This is posted from another thread when I commented on this issue:- New evidence in the case of the replacement of Sr.…

Recently, Chojnowski had a video on Life Site News. That ‘Two Sister Lucy’s’ video is presented as stunning new evidence, it’s just the same old, same old, which Peter Chojnowski pushes on any platform he can. I’m sorry LifeSite News gave this an even larger platform. I fear Chojnowski will end up discrediting Fatima altogether. The only thing I learnt from the LifeSite video that I didn’t already know (or had possibly forgotten, but I have no memory of it) was that World Apostolate of Fatima member Carlos Evaristo allegedly went to the police and asked them to investigate, as he thought the Sister Lucia he saw was an imposter? This doesn’t add up. Even if it were true that Evaristo went to the police, why would the Portuguese police send him to an American civilian – Dr Zugibe – a man who first met Sr Lucia post 1967 (I think he met her in 2002), thus he would have met the supposed ‘fake’ Sr Lucia, having never met the ‘real’ one, so how and why would he be qualified in the eyes of the police to be able to tell the difference? And how on earth would the Portuguese police even know of this American layman’s existence?

Also, if Carlos Evaristo didn’t believe that this was Sister Lucia, why is he still in the World Apostolate of Fatima, still pushing the Vatican party line on the Consecration and 3rd Secret, still maintaining that the Sister Lucia who died in 2005 and is buried in the Basilica is the real one? I met Evaristo in Fatima in the late 1980’s. He had a large collection of relics and we were taken to see them. Also, I saw him again in 2017 working in Domus Pacis – the HQ of the WAF. I didn’t speak with him, but it was him. I went to the WAF chapel because it contains the actual statues of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart which were in the original chapel in Tuy when the Trinitarian vision took place to Sr Lucia in 1929, and I always like to say a prayer in front of them. I certainly wouldn’t use WAF for anything else. But why would Evaristo still be in the WAF HQ if he thought Sister Lucia was a fake?

Also, if Sr Lucia was ‘switched’, so many people – including all who had ever known or met her, the Pope, many Cardinals, bishops and priests, all the Carmelite nuns she lived with, her living relatives like Maria do Fetal Neves Rosa, and some childhood friends like Mrs Eugenia Pestana – would have had to be in on it, as to make it impossible. Someone, somewhere would have blown the whistle. No-one ever has. Even the Vatican hasn’t got that much power to silence everyone.

As for Sister Lucia’s accent, which Chojnowski alleged has changed – she lived in Coimbra and Spain for a long time, and accents do change. I have noticed that some people absorb accent changes like a sponge, while others don’t so much, if at all. I thought Chojnowski said they had pinpointed the accent of the ‘fake’ Sr Lucia to Viseu. But Viseu is not far from Coimbra Carmel. He made it sound as though it were right up the other end of the country. Bear in mind Sr Lucia had been in Coimbra Carmel since the 1940’s. Plenty of time for her to absorb any local accent, if indeed she did. I’d also be surprised if the Viseu accent would be noticeably different.

I don’t trust the photographic ‘evidence’ either. People do change. I remember when I went to visit my friend in hospital. I hadn’t seen her for a while, and walked straight past her bed because I just didn’t recognise her. Even when I asked the nurse and went to her bed, I still found it hard to believe it was her, until she recognised me and spoke. We can all get ‘experts’ to say what we want them to. I would have thought we would all be very wary of ‘experts’ these days. Look how many qualified ‘experts’ told us to get covid-vaccinated.

Also – think about it – if the Vatican had placed a compliant fake in there, why was she forbidden to see anyone without Vatican permission and all her publicly released writings had to be vetted by the Vatican as well? If it was a fake, singing from the same hymn sheet as those who planted her there, they surely wouldn’t have been so concerned about isolating her, and would have made far more use of her to confirm that the Consecration had been done and the full 3rd Secret released. As it was, the Vatican always relied on the same very scant, non-verifiable evidence allegedly from Sr Lucia to confirm their version of events (in fact, as Christopher Ferrara has pointed out, everything points to these ‘proofs’ as being fake. That seems far more likely to me – I think he even named one of the culprits as Msgr Guerra, who used to be the Shrine Director).

I still maintain regarding Sister Lucia, that it’s a case of an elderly religious, who took her vow of obedience very seriously, being manipulated by elements in the Vatican. She has stated in her books that she was only the witness and not the interpreter of the Fatima events. Even if she thought the Vatican had misinterpreted various elements, and even if she had privately corrected any misinterpretations, they would never have seen the light of day. Sadly, in her latter years, it appears she might have, to some degree, accepted what was fed to her from the Vatican through her superiors about various things. People also seem to think that Sr Lucia is in some way infallible, which of course, she isn’t. Age, confusion, pressure from the Vatican, a desire to fulfil her vow of obedience, may have all contributed towards the contradictions in her earlier and later stances. I’m not famous, but if I was suddenly substituted for a lookee-likee, don’t you think my family, neighbours and friends might notice? I’m afraid I can’t give Chojnowski’s theory any credence. And, of course, it’s become an ‘apostolate’, so money will be involved somewhere. I checked and Chojnowski’s website does have a ‘Donate’ page. Naturally.

Although Chojnowski quotes several professionals who support his theory, and he grudgingly admitted one came back with a neutral result, I wonder if any more that were contacted didn’t agree with this theory and if he’s conveniently airbrushed those out of the equation.

Another point – I have one of those booklets from the Coimbra Carmel, written by a Sister Maria Celina de Jesus Crucificado, OCD. Most of it is quite predictable, taking the Vatican party-line on everything. However, even in a booklet like this, which appears to have been written to conform to the Vatican agenda, I feel that Heaven has allowed something to be inadvertently revealed, which appears to contradict the tone of the booklet. On page 45, the following is stated:-

“It was in the year 2003, on 26th May. I went with her (Sister Lucia) to the lower choir in order to take a photograph of her with the image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which had just been given to us. It is this photograph which has been used for the cover of this booklet. When I had taken the photograph, Sister Lucia continued to gaze at the Image. I did not disturb her. Then, turning to me, she said anxiously: “Our Lady is crying!!!” I think that, thanks to her extraordinary purity, her “ingenuousness”, she who had been the recipient of so many visions that no-one else had seen, thought at that moment that I, too, could see what she saw. And I, thinking that her statement was a question, said “No, she’s not”. I saw that she looked ‘caught out’, so to speak, like a child whose mother finds her stealing the jam! I said nothing. I thought that I should not ask any questions. I have not spoken of this incident until now. And I wished that that particular image should watch over her mortal remains with her motherly gaze until they were due to be taken to the Cathedral in Coimbra.”

If Our Lady knew that Her wishes had been fulfilled in 1984; that the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart had been accomplished, and that the full Third Secret had been revealed in 2000 – why did She reveal Herself crying to Sister Lucia in 2003? These tears of Our Lady, witnessed by Sister Lucia, and unwittingly revealed by Sister Maria Celina de Jesus Crucificado, are another sign that Sr Lucia is the genuine article and that Our Lady’s requests haven’t been fulfilled. A fake would have said that Our Lady was smiling because the Consecration was done in 1984 and the full Secret released in 2000.

I once met Joao Marto – Francisco and Jacinta’s brother (he was the one who Lucia sent off to get Jacinta and Francisco just before Our Lady appeared at Valinhos, after they were kidnapped) the very first time I went to Fatima. It was in the mid 1980’s. He was born around 1906 so he would have been in his mid 80’s. I think we went the next year, or maybe it was the year after, and found out he had died. But there were many other living relatives of both families (Lucia’s and Jacinta/Francisco’s) in Aljustrel as well – Joao’s daughter, Jacinta Pereiro Marto, still lives in Aljustrel to this day. I’ve met her as well, and another man who was a Marto although I forget his name and relationship to the seers. They are surrounded by little piety shops in Aljustrel selling books and pictures depicting the supposed ‘fake’ Lucia, and don’t seem concerned by it. I’ve never got the impression they were part of a massive conspiracy.

While I think Fr Gruner may have flirted with the idea for a while (possibly egged on by Chojnowski who worked for the Fatima Network at that time – not any longer) to the best of my knowledge, he didn’t reflect this in the Fatima Crusader or any of his writings, even to the end. He just didn’t go down that road, and if anyone knew the Fatima issues inside out, it was Fr Gruner. In fact, he even did a YouTube video with John Vennari about it: Was There a Fake Sister Lucy? Fr Gruner also wouldn’t have been helping to publish, promote and sell Christopher Ferrara’s books through the Fatima Network when Ferrara makes it obvious he believes that there was only one Sr Lucia who was a victim of Vatican silencing, lies and machinations. By mentioning Fr Gruner and showing his picture, I felt Chojnowski made it appear in that LifeSite video, that he was part of this whole thing and supported Chojnowski’s views, which isn’t right because the YouTube video shows that Fr Gruner didn’t support his views.

Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite, the author of the masterly trilogy on Fatima ‘The Whole Truth About Fatima’ never mentioned or entertained the theory even once to the best of my knowledge. The trilogy is out of print but available free online here: The Whole Truth About Fatima Joao Machado who runs the site, has also written a book called ‘Fatima, the Pope and America: The Decisive Battle’ advertised on the site, but it has to be purchased and I haven’t read it.

The trouble is with people like Chojnowski, once they get a bee in their bonnet about something, and build an ‘apostolate’ around it, taking money and staking their reputation on it, they seldom, if ever, tend to back down, and end up bending or ignoring any and every fact to suit their agenda. The Vatican simply wouldn’t need to resort to the drastic measures of ‘switching’ Lucia and risking a leak from literally countless people, when they already had a cloistered nun, forbidden to speak to outsiders without permission, committed to obedience and totally submissive to the will of her superiors, and as I said, if they had put a plant in there, they’d have made far more use of her to support their agenda than they did. Also, what does Chojnowski think happened to the ‘real’ Lucia? Did she die of natural causes or was she murdered? And what happened to her body? I’m not going to wait with bated breath for the next ‘gripping’ instalment in this saga. In my opinion, Chojnowski is off the rails, and so is anyone who gives credence to this nonsense, and shame on anyone for pushing it.

10 November 1959 - Pope John XXIII meets with Bishop Venâncio (now the Ordinary of Leiria-Fatima) and Cardinal Cento (the former Vatican nuncio who brought the Secret to Rome in 1957). In a handwritten note John XXIII refers to Sister Lúcia “who is now a good religious at Coimbra. The Holy Office will take care of everything to a good end.”
- Christopher Ferrara, “The Secret Still Hidden”, p. 219.

Shortly after this, Sister Lúcia is placed under an order of complete silence and not allowed to speak with almost any visitors.
- Father Paul Kramer, “The Devil´s Final Battle: Book II” 2010, p. 242