bearing the title of “Master of the Chair,” represents the “Son” (thus aping the Logos), who emanates the spiritual light.4 It is completely obvious that this is a demonic mimicry of Catholic teaching, as Lucifer (which, in Latin, means “Lightbearer”) places himself upon the throne of the Incarnate Word (Logos), our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the devil’s antithesis to the true Church of God.
A comparison of the altar area of the new Fatima church and the Scottish Rite temple in Washington, D.C., shows astonishing similarities: As in the Masonic temple, the candles do not rest on the altar, as customary in Catholic churches, but instead on freestanding candleholders diagonally to the altar. And in that place where the tabernacle ought to be, a large throne flanked by two seats stands on a platform several steps higher than the altar–precisely as in the Masonic temple!
The Vertical View of the New Church
The new “basilica” is like a short stump of a column sawed off at an angle, bearing a sloping upper surface. At the lowest point its outer wall measures nine meters high; the average height is 15 meters and the maximum height (behind the throne) measures 20 meters. The glass beam admitting daylight follows the roof slant in the middle. If one looks toward the new church from the vantage point of the old basilica, this beam looks like an ascending stairway or ladder leading away from the old church in exactly the opposite direction!
The sawed-off column strongly suggests the unfinished Tower of Babel. Babel stands for the attempt to build a world independent of God. The only dogma of Liberalism is: “Nothing is true, everything is allowed.” (Motto of the Masonic Illuminist Movement.) The tower is intended to reach up to heaven; in other words, man is to reach his goal on his own strength. He climbs upward, i.e. he achieves self-redemption. This is the pivotal point around which Freemasonry, New Age, and occultism in general revolve: self-redemption, not redemption through Christ. It is therefore no wonder that the ladder to heaven and the Tower of Babel are popular symbols in occultism. A placard on which this was used as an illustration was distributed some years ago by the European Council on Cultural Cooperation. In the new church at Fatima, the building of the tower is to be achieved via the “ascending ladder.”
The Pantheon
The circular form of this church, which we have already examined from a variety of aspects, finds a further correspondence to paganism in the Pantheon of Rome. This temple was also circular and received its light through an opening in its dome. As the name signifies, the Pantheon was dedicated to all the gods of the Roman Empire. After Christianity gained the upper hand, Pope Boniface IV had the temple transformed into a church in honor of the Mother of God and of all martyrs. It was dedicated on May 13 (!), 609 or 610. That is the origin of our feast of All Saints. With the unified world religion which is the goal of Freemasonry, this Christian development is to be thrown into reverse. Whereas previously Christ alone was king, He is now to be reduced to one among many deities of the Age of Religious Liberty and Ecumenism.
There is another reason for the circular plan: With the exception of grave-churches (usually of martyrs) patterned after the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the traditional Catholic church building is almost never a perfect circle without an apse. This is because the Catholic church is oriented toward Christ in the tabernacle, whereas a church with a circular floor plan has no distinct orientation. An additional internal and symbolic problem lies in the dimension of the new Fatima church, which has a circumference of almost exactly 360 meters: If one adds successively each of the numbers from 1 to 36 to the next (1+2+3…etc.), the sum is 666.
Conclusion
Even if one does not accept every detail of this interpretation of the new “basilica” of Fatima, it is certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that behind this architectural concept lurks the antithesis of tradition. The devil apes God and the Church, imitating everything in order to turn it into its opposite. He opposes the Mother of God and her Son with a pair of pagan gods; he opposes the Redemption through Jesus Christ with self-redemption; he replaces the Church, outside of which there is no salvation, with the Masonic pantheon of all religions. These three contradictions to that which the “old Fatima” represents are embodied in the architecture of the “new Fatima.” Thus the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, which describes the decisive battle between the Woman and the Dragon, the Mother of God and the devil, is visibly confirmed here. Today this battle has become reality. It is raging worldwide. Each person must make his decision, either to accept Liberalism and conform to its adage that “nothing is true, everything is allowed”–or to submit in humble obedience to the commandments of God.
For our part, we have already decided. We take refuge in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, revealed to us at Fatima as our last means of attaining salvation. It will be our refuge and the way that leads us to God.
1 See www.streitpunkt.fatima.de.
2 Yves Mersaudon, L’oecumenisme vu par un franc-maçon de tradition, p. 126, in: Daniel le Roux, Peter, Lovest Thou Me?, German transl. Petrus, liebst du mich? Johannes Paul II., Papst der Tradition oder Papst der Revolution? (Stuttgart: SSPX, 1990), p. 206.
3 The following description is from Nevill Drury, Magie: Vom Schamanismus und Hexenkult bis zu den Technoheiden (Baden, Switzerland, 2003), pp. 162-165.
4 See Manfred Lurker, ed., Wörterbuch der Symbolik, 5th edition (Stuttgart, 1991), s.v. “Freimaurerische Symbole.”
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