AKITA

In 1984, the Most Rev. John Shojiro Ito, Bishop of Niigata, Japan, after extensive investigation, declared the events at Akita in 1973 to be of supernatural origin, and said : "The message of Akita is the message of Fatima." In June, 1988, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger gave the definitive judgement on the events at Akita and said the messages were reliable and worthy of belief: imprimatur.

On August 3, 1973, the Blessed Virgin gave Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa the following message: "In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my son, I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him and form a cohort of victim souls."

The third and last massage of October 13, 1973: "....if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary."

"The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confrerers (other priests). Churches and altars will be sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Church."

"Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved."

The concept of "fire from the sky" is generally conceded to be a reference to Revelation 8:8, which reads: "...something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed." And Verse 10, which described a second impact on land: "...and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky." The resulting meteorite shower could very easily burn up one third of the green grass and forests, and the meteor impacts themselves could trigger earthquakes along all the tectonic fault lines. Again, in Isaiah 47:11, "Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.