Pope in Fatima

Half a million pilgrims chanting “Viva o Papa” braved the rain to hear Pope Benedict XVI condemn the world’s “petty egoisms” at an overflowing open-air mass at Fatima, the Portuguese Lourdes.

The mass, the highlight of the Pope’s four-day trip to Portugal, marked the anniversary of the day in 1917 when three shepherd children reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary as the sun “spun” in the sky.

They claimed that the Madonna confided to them three “secrets” foretelling the Second World War, the conversion of Russia to Christianity and the attempt on the life of John Paul II in 1981. John Paul believed that the Virgin Mary saved him from the attempted assassination, which took place on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.

In his homily a weary looking Pope Benedict, dressed in white and gold vestments and sounding hoarse, said: “We delude ourselves if we think that the prophetic mission of Fatima has come to an end.”

On the plane from Rome to Lisbon on Tuesday he said that the so-called Third Secret of Fatima referred not only to the attack on John Paul II by a Turkish gunman on 13 May, 1981, but also to the “sufferings of the Church” in general, including the current crisis over clerical sex abuse.

He has not referred directly to the sex abuse scandals in his speeches since arriving in Portugal, where few abuse cases have come to light. However in a policy reversal the Pope acknowledged that the abuse scandals did not come from a conspiracy by the Church’s enemies and the media, as Vatican officials had claimed, but from “sins inside the Church itself”.

At a candlelit evening prayer service on his arrival at Fatima from Lisbon on Wednesday the pontiff said that he was bringing the suffering “of a wounded humanity, of the problems of the world” to the shrine, constructed in the 1950s.

Praying before a statue of the Madonna, the Pope referred to the bullet that his predecessor had placed in the statue’s crown in gratitude for her intervention. “It is a profound consolation to know that you are crowned not only with the silver and gold of our joys and hopes but also with the ‘bullet’ of our anxieties and sufferings,” he said.

The cult of the three shepherd children and their visions was first opposed by the then anti-clerical Portuguese authorities and viewed with scepticism by the Church. However, it flourished later after the miraculous nature of the visions was authenticated by the Vatican.

On a visit to Fatima in 2000, Pope John Paul disclosed the Third Secret and beatified two of the shepherds who had reported apparitions and who died young. The third of the children, Lucia dos Santos, became a nun and died five years ago. She too is headed for beatification, the step before sainthood.

Many Portuguese pilgrims at Fatima had walked more than 100 miles from towns and villages, and some travelled the last few hundred metres on their knees. Others flocked to Fatima from neighbouring Spain.

Eavan O’Donoghue, an English teacher in Valencia, said that she had seen the Pope before “but Fatima holds a special meaning”.

In his homily the Pope, 83, told pilgrims that they would be returning in seven years time to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions, but did not say whether he expected to be present.

He said that the “human family” appeared all too ready to “sacrifice its most holy bonds on the altar of the petty egoisms of nation, race and ideology”.

Earlier he told hundreds of priests, nuns and seminarians at the sanctuary that dedication to their calling required “courage and trust”. He told the clergy to be wary of “those situations where there is a certain weakening of priestly ideals or dedication to activities which do not fully accord with what is proper for a minister of Jesus Christ”.

He also held a 30-minute meeting with Portugal’s Prime Minister Jose Socrates, a supporter of gay marriage legislation recently passed by the Portuguese Parliament and due to be signed into law next week. (Times).

Fatima One Year On

This time last year I was in Fatima with the crowds celebrating the 90th anniversary of the apparitions.

Since returning home I have made sermon references, written in the parish magazine, and talked to St Saviour's Walsingham Cell about the experience.

My love of Our Lady is increased. At Fatima she revealed herself as 'Our Lady of the Rosary' and asked for regular recitation, pleaded for the practice of penance, and devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.

We are approaching the Feast of the Immaculate Heart which is kept on the Saturday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost (the day following the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). The Opening Prayer of the Feast has a Pentecost note in it:

"God our Father, You created a worthy dwelling place for the Holy Spirit in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Grant that, through her prayers, we may become a fit temple for Your glory."

To be 'devoted' to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means to make 'Saying Yes to God:May His Will be done' the defining centre of one's whole life, that the Kingdom may come.

90 Years Ago Today

Here is a record of what happened in Fatima 90 years ago today.

October 13, 1917
There were about 70,000 people present at the Cova da Iria for the October 13 apparition and Miracle of the Sun. Beginning the night before and persisting throughout the morning of the 13th, a cold rain fell on the crowd. The ground was muddy and the rain soaked everything. At the time when Our Lady was due to arrive, Lucy begged the people to close their umbrellas, which they did at once.

‘What does Your Grace want of me?’ [Lucy asked.]
‘I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in My honor. I am the Lady of the Rosary. May you continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.’

‘I had many things to ask You: to cure some sick people, to convert some sinners, etc.’
‘Some yes, others no. They must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins.’
Then taking on a more sorrowful air, Our Lady said:
‘Do not offend the Lord Our God any more, for He is already too much offended!’
‘You want nothing more from me?’ [Lucy asked.]
‘No, I want nothing more from you.’
"Then I do not ask anything more of You either."

As Our Lady ascended into Heaven, Lucy shouted: "She is going! She is going! Look at the sun!"
The miracle announced by Our Lady then took place: the sky abruptly cleared and the sun "danced". The people were able to look at the bright sun directly, without it bothering their eyes at all.

A physician, Dr. Almeida Garrett, testified:
Suddenly I heard the uproar of thousands of voices, and I saw the whole multitude spread out in that vast space at my feet … turn their backs to that spot where, until then, all their expectations focused, and look at the sun on the other side … I turned around, too, toward the point commanding their gazes, and I could see the sun, like a very clear disc, with its sharp edge, which gleamed without hurting the sight … It could not be confused with the sun seen through a fog (there was no fog at that moment), for it was neither veiled, nor dim. At Fatima, it kept its light and heat, and stood out clearly in the sky, with a sharp edge, like a large gaming table. The most astonishing thing was to be able to stare at the solar disc for a long time, brilliant with light and heat, without hurting the eyes, or damaging the retina.

The testimony of Avelino de Almeida, editor-in-chief of O Seculo, Lisbon’s anticlerical and Masonic daily newspaper, is similar:
And then we witnessed a unique spectacle, an incredible spectacle, unbelievable if you did not witness it. From above the road … We see the immense crowd turn towards the sun, which appeared at its zenith, clear of the clouds. It looked like a plate of dull silver, and it was possible to stare at it without the least discomfort. It did not burn the eyes. It did not blind. One might say that an eclipse had occurred.

Others also testified:
"It shook and trembled; it seemed like a wheel of fire." (Maria da Capelinha)
"The sun turned like a fire wheel, taking on all the colors of the rainbow." (Maria do Carmo)
"The sun took on all the colors of the rainbow. Everything assumed those same colors: our faces, our clothes, the earth itself." (Maria do Carmo)

The most terrifying aspect of the Miracle of the Sun then took place:
"We suddenly heard a clamor, like a cry of anguish of that entire crowd. The sun, in fact, keeping its rapid movement of rotation, seemed to free itself from the firmament and, blood-red, to plunge towards the earth, threatening to crush us with its fiery mass. Those were some terrifying seconds." (Dr. Almeida Garrett)

"The sun began to dance and, at a certain moment, it appeared to detach itself from the firmament and to rush forward on us, like a fire wheel." (Alfredo da Silva Santos)

"Finally, the sun stopped and everybody breathed a sigh of relief …" (Maria da Capelinha)

"From those thousands of mouths I heard shouts of joy and love to the Most Holy Virgin. And then I believed. I had the certainty of not having been the victim of a suggestion. I had seen the sun as I would never see it again." (Mario Godinho, an engineer)

Yet another astonishing aspect of the Miracle was that all of the thousands of people, most of whom were soaked to the bone and dirty from the mud, suddenly found that their clothes were dry and clean.
"The moment one would least expect it, our clothes were totally dry." (Maria do Carmo)
"My suit dried in an instant." (John Carreira)

The academician Marques da Cruz testified:
This enormous multitude was drenched, for it had rained unceasingly since dawn. But – though this may appear incredible – after the great miracle everyone felt comfortable, and found his garments quite dry, a subject of general wonder … The truth of this fact has been guaranteed with the greatest sincerity by dozens and dozens of persons of absolute trustworthiness, whom I have known intimately from childhood, and who are still alive (1937), as well as by persons from various districts of the country who were present.

In one aspect, this is the most astonishing effect of the miracle and an indisputable proof of its authenticity: The amount of energy needed to accomplish this process of drying in a natural way and in such a short a time, would have incinerated everyone present at the Cova at that time. As this aspect of the miracle contradicts the laws of nature radically, no demon could ever have achieved it.

Finally, many miracles of conversion, the greatest miracle God can bestow, also occurred. Here are two examples:

The captain of the regiment of soldiers on the mountain that day – with orders to prevent the gathering of the crowd – was converted instantly. Apparently so were hundreds of other unbelievers, as their testimony will show.
"There was an unbeliever there who had spent the morning mocking the ‘simpletons’ who had gone off to Fatima just to see an ordinary girl. He now seemed paralyzed, his eyes fixed on the sun. He began to tremble from head to foot, and lifting up his arms, fell on his knees in the mud, crying out to God." (Father Lourenço)

A number of other cases of cures and conversions are documented in, among other places, the following books: Documentação Crítica de Fátima and Fatima from the Beginning.

The great Miracle of the Sun lasted for ten minutes. Many more accounts of the miracle have been taken and recorded from the masses of people present, which verify this incredible manifestation of the authenticity of the entire Fatima Message. (For more accounts, see Chapter 1 of The Devil’s Final Battle.)

During the Miracle of the Sun, the three children were witnessing something else: the beautiful spectacle promised by Our Lady.

Lucy writes:
Our Lady having disappeared in the immensity of the firmament, we saw, beside the sun, Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady clothed in white with a blue mantle. Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus seemed to bless the world with gestures which they made with their hands in the form of a cross.
Soon after, that apparition having ceased, I saw Our Lord and Our Lady, Who gave me the impression of being Our Lady of Sorrows. Our Lord seemed to bless the world in the same manner as Saint Joseph.
That apparition disappeared and it seemed to me that I saw Our Lady again, this time as Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

These three successive visions are connected to one of the dominant messages of Fatima: the Rosary. In each of Her six apparitions, Our Lady asked that the Rosary be prayed and here, in these visions granted to the three children, the mysteries of the Holy Rosary were represented. With the vision of the Holy Family we find the Joyful mysteries; the Sorrowful mysteries are represented by the vision of Our Lord and Our Lady of Sorrows; and the Glorious mysteries are represented in the vision of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

When the visions had disappeared and the sun was again normal, Lucy was placed on the shoulder of a man in the crowd and carried safely through the masses to the road. As she was moving past the people, she cried out to them, pleading one of the important themes in the Fatima Message: to convert, return to God and to flee sin. Her exact words were: "Do penance! Do penance! Our Lady wants you to do penance!" but Frère Michel states that in Portuguese this does not mean "performing mortifications", but rather "being converted, returning to God, fleeing sin." Through this plea Lucy was reiterating the sorrowful request Our Lady had made of humanity in Her final apparition: "Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already too much offended."

Thus the Miracle of the Sun, witnessed by 70,000 people, concluded the cycle of the apparitions at Fatima. Yet the Message of Fatima, with its great depth and scope, was to continue to be unfolded to the eldest of the three seers, Lucy. In the years to come Heaven’s Messenger would be visited and, as promised by Our Lady in the July 13 apparition, would be instructed to reveal Heaven’s plan for peace for a turbulent world: the Reparatory devotion of the Five First Saturdays and the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Catholic pilgrims flock to holy shrine Fatima

Hundreds of thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims are to gather this weekend at the holy shrine of Fatima to witness the inauguration of one of the world's largest churches.

The new Church of the Holy Trinity can seat 9,000 worshippers.

Authorities expect at least 250,000 pilgrims to visit the shrine in northern Portugal to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the last of a series of reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary to three local children.

The occasion will see the opening of the new Church of the Holy Trinity, which cost an estimated £50 million and has the capacity to seat 9,000 worshippers.

The church contains five chapels, 16 confessionals and a café where the faithful can "rest and reflect".

The low-slung oval building, which has taken three and half years to construct, has been created with no internal columns to allow television to sweep unobstructed over the congregation during the live broadcast of services.

A 500 sq metre gilded tiled mural of New Jerusalem, created by Portugal’s best-known architect, Siza Vieira, adorns an atrium and the walls bear passages from the Bible in 23 languages.

The project is part of a face-lift for Portugal’s most popular pilgrimage site, which attracts up to five million visitors a year, the most devoted among them making the final approach crawling on their hands and knees.

The cult of Fatima began after three children claimed that the Virgin Mary appeared before them on May 13, 1917.

In a series of visions over the following six months, the Virgin of Fatima allegedly revealed to them the "Three Secrets of Fatima". The first two "secrets", which were disclosed by the Vatican, referred to the start of the Second World War and the reconversion of communist Russia to Christianity.

The third remained a closely guarded secret until May 2000 when the late Pope John Paul II revealed that it had prophesised the 1981 assassination attempt against him.

He attributed his narrow escape from death to the intervention of the Virgin Mary, and donated the bullet extracted from his abdomen to the Fatima shrine.

In 2000 he beatified two of the young shepherds, Francisco Marto and his sister Jacinta, who died in childhood. Their cousin Lucia, who became a nun at Coimbra, died two years ago at the age of 97.

The service will be presided over by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, and will include a live televised message from Pope Benedict.

Immaculate Heart of Mary

Feast kept on this Saturday after the Sacred Heart.



Mary kept and pondered in her heart all the great deeds of God.



The Immaculate Heart is a heart which, with God's grace, has come to a perfect interior unity and therefore sees God. Because Mary's Immaculate Heart is attuned to Him and to the needs of others.



To be 'devoted' to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means to make Saying Yes to God - may His will be done - the defining centre of one's whole life, that the Kingdom may come.



A votive mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is said on the first Saturday of each month. The Fatima visionaries called for communions of reparation on first Saturdays.

On 13th June 1917 The Lady in White appeared a second time to the little shepherds at the Cova da Iria, Fatima promising to take Francisco and Jacinta to heaven very soon. "But you", she said to Lucia, "are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart...My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God." Then she opened her hands. "In front of the palm of Our Lady's right hand", Lucia tells us,"was a heart encircled by thorns which pierced it. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, and seeking reparation".

"In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph".

Corpus Christi

Thomas Aquinas

Pange Lingua (hymn for Vespers on the Feast of Corpus Christi), stanza 5


Down in adoration falling,

Lo! the sacred Host we hail,

Lo! oe'r ancient forms departing

Newer rites of grace prevail;

Faith for all defects supplying,

Where the feeble senses fail.




Aquinas also wrote a powerful prayer for the festival, that encompasses many aspects of the doctrine of the eucharist:


O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament left us a memorial of your Passion: grant, we implore you, that we may so venerate the sacred mysteries of your body and blood, as always to be conscious of the fruit of your redemption.

Angel of Fatima

Today's solemnity carries me back to Fatima and the third apparition of the angel to the children in the autumn of 1916, prior to the apparitions of our Lady in the summer of 1917.

At this apparition the angel appeared to them holding a chalice in his left hand, with a host suspended above it, from which some drops of blood fell into the chalice. Leaving the chalice and the host suspended in the air, the angel prostrated beside the little shepherds and asked them to say the following prayer:

"Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners."

Then, rising, the angel took the chalice and the hosts in his hands. He gave the host to Lucia, and the contents of the chalice to Francisco and Jacinta, saying as he did so: "Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God".

Once again, he prostrated on the ground and repeated with them, three times more, the same prayer "Most Holy Trinity...." He then disappeared. He had completed his mission. Six months later, the heavens would open once more to make way for her who was to bring a message of love and salvation to mankind.

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...........

Here we go, here we go, here we go

Our flight to Lisbon, Portugal departs from Heathrow Terminal One at 7.40 a.m. tomorrow morning (book in 5.4o a.m.).

Living on the Yorkshire coast here in Scarborough we are off centre when we need to connect with an airport or mainline service which adds greatly to costs and time.

Some from the North will travel today and spend a night in London. My plan is to travel by coach via Leeds direct to Heathrow (arriving 3.00 a.m.). This means a Scarborough departure this afternoon between 4 - 5 p.m. The return journey will land me in York by midnight on the 16th and I shall need a taxi from there back to Scarborough. Nevertheless I hope to be at the Dulverton chapel altar at 8.15 a.m. to celebrate the eucharist on Ascension Day.

I shall not be able to post a daily blog whilst I am away but I shall be keeping a diary and will post this when I get back.

Hail Mary full of grace,

The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,

And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Pray for us sinners now,

And at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Pilgrimage to Fatima

Fifty years ago this summer I graduated from Methodist Theological College at Richmond, Surrey (London University) and commenced my ministry as a Methodist minister in the Cardiff(Roath) circuit.

Going on pilgrimage to Fatima from this Wednesday to next Wednesday with the Ecumenical Friends of Fatima Association is my way of marking this anniversary. We shall be 3 bishops, 24 priests, 2 religious and 72 laity (almost all Anglicans). There will be one lay person from Scarborough and one priest besides myself from the York diocese.

The message of Fatima concerns the call to prayer and the value of our prayers, especially for peace and the saving of souls. The most important point of the pilgrimage is our response to God's appeal to us for penance and prayer.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, appeared six times to three shepherd children ("the Three Seers") near the town of Fatima, Portugal between May 13 and October 13, 1917. Appearing to the children, the Blessed Virgin told them that She had been sent by God with a message for every man, woman and child living in our century. Coming at a time when civilization was torn asunder by war and bloody violence, She promised that Heaven would grant peace to all the world if Her requests for prayer, reparation and consecration were heard and obeyed.

"If My requests are granted ... there will be peace"

Our Lady of Fatima explained to the children that war is a punishment for sin and warned that God would further castigate the world for its disobedience to His Will by means of war, hunger and the persecution of the Church, the Holy Father and the Catholic Faithful. God's Mother prophesied that Russia would be God's chosen "instrument of chastisement," spreading the "errors" of atheism and materialism across the earth, fomenting wars, annihilating nations and persecuting the Faithful everywhere.

"If My requests are not granted, Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martryed, the Holy Father will suffer much and various nations will be annihilated."

In all Her appearances at Fatima, the Blessed Mother repeatedly emphasized the necessity of praying the Rosary daily, of wearing the Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel and of performing acts of reparation and sacrifice. To prevent the terrible chastisement at the hands of Russia and to convert "that poor nation", Our Lady requested the solemn public Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart by the Pope and all the Catholic bishops of the world. She also asked that the Faithful practice a new devotion of reparation on the first Saturday of five consecutive months ("the Five First Saturdays")

The heart of Our Lady's Message to the world is contained in what has come to be called the "Secret" which She confided to the three child seers in July 1917. The Secret actually consists of three parts, the first two of which have been publicly revealed. The first part of the Secret was a horrifying vision of hell "where the souls of poor sinners go" and contained an urgent plea from Our Lady for acts of prayer and sacrifice to save souls. The second part of the Secret specifically prophesied the outbreak of World War II and contained the Mother of God's solemn request for the Consecration of Russia as a condition for world peace. It also predicted the inevitable triumph of Her Immaculate Heart following Russia's consecration and the conversion "of that poor nation" to the Catholic Faith.

The last part of the Secret (often called the "Third Secret") has not yet been made public, but was written down by Lucy Dos Santos, the last living Fatima seer, in 1944 and has been in the possession of the Holy See since 1957. Most informed sources speculate that this portion of the Secret concerns chaos in the Catholic Church, predicting widespread apostasy and a loss of faith beginning in the seventh decade of the 20th Century.

The Ecumenical Friends of Fátima Association (EFFA)

‘Father, may they all be one, just as you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.’ John 17: 21

The Ecumenical Friends of Fátima Association was inaugurated and consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima on Tuesday, 15th May 2001 by the Right Reverend Edwin Barnes, Bishop of Richborough and first Episcopal President of The Association, in the presence of His Excellency Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva, Bishop of Leiria- Fátima.

EFFA

promotes the worship of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, through encouraging devotion to the Most Holy Virgin especially under her title of Our Lady of Fátima.

works for the re-union of all Christians under the patronage of Mary, Mother of the Church.
organises pilgrimages to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal.

supports local festivals in dioceses and parishes in honour of Our Lady of Fátima.
encourages personal prayer amongst its members to Our Lady of Fátima, the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Belonging to EFFA Membership is open to all those who accept the traditional catholic understanding of the three-fold ministry and the seven sacraments.Members form a Living Rosary At present there are 77 members (2 bishops, 33 priests and 42 Laity).

EFFA AND THE VIDA E PAZ COMMUNITY

The Comunidade Vida e Paz (the Community of Life and Peace) runs a centre just outside Fátima for the rehabilitation of drug addicts.From its outset, the founding members of EFFA did not want it just to be a pious club but wanted a serious social and practical commitment as well. This was discussed with Bishop Seraphim, and he suggested we could support this charity which is one of his own favourite charities in Fátima. After an exploratory visit, the members on pilgrimage that year (2002) were really impressed by the work that was being done by the Community, and decided to adopt it as the practical expression of EFFA’s apostolate.Each year we make a practical contribution to the life of the community, and support it with our prayers. So far donations have totalled just under £8,000. Sometimes this has been spent simply to help with the day-to-day running costs of the community, sometimes it has gone towards special projects.

In 2004 our gift went towards the Community’s Apartment of Reinsertion, (a Half-Way House) in the city of Leiria (about 25 kms from Fatima). It gives them the opportunity to experience “real life” once again, but having the Centre totally supportive in the background.Last year we were told that the Community intended to apply our donation towards a new sculpture – a massive figure of Our Lady which would stand on the porch of the chapel and dominate the main piazza and entrance to the Centre. Every pilgrimage enjoys the privilege of saying mass in the Centre’s chapel, which lies at the heart of the community.The Centre is concerned with the body, soul and spirit of its residents. At the entrance to the Chapel there is large ceramic roundel which highlights the three aspects of the community’s life: “compassion”, “adoration” and “evangelisation”• Compassion is seen within the community as people are weaned off drug dependency.• Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is becoming a real part of the day to day life in the community chapel.• Evangelism takes the form of teaching the faith, simply because that is part of that wholeness of life meant for everyone.

In such a spirit of prayer with and for each other lies our strength and the depth of our commitment to the call of Our Lady to make sacrifices for the sake of others. It is in this spirit that the Ecumenical Friends of Fátima Association is both honoured and humbled to be able to support the work of the Comunidade Vida e Paz at Fátima.

Destruction of Communism

Boris Yeltsin, former Russian President, died yesterday. He will be given a State funeral in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. No doubt the funeral procession will pass into Red Square through the Resurrection Gate. For all his faults it was he who presided over the smashing of Russia's communist system and enabled the reintroduction of a form of capitalism. He made the world a better place.

Was he completely a free agent or did he act under the inspiration and enpowerment of divine power?

Three Secrets of Fatima

The Three Secrets of Fatima are said to be three prophecies that were given by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three young Portuguese shepherds, Lucia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto. From May to October, 1917, the three children claimed to have witnessed this Marian apparition, which is today popularly described as Our Lady of Fatima.
On July 13 the Virgin Mary is said to have entrusted the three secrets - in the form of prophecies - to the young visionaries. Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in a document written by Lucia to assist with the canonization of her cousins, while the third was to remain secret, although the bishop of Leiria commanded Lucia to put it in writing and to present it to the Pope. Lucia herself chose the 1960 date for the secret to be revealed, because she thought that by "then it will be made clearer." The text of the third secret was released by Pope John Paul II, on June 26, 2000, with the elderly Lucia in attendance.

Second secret

The second secret is a statement that World War I would end and supposedly predicts the coming of World War II should God continue to be offended.

The second half requests that Russia be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart:

You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light*, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.

Pope John Paul II and theCollegial Consecration of 1984

Pope John Paul II's formal association with Fatima stems from the attempt made on his life in Rome on 13 May 1981, the anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima, when he was shot in St Peter's square.
All the evidence suggests that Mehmet Ali Agca carried out the assassination attempt under orders from the Bulgarian secret service, which was itself working with the KGB. It seems that the Communists were worried at the increasing influence of the Pope, particularly in Poland, and had decided to eliminate him.[
Fortunately the bullet wounds were not fatal and while in hospital recovering, the Pope carefully reviewed all the documents on Fatima. He certainly felt that Mary's intercession had saved his life, and his reading apparently convinced him that the consecration of Russia to Mary's Immaculate Heart was an absolute necessity if the world was to be saved from war and atheism.
Consequently on 13 May 1982, exactly a year after the assassination attempt, John Paul II was in Fatima, both to thank Mary for saving his life, and also to carry out a public act of consecration of the whole world, including Russia, to her Immaculate Heart. After this was accomplished, though, it became apparent that many of the world's bishops had not been informed in time.
Thus this consecration had not fulfilled the conditions of collegiality asked for by Mary at Fatima, that is that the Pope in union with the bishops of the world should consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Sr. Lucia, still living in the Carmelite convent at Coimbra, apparently made this known later to the Apostolic Nuncio in Portugal. Interestingly, in this 1982 consecration John Paul II specifically described Fatima as a place "chosen" by Mary, thus indicating official confirmation of its status and intimating that we are to understand it as the major "prophecy" of the twentieth century, whose urgent message cannot be ignored.
During his homily the Pope made the following remarks:
"If the Church has accepted the message of Fatima, it is above all because that message contains a truth and a call whose basic content is the truth and call of the Gospel itself. "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mk. 1:15).
"These are the first words of the Messiah addressed to humanity. The message of Fatima is, in its basic nucleus, a call to conversion and repentance, as in the Gospel. This call was uttered at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it was thus addressed particularly to this present century. The Lady of the message seems to have read with special insight the 'signs of the times,' the signs of our time."
John Paul II also spoke of Fatima during this homily in these significant terms: "The appeal of the Lady of the message of Fatima is so deeply rooted in the Gospel and the whole of Tradition that the Church feels that the message imposes a commitment on her."
The Pope decided to renew the consecration in March 1984, with letters being sent to all the world's bishops in good time, including the Orthodox, asking them to join him in this action. On 25 March 1984, the feast of the Annunciation, John Paul II duly renewed the act of consecration in St Peter's Basilica in Rome, before the statue of Mary from the site of the apparitions at Fatima which was specially brought for the occasion.
Although the text used did not mention Russia, the Pope did specifically recall the acts of consecration made by Pope Pius XII in 1942 and 1952, the latter being essentially concerned with Russia. It also appears that John Paul II paused during the ceremony, and, according to the bishop of Leiria-Fatima, Alberto Cosme do Amaral, quietly included Russia in the consecration.
This action is understandable given the delicate political situation, and, it has been argued, with the understanding that God was leaving the Pope, as head of the Church on earth, to best judge the precise form the act should take. Certainly Russia was in the Pope's mind in the following reference:
"in a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and nations which particularly need to be thus entrusted and consecrated."
Although not all the world's bishops joined in the act of consecration, it appears that a "moral totality" did, thus satisfying the request of Mary. Following this consecration Sr. Lucia was again visited by the Apostolic Nuncio; this time she told him that the consecration of Russia had indeed been accomplished, and that God had accepted it.
After nearly seventy years it appeared that the act of collegial consecration had finally been carried out.
Others, though, have taken the view that this was not the case, and this opinion cannot be dismissed lightly. If we look at the various requests and statements made by Mary to Sr Lucia in literal terms, then it can certainly be argued that the 1984 act of consecration did not completely fulfil these requests.
In July 1917, after showing the children hell, and describing what would happen if people did not repent, Mary continued:
"To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."
Fr Messias Coelho, a leading Portuguese theologian and authority on Fatima, argues that although the text used in the 1984 consecration mentioned the world rather than Russia, as Mary requested, since Russia is part of the world then it is included in the consecration by implication. As he states: "Nobody can prove that the words Our Lady used, asked for a consecration of Russia alone; Russia is part of the world. If the world is consecrated, Russia becomes consecrated."
This is obviously a true statement, but there also seems to be a danger of distorting Mary's words, as documented above, beyond their natural meaning.
It is clear that at present Russia has not been "converted," in the sense of being truly converted to Catholicism, or even Christianity in general. Nor is there much evidence of peace in the world. There also seems to be a definite link here between the consecration of Russia and the First Saturday Communions of Reparation, to the extent that it could be argued that they are jointly necessary.
This connection is also found in the following passage, which arose out of the 1929 apparition of the Trinity at the convent at Tuy, after which Sr Lucia corresponded with Fr Gonzalves:
"If I am not mistaken, Our Dear Lord God promises to end to the persecution of Russia, if the Holy Father condescends to make, and likewise ordains the Bishops of the Catholic World to make, a solemn and public act of reparation and consecration of Russia to the Most Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In response to the ending of this persecution, His Holiness is to promise to approve of and recommend the practice of the already mentioned devotion of reparation."
If taken literally, both parts of this request have not been complied with, in that Russia was not specifically named in the 1984 act of consecration, and similarly, the Pope has not approved and recommended the First Saturdays devotion of reparation in any official public sense.
If these two points are organically linked, as seems to be the case, then perhaps the consecration will not become fully effective until the First Saturdays devotion is officially promulgated by the papacy; this may help to explain why the "conversion" of Russia and true peace for the world are so slow in coming. This though would probably also require a feast day for Fatima linked with the canonisation of Jacinta and Francisco.
The theological consensus seems to be that the Pope has done as much as he can at present, and that therefore official promotion of the First Saturdays devotion is something for the future. If the above position is correct it is possible to see the 1984 papal consecration as somewhat similar to that of Pius XII in 1942, which shortened the Second World War.
That is it has led to the fall of communism and the end of immediate persecution in Russia and its former satellites, but it does not completely fulfil the requests made by Mary, although this does not mean that it is necessary to repeat it.
In the mid-thirties Sr. Lucia asked Jesus why it was necessary that Russia be consecrated to Mary's Immaculate Heart, receiving this reply: "Because I want My whole Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that it may extend its cult later on, and put devotion to this Immaculate Heart beside the devotion to my Sacred Heart."
Again it is clear that at present the "whole Church" is far from acknowledging Mary's role and seeing the 1984 act of consecration as a triumph of her Immaculate Heart, and this too is probably a factor in limiting the effectiveness of the consecration.
At a meeting in Fatima in 1989 the bishop of Fatima was asked if Mary's request regarding the consecration of Russia had been fulfilled. He replied to the effect that this matter was the "business of the Holy Father," who as head of the Church was ultimately responsible for it. Fr Frederick L. Miller, who was also present, comments thus on the bishop's reply:
"I would certainly say that the Pope has done all that he can possibly do to fulfil Our Lady's request." As he points out, the essential concern of Catholics should be to live the message of Fatima rather than worry over whether the consecration has been done or not, a matter which is in the hands of the Pope alone.
These points were reiterated by the bishop of Fatima in 1990, in the support he gave to visiting prelates, such as Cardinal Meisner, who expressed their belief that the consecration had indeed been done.
We also have the testimony of Sr. Lucia, in 1989, in a hand-written letter to the Fatima Family Messenger, a Fatima magazine edited by Fr. Robert Fox, which apparently does confirm that the consecration made in 1984 was valid. In this letter she points out that previous consecrations were not fully efficacious, because they had not been made in union with the bishops of the world. Sr. Lucia produced another signed note, dated 3 July 1990, in response to a specific question from Fr Fox, of which the following excerpt is a translation from the Portuguese:
"I come to answer your question, 'If the consecration made by Pope John Paul II on March 25, 1984 in union with all the bishops of the world, accomplished the conditions for the conversion of Russia, according to the request of Our Lady in Tuy on June 13 of 1929'? Yes it was accomplished, and since then I have said that it was made. And I say that no other person responds for me, it is I who receive and open all letters and respond to them." Thus we have to weigh this categorical assertion against the negative points detailed above. Fr Fox further argues that the Pope was very careful to ensure that the wording of the act of consecration guaranteed collegiality. He points out that John Paul II explicitly recalled the two consecrations of Pope Pius XII, in 1942 when he consecrated the world to Mary's Immaculate Heart, and in 1952 when he consecrated Russia to her, offering these previous consecrations with his own act of consecration.
As Fr Fox states: "To say that the Pope was not consecrating Russia in union with the bishops of the world does violence to logic. It makes a taskmaster of God who nit-picks for fine details or wording rather than the intention of hearts."
On balance then the most important authorities, including the Pope, the local bishop, prominent theologians, and finally Sr. Lucia herself, hold the view that the 1984 act of consecration of Russia was properly carried out. Perhaps it is not surprising that there is such controversy over this point, given the difficulties the various popes have encountered in attempting to make the collegial consecration.
Pius XII could have requested the bishops of the world to join him in both his 1942 and 1952 consecrations, but chose not to. Similarly Paul VI could have made the collegial consecration during the Second Vatican Council, when he was in the presence of the world's bishops, but he too chose not to or felt unable to take this step.
He may have felt that opposition to the message of Fatima, amongst certain members of the hierarchy and prominent theologians, rendered the carrying out of the full consecration impossible during his pontificate. This seems to be the import of Jesus' words to Sr. Lucia after the 1929 apparition of the Trinity:
"They did not wish to heed My request. Like the king of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church; the Holy Father will have much to suffer."
Paul VI would also have weighed the effect of the full collegial consecration of Russia, and its apparent condemnation of the atheistic communist regime, on the lives of ordinary Christians who would undoubtedly have faced further persecution.
It is also probable that not enough people were living the Fatima message to make these earlier consecrations viable. And regardless of the view one takes of the 1984 consecration, it is obvious that still not enough people are taking Fatima seriously. Until this happens the full power and beauty of Fatima will not become apparent in the world.