A popular quote among people more skeptical of church leadership. Fortunately or unfortunately, Mary almost certainly did not say this.
First, the timeline: The visions occurred in 1846 with both a public, and a private, element. The public element is well-known, was made available immediately and documented in the “Pra report,” and after many requests, the secret elements of the vision were written down in 1851 in a memo that was only for the Pope.
The original, 1851 memo from Melanie Calvat describing the secrets was released from the Vatican Archives in 1999:
Fr. René Laurentin and Abbé Michel Corteville translated it as follows:
| J.M.J. secret que m’a donné la Sainte Vierge sur la Montagne de la Salette le 19 septembre 1846 Secr[e]t Mélanie, je vais vous dire quelque chose que vous ne direz à personne: Le temps de la colère de Dieu est arrivé! Si, lorsque vous aurez dit aux peuples ce que je vous ai dit tout à l’heure, et ce que je vous dirai de dire encore, si, après cela, ils ne se convertissent pas, (si on ne fait pas pénitence, et si on ne cesse de travailler le dimanche, et si on continue de blasphémer le Saint Nom de Dieu), en un mot, si la face de la terre ne change pas, Dieu va se venger contre le peuple ingrat et esclave du démon. Mon Fils va faire éclater sa puissance! Paris, cette ville souillée de toutes sortes de crimes, périra infailliblement. Marseille sera détruite en peu de temps. Lorsque ces choses arriveront, le désordre sera complet sur la terre. Le monde s’abandonnera à ses passions impies. Le pape sera persecuté de toutes parts: on lui tirera dessus, on voudra le mettre à mort, mais on ne lui pourra rien, le Vicaire de Dieu triomphera encore cette fois[-là]. Les prêtres et les religieuses, et les vrais serviteurs de mon Fils seront persécutés, et plusieurs mourront pour la foi de Jésus-Christ. Une famine règnera en même temps. Après que toutes ces choses seront arrivées, beaucoup de personnes reconnaîtront la main de Dieu sur elles, se convertiront, et feront pénitence de leur péchés. Un grand roi montera sur le trône, et règnera pendant quelques années. La religion refleurira et s’étendra par toute la terre et la fertilité sera grande, le monde content de ne manquer de rien recommencera ses désordres, abandonnera Dieu, et se livrera à ses passions criminelles. [Parmi] les ministres de Dieu, et les Epouses de Jésus-Christ, il y en a qui se livreront au désordre, et c’est ce qu’il y aura de [plus] terrible. Enfin, un enfer règnera sur la terre. Ce sera alors que l’Antéchrist naîtra d’une religieuse: mais malheur à elle! Beaucoup de personnes croiront à lui, parce qu’il se dira venu du ciel, malheur à ceux qui le croiront! Le temps n’est pas éloigné, il ne se passera pas deux fois 50 ans. Mon enfant, vous ne direz pas ce que je viens de vous dire. (Vous ne le direz à personne, vous ne direz pas si vous devez le dire un jour, vous ne direz pas ce que cela regarde), enfin vous ne direz plus rien jusqu’à ce que je vous dise de le dire! Je prie Notre Saint Père le Pape de me donner sa sainte bénédiction. Mélanie Mathieu, bergère de La Salette Grenoble 6 juillet 1851 J.M.J.+ | J.M.J. secret which the Blessed Virgin gave me on the Mountain of La Salette on September 19, 1846 Secr[e]t. Mélanie, I will say something to you which you will not say to anybody: The time of God’s wrath has arrived! If, when you say to the people what I have said to you so far, and what I will still ask you to say, if, after that, they do not convert, (if they do not do penance, and they do not cease working on Sunday, and if they continue to blaspheme the Holy Name of God), in a word, if the face of the earth does not change, God will be avenged against the people ungrateful and slave of the demon. My Son will make his power manifest! Paris, this city soiled by all kinds of crimes, will perish infallibly. Marseilles will be destroyed in a little time. When these things arrive, the disorder will be complete on the earth, the world will be given up to its impious passions. The pope will be persecuted from all sides, they will shoot at him, they will want to put him to death, but no one will be able to do it, the Vicar of God will triumph again this time. The priests and the Sisters, and the true servants of my Son will be persecuted, and several will die for the faith of Jesus Christ. A famine will reign at the same time. After all these will have arrived, many will recognize the hand of God on them, they will convert, and do penance for their sins. A great king will go up on the throne, and will reign a few years. Religion will re-flourish and spread all over the world, and there will be a great abundance, the world, glad not to be lacking nothing, will fall again in its disorders, will give up God, and will be prone to its criminal passions. [Among] God’s ministers, and the Spouses of Jesus-Christ, there will be some who will go astray, and that will be the most terrible. Lastly, hell will reign on earth. It will be then that the Antichrist will be born of a Sister, but woe to her! Many will believe in him, because he will claim to have come from heaven, woe to those who will believe in him! That time is not far away, twice 50 years will not go by. My child, you will not say what I have just said to you. (You will not say it to anybody, you will not say if you must say it one day, you will not say what that it concerns), finally you will say nothing anymore until I tell you to say it! I pray to Our Holy Father the Pope to give me his holy blessing. Mélanie Mathieu, Shepherdess of La Salette, Grenoble, July 6, 1851. J.M.J.+ |
The other seer, Maximin Giraud, also had his original 1851 letter to the Pope released and translated:
| Le 19 septembre 1846, nous avons vu une belle Dame. Nous n’avons jamais dit que cette dame fut la Sainte Vierge mais nous avons toujours dit que c’était une belle Dame. Je ne sais pas si c’est la Sainte Vierge ou une autre personne. Moi, je crois aujourd’hui que c’est la sainte Vierge. Voila ce que cette Dame m’a dit: “Si mon peuple continue, ce que je vais vous dire arrivera plus tôt , s’il change un peu, ce sera un peu plus tard. La France a corrompu l’univers, un jour elle sera punie. La foi s’éteindra dans la France: trois parties de la France ne pratiqueront plus de religion, ou presque plus, l’autre la pratiquera sans bien la pratiquer. Puis, après [cela], les nations se convertiront, la foi se rallumera partout. Une grande contrée dans le nord de l’Europe, aujourd’hui protestante, se convertira: par l’appui de cette contrée toutes les autres contrées du monde se convertiront. Avant que tout cela arrive, de grands troubles arriveront, dans l’Eglise, et partout. Puis, après [cela], notre Saint-Père le pape sera persecuté. Son successeur sera un pontife que personne [n’] attend. Puis après [cela], une grande paix arrivera, mais elle ne durera pas longtemps. Un monstre viendra la troubler. Tout ce que je vous dis là arrivera dans l’autre siècle, [au] plus tard aux deux millle ans.” Maximin Giraud (Elle [m’] a dit de le dire quelque temps avant). Mon très Saint Père, votre sainte bénédiction à une de vos brebis, Grenoble, le 3 juillet 1851. | On September 19, 1846, we saw a beautiful Lady. We never said that this lady was the Blessed Virgin but we always said that it was a beautiful Lady. I do not know if it is the Blessed Virgin or another person. As for me, I believe today that it is the Blessed Virgin. Here is what this Lady said to me: “If my people continue, what I will say to you will arrive earlier, if it changes a little, it will be a little later. France has corrupted the universe, one day it will be punished. The faith will die out in France: three quarters of France will not practice religion anymore, or almost no more, the other part will practice it without really practicing it. Then, after [that], nations will convert, the faith will be rekindled everywhere. A great country in the north of Europe, now Protestant, will be converted; by the support of this country all the other nations of the world will be converted. Before all that arrives, great disorders will arrive, in the Church, and everywhere. Then, after [that], our Holy Father the Pope will be persecuted. His successor will be a pontiff that nobody expects. Then, after [that], a great peace will come, but it will not last a long time. A monster will come to disturb it. All that I tell you here will arrive in the other century, at the latest in the year two thousand.” Maximin Giraud (She told me to say it some time before.) My Most Holy Father, your holy blessing to one of your sheep. Grenoble, July 3, 1851. |
These are the original letters, sent to the Vatican. No one that I can find has seriously doubted the authenticity of the letters; most likely due to a combination of their style, the rural dialect used (patois), and their contents.
Their interpretation is fairly tricky, and some educated guesses have been made. There is little doubt however that these are conditional prophecies, meaning that should repentance occur, the threats contained may not occur or may occur differently than presented. This also applies to the public version which begins with, “Approach, my children, don’t be afraid, I’m here to tell you great news. If my people won’t submit, I’m forced to let go the hand of my son.”
Note what’s not in the public prophecies, or the private letters to the Pope: Any mention about Rome being the seat of the Antichrist.
That’s where the controversy starts: In 1879, Melanie published the secrets publicly, in a substantially longer version than the original letters the Pope received. It is here that the “Rome will lose the faith” line comes from, as does the “Priests have become cesspools of impurity” line. This caused a lot of controversy online in the early 2000s, as the translators who discovered the above letters tried to argue that the 1879 version was authentic in a book (Découverte du secret de la Salette) that has never been translated to English, though the SSPX wrote a review.
Their argument appears to have been that the visionaries fully intended to reveal the secrets, but by degrees over a long period of time, and that they are thus authentic. Without a good English translation of their book, it’s hard to do their argument justice. However, make a note of the following:
- Revealing secrets by degrees would seem inconsistent with telling the Pope, and only the Pope, the full secrets almost 30 years earlier. Why would you reveal a secret gradually, when the beginning was never intended to be publicized and only became available in 1999? There’s no gradual revealing there, but only in retrospect.
- One of the seers, Maximin, was so frustrated by constant requests to prophecy that he began, openly, making what he believed were obviously false prophecies so that people would stop asking. He later publicly disavowed such prophecies and others attributed to him, for anything other than the original publicly-revealed prophecy.
- The 1879 version was not widely available, but resulted in a prohibition by the Holy Office in 1880 from writing anything further. When it received a wider third printing in 1922, the Holy Office responded by placing it on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books) where it remained until the Index was abolished.
- The 1879 version contains many other prophecies that most people repeating the famous La Salette quote would find very difficult to stand behind, such as: “In the year 1865 the abomination shall be seen in Holy Places in Convents, and then the demon shall make himself as the king of hearts. It will be about that time that Antichrist shall be born. At his birth he shall vomit blasphemies. […] At the age of twelve years they shall have become remarkable for valiant victories, which they shall achieve; very soon each of them will be at the head of armies. Paris shall be burned, and Marseilles shall be submerged; many great cities shall be shattered and swallowed up by earthquakes.”
- The Catholic Encyclopedia from 1910, despite having never seen the letters to the Pope or the 1922 addition to the Index, states that most defenders of the 1879 version have experienced canonical censure. From 1910: “A lively controversy followed as to whether the secret published in 1879 was identical with that communicated to Pius IX in 1851, or in its second form it was not merely a work of the imagination. The latter was the opinion of wise and prudent persons, who were persuaded that a distinction must be made between the two Mélanies, between the innocent and simple voyante of 1846 and the visionary of 1879, whose mind had been disturbed by reading apocalyptic books and the lives of illuminati.”
Why did Melanie write the 1879 version then if it was likely false? There is much speculation, but as one investigator (Daniel J. Castellano) writes, she may have been mentally unsound, affected by social pressure, affected by curious confessors, or demonically oppressed:
The fact that a French tract had to seek the imprimatur of an Italian bishop should arouse our suspicions, and indeed, Melanie had been instructed by her bishop not to publish any prophecies. After joining a convent in 1851, Melanie invented fantastic stories of her miraculous childhood, playing with the child Jesus and leading animals in a religious procession. Her behavior became progressively bizarre, as she had hysterical fits and threatened to bite her superior. She was never allowed to become a sister, and instead was sent off to England in 1855. There she claimed to hear voices and witness miraculous events. Away from her bishop, she began to make apocalyptic prophecies.
After years of moving from convent to convent, and never progressing beyond the novitiate, Melanie stayed in Castellamare from 1867 onward. When new religious orders were being formed at La Salette in 1878, Melanie claimed she was authorized to provide their rules and habits. This request was denied by the bishop and by the Pope himself in an interview with Melanie.
So, to recap:
- 1846 visions approved, 1879 retelling condemned repeatedly, and its defenders at the time often received censure.
- The “Rome will become the seat of the antichrist,” and the less popular, “The priests have become cesspools of impurity” line both come from the questionable 1879 retelling.
- Maximin never stated anything like Melanie’s 1879 retelling, publicly or privately. He also died in 1865, four years before she published her updated version, and so he never had any opportunity to address it.
However, let’s say that it was all true, and a true apparition was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books decades before Vatican II or any “modernist” influence, over 101 years ago (a scary road to follow, to be sure). It doesn’t actually matter, because read it again:
“Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”
Rome is a physical city. The same prophecy also calls out Marseilles and Paris, also physical cities. While “Rome” is often shorthand for the Church, or for the Vatican, there is no Church law, or law about private revelations, saying “All references to Rome must be to the Church,” especially not when other physical cities are talked about in the same prophecy.
Thus, the Antichrist could take over the city of Rome and make it his headquarters, in order to compete with the Vatican, and still completely fulfill the prophecy. Which, even if the prophecy were true, is a much less dramatic possibility.
One last point to consider: There was one man who was well-renowned for identifying the Pope as becoming the Antichrist. His name was Martin Luther; and that specific idea (that a Pope could be the Antichrist) was condemned by many now-Doctors of the Church as being impossible, mainly because that was one of the crucial arguments for Luther’s own legitimacy. (Although, a sedevacantist might argue that someone pretending to be Pope, while not being the Pope, could still be the antichrist but that’s another story.)
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