Did Pope Pius XII Prophesy Warnings About the “Suicide” of Altering the Faith in Its Liturgy?

In 1933, Pope Venerable Pius XII was Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, Secretary of State to Pope Pius XI. As Secretary of State, then Cardinal Pacelli had a close working relationship with his longtime friend, Count Enrico Pietro Galeazzi. Sixteen years after the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, Pacelli made prophetic remarks to his close confidant and intimate collaborator.

Until last year when a complete English translation was produced, only partial copies of his full remarks to Count Galeazzi ever appeared in Catholic publications.

In his private conversation with Galeazzi, Pius XII commented on Fatima, saying Our Lady’s persistence in appearing to Sister Lucia was a “divine warning against the suicide that the alteration of the Faith, in its liturgy, its theology, and its soul, would represent.”

“I hear around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject her ornaments, and make her remorseful for her historical past. Well, my dear friend, I am convinced that the Church of Peter must affirm her past, or else she will dig her own grave.”

Pius XII also spoke of a time when “the Church will doubt as Peter doubted,”

“She will be tempted to believe that man has become God, that His Son is only a symbol, a philosophy like so many others. And in churches, Christians will search for the red lamp where Jesus awaits them, like the sinful woman crying out before the empty tomb: ‘Where have they taken Him?’”

Read below the full text of Pius XII’s remarks to Count Galeazzi:

“Suppose, dear friend, that Communism is the most visible among the organs of subversion against the Church and the Tradition of Divine Revelation. Thus, we will witness the invasion of everything that is spiritual: philosophy, science, law, teaching, the arts, the media, literature, theater, and religion.

I am concerned about the confidences of the Virgin to the little Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of the Good Lady in face of the danger that threatens the Church is a divine warning against the suicide that the alteration of the Faith, in its liturgy, its theology, and its soul, would represent.

I hear around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject her ornaments, and make her remorseful for her historical past. Well, my dear friend, I am convinced that the Church of Peter must affirm her past, or else she will dig her own grave.

I will fight this battle with the greatest energy on the inside of the Church, just as outside of it, even if the forces of evil may one day take advantage of my person, my actions, or my writings, as they try today to deform the history of the Church. All human heresies which alter the word of God are so that a greater light might appear.

These underdeveloped peoples will save the Church, Eminence. 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, that His Son is only a symbol, a philosophy like so many others. And in churches, Christians will search for the red lamp where Jesus awaits them, like the sinful woman crying out before the empty tomb: ‘Where have they taken Him?’

Then, priests will rise up from Africa, from Asia, from America, formed here in this seminary of the Missions, who will say and who will proclaim that the ‘bread of life’ is not ordinary bread, that the mother of the God-man is not a mother like others. And they will be cut to pieces to testify that Christianity is not a religion like others, since her head is the Son of God, and the Church is His Church.”

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