For the past several years, the organization Sister Lucy Truth (SLT) has posited that there was an impostor Sr. Lúcia. Various supporting claims have been made to this effect, including the recently published video “The Priest Who Knew Too Much.”[1] This video argues that the former archivist of Fátima, Fr. Joaquín María Alonso, supported what we can call the “Fake Lúcia Hypothesis” (FLH). Citing Alonso as supporting this notion is spurious. Let us first provide a brief exposition of the heart of the matter.

To prove its case, SLT turns to Alonso’s book The Truth about the Secret of Fátima: Fátima without myths. This book was originally published in the Spanish language in 1976 as La verdad sobre el secreto de Fátima: Fátima sin mitos.[2] Three years later (1979), the book was published in French and English translations. Alonso died two years later in 1981. A second edition of Alonso’s book was published in 1988 by the organization Sol de Fátima in Madrid.[3]

Some time ago, a digital edition of the 1988 publication was made available online, free, for anyone to read via calaméo.com.[4] It is also available via the website Libreria Cathólica eBooks Católicos.[5] SLT used one of these digital versions to make its video. The specific information cited comes from two pages with pictures and captions underneath. The first is a picture of Sr. Lúcia as a Carmelite standing next to Pope Paul VI in Fátima on May 13, 1967. This photo is labeled “Figure 08” in the digital version.

Underneath the image is a caption that reads (in English) “Pope Paul VI presents Lúcia to the crowd.” The 1976 edition of Alonso’s book has this same image and caption.[6] The 1988 digitized edition, however, has brackets around the word “Lucía” with question marks ([¿]Lucía[?]). Putting Lúcia’s name in brackets and question marks places doubt that the woman in the photo is Lúcia.

On the next page of the 1988 digitized version, there is a photo of Sr. Lúcia as a Dorothean nun, along with a caption underneath. This photo is labeled “Figure 09” in the digitized version. Neither this photo nor the caption appeared in the 1976 edition. The caption underneath the digitized 1988 version directly questions whether it is the same woman between both pictures: “The features of the Lúcia in Figure 8 are different than the features of the Sr. Lúcia dos Santos in Figure 9. For example, the Lúcia in Figure 8 has thin lips, whereas those of Sr. Lúcia dos Santos has thick lips, etc. What accounts for these differences?”

Upon the strength of the digitized edition, Sister Lucy Truth argues in its video that Fr. Alonso supported the notion of an impostor Lúcia. However, Alonso did not support the FLH in these texts for the following three reasons:

1. By 1988, Alonso had been dead for seven years. This fact is acknowledged by SLT in the video’s description and in the video itself (45:57). How did Alonso allegedly endorse the FLH seven years after his death?
2. The Calaméo digitized 1988 version has brackets that appear above and below Figure 9. In editing, brackets indicate a change by a later editor. What did Calaméo know about the 1988 physical hard copy?
3. A check of the physical hard copy of the 1988 edition shows that there is no text caption questioning if the woman presented is the real Lúcia.

In conclusion, the claim in “The Priest Who Knew Too Much” video that Fr. Alonso supported an impostor Lúcia is based upon dubious evidence. The irony is that the book used to support the impostor claim was intended to dispel myths about Fátima, not create new and fanciful ones. One is led to ask questions as to the credibility of other arguments put forth by Sister Lucy Truth in favor of an impostor Sr. Lúcia. More research into the FLH is forthcoming and I’ll update you as it becomes available.

[1] Dr. Peter Chojnowski. “THE FATIMA FILES: The Priest Who Knew Too Much.” Sister Lucy Truth YouTube Channel (December 22, 2025). See also the version on the Wynn Young YouTube Channel.

[2] Fr. Joaquín María Alonso, La verdad sobre el secreto de Fátima: Fátima sin mitos (Madrid: Centro Mariano, 1976).

[3] A physical copy of this book is available at the National Library of Spain (BNE) in Madrid.

[4] Fr. Joaquín María Alonso, La verdad sobre el secreto de Fátima: Fátima sin mitos (Madrid: Sol de Fatima, 1988).

[5] La verdad sobre el secreto de Fátima: Fátima sin mitos at Libreria Católica eBooks Católicos.

[6] Alonso, La verdad sobre el secreto de Fátima (1976), 115.