Desde la Fe, the weekly of the archdiocese of Mexico, wrote of a statement from Sr Lucia dos Santos.

This comes as Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced his intention to promote same-sex marriage in the country, the Catholic News Agency reported.

The Mexican paper recalled comments Cardinal Carlo Caffarra made to the Italian press in 2008, three years after the death of Sr Lucia.

Cardinal Caffarra was asked about a prophecy of Sr Lucia that spoke about "the final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan".

The cardinal said several years previously, he had written to Sr Lucia's bishop, asking for her prayers.

This came after St John Paul II had commissioned Cardinal Caffarra to plan and establish the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family

The cardinal received an unexpected response, bearing Sr Lucia's signature.

"In that letter we find written: ‘The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about marriage and the family'," the cardinal said.

"Don't be afraid, she added, because whoever works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue.

"Then she concluded: ‘nevertheless, Our Lady has already crushed his head'."

Cardinal Caffarra added that "speaking again with John Paul II, you could feel that the family was the core, since it has to do with the supporting pillar of creation, the truth of the relationship between man and woman, between the generations".

"If the foundational pillar is damaged, the entire building collapses and we're seeing this now, because we are right at this point and we know it."

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: The Call to Fatima

Laura Alari, who writes for Quotidiano Nazionale, invented stories about herself that she told priests during the sacrament of Confession.

She pretended to be a lesbian mother asking to baptise her daughter, a woman who lives with her female partner and a divorced woman who has a new partner, but receives Communion.

The newspaper series was intended as a portrait of Catholicism in the everyday lives of Italians.

The president of the Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, said the articles "objectively constitute a grave offense against the truth of Confession".

He said they also showed a "grave lack of respect for believers".

Cardinal Caffarra recalled that the publication of the contents of a Confession is among the most grave crimes in the Church, which are under the direct competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Bishops' conference secretary Bishop Nunzio Galantino said "this rubbish has already been done in the past".

"I find this abhorrent from an ethical point of view and unspeakable from a human point of view," he said.

The editor of one of the papers in which the articles appeared, Andrea Cangini, said protests were understandable.

But he said his paper wanted to show how the average priest reacts in such situations.

Ms Alari told the Italian bishops' newspaper Avvenire that she was aware that she was violating a sacrament.

"When the editor asked me to do this job I was very perplexed, because I am Catholic and I knew that I was violating a sacrament.

" I decided that pretending to go to Confession was the only way to understand what is happening today in the Church without filters."

She added that the problems she spoke of in Confession were real-life dilemmas faced by people she knew.

She added that she felt bad because she met "amazing priests who dedicated hours to me".

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• The Local Italy
• Avvenire
• Image: Catholic Exchange