(Vatican Radio) The Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, celebrated Mass for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered in the great open plaza of the Marian shrine in Fatima on Friday evening, following the recitation of the Holy Rosary with Pope Francis, who is on pilgrimage to the shrine to mark the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady there. Below, please find the full text of the homily Cardinal Parolin prepared for the occasion, in their official English translation…
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Homily of Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Vigil Mass, Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima
12 May 2017
Dear Pilgrims to Fatima,
With joy and gratitude, we have gathered at this Shrine that commemorates the apparitions of Our Lady to the three shepherd children. We join the throngs of pilgrims who in these hundred years have come here to show their trust in the Mother of Heaven. We are celebrating this Eucharist in honour of her Immaculate Heart. In the first reading, we heard the people exclaim: “You averted our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God” ( Jdt 13:20). These words of praise and gratitude were addressed by the city of Bethulia to Judith, their champion, whom “the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth… guided to cut off the head of the leader of our enemies” ( Jdt 13:18). But they take on their full meaning in the Immaculate Virgin Mary. Thanks to her offspring – Christ the Lord – she was able to “crush the head” (cf. Gen 3:15) of the “ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world”. He, in turn, “was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus” ( Rev 12:9.17).
As a Mother concerned for the trials of her children, Mary appeared here with a message of consolation and hope for a world at war and for the Church in travail: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph” (Apparition of July, 1917). In other words: “Trust! In the end, love and peace will triumph, because God’s mercy is stronger than the power of evil. What seems impossible to men is possible to God”. Our Lady also asks us to join in this battle of her divine Son, particularly by the daily recitation of the Rosary for peace in the world. Even though everything depends on God and his grace, we still need to act as if everything depended on us, by asking the Virgin Mary that the hearts of individuals, the homes of families, the history of peoples and the fraternal soul of all humanity be consecrated to her and placed under her protection and guidance. She wants people who entrust themselves to her! “If they do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and have peace” (Apparition of July, 1917). In the end, what will win the war is a heart: the Heart of the Mother will obtain the victory, at the head of millions of her sons and daughters.
This evening, we offer thanks and praise to the Most Holy Trinity for the commitment of so many men and women to this mission of peace entrusted to the Virgin Mother. From East to West, the love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary has won a place in the heart of peoples as a source of hope and consolation. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council met in order to renew the face of the Church, and presented itself essentially as the Council of love. The faithful, the bishops, the Pope did not fail to heed the requests of the Mother of God and of man: the whole world was consecrated to her. Everywhere groups and communities of believers continue to grow. Awakening from yesterday’s apathy, they now work to show to the world the true face of Christianity.
“If they do what I tell you, they will have peace”. A hundred years after the apparitions, it is true that, as Pope Francis has observed, “for many people today, peace appears as a blessing to be taken for granted, for all intents an acquired right to which not much thought is given, yet for all too many others, peace remains merely a distant dream. Millions of people still live in the midst of senseless conflicts. Even in places once considered safe, a general sense of fear is felt. We are frequently overwhelmed by images of death, by the pain of innocent men, women and children who plead for help and consolation, by the grief of those mourning the loss of a dear one due to hatred and violence, and by the drama of refugees fleeing war and migrants meeting tragic deaths” ( Address to the Diplomatic Corps , 9 January 2017). In the midst of great concern and uncertainty about the future, what does Fatima ask of us? Perseverance in the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, shown daily by the recitation of the Rosary. And what if, despite our prayers, wars continue? Even though immediate results may not be evident, let us persevere in prayer. Prayer is never useless. Sooner or later, it will bear fruit. Prayer is capital in the hands of God; he turns it to good account in his own times and ways, which are very different from our own.
Our responsorial psalm was the Canticle of the Magnificat , with its sharp contrast between the “great” story of the nations and their conflicts, the story of the great and powerful with its own chronology and geography of power, and the “little” history of the poor, the humble and the powerless. The latter are called to work for peace with another force, with other seemingly useless or ineffective means, such as conversion, reparation, and trust. They are asked to halt the advance of evil by plunging into the ocean of divine Love as resistance – not surrender – to the banality and the inevitability of evil.
What must we do? Let me explain with an example(cf. Eloy Bueno de la Fuente, A Mensagem de Fátima. A misericórdia de Deus: o triunfo do amor nos dramas da história , 2 2014, 235-237). If someone passes us a counterfeit banknote, a spontaneous and even logical reaction could be to pass it on to somebody else. This shows us how ready we are to fall into a perverse logic that takes over and makes us spread evil. If I act according to this logic, my situation changes. I was an innocent victim when I received the counterfeit banknote, a victim of the evil of others. But once I decide to pass the counterfeit notes to someone else, I am innocent no longer. I have been won over by the seductive power of evil, creating a new victim. I have become an agent of evil, now responsible and guilty. The alternative is to halt the advance of evil, but that happens only by paying a price, by keeping the counterfeit banknote and thus freeing others from the advance of evil.
This is the only reaction that can stop evil and prevail over it. Human beings win this victory when they are capable of a sacrifice that becomes reparation. Christ carries it out, thus showing that his way of loving is mercy. This excess of love can be seen in the cross of Jesus. He takes on the full weight of the hatred and violence that rain down on him, without responding with insults or threatening revenge. Instead, he forgives, and thus shows that there is a greater love. Only he can do this, taking on – as it were – the “counterfeit banknote”. His death was a victory over the evil unleashed by his tormentors, which all of us are. Jesus, crucified and risen, is our peace and reconciliation (cf. Eph 2:14; 2 Cor 5:18).
“You averted our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God”. Let us pray at this evening vigil as a great pilgrim people, following in the footsteps of the risen Jesus, enlightening one another and helping one another to advance, based on our faith in Christ Jesus. The Fathers of the Church tell us that Mary conceived Jesus first in faith and then in the flesh, when she said “Yes” to God’s call to her through the angel. But what took place in a singular way in the Virgin Mother takes place spiritually in us whenever we hear the word of God and put it into practice, as the Gospel says (cf. Lk 11:28). Imitating Mary’s generosity and courage, let us present our bodies to Jesus so that he can continue to dwell in our midst. Let us offer him our hands to caress the little ones and the poor, our feet to draw near to our brothers and sisters, our arms to shore up the weak and to work in the Lord’s vineyard, our minds to think and plan in the light of the Gospel, and above all, our hearts to love and make decisions in accordance with God’s will.
In this way, may the Virgin Mother shape us, pressing us to her Immaculate Heart, as she did with Lucia, Blessed Francisco and Blessed Jacinta. On this centenary of the apparitions, with gratitude for the gift which the event, the message and the shrine of Fatima have been throughout the past century, let us join our voices to that of the Virgin Mary: “My soul magnifies the Lord… for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant… his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation” ( Lk 1:46-50).
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis greeted pilgrims on Friday evening in Fatima, as they gathered with him for a brief moment of prayerful recollection before the great vigil that would begin with the recitation of the Rosary led by the Holy Father himself. Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks, in their official English translation.
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Greeting of His Holiness Pope Francis
Vigil at the Chapel of the Apparitions
12 May 2017
Dear Pilgrims to Mary and with Mary!
Thank you for your welcome and for joining me on this pilgrimage of hope and peace. Even now, I want to assure all of you who are united with me, here or elsewhere, that you have a special place in my heart. I feel that Jesus has entrusted you to me (cf. Jn 21:15-17), and I embrace all of you and commend you to Jesus, “especially those most in need” – as Our Lady taught us to pray (Apparition of July, 1917). May she, the loving and solicitous Mother of the needy, obtain for them the Lord’s blessing! On each of the destitute and outcast robbed of the present, on each of the excluded and abandoned denied a future, on each of the orphans and victims of injustice refused a past, may there descend the blessing of God, incarnate in Jesus Christ. “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” ( Num 6:24-26).
This blessing was fulfilled in the Virgin Mary. No other creature ever basked in the light of God’s face as did Mary; she in turn gave a human face to the Son of the eternal Father. Now we can contemplate her in the succession of joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious moments of her life, which we revisit in our recitation of the rosary. With Christ and Mary, we abide in God. Indeed, “if we want to be Christian, we must be Marian; in a word, we have to acknowledge the essential, vital and providential relationship uniting Our Lady to Jesus, a relationship that opens before us the way leading to him” (PAUL VI, Address at the Shine of Our Lady of Bonaria , Cagliari, 24 April 1970). Each time we recite the rosary, in this holy place or anywhere else, the Gospel enters anew into the life of individuals, families, peoples and the entire world.
Pilgrims with Mary… But which Mary? A teacher of the spiritual life , the first to follow Jesus on the “narrow way” of the cross by giving us an example, or a Lady “unapproachable” and impossible to imitate? A woman “blessed because she believed” always and everywhere in God’s words (cf. Lk 1:42.45), or a “plaster statue” from whom we beg favours at little cost? The Virgin Mary of the Gospel, venerated by the Church at prayer, or a Mary of our own making: one who restrains the arm of a vengeful God; one sweeter than Jesus the ruthless judge; one more merciful than the Lamb slain for us?
Great injustice is done to God’s grace whenever we say that sins are punished by his judgment, without first saying – as the Gospel clearly does – that they are forgiven by his mercy! Mercy has to be put before judgment and, in any case, God’s judgment will always be rendered in the light of his mercy. Obviously, God’s mercy does not deny justice, for Jesus took upon himself the consequences of our sin, together with its due punishment. He did not deny sin, but redeemed it on the cross. Hence, in the faith that unites us to the cross of Christ, we are freed of our sins; we put aside all fear and dread, as unbefitting those who are loved (cf. 1 Jn 4:18). “Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. In her, we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong, who need not treat others poorly in order to feel important themselves… This interplay of justice and tenderness, of contemplation and concern for others, is what makes the ecclesial community look to Mary as a model of evangelization” (Ap. Exhort. Evangelii Gaudium , 288). With Mary, may each of us become a sign and sacrament of the mercy of God, who pardons always and pardons everything.
Hand in hand with the Virgin Mother, and under her watchful gaze, may we come to sing with joy the mercies of the Lord, and cry out: “My soul sings to you, Lord!” The mercy you have shown to all your saints and all your faithful people, you have also shown to me. Out of the pride of my heart, I went astray, following my own ambitions and interests, without gaining any crown of glory! My one hope of glory, Lord, is this: that your Mother will take me in her arms, shelter me beneath her mantle, and set me close to your heart. Amen.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed on Friday in the Little Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima, entrusting himself, in union with his brothers and sisters, to Our Lady of Immaculate Heart. A golden rose was the personal gift he left at her feet.
This is his prayer :
The Holy Father:
Hail Holy Queen,
Blessed Virgin of Fatima,
Lady of Immaculate Heart,
our refuge and our way to God!
As a pilgrim of the Light that comes to us from your hands,
I give thanks to God the Father, who in every time and place
is at work in human history;
As a pilgrim of the Peace that, in this place, you proclaim,
I give praise to Christ, our peace, and I implore for the world
concord among all peoples;
As a pilgrim of the Hope that the Spirit awakens,
I come as a prophet and messenger to wash the feet of all,
at the same table that unites us.
Refrain (sung by the assembly):
Ave O Clemens, Ave O pia!
Salve Regina Rosarii Fatimae.
Ave O clemens, Ave O pia!
Ave O dulcis Virgo Maria!
The Holy Father:
Hail, Mother of Mercy,
Lady robed in white!
In this place where, a hundred years ago
you made known to all the purposes of God’s mercy,
I gaze at your robe of light
and, as a bishop robed in white,
I call to mind all those who,
robed in the splendour of their baptism,
desire to live in God
and tell the mysteries of Christ in order to obtain peace.
Refrain…
The Holy Father:
Hail, life and sweetness,
Hail, our hope,
O Pilgrim Virgin, O Universal Queen!
In the depths of your being,
in your Immaculate Heart,
you keep the joys of men and women
as they journey to the Heavenly Homeland.
In the depths of your being,
in your Immaculate Heart,
you keep the sorrows of the human family,
as they mourn and weep in this valley of tears.
In the depths of your being,
in your Immaculate Heart,
adorn us with the radiance of the jewels of your crown
and make us pilgrims, even as you were a pilgrim.
With your virginal smile,
enliven the joy of Christ’s Church.
With your gaze of sweetness,
strengthen the hope of God’s children.
With your hands lifted in prayer to the Lord,
draw all people together into one human family.
Refrain:
The Holy Father:
O clement, O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary,
Queen of the Rosary of Fatima!
Grant that we may follow the example of Blessed Francisco and Blessed Jacinta,
and of all who devote themselves to proclaiming the Gospel.
Thus we will follow all paths
and everywhere make our pilgrim way;
we will tear down all walls
and cross every frontier,
as we go out to every periphery,
to make known God’s justice and peace.
In the joy of the Gospel, we will be the Church robed in white,
the whiteness washed in the blood of the Lamb,
blood that today too is shed in the wars tearing our world apart.
And so we will be, like you, an image of the column of light
that illumines the ways of the world,
making God known to all,
making known to all that God exists,
that God dwells in the midst of his people,
yesterday, today and for all eternity.
Refrain…
The Holy Father, with all the faithful:
Hail, Mother of the Lord,
Virgin Mary, Queen of the Rosary of Fatima!
Blessed among all women,
you are the image of the Church robed in paschal light,
you are the honour of our people,
you are the victory over every assault of evil.
Prophecy of the merciful love of the Father,
Teacher of the Message of Good News of the Son,
Sign of the burning Fire of the Holy Spirit,
teach us, in this valley of joys and sorrows,
the eternal truths that the Father reveals to the little ones.
Show us the strength of your protective mantle.
In your Immaculate Heart,
be the refuge of sinners
and the way that leads to God.
In union with my brothers and sisters,
in faith, in hope and in love,
I entrust myself to you.
In union with my brothers and sisters, through you, I consecrate myself to God,
O Virgin of the Rosary of Fatima.
And at last, enveloped in the Light that comes from your hands,
I will give glory to the Lord for ever and ever.
Amen.
Refrain…
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’s plane touched down at Monte Real Air Base shortly before 4:30pm local time in Portugal. The sky was threatening for much of the afternoon – not in the way it is always threatening a little rain in the height of springtime a thousand feet up and twenty-odd miles off the Atlantic coast – but a serious thunderstorm.
The crowds at the airport were larger than I expected to see them, not only for the weather, but especially since they were there only to catch a glimpse of the Holy Father, who was not scheduled to deliver any prepared remarks and who in fact visited only privately with the President of the Portuguese Republic , Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and then it was to the chapel at the air base where he landed, to share a moment of prayer with the sick children of service personnel and their families.
Pope Francis, you see, is here on pilgrimage.
“A pilgrim of hope and peace,” is how he described himself ahead of his departure – and he has asked the faithful all around the world to accompany him with prayers for the success of his pilgrimage.
Scores of thousands of people have taken him very much at his word, deciding to join him in Fatima for the celebration of the 100 th anniversary of the first of a series of Marian apparitions to a trio of shepherd children: the now Blessed siblings and soon-to-be Saints Francisco e Jacinta Marto, and their cousin Lucia, who became a Discalced Carmelite and died in 2005.
That is the first sign of “success” – at least as such things are measured in worldly measures: people have noticed.
One of the fairly constant refrains of Pope Francis’ pontificate has been his encouragement of popular devotion among the faithful: those acts of piety that moviemakers love so much and seem usually to understand so little, which have of late fallen rather away from the fore of the public Catholic mind, but that nevertheless constitute an integral part of Catholic life and an indispensable piece of the Catholic character, wherever the faith has taken hold.
We are all very much looking forward to what Pope Francis will say in his public engagements this evening at the Rosary to begin the vigil, and Saturday at the Mass of canonisation.
From here on the ground in Fatima, it seems clear that the Holy Father is staking this part of the effort to renew the faith of Europe by counting on the power of the faith to attract, especially when practiced simply and devotedly by the faithful themselves.
In Fatima with Pope Francis, I’m Chris Altieri
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The local papers in Fatima this morning are filled with facts and figures: 12 and one half-thousand people officially signed onto one of the official international pilgrimages; 450 volunteers inside the sanctuary, anywhere from 1 thousand to 2 thousand others throughout the civil parish of Fatima; 600 thousand to 1 million pilgrims from all around the world expected to take part in the centenary celebrations.
Those are just a few.
The Portuguese government has given employees permission to miss work in order to attend the celebrations, while police, fire, medical, civil protection and a dozen other auxiliary public order services have called in reinforcements from every corner of the country and put them on forced overtime.
It’s one of those days I’m glad I never got into human resources and logistics planning.
I get paid to stand around and tell you what I see: and what I see is a small town that has grown up roughly on the top of what is not the tallest hill in a hilly region – a small town with a very large and roughly rectangular plaza set smack in the middle of it, dominated by two very different and differently opposing structures – and a small, canopied structure that, from before dawn to well after nightfall, seems to get the lion’s share of attention from a number of people far exceeding the most generous estimations of the local population (given at 11 thousand and change in the latest census for which we have data); people brave chilly wind and driving rain to take a walking turn around a tiny chapel – though I hasten to add that, until this morning – Friday morning, May 12 th , 2017, the eve of the 100 th anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children, two of whom are to be declared saints in heaven on Saturday, the anniversary proper – no one has had to brave more than 10 minutes of rain at a stretch.
But what’s the story?
There are a dozen of them in there: logistics tangles; workers playing hooky; security challenges; infrastructure readiness; even the weather and how it might affect perception , coverage, and participation; national papers asking what the bill will be for the Portuguese taxpayer; human interest stories, from the scouts taking part to the pilgrim grandfathers and grandmothers, to the couple camped out for the past two days to guarantee themselves a good spot, to the weeping for joy, relief and resolution everywhere occurring, day and night, everywhere around us in the plaza of the shrine complex – the entirety of which is dedicated as an area of prayer, by the way, an oasis in the middle of what should be a town bursting with bustle, but refuses to be bothered, however busy – like a chastened Martha about her work.
I can tell you what I’ve seen.
The scenes from Thursday evening were very affecting to me, for I was seeing them for the first time, though even they must eventually become familiar – and 100 years is long enough to wear in any hat – but several hundred and perhaps several thousand pilgrims singing Marian hymns and waking in torchlight procession really cannot fail to move even the hardest of hard-boiled observers.
That, I believe, is the key to Pope Francis’ visit: his confidence in the message of Fatima – at bottom a call to conversion – to reach a world that sorely needs it, and for the Christian faithful to be the carriers of that message into the world, by means of simple acts of pious devotion that have immense power – not to persuade, but to attract.
(from Vatican Radio)…