Fatima Centenary: awaiting Pope Francis
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is just hours away from his
departure for Fatima, Portugal, where he will lead celebrations to mark the
100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady there. Our special envoy Chris
Altieri is in Fatima, and sent us this report.
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“If you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes.” That’s
sound advice any time one finds oneself about 20 miles from the Atlantic coast
at nearly 1,000 ft. elevation.
We took rain off and on all morning, as we went from one
side of the shrine complex to the other: first getting an unscheduled stop at
the Carmel where Pope Francis is to stay the night Friday, then our hunt for
our lodgings and then the press centre for accreditation and then the refectory
for a quick bite to eat
That’s par for the course on a journey like this – a
pilgrimage, really – though I promise to be here from start to finish,
God-willing, to bring you all the story – and it is as a pilgrim that Pope
Francis is coming to this place in the hills north of Lisbon, where 100 years
ago this weekend the Mother of God appeared to shepherd children , in the midst
of what was the most costly and destructive conflict yet in human history, to
show the whole human race once again the way to her Divine Son, Jesus Christ.
“With Mary, as a pilgrim of hope and peace I travel to
Fatima,” said Pope Francis in a tweet on the eve of his departure. “Let us see
in her that everything is God’s gift and He is our strength.”
Here, in Fatima, there is an uncanny mixture of constant
bustle and tense calm, with groups of pilgrims of every age and state of life
in the Church milling about, now completing this devotion, now moving to
another – some braving wind and rain to cross the plaza on their knees – others
seeking shelter, others heading home – at least for the day.
The shrine complex is getting busier by the hour, it seems,
with volunteers and the inevitable security checkpoints adding to the bustle.
The Rosary of Our Lady, meanwhile, is in the air – quite
literally – visibly in the great white sculpture that rises some 80 feet high
over the square – and audibly, in the prayers of the pilgrims, whether piped
through the public address, or whispered at arm’s length.
In Fatima, awaiting Pope Francis, I’m, Chris Altieri
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