Pius XII noted that the Secret of Fatima warned of apostasy in the Church, but was ignored by his successors

A notable, though indirectly relevant, testimony is that of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli—before becoming Pope Pius XII—when he was Secretary of State of the Vatican during the reign of Pius XI.

The future Pius XII made an astonishing prophecy about a future upheaval in the Church:

"I am troubled by the messages of the Blessed Virgin to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary in the face of the dangers that threaten the Church is a warning from Heaven against the suicide of altering the Faith in its liturgy, its theology, and its soul. (...) I hear around me innovators who want to dismantle the sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject its ornaments, and make it feel remorse for its historical past."[1]

Pope Pius XII's biographer, Monsignor Roche, noted that at this point in the conversation, Pius XII then said, in response to an objection:

"A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp [of the Tabernacle] where God awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene, weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask: 'Where have they taken him?'"[2]

It is truly astonishing to note that the future Pope linked this seemingly supernatural intuition of the Church's impending devastation specifically to "the messages of the Blessed Virgin to Lucy of Fatima," and to "this persistence of Mary in the face of the dangers that threaten the Church." Such a prediction would be meaningless if it were based on the first two parts of the Great Secret, which do not mention things like "the suicide of altering the Faith in its  liturgy, its theology, and its soul," or "innovators who want to dismantle the sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject its ornaments, and make it feel remorse for its historical past." Nor is there any indication in the first two parts that "In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them."

How did the future Pope Pius XII know these things? It is evident that he was granted a supernatural vision, or else that he had direct knowledge that a part of the "messages of the Blessed Virgin to Lucy of Fatima," which until then had not been revealed, predicted these future events in the Church. In short, all the testimonies about the content of the Third Secret, from 1944 to at least 1984 (the date of the famous Ratzinger interview), confirm that it refers to a catastrophic loss of Faith and discipline in the Church, opening a breach for the forces long aligned against Her: the "innovators" whom  The future Pope Pius XII listened to those around him, calling for the dismantling of the sacred chapel and changes in Catholic liturgy and theology.

As we have seen, this breach began to develop in 1960, the very year in which, as Sister Lucy had insisted, the third part of the Secret was to be revealed.

[1] Roche, Pius XII Before History, pp. 52-53.

[2] Ibid.