John M Haffert passed peacefully from this life on the feast of All Souls Day and just three days before the First Saturday of the month. He made a long confession, prayed the rosary, and had mass said in his room. Just after communion he died in the presence of the world famous International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which was brought to his side.

Mr. Haffert started his Apostolate of Fatima with something simple called the "Fatima Message Pledge" in 1946. In 1948 he merged his work with that of Monsignor Harold Colgan, who had started the Blue Army in 1947

John Haffert was educated in a Carmelite seminary and heir to hundreds of millions of dollars from a publishing house his family owned. Among the many things Haffert accomplished for Our Lady is a magazine known as The Scapular. He was the International Lay Delegate for the World Apostolate of Fatima (1950-1985). He organized several World Peace flights. He built the Blue Army’s International Headquarters, Domus Pacis in Fatima. He redeemed the historic Icon of Our Lady of Kazan and brought it to Domus Pacis in Fatima. He was the author of over 20 books, and founder and editor of SOUL magazine. He was Lay Director of The Blue Army USA for decades, retiring in 1987. He founded the Lay Apostolate Foundation. He bought many buildings in the Castle of Ourem and founded the Oureana Foundation and the Queen of the World Center at the Castle of Ourem, Portugal. He helped establish a religious community of sisters on Shrine grounds: the Handmaids of Mary Immaculate.

The Funeral Mass was in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the National Blue Army Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Saturday and presided over by Bishop James S. Sullivan, the President of the Blue Army in the USA. Mr. Haffert is survived by his wife, Patricia; his daughter, Betty; his brother, Horace; and his sister, Sister Therese of the Queen of Carmel, OCD.

JOHN HAFFERT AND I

I came to love John Haffert in the late 60s and early 70s, when I read a book called "The World's Greatest Secret" which he claimed to have authored. This book was the reason Tan Book and Publishing came into business. Tan has since done more for the education of English speaking Catholics than any other publisher. I came to admire him more as I came to know Fatima and the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Haffert financed the carving of this statue at the direction of Lucia of Fatima along with one other. These two statues were blessed by the Holy Father as the two official statues of Fatima. One went behind the Iron Curtain and the other to the Americas. Haffert saw to it that the statue traveled around the world and everywhere it went miracles went with it. I am a witness to many of these miracles. One of my other loves is the Icon of Kazan, which Haffert helped purchase and bring to Fatima where it stayed for many years. It is now in the Hands of the Holy Father awaiting its return to Russia.

Haffert once wrote that I declared open war against him, and he was right. My Apostolate his false mystics and he started getting caught up in many of them, especially Garabandal. When he deliberately mixed up the Pilgrim Virgin Statue with six false mystics I went to war against him.

See THE 101 ‘VICTORIOUS" QUEEN PEACE FRIGHT

See Letter to Sister Lucia

Just prior to his death, however, I learned that he repented of all these faults and tried to get the 101 Foundation closed down. He has willed the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue to the Holy Mountain of Fatima at the Castle of Ourem, where it can be venerated by the hundreds of millions of pilgrims who come to Fatima every year. I am sure the great good he has done in his life will overshadow the few faults. I hope and pray that he now prays for me, as my mission is not yet accomplished and I have more faults than he did. May his memory last a thousand years.

The Publican