The first and second secrets to Melanie at La Salette (my translation) with my commentary, from my book: The Secrets of La Salette and the End Times

2. “The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their bad life, by their irreverences and their impiety in celebrating the holy mysteries, by love of money, love of honor and of pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is suspended over their heads. Woe to the priests and to persons consecrated to God, who by their infidelities and their bad life are crucifying anew my Son! The sins of persons consecrated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and see how vengeance is at their doors, because there is no longer found anyone to implore mercy and forgiveness for the people; there are no longer generous souls, there is no longer anyone worthy to offer the Victim without blemish to the Eternal on behalf of the world.”

This second paragraph is an example of one of the more controversial portions of Melanie’s secret. The Virgin Mary, speaking from Heaven in complete conformity with the will of God, is severely criticizing many priests. And since these secrets are about the End Times (the tribulation), this message implies that the priesthood will be in a state of crisis during the tribulation. Many priests during that time period, at the start of both parts of the tribulation, will be very sinful and lacking in faith; they will commit many grave sins against religion (irreverences and impieties), and sins of greed and pride (the love of money and honors), and sexual sins (sins of pleasures).

When the secrets of La Salette were first published, many doubted that these words could be from the Virgin Mary in Heaven. For how could she speak so harshly about the priests who minister for her Son? And how could the priesthood fall into so many sins as to deserve this type of rebuke from Heaven? And yet, already in the present day, this prediction of the secrets of La Salette has come true. It is no longer so controversial for Mary to criticize the priesthood.

The child sexual abuse crisis in the Church proves that one type of grave sin is found among priests and religious. And while these sins are committed by a small minority of priests and religious, these sins are also not rare. Then there is the alarming rise in the number of homosexual priests and religious, and in the open support among priests and religious for same-sex marriage. There are also some priests and religious who approve of contraception, or of abortion. There are priests who have been caught stealing large amounts of money from parishes, and spending that money on sinful pursuits. There are priests who have left the priesthood to marry, preferring the lower calling of marriage to the higher calling of the celibate priesthood of Christ. And there are priests who not only adhere to heresy, but also teach heresy to the faithful — with the claim that these heresies are what Christ or His Church really meant to say.

But notice what Mary says, immediately after a list of the types of sins committed by priests: that their sins are in effect asking for vengeance from God. In other words, one of the causes of the tribulation is the great sinfulness found among far too many priests and religious. Another of the causes is the great sinfulness found among a majority of the members of the laity. And the third cause is the great sinfulness found in secular society. If any of these three causes did not exist, I doubt that the tribulation would occur at all; but if it did still occur, it would be considerably more mild.

The type of vengeance that is called for by the grave sins of all too many priests is Divine and just retribution — not revenge, and not any type of disproportionate harm. And this vengeance will occur during the first part of the tribulation and during the second part of the tribulation. For the first part, there are the worldly events symbolized by the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, representing war, civil disorder, famine, and death. But there will also be much suffering within the Church, and this suffering will fall most heavily on priests. There will be confusion as to which is the true Pope (as we learn also, more explicitly, later in the secrets of Melanie). There will be a great apostasy, just as Sacred Scripture predicts, in which most Catholics leave the Church.

[Matthew]
{24:11} And many false prophets will arise, and they will lead many astray.
{24:12} And because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many will grow cold.

Jesus is speaking about the false teachers who will rise up during the tribulation, claiming to be faithful Catholics. These false teachers, who seem to be within the Church, will lead many astray. And this occurs because iniquity (sinfulness) has abounded both within the Church and in secular society. The virtue of charity grows cold in many persons, and as a result, false teachers and false prophets find willing adherents. Jesus is describing the causes of the great apostasy.

Saint Paul explicitly teaches us about this apostasy:

[2 Thessalonians]
{2:3} Let no one deceive you in any way. For this cannot be, unless the apostasy will have arrived first, and the man of sin will have been revealed, the son of perdition,
{2:4} who is an adversary to, and who is lifted up above, all that is called God or that is worshipped, so much so that he sits in the temple of God, presenting himself as if he were God.

Although Paul is emphasizing the second part of the tribulation, when the Antichrist reigns, there is a great apostasy, a great departure from the Catholic Faith by very many Catholics, during the first part of the tribulation also.

So how does this relate to this alarming message from the Blessed Virgin about the great iniquities that prevail among so many priests? She is describing the effects of the great apostasy among the priests. They sin greatly in so very many different ways, and so they, too, join with the majority of lay persons in leaving the Church. Subsequently, for several years, there will be very few priests left who both remain with the true Church AND are “worthy to offer the Victim without blemish to the Eternal on behalf of the world”. The Church will pass through this terrible crisis of apostasy, and after not too many years, very many of those who departed will repent and return. The Church will also win over many new converts. At about the same time, the Protestant and Orthodox Churches will also repent and convert. Over the space of several years, from sometime in the mid-2010’s to the early 2020’s, vast numbers of persons will leave the one true Church, and then an even larger number will return to the one true Church.

The “Victim without blemish” is Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice on the Cross and whose presence in the Eucharist we should offer to God the Eternal Father to obtain mercy for the world. The Virgin Mary is complaining especially about the lack of persons among those consecrated to God who are worthy to implore mercy for the world through Jesus Christ. The Virgin Mary’s cry against those priests who are unfaithful to Christ is like her Son Jesus’ cry against the scribes and Pharisees (Mt 23). All too many priests and religious, during the first part of the tribulation, will be like the unfaithful scribes and Pharisees.

But the Church has no reason to despair. Over the course of the first part of the tribulation, after the great apostasy passes by, there will be an increase in holiness among many priests, religious, and bishops. Some unfaithful members of the clergy and the religious life will be removed, will be utterly cast down. The whole Church will make advances in holiness, so that, by the end of the first part of the tribulation, the members of the priesthood and the religious life will, in general, be much holier and more dedicated to God and to the Church than was the case beforehand.

3. “God is going to strike in a manner without example.”

The events of the tribulation occur only because of the innumerable grave and unrepentant sins committed by clergy and religious, by the laity, and by persons in secular society. If not for these three causes, God would not strike the world with the afflictions of the tribulation (the apocalypse, the end times) at all.

Now some of the afflictions of the tribulation are directly caused by sin. For example, the war of aggression by the Arab/Muslim extremists against the West, which is symbolized by the first horseman, includes many deliberate grave sins; it is the use of deadly force against many innocent persons. Also, various acts, such as rioting and violence, that occur during the civil disorder, symbolized by the second horseman, are also sinful acts. Violence against the innocent is intrinsically evil and always immoral.

But other afflictions during the tribulation are indirectly caused by sin. For example, the great famine is not an act chosen by anyone; but it results indirectly from the sins of war, civil violence, despair, continued refusal to repent and convert to God, etc. Thus, all the afflictions of the tribulation are caused, directly or indirectly by sin.

But this is not to say that God is uninvolved. He does not merely leave us to experience the inevitable bad consequences of grave unrepentant sin. Rather, God’s Providence guides these afflictions over us. He whistles for them, and they come running. The grave unrepentant sins of many leaders and members of the Church, and of persons in secular society, are the reason that the Providence of God actively guides these grave afflictions upon the Church and the world. Does this seem surprising or unlikely to you? But it is written in Sacred Scripture:

[Isaiah]
{5:4} What more should I have done for my vineyard that I did not do for it? Should I not have expected it to produce grapes, though it produced wild vines?
{5:5} And now, I will reveal to you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its fence, and it will be plundered. I will pull down its wall, and it will be trampled.
{5:6} And I will make it desolate. It will not be pruned, and it will not be dug. And briers and thorns will rise up. And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.
{5:7} For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And the man of Judah is his delightful seedling. And I expected that he would do judgment, and behold iniquity, and that he would do justice, and behold an outcry.

God has judged the members of the Church on earth, and has found them lacking. Christianity is the new House of Israel; Judah is the Catholic Christian Faith. God expected the members of the Church to judge justly and to avoid grave sin, and yet the contrary occurs. Behold, there is a just outcry against many clergy, religious, theologians, and lay leaders, and against many members of the laity; for they have done grave injustices and have not repented.

{5:8} Woe to you who join house to house, and who combine field to field, even to the limits of the place! Do you intend to live alone in the midst of the earth?
{5:9} These things are in my ears, says the Lord of hosts. Otherwise, many houses, great and beautiful, will become desolate, without an inhabitant.
{5:10} Then ten acres of vineyard will produce one small bottle of wine, and thirty measures of seed will produce three measures of grain.
{5:11} Woe to you who rise up in the morning to pursue drunkenness, and to drink even until evening, so as to be inflamed with wine.
{5:12} Harp and lyre and timbrel and pipe, as well as wine, are at your feasts. But you do not respect the work of the Lord, nor do you consider the works of his hands.

The sins of secular society are also before the eyes and ears of the Lord of hosts. They seek wealth and practice greed. They have no bounds to their desire for power and wealth, and no concern for how their neighbor will meet his most basic needs. It is as if the wealthy think to live in the midst of the earth, with no other inhabitants.

But the poor in secular society have also fallen into grave sins. They pursue drunkenness and other forms of inebriation. They immerse themselves in all manner of entertainments and self-indulgences, with no respect for the work of the Lord — the goodness of creation — and no respect for the preeminent work of the hands of the Lord, their fellow human persons.

{5:13} Because of this, my people have been led away as captives, for they did not have knowledge, and their nobles have passed away from famine, and their multitudes have dried up from thirst.
{5:14} For this reason, Hell has expanded its soul, and has opened its mouth without any limits. And their strong ones, and their people, and their exalted and glorious ones will descend into it.

Many souls have been and will be lost to the eternal fires of Hell, because of the grave unrepentant sins in the Church and in the world. Many of the leaders in the Church lack knowledge; they behave like nobility, not like shepherds. Their sheep are dying from starvation for the food and drink of truth, and they have not noticed. These leaders among the clergy, religious, and laity — not all, but many — are strong and influential. They have praise and glory from the other unrepentant sinners in the Church. They are exalted and wealthy and powerful. And nevertheless they are on the path to Hell.

{5:15} And man will be bowed down, and man will be humbled, and the eyes of the exalted will be brought low.
{5:16} And the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will be sanctified in justice.
{5:17} And the lambs will pasture in proper order, and new arrivals will eat from the deserts turned into fertile lands.

The purpose of God in allowing and in guiding the afflictions of the tribulation is to bow down humanity, and to humble those leaders in the Church (clergy, religious, and lay leaders) who have become arrogant. It is not as if all leaders of the Church have gone astray; it is not as if the Church Herself has gone astray. But far too many of Her leaders and of Her members have gone far astray, sinned gravely, taught or adhered to heresy, and refused to repent. Therefore, these afflictions have the purpose, not only of punishing the guilty, but of bringing the guilty to repentance, so that the lambs of the Church may be pastured in proper order.

As a result, there will also be many new arrivals, new converts to Catholicism. During the tribulation, and also after the end of the first part of the tribulation, an immense number of persons will convert to Catholic Christianity; and they will feast on the truths taught by the faithful leaders of the Church: clergy, religious, and lay leaders. It will be as if deserts have turned into fertile lands. The faithful will no longer be led astray by innumerable false teachers, as is the case at the present time, as will be the case during much of the tribulation.

{5:18} Woe to you who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and who draw sin as if with the rope of a cart,
{5:19} and who say: “Let him hurry, and let his work arrive soon, so that we may see it. And let the plan of the Holy One of Israel approach and arrive, so that we may know it.”

The above verses refer to unrepentant sinners, both those inside and those outside of the Church, who mock the idea of a tribulation, of a set of afflictions led over the whole world by the plan of God. They speak in derision of God, and of those who believe in this plan of God, saying “Hurry and prove to us that this tribulation is real, that it will affect our lives. Show us how this plan of God will punish and correct us for our sins. For we have sinned again and again, without any punishment from God; instead, we have prospered. We do not believe that God punishes anyone for sin, neither in this life, nor in the next.” Yes, that is exactly the attitude of many Christians, of many Catholics (even of some leaders), and of sinful secular society.

And what does God say in reply? He says “Woe to you!”

{5:20} Woe to you who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light, and light for darkness; who exchange bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
{5:21} Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight!
{5:22} Woe to you who are powerful at drinking wine, who are strong men in contriving inebriation!
{5:23} For you justify an impious man in exchange for bribes, and you carry away the justice of a just man from him.
{5:24} Because of this, as the tongue of fire devours stubble, and as the heat of a flame burns it completely, so will their root become like glowing embers, and so will their offshoot ascend like dust. For they have cast aside the law of the Lord of hosts, and they have blasphemed the eloquence of the Holy One of Israel.

The sins of this life, especially grave and unrepentant sins, do not go unnoticed by God. And these sins will not go unpunished, in this life and/or in the next life, whether in Purgatory or in Hell.

What is this sin of calling evil, “good”, and of calling good, “evil”? It is one of the most common sins today, as we stand on the threshold of the apocalypse. It is the sin of claiming that sins, such as abortion and contraception, such as premarital sex and homosexual sex, are not evil, but are good. It is the sin of claiming that the teaching of the Church is bigotry, or prejudice, or oppression, or a denial of rights. Such are the claims of sinful secular society about the Church.

But this same type of sin is found within the Church. There are many Catholic priests and theologians, there are many Catholic bloggers and commentators, who have found clever ways to reinterpret the teachings of the Magisterium, so as to justify direct abortion, to justify contraception, to justify all manner of sexual sins committed in the marital bedroom, and to call these and many other grave sins “good” and “moral” and even supposedly “approved by the Church”. Woe to these wicked false teachers, who convince the flock of Christ to commit grave sins against God, by claiming that these sins are actually good and moral acts, pleasing to Christ. These are the same persons who mock the idea of a tribulation. There are the same persons who will soon be overwhelmed by the tribulation, as a just punishment from God for leading the little ones of Christ into grave sin.

{5:25} For this reason, the fury of the Lord has been enraged against his people, and he has extended his hand over them, and he has struck them. And the mountains were disturbed. And their carcasses became like dung in the midst of the streets. After all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.
{5:26} And he will lift up a sign to nations far away, and he will whistle to them from the ends of the earth. And behold, they will rush forward speedily.

But now we return to the expression of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that God Himself will “strike in a manner without example.” These afflictions are in one sense caused by the sins we have discussed above. But in another sense, truly these afflictions are chosen by God as a just punishment. God whistles to far away nations, the Arab/Muslim nations of the Middle East and northern Africa, God lifts up a sign to call them, and behold, they rush forward speedily.

{5:27} There is no one weak or struggling among them. They will not become drowsy, and they will not sleep. Neither will the belt around their waist be loosened, nor the laces of their boots be broken.
{5:28} Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are taut. The hoofs of their horses are like flint, and their wheels are like the force of a tempest.
{5:29} Their roaring is like the lion; they will roar like young lions. They will both roar and seize their prey. And they will wrap themselves around it, and there will be no one who can rescue it.
{5:30} And in that day, they will make a noise over it, like the sound of the sea. We will gaze out toward the land, and behold, the darkness of the tribulation, and even the light has been darkened by its gloom.

Behold, the darkness of the tribulation. Behold, the gloom of the Apocalypse. The Muslim nations have been chosen by God to bring great suffering upon the Christian nations, because they have not lived according to the true teachings of Christ. They have called evil acts, “good”. Most Catholics have rejected the teaching of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Most Protestants have rejected the teaching of the Bible. They have distorted and perverted the teachings of the Church and of the Bible, so as to justify their own sins. And so the Providence of God will whistle to the ends of the earth, to several far away non-Christian nations, in order to bow down the Christian nations and punish them for rejecting the true Faith of Christ.

These nations will strike the United States, and they will rush forward into Europe. They will roar like the lion; they will not fear. They will believe that God is on their side, and so He is — but in a way that they do not understand. They will seize their prey, and no one will be able to rescue their prey — the unrepentant Christian nations — until the Christians repent.

This repentance occurs when all the Christian Churches become united in one Catholic Church (in the early 2020’s) and it occurs again, when a great Ecumenical Council (mid 2028 to late 2032) dispels the heresies and false teachings that pervade the Church after unification. Only after this two-step repentance can the Christian nations be freed from domination and occupation by the Muslim nations, be freed by the horrific battle called World War 4.

Mary says that God is going to strike in a manner without example because the world will suffer more than ever before. The world will suffer as much or more than it did at the time of the flood of Noah. The world will experience a long series of severe afflictions, one after another, with increasing severity, such as never before happened on the face of the earth.

[Luke]
{17:25} But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
{17:26} And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of man.
{17:27} They were eating and drinking; they were taking wives and being given in marriage, even until the day that Noah entered the ark. And the flood came and destroyed them all.
{17:28} It shall be similar to what happened in the days of Lot. They were eating and drinking; they were buying and selling; they were planting and building.
{17:29} Then, on the day that Lot departed from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and it destroyed them all.
{17:30} According to these things, so shall it be in the day when the Son of man will be revealed.

Jesus does not return until the end of the second part of the tribulation. But the first part of the tribulation is much like the second; both parts will see sufferings so extreme as to be comparable to, and greater than, the sufferings of the great Flood, and of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. These past examples of great sufferings brought upon the world by God will be exceeded by the sufferings of the tribulation. Thus, Mary says that God will strike the world in such a manner that there is no equivalent example, not in the whole history of humanity.

Ronald L. Conte Jr.