The Secrets of La Salette    205 

Christ and His teachings. The Shepherd does not require the sheep to be 

obedient to wolves. 

13.   The Vicar of my Son will have much to suffer, because for a time the 

Church will be delivered over to great persecutions: this will be the time of 

darkness; the Church will have a frightful crisis.  

    The Pope today receives much respect around the world, even among 

those persons and those government leaders who do not believe in Christ 

Jesus. But in that future time, the Pope will not be respected by governments 

and peoples. The Pope will suffer much, partly because he himself will be 

the target of hatred and disrespect, but mostly because he must watch his 

Savior's Church endure great persecutions. 

    The Virgin Mary is describing the future persecution of the Church. This 

refers to the time of the Forty Years as well as to the time of the ten kings 

and Antichrist. The worst persecution of Christians which the world has yet 

seen will occur in the A.D. 2030's, but it will not be worldwide. It will occur 

mainly in the countries invaded and occupied by the Arab nations. A yet 

more terrible, nearly worldwide, persecution of Christians will occur again 

during the A.D. 2430's, during the reign of Antichrist. 

14.   The holy faith of God being forgotten, each individual will want to be 

guided by himself and to be superior to his peers. Civil and ecclesiastical 

powers will be abolished, all order and all justice will be trampled underfoot; 

one will see only homicides, hatred, jealousy, lying and discord, without 

love for country, or for family.  

    During this great persecution of Christianity, the world will be in great 

distress and disorder. The Church will no longer have any civil rights, civil 

powers, or civil protections. Even those secular institutions which would 

exercise powers of justice and order will be abolished. Many Christians will 

abandon their faith in Christ and His Church. These crimes and these 

sufferings, which Mary describes, are a result of the sins of Christians and 

the sins of those who persecute the Christian Faith. The holy faith of God 

will have been forgotten in the sense that many who were once Christians 

will have put aside their faith in God, in Christ, and in the teachings of the 

Church. The natural result of this abandonment of faith in God is a sharp 

increase in disorder, crimes, and sins. 

    Some people today think that a just and orderly society can exist without 

faith in God. This is not true! Without true faith in Christ, even civil and 

secular institutions become confused and filled with injustice and disorder. 

When any society or group of people abandons faith in God, they will suffer