Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClane Smith, where
Speaker 1: for the weeks in between episodes we look at stories
Speaker 1: and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make
Speaker 1: it into the previous show. In the last episode, Children
Speaker 1: of the Pastures, we traced the remarkable story of three
Speaker 1: young shepherds from the parish of Fatima in southern Portugal, who,
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventeen claimed they were visited six times by
Speaker 1: the Virgin Mary. The children, Lucia dos Santos and her
Speaker 1: cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, claimed that during one of
Speaker 1: the Virgin Mary's appearances, she told them a secret about
Speaker 1: the future of human civilization, the knowledge of which they
Speaker 1: insisted was too dangerous for the public to know. With
Speaker 1: the death of Francisco in nineteen nineteen, followed by the
Speaker 1: death of Jacinta in nineteen twenty, Lucier was left as
Speaker 1: the only living member of the enigmatic trio who possessed
Speaker 1: the apparent secret. In nineteen forty one, twenty four years
Speaker 1: after the fact, Lucier revealed they hadn't received one secret,
Speaker 1: but three. The first was a vision of Hell, which
Speaker 1: she described as being like a sea of fire under
Speaker 1: the earth, inside which demons and souls in human form
Speaker 1: floated about without weight or equilibrium, as their bodies blazed
Speaker 1: like transparent burning embers. This appeared to carry some weight,
Speaker 1: owing to the eyewitness accounts of Lucia seemingly being horrified
Speaker 1: by something back in nineteen seventeen during one of her
Speaker 1: alleged conversations with the Virgin Mary. The second apparent secret
Speaker 1: reflected a fear that the rise of Communism in Russia,
Speaker 1: which as an inherently anti theocratic movement, was an existential
Speaker 1: threat to the Church, would lead to an even greater
Speaker 1: war breaking out than the war that was taking place
Speaker 1: at the time. For some, this proved that there was
Speaker 1: something inherently evil or destructive about communism, since that even
Speaker 1: greater war did come to pass. Many others have noted, however,
Speaker 1: that although Lucier claimed this was told to her in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen, this wasn't actually revealed until nineteen forty one,
Speaker 1: two years after the Second World War broke out in Europe,
Speaker 1: thus undermining its legitimacy somewhat as a genuine prophecy, all
Speaker 1: of which leads us to the third secret. This one, however,
Speaker 1: Lucia would absolutely not reveal, believing it was simply too
Speaker 1: distressing for the public to hear. As a compromise with
Speaker 1: the Church, she eventually agreed to write it down, but
Speaker 1: only for her superiors. As the story goes, the first
Speaker 1: who read it, Bishop Jose de Silva of Learia, was
Speaker 1: so unsettled by it that he waited thirteen years before
Speaker 1: sharing it with the Vatican. It is also said that
Speaker 1: when the secret was read by Pope Pious the Twelfth,
Speaker 1: the surfing pope at the time, his mouth fell open
Speaker 1: in shock, and so in nineteen sixty the Vatican found
Speaker 1: never to release it. Numerous conspiracy theories emerged in the
Speaker 1: wake of this decision, with many speculating that the secret
Speaker 1: was in fact nothing less than a prophecy detailing the
Speaker 1: imminent collapse of our world, which naturally made people a
Speaker 1: little uncomfortable and in some cases quite desperate to know
Speaker 1: exactly what it said. On May second, nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: an aer Lingus Boeing seven three seven was en route
Speaker 1: from Dublin to London, when, five minutes from landing, the
Speaker 1: passenger seatbelt signs flashed on as cabin crew member Deirdree
Speaker 1: Dumphy asked everyone to take their seats. She noticed a
Speaker 1: man in his late fifties and dressed in a business
Speaker 1: suit making a quick dash for the toilet. Assuming he
Speaker 1: was just one of the many professionals on a short
Speaker 1: business trip to London, Deirdre let it pass, so it
Speaker 1: was with some shock when she turned around moments later
Speaker 1: to find him standing in the aisle with his clothes
Speaker 1: completely soaked through and holding a vial of liquid in
Speaker 1: each hand. Before anyone knew what was happening, the man
Speaker 1: made a bee line for the cockpit and told the
Speaker 1: pilots that he was covered in petrol and they didn't
Speaker 1: take the plane immediately to t Iran, he would set
Speaker 1: himself on fire and release the cyanide he was holding
Speaker 1: in his hands. The man, who spoke with an Australian accent,
Speaker 1: claimed he had a new constitution for Iran that he
Speaker 1: wanted to deliver in person. As panic set in among
Speaker 1: the passengers, the pilots agreed to the demand, but only
Speaker 1: if they could first land in France to refuel the plane.
Speaker 1: After landing in Normandy, the plane was met by French
Speaker 1: authorities and prevented from taking off again, forcing the man
Speaker 1: to rethink his plan, at which point he finally came
Speaker 1: clean about why he'd really hijacked the plane. After demanding
Speaker 1: to be put in touch with the editor of Irish
Speaker 1: newspaper The Irish Independent, the man proceeded to give them
Speaker 1: a thirty five hundred word manifesto demanding the release of
Speaker 1: the Third Secret of Fatima. Seconds later, however, he was
Speaker 1: tackled to the ground by French paratroopers who had managed
Speaker 1: to sneak on board while he was distracted. Lawrence Downey
Speaker 1: was originally from Perth in Australia, but had fled the
Speaker 1: country as well as his wife and five children after
Speaker 1: being allegedly involved in some fraudulent dealings, and eventually settled
Speaker 1: in Ireland. Downey had been a Trappist monk in the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, but had been expelled for assaulting the head
Speaker 1: of the order, after which he spent some time working
Speaker 1: as a tour guide in Thatchama. It was there that
Speaker 1: he became obsessed with the Children's story and finding out
Speaker 1: the truth about the mysterious third Secret, believing that once
Speaker 1: he knew what it was, it would bring fulfillment to
Speaker 1: him and many other people's lives. Downey, who had turned
Speaker 1: out had only poured water on himself, and whose vials
Speaker 1: of cyanide were also just vials of water, was arrested
Speaker 1: and sentenced to five years in prison. No hostages were
Speaker 1: harmed during the incident, and the Vatican declined his demand
Speaker 1: to release the secret. Eleven days after the air Lingus hijacking,
Speaker 1: Pope John Paul the Second was in Saint Peter's Square
Speaker 1: in Rome, greeting the hundreds of people who'd gathered there
Speaker 1: for his regular Wednesday general audience at five nineteen pm.
Speaker 1: As he sat dressed in all his white splendor, waving
Speaker 1: at the crowd from inside his popemobile, gunshots rang out
Speaker 1: through the square and the Pope collapsed in the back
Speaker 1: of the jeep. He'd been shot four times, with two
Speaker 1: bullets being lodged in his lower intestine, one striking his
Speaker 1: left index finger and another hitting him in the right arm. Miraculously,
Speaker 1: by losing three quarters of his blood, the Pope survived
Speaker 1: the attempt on his life. The lead perpetrator, Memet ali Axa,
Speaker 1: who fired the shots, was arrested soon after, along with
Speaker 1: three accomplices. To this day, it isn't known exactly what
Speaker 1: motivated the group to carry out the act. However, one
Speaker 1: of the reasons that memet ali Axa gave at his
Speaker 1: trial in nineteen eighty five was that it was connected
Speaker 1: to the Third Secret of the Madonna of Fatima. Even
Speaker 1: before this, it hadn't escaped the Pope's attention. That the
Speaker 1: attack took place on May thirteenth, sixty four years to
Speaker 1: the day that the Virgin Mary was apparently first cited
Speaker 1: by the three children. The pope was convinced that his
Speaker 1: earthly life had been saved by the Virgin Mary, and
Speaker 1: so having paid little public interest in the story of
Speaker 1: the prophecies, they suddenly appeared to attain a more significant
Speaker 1: status in the eyes of the church. The following year,
Speaker 1: he visited the sight of the apparent apparitions to lay
Speaker 1: the cornerstone of what would become the Grand Sanctuary of Fatchima,
Speaker 1: dedicated to the alleged visions of the Children, which now
Speaker 1: stands there. The pope remarked then that the coincidence of
Speaker 1: his assassination attempt and the Virgin Mary's appearances occurring on
Speaker 1: the same date was so great that it seemed a
Speaker 1: special invitation for him to visit the sacred location. In
Speaker 1: spite of all that, the Church continued to refuse the
Speaker 1: release of the secret. As the years went by, speculation
Speaker 1: about the mythical Third Secret of Fatima became increasingly alarmist,
Speaker 1: and so seemingly in an effort to calm things down,
Speaker 1: in two thousand, the Church finally agreed to reveal it,
Speaker 1: publishing it on June twenty sixth of that year. The
Speaker 1: secret was largely based around a vision of the Holy Father, who,
Speaker 1: after moving through a ruined city, is gunned down by
Speaker 1: soldiers firing bullets and arrows, alongside a bishop dressed in white,
Speaker 1: as well as other bishops, priests, and women and men
Speaker 1: of faith. For some, the Vatican included the secret had
Speaker 1: clearly prophesied the nineteen eighty one assassination attempt on the Pope,
Speaker 1: who was depicted in it as the bishop dressed in white.
Speaker 1: Some sought to read more into its violent imagery and
Speaker 1: its talk of ruined cities. However, few could quite understand
Speaker 1: what about It was so distressing for people that it
Speaker 1: had to be kept hidden for almost fifty years, leaving many,
Speaker 1: including Lawrence Downey, who had hijacked an entire plane just
Speaker 1: to hear it feeling a little underwhelmed, unless, of course,
Speaker 1: what had been revealed to the public wasn't actually the
Speaker 1: whole secret, or in fact the real secret at all.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and six, Italian journalist Antonio Socci published
Speaker 1: a book entitled The Fourth Secret of Fatima, in which
Speaker 1: he made the stunning and controversial claim that the secret
Speaker 1: published by the Vatican was only part of it. Socci's
Speaker 1: suspicions had been raised when the apparent original secret was
Speaker 1: shown to have been written on four sheets of paper,
Speaker 1: when in fact, previous talk of it from the Church
Speaker 1: and Lucia dos Santos suggested it had only been written
Speaker 1: on one sheet of paper. He also pointed out that
Speaker 1: back in nineteen eighty four, when one cardinal who'd read
Speaker 1: it was asked to comment on it, he said only
Speaker 1: that it involved the importance of the Novissame, also known
Speaker 1: as the four last things of death, judgment, heaven, and Hell,
Speaker 1: something that didn't seem to be explicitly evident in the
Speaker 1: released version. It is also claimed that Lucia dos Santos
Speaker 1: herself once said, on being asked to give some indication
Speaker 1: of what it was about, that it was all there
Speaker 1: written in the Gospels and the Apocalypse that includes the
Speaker 1: Book of Revelation and the depiction of the end of Times.
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