page_title: Nicholas Gruner
section_title: The Fatima Crusader
hierarchical_section_title: Nicholas Gruner / The Fatima Crusader
caption_attribution_description: English: Fatima Mary at Reno Cathedral
context_page_description: Nicholas Nightingale Gruner was a Roman Catholic priest and a promoter of the message of Our Lady of Fátima, a recognized apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fátima, Portugal, in 1917. Father Gruner's interpretation of that message at times proved somewhat controversial, even among other groups of Traditionalist Catholics.
context_section_description: Gruner and his magazine, Fatima Crusader, took a critical stance toward the compliance of the popes with the message of Fatima, specifically the request for the consecration of Russia. Throughout the 1980s, the Fatima Crusader made repeated allegations that the Vatican had been infiltrated and subverted, and that the Soviet Union was engaging in deliberate deception when it depicted Mikhail Gorbachev and perestroika as initiators of internal Communist reform after the Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s. In 1988, Gruner urged a letter-writing campaign against arms control talks.
  When the Soviet Union finally disintegrated in 1991, Fatima groups such as the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fátima and Fatima Family Apostolate rejoiced, regarding this as evidence of the efficacy of the dedication of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary that John Paul II had conducted nine years earlier. Gruner and the Fatima Crusader discounted it based on the lack of any spiritual conversion in Russia. Colin Donovan, STL criticized the Fatima Crusader, saying, "This magazine also attacks anyone who disagrees with Fr. Gruner's opinions on Fatima, showing contempt for all other Fatima apostles. This includes holy priests like Fr. Robert J. Fox, whose Fatima Family Apostolate has propagated the Fatima message to far greater audiences than Fr. Gruner could ever hope to do".
  Despite subsequent statements by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and by the remaining visionary Sister Lúcia, who is said to have denied Gruner's interpretation that a further consecration of Russia was needed, Gruner's criticisms continued. The Fatima Crusader has suggested that Sister Lúcia was kept from speaking the truth about the message of Fatima. Writer and commentator Carlos Evaristo held Gruner as an example of, in the words of John L. Allen, "an exegetical free-for-all that's long percolated in the Fatima underground", saying, "What happened with the Fatima message is that Sister Lúcia related it but never interpreted it. That left space for all sorts of strange theories."
  The Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit civil rights organization, listed Gruner's Fatima Crusader as a periodical which has published anti-Semitic articles. The Anti-Defamation League identified Gruner as a Holocaust denier who promoted conspiracy theories about the Jews plotting to overthrow Christian civilization, and the Fatima Center as a radical Catholic organization that espoused anti-Semitic views.
caption: The International Pilgrim image of Our Lady of Fátima has traveled the world since the 1950s.
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