What Fr. Gobbi had just experienced was an interior locution. It is not an apparition or other communication perceived by the human senses, but a spiritual phenomenon present in the life of the Church and described in manuals of Catholic theology. The messages (interior locutions) are the gift by which God wishes to make something known to humanity, in Fr. Gobbi's particular case by means of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Starting in July 1973, Fr. Gobbi began to write down these interior locutions he was receiving. Continuing until December 31, 1997, the messages (over 500) and are published in the book entitled, To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons.

By means of these messages, Mary began to make use of Fr. Gobbi as a humble instrument to gather all priests who would accept her invitation to consecrate themselves to her Immaculate Heart, to be strongly united to the Pope and to the Church in union with him, and to bring the faithful into the secure refuge of her motherly heart. Thus a powerful cohort would be formed and spread throughout every part of the world, created not with human means of propaganda, but with the supernatural power that emanates from silence, prayer, suffering and constant faithfulness to ones duties.

Excerpted from To The Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons, published by The Marian Movement of Priests, Via Mercalli, 23, 20122 Milano, Italy. Imprimatur: Donald W. Montrose, D.D., Bishop of Stockton, March 25, 1996 (see The Marian Movement of Priests to obtain a copy, free, if necessary):

Message # 408, June 28, 1989

The days foretold by the Gospel and the Apocalypse have arrived. The forces of evil, united by the power of the one who opposes himself to Christ, will perform great prodigies in heaven and on earth in order to thus seduce a great part of humanity.

[Revelation 13:16 It forced all men, small and great, rich and poor, slave and free, to accept a stamped image on their right hand or their forehead.]

These are the times when the followers of him who opposes himself to Christ are being signed with his mark on the forehead and the hand.

The mark on the forehead and on the hand is an expression of a total dependency on the part of those who are designated by this sign. The sign indicates him who is an enemy of Christ, that is to say, the sign of the Antichrist. And his mark, which is stamped, signifies the complete belonging of the person thus marked to the army of him who is opposed to Christ and who fights against His divine and royal dominion.

The mark is imprinted on the forehead and on the hand.

The forehead indicates the intellect, because the mind is the seat of the human reason. The hand expresses human activity, because it is with his hands that man acts and works. Nevertheless it is the person who is marked with the mark of the Antichrist in his intellect and in his will.

He who allows himself to be signed with the mark on his forehead is led to accept the doctrine of the denial of God, of the rejection of His law, and of atheism which, in these times, is more and more diffused and advertised. And thus he is driven to follow the ideologies in mode today and to make use of himself as a propagator of all the errors.

He who allows himself to be signed with the mark on his hand is obliged to act in an autonomous manner and independently of God, ordering his own activities to the quest of a purely material and terrestrial good. Thus he withdraws his action from the design of the Father, who wants to illumine it and sustain it by His divine Providence; from the love of the Son who makes human toil a precious means for one's own redemption and sanctification; from the power of the Spirit who acts everywhere to interiorly renew every creature.

He who is signed with the mark on his hand works for himself alone, to accumulate material goods, to make money his god and he becomes a victim of materialism.

He who is signed with the mark on his hand works solely for the gratification of his own senses, for the quest of well-being and pleasure, for the granting of full satisfaction to all his passions, especially that of impurity, and he becomes a victim of hedonism.

He who is signed with the mark on his hand makes of his own self the center of all his actions, looks upon others as objects to be used and to be exploited for his own advantage and he becomes a victim of unbridled egoism and of lovelessness.

The dominion of my Adversary is becoming daily greater and greater and his power is expanding in hearts and in souls. A dense darkness has now descended upon the world. It is the darkness of the obstinate rejection of God. It is the darkness of sin, committed, justified and no longer confessed. It is the darkness of lust and of impurity. It is the darkness of unbridled egoism and of hatred, of division and of war. It is the darkness of the loss of faith and of apostasy.

The Dragon is exulting at the vastness of his conquest, with the help of the black beast and the beast like a lamb, in these days of yours, when the devil has unleashed himself upon you, knowing that there is little time left him. For this reason, the days of my greatest sorrow have also arrived.

[Revelation 15:1 Then I saw in heaven another sign, great and awe-inspiring: seven angels holding the seven final plagues which would bring God's wrath to a climax.]

The times of the decisive battle have come. The hour of the great tribulation has now descended upon the world, because the angels of the Lord are being sent, with their plagues, to chastise the earth.

How many times have I urged you to walk along the road of mortification of senses, of mastery over the passions, of modesty, of good example, of purity and of holiness! But humanity has not accepted my urging and has continued to disobey the sixth commandment of the law of the Lord which prescribes that one shall not commit impure acts.

On the contrary, it has sought to exalt such a transgression and to put it forward as the acquisition of a human value and a new way of expressing one's own personal freedom. Thus today it has reached the point of legitimating as good all the sins of impurity. It has begun to corrupt the consciences of little children and of youth, bringing them to the conviction that impure acts committed by oneself are no longer sin; that relations before marriage between those engaged is licit and good; that families may behave as they please and may also make use of the various means of birth control. And they have come to the justification and exaltation of impure acts against nature and even to the proposing of laws which put homosexual cohabitation on a par with marriage.

Never as today have immorality, impurity and obscenity been so continually propagandized, through the press and all the means of social communication. Above all, television has become the perverse instrument of daily bombardment with obscene images, directed to corrupt the purity of mind and the heart of all. The places of entertainment - in particular the cinema and the discotheque - have become places of public profanation of one's human and Christian dignity.

This is the time when the Lord our God is being continually and publicly offended by sins of the flesh. Holy Scripture has already warned you that those who sin by means of the flesh find their just punishment in that same flesh. And so the time has come when the Angel of the first plague is passing over the world, that it might be chastised according to the will of God.

[Revelation 16:1-2 I heard a mighty voice from the sanctuary say to the seven angels, "Go and pour out upon the earth the seven bowls of God's wrath!" The first angel went out, and when he poured out his bowl on the earth, severe and festering boils broke out on the men who had accepted the mark of the beast or worshipped its image.]

The Angel of the first plague cuts - into the flesh of those who have allowed themselves to be signed with the mark of the monster on the forehead and on the hand and have adored his image - with a painful and malignant wound, which causes those stricken by it to cry out in desperation. This wound represents the physical pain which strikes the body by means of grave and incurable maladies. The painful and malignant wound is a plague for all humanity, today so perverted, which has built up an atheistic and material civilization and has made the quest for pleasure the supreme aim of human life. Some of my poor children will have been stricken by it because of their sins of impurity and their disordered morals and they carry within their own selves the weight of the evil they have done. Others, on the other hand, have been stricken, even though they are good and innocent; and so their suffering serves for the salvation of many of the wicked, in virtue of the solidarity which unites you all.

The first plague is that of malignant tumors and every kind of cancer, against which science can do nothing notwithstanding its progress in every field, maladies which spread more and more and strike the human body, devastating it with the most painful and malignant wounds. Beloved children, think of the spread of these incurable maladies, throughout every part of the world, and of the millions of deaths which they are bringing about.

The first plague is the new malady of AIDS, which strikes above all my poor children who are victims of drugs, of vices and of impure sins against nature.

Your heavenly Mother wants to be a help, a support, a comfort and a source of hope for all, in these times when humanity is being stricken by this first plague. For this, I urge you all to walk along the road of fasting, of mortification and of penance.

Of little children I ask that they grow in the virtue of purity and, in this difficult journey, let them be assisted by their parents and teachers.

Of the youth I ask that they form themselves in the control of the passions through prayer and a life of union with me, and that they renounce going to the cinema and the discotheques, where there exists the grave and continuous danger of offending this virtue which is so dear to the Immaculate Heart.

Of engaged couples I ask that they abstain from all relations before marriage.

Of Christian husbands and wives I ask that they form themselves in the exercise of conjugal chastity and never make use of artificial means of birth control, as they follow the teachings of Christ, which the Church still puts forth today with enlightened wisdom.

(This is the angel of the first plague. Six remain:)

[From Revelation 16:3-17 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. The sea turned to blood like that of a corpse, and every creature living in the sea died. The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs. These also turned to blood...The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. He was commissioned to burn men with fire. Those who were scorched by the intense heat blasphemed the name of God...The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. Its kingdom was plunged into darkness; men bit their tongues in pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their suffering and their boils. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates. Its water was dried up to prepare the way for the Kings of the East. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet, these spirits were devils who worked prodigies. They went out to assemble all the kings of the earth for battle on the great day of God Almighty...The devils then assembled the kings in a place called in Hebrew "Armageddon." Finally, the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the empty air. From the throne in the sanctuary came a loud voice which said, "It is finished!" There followed lightning flashes and peals of thunder, then a violent earthquake. Such was its violence that there has never been one like it in all the time men have lived on the earth. The great city was split into three parts, and the other Gentile cities also fell. God remembered Babylon the great, giving her the cup filled with the blazing wine of His wrath. Every island fled and the mountains disappeared. Giant hailstones like huge weights came crashing down on mankind from the sky, and men blasphemed God for the plague of the hailstones, because this plague was so severe.]

Beloved children, begin this new year in the immaculate light of my divine maternity. I am your Mother as well, by the will of my Son Jesus.

And, as your mother, I want to take you by the hand and accompany you on the threshold of this decade, which you are beginning precisely on this day. It is a very important decade. It is a period of time particularly marked by a strong presence of the Lord among you. During the last decade of your century, the events which I have foretold to you will have reached their completion. Therefore it is necessary that you allow yourselves to be formed, one and all, by my motherly action.

During these years I am preparing you, by my motherly action, to receive the Lord who is coming. This is why I have asked you for the consecration to my Immaculate Heart: to form all of you in that interior docility which is necessary for me in order that I may be able to work in each one of you, bringing you to a profound transformation which should prepare you to receive the Lord worthily.

I am the Mother of the Second Advent.

You read in the Gospel: 'When the Son of Man returns, will He still find faith on earth?' Today I want to invite you to meditate on these words, uttered by my Son Jesus. They are grave words, which cause one to reflect and which succeed in making you understand the times through which you are living. First of all, you can ask why Jesus has uttered them: to prepare you for His second coming and to describe for you a circumstance which will be indicative of the proximity of His glorious return.

This circumstance is the loss of faith.

Also, in another part of Holy Scripture, in the letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians, it is clearly announced that, before the glorious return of Christ, a great apostasy must take place. The loss of the faith is a true apostasy. The spread of the apostasy is therefore the sign which indicates that the second coming of Christ is, as of now, close at hand.

At Fatima, I have foretold to you that a time would come when the true faith would be lost. These are the times. Your days are marked by this painful and significant situation, which was foretold to you in Holy Scripture: the true faith is in the process of disappearing in an ever increasingly greater number of my children.

This is why I have asked you to consecrate yourselves to my Immaculate Heart. This is why, in these times of yours, I have spread everywhere my Marian Movement of Priests: to form the little flock, reunited in the prayers of the cenacles and watchful in expectation - the flock gathered together and formed by me to ever preserve the true faith.

Thus, when the Son of Man returns, He will still find the faith on earth in all those who will have consecrated themselves to me, allowing themselves to be gathered together in the heavenly garden of my Immaculate Heart.

I came down from heaven, seventy-three years ago, in this Cova da Iria, to point out for you the path you should tread in the course of this difficult century of yours. The very painful events which followed have, through their occurrence, give complete fulfillment to the words of my prophecy.

-Humanity has not accepted my motherly request to return to the Lord along the road of conversion of heart and of life, of prayer and of penance. Thus it has known the terrible years of the second world war, which brought about tens of millions of deaths and vast destruction of populaces and of nations.

-Russia has not been consecrated to me by the Pope together with all the bishops and thus she has not received the grace of conversion and has spread her errors throughout all parts of the world, provoking wars, violence, bloody revolutions and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.

-Satan has been the uncontested dominator of the events of this century of yours, bringing all humanity to the rejection of God and of His law of love, spreading far and wide division and hatred, immorality and wickedness and legitimating everywhere divorce, abortion, obscenity, homosexuality and recourse to any and all means of obstructing life.

Now you are beginning the last decade of this century of yours.

I am coming down from heaven, so that the final secrets may be revealed to you and that I may be able thus to prepare you for what, as of now, you must live through, for the purification of the earth.

My third secret, which I revealed here to three little children to whom I appeared and which up to the present has not yet been revealed to you, will be made manifest to all by the very occurrence of these events.

The Church will know the hour of its greatest apostasy. The man of iniquity will penetrate into its interior and will sit in the very Temple of God, while the little remnant which will remain faithful will be subjected to the greatest trials and persecutions.

Humanity will live through the moment of its great chastisement and thus will be made ready to receive the Lord Jesus who will return to you in glory.

Today I announce to you that there is about to be born the new Church of Light, which my Son Jesus is forming for Himself in every part of the earth, so that it will be ready to receive Him, with faith and with joy, in the proximate moment of His second coming.

The glorious reign of Christ, which will be established in your midst, with the second coming of Jesus in the world, is close at hand.

I announce to you that the hour of the great trial is on the point of arriving.

The great trial has arrived for your country. How many times, as a concerned and sorrowing mother, have I endeavored to urge my children to follow the path of conversion and of return to the Lord.

I have not been listened to. You have continued to walk along the way of rejection of God, and of His law of love. Sins of impurity have become ever more widespread, and immorality has spread like a sea which has submerged all things. Homosexuality, a sin of impurity which is against nature, has been justified; recourse to the means of preventing life have become commonplace, while abortions - these killings of innocent children, that cry for vengeance before the face of God - have spread and are performed in every part of your homeland.

The moment of divine justice and of great mercy has now arrived. You will know the hour of weakness and of poverty; the hour of suffering and defeat; the purifying hour of the great chastisement.

The great trial has arrived for your Church.

How great is your responsibility, O Pastors of the Holy Church of God! You continue along the path of division from the Pope and of the rejection of his Magisterium; indeed, in a hidden way, there is in preparation a true schism which could soon become open and proclaimed.

(The schism may come when Pope John-Paul II decrees, ex cathedra, that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, is the Co-Redemptrix, and Co-Mediatrix of grace. This teaching was fought against at the Second Vatican Council by the "progressive" bishops.)

And then, there will remain only a small faithful remnant, over which I will keep watch in the garden of my Immaculate Heart.

The great trial has arrived for all humanity. The chastisement, predicted by me at Fatima and contained in that part of the secret which has not yet been revealed, is about to take place. The great moment of divine justice and of mercy has come upon the world.

You have entered into the times that have been foretold to you. You have entered into the last times.

And so, receive the prophetic announcements which, in so many ways, have pointed out to you that this, His Second Birth, is close at hand.

Pray with me during these last hours of the year which is about to end. During its course, I have again intervened many times, to obtain from the Lord the gift of His divine mercy. But the time which awaits you is that time when mercy will be espoused to divine justice, for the purification of the earth.

(Just prior to Desert Storm)

Satan has sung his victory because he has brought sin into souls and division into families, into society, into nations themselves and between nations. Thus peace has never been so threatened as in your days. You are beginning this new year under the grave threat of a conflict which could become the spark for the outbreak of the terrible third world war.

You have entered into the conclusive period of the great tribulation, and the hour of the great trial, of which I have been foretelling you for so many years, has now arrived for you. It is a trial so great and painful, that you cannot even imagine it, but it is necessary for the Church and for all humanity, in order that the new era, the new world, and the reconciliation of humanity with their Lord, may come upon you.

You are aware of being spiritually very much united with my Pope, John-Paul II, this precious gift which my Immaculate Heart has made to you, who, in these very moments, is in prayer at the Cova da Iria, to thank me for the motherly and extraordinary protection which I gave him, by saving his life, on the occasion of the bloody attempt made upon it, which took place ten years ago in Saint Peter's Square.

Today I confirm for you that this is the Pope of my secret; the Pope about whom I spoke to the children during the apparitions; the Pope of my love and of my sorrow.

(The following is quite a prophetic announcement, concerning John-Paul II:)

When this Pope will have completed the task which Jesus has entrusted to him and I will come down from heaven to receive his sacrifice, (himself? the Church?) all of you will be cloaked in a dense darkness of apostasy, which will then become general.

You have entered into the times of the Second Pentecost. The Holy Spirit will bring you to the understanding of the whole and entire truth.

He will bring you into the secret of the Word of God and will give you the light of wisdom to understand all the Gospel and whatever is described in it concerning the times through which you are living. The Holy Spirit will make you understand the signs of your time. They are the times foretold by Holy Scripture as those of the great apostasy and of the coming of the Antichrist.

I am the dawn that announces the arrival of the great day of the Lord.

Believe in my word. Receive with docility these messages of mine because, in them, everything has already been said to you about that which awaits you.

Today I invite you to lift up your eyes to me, beloved sons, because your liberation is near. You are entering into the decisive times which are leading you to the triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the world.

Events are rapidly following one upon the other and the new year, which you are beginning today, will bring to fulfillment that which I have revealed to you in some of my secrets.

Beloved children, remain with me, your sorrowful Mother, who has begotten you beneath the Cross, upon which my Son Jesus died for your salvation. I am the Mother of Sorrows.

It is the hour of my great sorrow for humanity, so ill and so reduced to slavery by the Spirits of Evil.

The diabolical powers are ruling the earth and producing everywhere the wicked fruits of their dark reign. And thus this humanity has again become pagan, after almost two thousand years of its redemption and of the first announcement of the Gospel of salvation.

This is the hour of my great sorrow for all this poor humanity, under the control of the Spirits of Evil, because the hour of the great chastisement has now come.

These are the times when the action of your guardian angels must become stronger still and continuous. Pray to them often, listen to them with docility, follow them at every moment.

The cult of veneration and of praise offered to the angels of the Lord must become more widespread and solemnly observed in the Church. For indeed, to them is reserved the task of making to you the much-awaited announcement of your proximate liberation.

The announcement of the three angels should be looked forward to by you with confidence, received with joy and followed with love.

-Your liberation will coincide with the termination of the iniquity, with the complete liberation of all creation from the slavery of sin and evil.

What will come to pass is something so very great that it will exceed anything that has taken place since the beginning of the world. It will be like a judgement in miniature, and each one will see his own life and all he has done, in the very light of God.

[Revelation 14:6-7 Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, the herald of the everlasting good news to the whole world, to every nation and race, language and people. He said in a loud voice: "Honor God and give Him glory, for His time has come to sit in judgement. Worship the Creator of heaven and earth, the Creator of the sea and the springs."]

To the first angel there falls the task of making this announcement to all: 'Give to God glory and obedience; praise Him because the moment has come when He will judge the world. Go down on your knees before Him who has made heaven and earth, the sea, and the springs of water.'

-Your liberation will coincide with the defeat of Satan and of every diabolical spirit.

All the demons and spirits of the damned who, during these years have been poured out into every part of the world, for the ruin and damnation of souls, will be cast into hell, from which they have come, and they will no longer be able to do harm.

All the power of Satan will be destroyed.

[Revelation 14:8 A second angel followed and cried out: Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great which made all the nations drink the poisoned wine of her lewdness!"]

To the second angel their befalls the task of making this announcement: 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all the nations drink of the intoxicating wine of her prostitution.'

-Your liberation will coincide, above all with the reward granted to all those who have remained faithful during the great trial, and with the great chastisement meted out to those who have allowed themselves to be drawn away by sin and evil, by faithlessness and godlessness, by money and pleasure, by egoism and impurity.

[Revelation 14:9-12 A third angel followed the others and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast or accepts its image, or accepts its mark on his forehead or his hand, he too will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of His anger. He will be tormented in burning sulphur before the holy angels and before the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment shall rise forever and ever. There shall be no relief day or night for those who worship the beast or its image or accept the mark of its name."]

To the third angel there falls the task of announcing the great chastisement: 'Anyone who worships the beast and its image, and accepts its mark on forehead or hand, will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of His terrible judgement, and will be tormented with fire and sulphur, in the presence of the Lamb and the holy angels. The smoke and the fire that torments them ends. Anyone who worships the beast and its image and whoever accepts the mark of its name has no relief day or night.'

At this final time of the great tribulation, announced as that of the end of the iniquity, of the defeat of Satan, and of the chastisement of the godless, the constancy of those who belong to the Lord, who put into practice the commandments of God and who remain faithful to Jesus, is put to a hard test.

The rosary is my prayer; it is the prayer which I came down from heaven to ask of you, because it is the weapon which you must make use of, in these times of the great battle, and it is the sign of my assured victory.

My victory will be won when Satan, with his powerful army made up of all the infernal spirits, will be shut up within his kingdom of darkness and death, from which he will no longer be able to escape in order to do harm in the world.

[Revelation 20:1-3 Then I saw an angel come down from heaven, holding the key to the abyss, and a huge chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil or Satan, and chained him up for a thousand years. The angel hurled him into the abyss, which he closed and sealed over him.]

For this reason, there is to come down from heaven an angel to whom there is given the key of the abyss and a chain with which this angel will bind the great dragon, the ancient serpent, Satan, with all his followers.

An 'angel' is a spirit who is sent by God to carry out a particular mission.

I am the Queen of Angels, because it is of the very nature of my role to be sent by the Lord to accomplish the very great and important mission of conquering Satan.

And so, there has been entrusted to me the key with which it is possible to open and shut the door to the abyss.

The key is the sign of power which belongs to him who is lord and master of a place which belongs to him.

In this sense, He who holds the key of the universe is the Incarnate Word alone, because all things have been made through Him, and therefore Jesus Christ is Master and King of all the universe, namely, of heaven, of earth, and of the abyss.

My Son Jesus alone possesses the key of the abyss, because He Himself is the Key of David, who opens and no one can shut, who shuts and no one can open.

Jesus consigns this key, which represents divine power, into my hand because, as His Mother, mediatrix between you and my Son, there is entrusted to me the task of conquering Satan and all his powerful army of evil. It is with this key that I am able to open and shut the door to the abyss.

The chain, with which the great Dragon is to be bound, is made up of prayer made by me and by means of me. This prayer is that of the holy rosary. A chain has in fact three function of first of all limiting action, then of imprisoning, and finally of making ineffective every activity of the one who has been bound by it.

-The chain of the holy rosary has first of all the function of limiting the action of my Adversary. Every rosary which you recite with me has the effect of restricting the action of the Evil One, of drawing souls away from his pernicious influence, and of giving greater impetus to the expansion of goodness in the life of many of my children.

-The chain of the holy rosary has also the effect of imprisoning Satan, that is, of making his action impotent, and of diminishing and weakening more and more the force of his diabolical power. And so, each rosary which is recited well deals a mighty blow to the power of evil, and it represents one part of his reign which is destroyed.

-The chain of the holy rosary brings about, in the end, the result of making Satan completely harmless. His great power is destroyed. All the evil spirits are cast into the pool of fire and sulphur, the door is shut by me with the key of the power of Christ, and thus they will no longer be able to go out into the world to do harm to souls.

You understand now, my beloved children, why, in these last times of the battle between me, the Woman clothed in the sun, and the great Dragon, I am asking you to multiply everywhere the cenacles of prayer, with the recitation of the holy rosary, meditation on my word, and your consecration to my Immaculate Heart.