The world appears to be witnessing now the final battle between Christ and Satan.
Before she died in 2005, one of the three children who witnessed the Marian apparitions at Fatima foretold that "the final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan" would be over marriage and the family—two pillars of the Christian faith now under increasing assault from secular forces.
The revelation was made by Italian Cardinal Carlo Caffarra who received a long letter from the visionary, Sister Lucia dos Santos sometime before she died, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports.
The report was based from an article carried by the Desde la Fe (From the Faith) weekly of the Archdiocese of Mexico amid the ongoing debate sparked by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto when he announced his intention to promote gay marriage in his country.
The report says Cardinal Caffarra received the letter from the visionary during the papacy of Saint John Paul II when he was still the Archbishop of Bologna, Italy.
Cardinal Caffarra disclosed the revelation to the Italian press in 2008, three years after the death of Sister Lucia, according to the Mexican weekly.
Cardinal Caffarra said the letter from Sister Lucia was in response to his letter addressed to her and coursed through her bishop. He said he was only asking for her prayers after Saint John Paul II commissioned him to establish the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
"Inexplicably, since I did not expect a reply, seeing as I had only asked for her prayers, I received a long letter with her signature, which is now in the archives of the Institute," the Italian cardinal said.
"In that letter we find written: 'The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family.' Don't be afraid, she added, because whoever works for the sanctity of Marriage and the Family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. Then she concluded: 'Nevertheless, Our Lady has already crushed his head'."
Cardinal Caffarra said John Paul II asked him to establish the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family precisely because the family "has to do with the supporting pillar of creation, the truth of the relationship between man and woman, between the generations."
"If the foundational pillar is damaged, the entire building collapses and we're seeing this now, because we are right at this point and we know it," he added.
