Akita

As we approach the third millennium, there is an eager anticipation among God’s people of an imminent theophany when God will manifest His presence to save His people. The Holy Father expressed this sentiment when he said that, as we end this century, Our Lady’s promises at Fatima seem close to their fulfillment. The victory, he said, when it comes, shall be brought by Mary. His elaborate preparation for the Great Jubilee Year that he called the hermeneutical key of his pontificate is without doubt in anticipation of this victory.

I begin my story in 1981. I was writing a book on Fatima when I learned that the Holy Father was shot by an assassin. The day was May 13, the anniversary of the first Fatima apparition. I knew in my heart that this was not a coincidence and that the Fatima message is now fully operative with Pope John Paul II playing a central role. How I wished then that I could meet him face to face.

Five years later, in 1986, amidst dramatic events culminating in a great Marian victory in the Philippines, Maria Corazon Aquino was proclaimed the new President of the Republic. On May 13, she called me to be her Ambassador to the Holy See. I knew I was on a mission for Our Lady, but I did not know what the mission was.

I presented my credentials to the Holy Father on the eve of Our Lady’s birthday. She granted my wish in a grand manner as only she could. I related to the Holy Father how our democracy was restored with the intercession of Mary during a Philippine Marian Year declared by our Bishops. He listened attentively, nodded and repeated the words, "Marian Year." He then related to me how Our Lady of Fatima saved his life in 1981.

Imagine my amazement during the Pontifical Mass on New Years Day when the Holy Father announced a Marian Year for the universal Church. The Osservatore Romano reported that the Holy Father was inspired by the events of the Philippines after the Marian Year. Our Lady had accomplished my mission, which was kept secret from me.

In his Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente the Holy Father attributed the miraculous events in Eastern Europe to Our Blessed Mother following the Marian Year, which, he said, "remain surprising for their vastness and speed with which they occurred." He said that this was only a prelude to a greater victory that "will find fuller expression in the year 2000, the Great Jubilee Year."

He said that we should follow the example of the apostles during the First Pentecost who "devoted themselves in prayer, together with Mary, the mother of Jesus, while awaiting the descent of the Holy Spirit, which marked the evangelization of all nations." Could he be anticipating a Second Pentecost promised by the Lady of All Nations?

I came to know the Lady of All Nations through Akita, Japan, when a wooden sculptured image of Our Lady of All Nations began to shed human tears, sweat human perspiration and bleed human blood. Our Lady gave several messages, the third message was on October 13, 1973, which coincides with the date of the miracle of the sun in Fatima. As Our Lady of All Nations did in Amsterdam, she again warned at Akita of a chastisement of fire upon mankind; she also foretold a division in the Church.

These three messages of Fatima, Amsterdam, and Akita are interlinked, guiding the destiny of mankind as we enter the third millennium. Fatima occurred in 1917. Twenty-eight years after Fatima, in 1945, the Lady of All Nations came to Amsterdam and after another twenty-eight years, she manifested herself in Akita in 1973. And if we add another twenty-eight years after Akita, it will bring us to the year 2001, the first year of the third millennium.

Bishop John Ito of Akita, who is now in heaven, wrote to me after he briefed the Holy Father about the Akita events and presented his pastoral to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger for approval. He was certain that Akita was an extension of Fatima. And Cardinal Ratzinger confirmed to me personally that those two messages are essentially the same. Bishop Ito said, "the Father wants to purify mankind before it enters the third millennium." He believed that the Akita events confirmed the truth of the Amsterdam messages and he stoutly defended her title of "Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate." Heaven would not have allowed the Akita miracle if the Amsterdam messages were not true as the weeping and bleeding statue of Akita is an image of the Lady of All Nations. And if it represents the truth, why are we suppressing the proclamation of the truth?

From left to right: Dr. Leeman, Amb. Dee, Bishop Hnilica

I have received many graces in my work for the Lady of All Nations. Through her intercession, my government has completed the first of four agreements with our Filipino communist leaders who live in the Netherlands. When her dogma is proclaimed, I have no doubt that peace will finally come to our country.

In the Second Pentecost, with the fire of the Holy Spirit blazing in us, we can dispel the darkness that shrouds the world and renew the face of the earth. Come, Holy Spirit, come! Come and triumph with Mary, Amen.