Fatima Diary

Wednesday 9th May

Between 3 and 5 a.m. Heathrow Terminal One is virtually closed down and almost deserted. Then at around 5.00 a.m. there are people and activity everywhere preparing for the first flights of the day.

During the quiet period I met a layman from Liverpool and my priest room companion. They had both arrived even earlier than me. Soon all our fellow pilgrims, travelling on our British Airways Flight, are in evidence. Other pilgrims have left from Terminal Two on an earlier flight and yet more will follow on a later flight. The Mancunian representatives (the organising company) were there to help us in any way they could and sort our problems with efficiency. We are all on a non ticket flight. Machines are available into which you punch your flight code and a boarding pass emerges which you present at check in with your luggage. Some of us stick the old tried and tested method through a human contact. Security checks follow and then there is the long wait until boarding time.

We are only 15-20 minutes late departing and land at Lisbon airport at 10.30 a.m. This is an airport in the heart of the city and not on the outskirts as is more usual. We have a coach journey to Fatima of one and half hours. As the watch shows 12 noon we say/sing the Regina Coeli.

Joy to thee, O Queen of Heaven, alleluia;

He who thou wast meet to bear, alleluia;

As he promised, hath arisen, alleluia;

Pour for us to him thy prayer, alleluia;

Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia,

For the Lord is risen indeed, alleluia.

O God, who by the resurrection of thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, has given joy unto the whole world; grant we beseech thee, that through the intercession of his Mother, the Virgin Mary, we may obtain the joys of life eternal; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

The main group of pilgrims are staying at Pensao Sao Paulo or at their Seminary next door but some of us are across the road at Hotel San Jorge. My room companion is a similar age and a priest who was a Council Housing Officer and now lives in retirement in a council flat in the Midlands. He is a member of EFFA and has been to Fatima a number of times.

At about 4.15 p.m. we assemble as an informal procession, complete with Union Jack, to make our first familiarisation visit to the Chapel of the Apparitions at the heart of the sanctuary site. A very hot sun blazes down on us. On our return we say evening prayer and concelebrate a mass of our Lady of Fatima with the three bishops presiding and preaching. For the mass sermons we are to have a series based on the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. We have music and hymns - all very splendid. Afterwards we are free until dinner at 7.30 p.m. - time to unpack. We are advised to have a quiet evening and an early night today following a tiring journey and a heavy programme to come. The temptation is to return to the Sanctuary where each evening the Rosary is said corporately and a torchlight procession held. Our Lady introduced herself to the children "I am the Queen of the Holy Rosary" and encouraged them in the regular reciting of the Rosary prayers.

Fatima strikes me as a smaller and more compact community than Lourdes. Things appear fairly quiet at present but I am told that the town will begin to heave as the ceremonies of the weekend approach, especially this year the 90th Anniversary of the Apparitions.

Thursday 10th May

I awake feeling the benefit of a good night's sleep and I am up and ready for breakfast at 8.00 a.m. At 9.30 a.m. we hold a Mass of the Angels in the Chapel of the Angels (located in the Pilgrims Hospital behind the Chapel of the Apparitions). At 11.00 a.m. we assemble outside for a group photograph followed by a guided orientation tour of the Shrine and Cova buildings etc. This is most helpful for those of us who haven't been to Fatima before. We hear so many good stories as we go round e.g. the bullet from the body of John Paul II following the assassination attempt on his life is now suspended within the crown of our Lady.

In the afternoon we travel by coach to Valinhos and Aljustrel where the Fatima children weer born and brought up, also where two of them died. We visit their homes and the wooded hill where they had encounters with Angels and with Mary. In Lavinia's home we meet one of her relatives and recieve the gift of a beautiful photographic record of "John Paul II: Fatima Pilgrim". I find this afternoon reminiscent of a similar visit from Lourdes tot eh village where Bernadette was wet nursed and later a domestic servant. It is very rural, a humble background, for both amazing stories. Later we visit Fatima Parish Church where the family graves are - those of the children now empty since their bodies were transferred to the Basilica in the Sanctuary. In the church we say evening prayer and then bless ourselves in the Easter water of the font where the children were baptised. It was here too that they were catechised and received their first communion. Over the altar a picture shows a vision of our Lady to Lucia on Ascension day 1907 in which she is instructed to recite the rosary 'properly'. This is a good place to renew our baptismal and ordination vows and to consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother,

to your Immaculate Heart we consecrate ourselves,

in an act of total entrustment to the Lord.

By you we will be led to Christ.

By Him and with Him we will be led to the Father.

With Him we wish to carry His love and salvation

to the ends of the earth.

Under the protection of your Immaculate Heart,

we will be one people with Christ.

We will be witnesses of His resurrection.

By Him we will be led to the Father,

for the glory of the most Holy Trinity

whom we adore, praise and bless forever. Amen.

Back at our residences there is time for rest and refreshment before dinner. After dinner coffee and alcohol are available in the lounge bar then tonight (i.e. my room companion and I) make a first private visit to share in the rosary and observe the procession at the Capelinha and the Sanctuary but we are home and in bed by 11.00 p.m.

The numbers in the town are growing as the weekend approaches with pilgrims coming from all parts of the world. A good number walk the final few miles and approach our Lady shuffling along on their knees. The hotels are filling up and the camping community is getting large. This is a big anniversary at which a few thousand will become over half a million (maybe even more).

We are at Portugal's national shrine as well as at an International Marian shrine.

Friday 11th May

Following breakfast we are transported by coach to the Communidade Vida e Paz, a drug rehabilitation centre which is supported by the gifts and prayers of EFFA members. This was at the suggestion of the local bishop who gave his blessing to the founding of the association. In the chapel there we say morning prayer and hold a Mass of Our Lady, Health of the Sick, with the ministry of the laying on of hands and anointing. After mass we are entertained to refreshments by the community and make them a presentation of finance and a painting for the wall of the entrance. The painting is entitled "Children of the Dancing Sun" and has been painted by the wife of an EFFA priest.

On our way back into Fatima we stop off at a new kind of supermarket - one that sells only religious artefacts in great quantities and at low prices. I have never seen anything like it. Most of the priests leave their laity there and make for the more up market establishment across the road selling all priestly and churchy requirements also at good prices, several floors of it and much money is spent. There will be parcels to add to luggage for the journey home.

After lunch it is Stations of the Cross. Those who are up to it walk back to Aljustrel to follow what is called "The Hungarian Way of the Cross" because the stations were financed by Hungarian expatriates from around the world. Others of us, not so robust, use the less demanding stations in the Basilica Colonnades where it is shaded and cool. During the free time that follows I explore the Cova further on my own. I also visit the military and pilgrim camp sites but I bump into others from the stations exercise and we relax together over a beer or two in the town. When they go off to evening prayer I return to our hotel room for some rest I feel I need. There is this diary to write and lots of literature I want to read. We have coffee after dinner and an early night. This heat takes its toll on we light skinned, light haired ones.

Saturday 12th May

This morning we say morning prayer. This is followed by Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament until 12 noon. Sacrament of Reconciliation is also available during this period.

I remain in chapel throughout the period to meditate on the teaching of a Catholic Truth Society booklet entitled "Fatima in the Third Millennium" in which the author Timothy Tindal-Robertson explores the importance of Fatima for the Church's Mission of Evangelism today. He underlines the importance of three acts connected with Fatima by John Paul II during the year 2000;
1. Entrusting the new century to Mary
2. Beatification of two of the Fatima visionaries
3. Publication of the Third Secret.

Again we return to the Chapel of the Angels for evening prayer and a Mass of the Holy Eucharist. Too hot to do very much afterwards except return to room for shade and rest.
It is noticeable that the crowds outside are not loud. There is just the steady murmur of a lot of friendly family chatter.

In the evening we manage to find our way through these crowds to a corner , under a tree, where we can share the rosary and watch the candlelight procession. After the experience we obtain a better view back on the Sao Paulo television. European Song Contest competes on the opposite channel. There are many of our pilgrims who have returned disappointed tonight unable to get anywhere near the proceedings marking the commencement of the 9oth Anniversary celebrations. After rosary and procession is concelebrated mass and other traditional rituals associated with the shrine like the blessing of the sick and the great farewell to our Lady as she returns to the Capelinha.

Sunday 13th May

The water supply fails as we prepare for breakfast. It seems too many camping pilgrims are tapping into the mains. We manage as best we can. Then no bread has been delivered for breakfast because of the demand but our host and hostess at San Jorg entertain us in their own flat.

We manage with a struggle to get ourselves through the crowds to the Capalinha sacristy for 9.15 a.m. As Anglicans we dress distinctively as non concelebrants in our cassocks, cottas, and white stoles. We are given a privileged position in the procession immediately behind the leading banners and ahead of all the other clergy and the enthroned imaged of Our Lady of Fatima. At the altar below the Basilica our places are at the side of the altar, under the Colonnade where we have a good view of all that is going on. We are adjacent to the first class choir leading the singing accompanied by the new organ. We are close by the sick and invalids when they are communicated and blessed by the Host in the Monstrance. We are surrounded by photographers and TV cameras beaming the pictures to the world. It is all a great honour. After the ceremonies we lead the Procession of Farewell back to the Capelhina as the statue of Our Lady returns home. We are alongside as she returns to her elevated plinth (and bullet proof case).

News doesn't reach us that our pilgrimage mass of the day time has been changed. We are half an hour late. It is a Mass of the Day - 5th after Easter.

We had better take it easy. No more strenuous activity today. Just food and drink and bed.

Monday 11th May

Early Mass of "Our Lady Queen of Peace" before breakfast in Verbo Divino Chapel (attached to another large hotel and shop nearby) so that we are all ready for start of a day out afterwards.
The coach to Lisbon is cancelled because of need to employ official guides and Monday is a day of closed public buildings. Six still go on public transport but it doesn't sound to have worked out very well. The rest of us head for the seaside via two alternative routes for stop offs on the way.

We get a one hour break at Obidos - a medieval walled town of great antiquity, preservation and interest. Lovely place for a look round and a coffee.

On to Nazare where we are dropped off at 12.30 p.m. and told to return at 4.3o p.m. This is a premier seaside resort with a magnificent bay and sands set below an ancient town so named because of a statue of Mary brought there from Nazareth. My room companion and I take in the views and head for a back street restaurant visited previously by my friend and there we enjoy a leisurely meal of the local speciality - Fish Stew Nazare style, very good and very filling. A starter of cheese and bread, a good bottle of wine, and first class espresso coffee mean we do not have much room left for dinner when we get back. Modern funicular cars carry one up the cliff from sea to town but we take the cliff walk back down to the coach.

A most enjoyable day in lovely sunshine.

Tuesday 15th May

For our meals during these last couple of days of the pilgrimage we are transferred from Sao Paulo to Seminary. Both are run by the same Polish religious order. The pilgrim centre was intended to provide the funds for the Seminary but at the moment there are no seminarians so both are used for pilgrims. It is a great surprise and delight to find that the Seminary and my Methodist College share the same motto "For Christ and the Church".

I wanted to make today a day of review and reflection by once again going back to the roots of what happened here 90 years ago. First we are off once more to the Chapel of the Angels for morning prayer and a Mass for the Chief Shepherd. The AGM of EFFA is to follow but I shall not stay as I do not intend to join. Rather I head for the Capelinha to spend time there trying to visualise the days when a tree stood there amidst a series of peasant allotments and where the children of Fatima encountered the Lady in White in the tree during her monthly visits on the 13th to convey a message and a mission to them and through them to the church. However I find myself in the midst of a Brazilian pilgrim group reciting the Regina Coeli and the Rosary followed by a mass but their devotions do not detract but add to mine.

In the afternoon my room companion and I take a ride on the Panorama Tour of Fatima by a mini train which stops at all the important pilgrimage points we have already visited every half hour. We are both keen to return to Valinhos and spend time there where the children had their visions of the angels and at least one exposure to an appearance of our Lady. We spent some time in the Hungarian Chapel surrounded by pilgrims form an Eastern European country. On the return journey on the train we engage in conversations with Irish and Swiss pilgrims but are too late back to attend evening prayer and so miss the last sermon on the Glorious Mysteries though we are in good time for dinner.

Later in the evening I pack ready for home although my companion claims he is too tired and will set the alarm for 4.00 a.m. to do it in the morning. He is true to his word though it means my return home day will have a very early start as well as a very late end. Why worry this is a once in a life time experience to which all sorts of things may contribute.

Wednesday 16th May

At 4.00 a.m. my room companion is up like a shot and by breakfast time at 5.30 a.m. he has just about got everything packed. Our hotel proprietor is up to see us off and presents us each with a San Jorge medallion as a gift. I have discovered that he and his wife have also known each other since childhood and have been married one year less than Cynthia and I. It will be their golden wedding next year.

We reach Lisbon airport in plenty of time, fears of traffic delays prove groundless. Some pilgrims fly out more than an hour before us. We are divided only two ways for this return journey. We have to face the new experience of self service check in via the computer screens but we all seem to manage. The thing examines your passport as well as letting you choose your seat. It makes handing in luggage easy. A couple of people have problems when the computer cannot or will not read their passports and they have to be processed in the old fashioned way. I get into trouble at the security screening through a metal comb in shirt pocket and a couple of bottles of water in my hand luggage (they are confiscated).

Whilst waiting for our flight we take coffee at Harrods which seems strange in Lisbon. We are three priests sat waiting for boarding when we are approached by Plymouth golfers on a pleasure trip who happened to call in at Fatima. They want to discuss their impressions with us. It seems they were quite upset by pilgrims shuffling on their knees towards Our Lady. It had certainly got their minds ticking over about religious questions they had not considered for a very long time previously even though they claimed to be 'cradle' Catholics. They seemed happy they were on our flight as they thought we would be some kind of guarantee of their safety. I somehow do not think they are ready to give up their golf for God just yet. By contrast a Roman Catholic Australian couple, who have also called in at Fatima whilst in Portugal, were deeply moved by it all and weer encouraged by the interest of Anglicans. On the aeroplane I sit with three Americans on their way home from a business trip via a few hours in London. It is a rapidly developing country through membership of the European Community. Our Mancunia representative told us the first Fatima pilgrimage they organised was by Flying Boat from Poole Harbour to the river running through Lisbon.

At Heathrow our party quickly disperse with little opportunity for goodbyes. Perhaps we shall meet again. I am glad to get earlier coaches than anticipated via Victoria to Leeds, then Coastliner from Leeds to Malton. From there it is a taxi that brings me to Dulverton just on midnight.

Some thoughts on the pilgrimage

I am convinced that there is a real work of God for our times both through Lourdes and Fatima. They present the Church and the World with relevant messages which we need to heed. A response is not optional. Mine is positive and elements of the pilgrimage experience will be incorporated into my ongoing believing, thinking and praying.

I have been particularly impressed by the devotion, discipline, and dedication of the priests with whom I have travelled. They seem to have Fatima as their paramount spiritual focus. They will return time and time again to what they probably regard as their true spiritual home. This is not me. I still want to be open to a wider range of spiritual resources. I shall not have the same need to keep returning to Fatima.

I am persuaded that EFFA is making a significant witness in the Church of England and in the Anglican Communion. It may well be God's will that it should have a significant role in bringing some kind of reunion with Rome. I hope so. If we are serious about our Christianity and our Churchmanship then we must be courageous in witnessing to it and in practising it. I am sure that God expects nothing less. I am sure He will bless faithfulness with joy and hope. I hear Him saying this through Lourdes and Fatima.

I am fully conscious of the important role of Mary in our redemption and of her essential place in any growth in our holiness as followers of her Son. May she protect us and pray for us. May we love her and serve her.

The thirteenth of May

In the Cova d'Iria

Appeared, oh so brilliant,

The Virgin Maria.

Ave, ave, ave Maria. Ave, ave, ave Maria.

The Virgin Maria

Encicled with light,

Our own dearest Mother

And heaven's delight.

To three l;ittle shepherds

Our Lady appeared.

The lightof her grace

To her Son souls endeared.

With war and its evils

The whole world was seething,

And countless of thousands

Were mourning and weeping.

To save all poor souls

Who had wandered astray,

With words of sweet comfort

She asked us to pray.

By honouring Mary

And lovinmg her Son,

The peace of the world

Will most surely be won.

(traditional Fatima hymn)

Today is Ascension Day and I presided as BCP Eucharist in Dulverton Chapel at 8.15 a.m. The post Fatima chapter has opened...........