“Better late than never…”

“Better late than never…”

Better late than never… Such was the message that I received from a close personal friend of Fr. Nicholas Gruner, along with the photo above showing the gravestone that had just been put in place to mark the resting place of “the Fatima priest’s” earthly remains.
Indeed, I think we can all agree that this headstone stands as a fitting monument to Father’s life’s work of promoting the full message of Fatima to save souls and achieve world peace.


And yet, we must also admit that we risk seeing this mission, once carried out so well by Fr. Gruner, becoming more a thing of the past to be remembered rather than being treated as it should be – namely, as an imperative for those of us alive today.
Much has taken place in the three years since Fr. Gruner died; e.g., the conclusion to the rigged Synods on the family, publication of the heresy laden text Amoris Laetitia, issuance of the now infamous dubia, the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s appearance at Fatima…
These are the kinds of things that would have happened even if Father had not been mercifully called from this life. More noteworthy still, however, are those things that arguably would not have happened had Father remained here to continue serving Our Lady at the helm of the Fatima Center.
For instance:

• Those associated with the Fatima Center would never have hailed, in the name of the apostolate, the “courageous declarations” and “intellectual honesty” of a neo-conservative icon (Cardinal Burke) who shamelessly exploited the centenary of Our Lady’s appearance to legitimize the “new evangelization,” the anti-Fatima pontificate of John Paul II, and the Second Vatican Council.

• There is no chance whatsoever that persons long associated with the Fatima Center would have found themselves shunned, openly ridiculed, and blacklisted by the apostolate for no other reason than their willingness to defend the integrity of the Fatima message from those who, like Cardinal Burke, are Hell bent on synthesizing it with neo-conservatism.

• Surely, no one working for the Fatima Center would have dared to deliberately obfuscate Fr. Gruner’s well-studied position concerning the “so-called pontificate of Francis;” a man he plainly considered an anti-pope and whose name he, therefore, would not mention while praying the Canon at Holy Mass.

• Certainly such persons in the Fatima Center’s employ never would have gotten away with insisting – again, in the name of the apostolate, that the validity of Jorge Bergoglio’s claim to the Petrine Office is a “controversial issue” that is but a distraction from “the full Fatima message.”

• Much less would these persons have been given free reign to use the Fatima Center’s letterhead to calumniate those who, like Fr. Gruner himself, see the unprecedented situation in Rome as directly related to Our Lady’s warnings.

Yes, much has changed since Fr. Gruner passed, but the mission to which he dedicated so much of his life is growing increasingly more crucial with every passing day. As such, the important question one must ask is simply this:
In Fr. Gruner’s absence, where, and by whom, is the mission of safeguarding and spreading the full message of Fatima still being carried out in all integrity?

TCK:  Fr. Kramer still carries on the work of Fr. Gruner as head of the Fatima Center (American) 

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