Following major celebrations in Fatima, commemorating the 90th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary, the Vatican tried to draw a line under a conspiracy theory that has dogged the Catholic Church for decades: that it was harbouring details of the predicted apocalypse. At the same time, the Pope's agenda already upset native American Indians and soon will outrage progressive elements of his Church.

The Pope's second-in-command, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, denied on Sunday May 13, 2007, that the Church was suppressing a vision of the end of the world said to have been revealed by the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children on a hillside at Fatima in Portugal.
The three "Secrets of Fatima" were written down by one of the children, Lucia Dos Santos and sent to the Vatican in a sealed envelope. Two of the "secrets" were made public, apparently predicting the inferno of 20th-century world war and totalitarianism and the threat of Communist Russia to Christianity.
The Third Secret remained the secret past its intended date of publication and became the subject of immense controversy, ranging from the end of the world to imminent alien invasions.
Late in life, Pope John Paul II suggested that the third "secret" predicted the 1981 attempt on his life, but by doing so, failed to satisfy conspiracy' theorists, with many accusing the Vatican of disclosing only part of the last Fatima secret.
Antonio Socci, a Catholic journalist and author of "The Fourth Secret of Fatima", said that he had at first accepted John Paul's explanation. His researches led him to believe however that the late Pope's revelation had been "partial". He said that the undisclosed portion of the "secret" predicted a crisis of faith in the West and the collapse of the Church hierarchy in the face of a tidal wave of "apostasy and heresy".
Marco Tosatti, a Vatican watcher and author of "The Prophecies of Fatima", also said that the Vatican was believed to be "hiding something" so as "not to alarm millions of the faithful".
But on the 90th anniversary of the apparitions, Cardinal Bertone insisted that the idea that the secret predicted "catastrophic world events" or the collapse of the Christian Church were "pure fantasy".

The cardinal has been fighting conspiracy theories involving the Church, such as "The Da Vinci Code", which he dismissed as a "pack of lies". In "The Last Fatima Visionary: My Meetings with Sister Lucia", Cardinal Bertone says that before her death in 2005 - at the age of 97 - the nun confirmed John Paul's account of the "third secret".
"There is no fourth secret," he declared. "Everything has been published and correctly interpreted." He hinted that "anti-Christians" were behind the conspiracy theories.
In a preface to Cardinal Bertone's book, Pope Benedict XVI writes that publication of the "third secret" by his predecessor "unveiled the truth amid the confused framework of apocalyptic interpretations and speculation in the Church". It should equally be pointed out that the present pope was instrumental in revealing the third secret.

Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI himself is to attempt to "salvage" the true identity of Jesus as revealed in the scriptures from the impact of works such as The Da Vinci Code. In his new publication, "Jesus of Nazareth", the Pope will attempt to end the distinction between the historical Jesus and the "Christ of faith". Although the Pope does not name Dan Brown's bestseller, he specifically criticises "recent popular depictions" of Jesus. The Da Vinci Code claims that Jesus did not die on the cross, that he married Mary Magdalene, had a child with her, and that the church went to extraordinary lengths to conceal the secret.
Meanwhile, Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" has depicted the high priest Caiaphas as the villain, and hence the Jews as responsible, for exerting pressure on Pontius Pilate to execute Christ.

The fictional works reflect a broader movement in theology to separate the human from the divine Jesus, suggesting that the gospels present Jesus as a prophet or reformer rather than as God himself. The Pope describes his book as a personal search for "the face of the Lord" rather than an official statement of doctrine. But his willingness to engage with populist depictions of Jesus, as well as doubting theologians, has revealed a more subtle figure than the caricature of the former Cardinal Ratzinger as "God's rottweiler", the stern enforcer of orthodoxy.
Ian Ker, the Roman Catholic scholar and historian who teaches at Oxford University, said: "The Pope is trying to get back to the basic essentials of the Christian faith in a positive way instead of attacking errors as he did in his former job."

Meanwhile, "back to basics" is very much on the cards of this pope, whereby it is rumoured that he will imminently bring back the Latin Mass, giving dioceses the liberty to opt for what type of mass (modern or Latin) to go for. However, it is believed that the Latin Mass will be slightly adapted to modern times, and hence no longer will call for the conversion of the Jews to the "true faith".
The decision is bound to upset the more progressive elements of the Christian faith, which is largely torn apart between factions, one who want to be more progressive, the other who wants to return to the old ways.

The Pope did not attend celebrations in Fatima, as he is visiting Brazil, where he was able to create further controversy. Outraged Indian leaders in Brazil said on Monday May 14 that they were offended by Pope Benedict's "arrogant and disrespectful" comments that the Roman Catholic Church had purified them and a revival of their religions would be a backward step.
In what must be seen as one of the most obvious attempts at rewriting of history, the Pope said the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas. They had welcomed the arrival of European priests at the time of the conquest as they were "silently longing" for Christianity, he said. In truth, millions of tribal Indians died as a result of European colonization backed by the Church since Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, through slaughter, disease or enslavement. Many Indians today struggle for survival, stripped of their traditional ways of life and excluded from society, with little or no rights over land they have lived on for millennia. Furthermore, Pope John Paul II spoke in 1992 of mistakes in the evangelization of native peoples of the Americas.
The incident underlines that with Pope Benedict, an arch-conservative wind is blowing through the corridors of the Vatican. With rumours that the end of the Vatican Church has been prophesised for this period of history, it may not be God or the Virgin Mary, but a bad manager at the top of a large company that will drive his company into oblivion.