To the editor:

A few decades ago, I read about the prophesy the Blessed Virgin gave to Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa on Oct.13, 1973, in Akita, Japan. Parts of it said: “…if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity.” “…. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day, recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and the priests.”

“…The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their Confreres.”

At that time, I imagined the fire from the sky would probably be from military satellites orbiting earth. Today I imagine Russia, China and the U.S. have high intensity pulsed lasers that could pinpoint any critical facility and fry it. Electro-Magnetic Pulse weapons could fry our power grids. There’s probably other high-tech weapons we don’t know about..

Also, I wasn’t too sure what “….cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops against other bishops…” was all about. But today considering the polarized views within the hierarchy of the Church over sexual morality, most notably the Vatican document ‘Fiducia Supplicans’, its now clear what drives the clergy wars.

Over the last week I have read several commentaries in ‘Crisis Magazine Online’. I would encourage Catholics to read the articles by Fr. Gerald Murray, Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, Richard A. Spinello and Monica Miller. It gets a little tedious on how this document was cooked up but after you’re done, you will understand why this document is not in line with 2,000 years of Church teaching and should not be followed.

Phil Drietz

Delhi