(Vatican Radio) The Vatican has released details of Pope Francis upcoming Pastoral Visit to Genoa.
The one day visit will begin with an encounter with the “world of labour.”
Later he will meet with the Bishops of Liguria, along with the priests, seminarians, and religious of the region; as well as lay curial collaborators, and representatives of other religious confessions at the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.
Pope Francis will than have an opportunity to spend time with young people attached to the Diocesan Mission at the Marian Sanctuary of the Madonna della Guardia.
After lunch at the sanctuary with a number of poor persons, refugees, the homeless, and prisoners, the Holy Father will meet with children from the various departments of the Giannina Gaslini Pediatric Hospital.
The Pope’s Pastoral Visit will conclude with Solemn Mass at the Piazzale Kennedy, named for the first Catholic President of the United States.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Following the Regina Coeli on Sunday, Pope Francis entrusted “to Mary, the Queen of Peace, the destiny of the peoples afflicted by wars and conflicts, particularly in the Middle East.” Many innocent people, he said, whether Christians, or Muslims, or members of minority groups such as the Yazidis, are “sorely tried,” suffering “tragic violence and discrimination.”
The Holy Father assured them of his solidarity and prayer, and at the same time thanked all those committed to assisting them in their need.
Pope Francis encouraged all the different communities to continue along the “path of dialogue and reconciliation in order to build a future of respect, security and peace.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) “Let us greet the Virgin of Fatima!”
Following his pilgrimage to Fatima, Pope Francis said the Regina Coeli on Sunday, took on “a particular significance, imbued with memory and prophecy for those who view history with the eyes of faith.” Reflecting on his journey, the Pope said, “At Fatima I was immersed in the prayer of the faithful holy People, prayer that for one hundred years has flowed there like a river, for the maternal protection of Mary for the whole world.”
The Holy Father focused on the “recollected and contemplative climate” during his pilgrimage. “And at the centre of everything,” he said, “was and is the Risen Lord, present in the midst of His People in the Word and in the Eucharist; present in the midst of the many sick people, who are the protagonists of the liturgical and pastoral life of Fatima, as of every Marian sanctuary.”
One of the highlights of Pope Francis pilgrimage was the Solemn Mass on Saturday, when he canonized two of the visionaries of Fatima, Francisco and Jacinta Marto. With the canonization, the Pope said, “I wanted to propose to the whole Church their example of adhesion to Christ and to evangelical witness… And I also want to propose to the whole Church to have the heart of children.” He said their sanctity is not “a consequence of the apparitions, but of the fidelity and ardour with which they corresponded to the privilege they had received of being able to see the Virgin Mary.”
He pointed out that the visionaries, after having seen Mary, frequently said the Rosary, did penance, and offered sacrifices for an end to the war [World War I, which was raging at the time], and for the souls most in need of divine mercy. “In our day, too,” the Pope said, “there is great need of prayer and of penance to implore the grace of conversion,” and an end to the many wars and conflicts in the world today, “which disfigure the face of humanity.”
“Let us allow ourselves to be guided by the light that comes from Fatima,” Pope Francis said, before concluding his reflection with a prayer: “May the Immaculate Heart of Mary always be our refuge, our consolation, and the way that leads to Christ.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Early Sunday morning, Pope Francis, as is usual following every voyage, went to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.
The Holy Father brought a bouquet of white roses as an offering, which he presented at the icon of Mary Salus Populi Romano. During the visit, Pope Francis remained in prayerful silence before the image of the Virgin for more than twenty minutes.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis concluded his pilgrimage to Fatima on Saturday, with a Mass marking the centenary of the Marian apparitions there, which made the place a famous ad beloved place of pilgrimage to millions of faithful from all around the world and across generations.
During the Mass, the Holy Father canonised two of the seers of Fatima, declaring Francisco and Jacinta Marto to be saints in heaven.
At the end of Mass, the Holy Father led the faithful in a moment of Eucharistic adoration and offered Eucharistic benediction. He also met briefly with a group of sick people, before heading to lunch with the Bishops of Portugal, after which he headed to the papal plane for his flight back to Rome.
Our special envoy, Chris Altieri, was in Fatima from start to finish, and sent this overview of this Apostolic pilgrimage.
Listen:
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Pope Francis presided over Mass for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at the Marian shrine in Fatima on Saturday, the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the apparitions of Our Lady there to three small shepherd children.
The children were a brother and sister, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, and their cousin, Lucia.
Starting on May 13th, 1917, and running until October 13th of that same year – the story goes – Our Lady would appear and entrust the three children with several messages and three “secrets”.
Those secrets have since been generally understood to regard the conduct of human affairs in the years and decades that followed the bloody middle of 1917, at the beginning of the bloodiest century in world history to date.
During the Mass, Pope Francis canonized two of the children, Francisco and Jacinta, declaring them saints in heaven and ordering that they be honoured throughout the whole Church.
The canonisation ceremony itself was powerfully moving: before a sea of humanity gathered together for the purpose from every corner of the globe, it was conducted in the local language, Portuguese – a departure from the standard procedure, which uses Latin.
About the day, there are a thousand details in which one could get lost: from the glorious and almost constant sunshine that gave the forecasts for the morning the lie – at least for as long as the ceremonies lasted, to the practiced efficiency and cheerfulness of the local people – every May 13th is a big day here – to the patience and even cheerful orderliness of the pilgrims – even and especially the young ones – many of whom had kept their vigil all through the night and into the morning.
One thing in the way of local colour was particularly impressive: the votive candles – thousands of them – lining the short walls enclosing the plaza between the basilicas, and left at the feet of the several statues in the plaza itself, which had pierced the night with their gentle, pertinacious glow, and were gone by morning.
But why?
I mean to ask: details apart, what is the story here?
Not to put too fine a point on it: why should we care?
Francisco and Jacinta would die within three years of the apparitions, while their cousin, Lucia, went on to join the Discalced Carmelite order and lived a long life of prayerful seclusion, dying in 2005 at the age of 97.
So, they never really did anything, at least not as far as the world measures achievement.
Still, people have been coming to this place for a century now, to participate in the witness of those shepherd children – and now we know that two of those children are saints in heaven: Francisco and Jacinta, and Sr. Lucia’s cause is open.
I’ll tell you one thing they did: they told the truth.
Those, who disbelieved the shepherd children in 1917, or sought to protect them from themselves, or simply opposed them, have gone to their reward, and while some of Our Lady’s promises seem arguably to have been kept, and the worst of the consequences against which she warned us seem perhaps to have been averted at least for now, the spectre of war has not ceased, and many nations that once made the Cross of Christ their glory, seem now to have forgotten him and to scoff at His commands.
There have always been scoffers, and there always will be, and there’s nothing any of us can do about that.
Today’s scoffers are not all yesterday’s scoffers though: and many of those who scoffed at the children while they lived, were converted to repentance and belief by the working of more spectacular wonders.
Many more scoffers through the years and decades since, have been converted by the quiet witness of those, who continue to come here.
Even the Church was not quick to accept that Francisco and Lucia could be saints: not that they might not be in heaven, but that they had not the psychological maturity to make an act of faith worthy of imitation – or so the argument ran.
In this day – our own – in which many people scoff at truth itself, and do not really expect anyone to believe anything – the word of a child or the word of a king – the story of three shepherd children, who witnessed a most extraordinary thing, and told of what they saw and heard as best they could according to the lights God gave them, and despite significant consequences and threats of worse things still, stuck to their story: that is a story worth telling, and one the world needs to hear.
It is an appalling choice, and it is one we must make every hour of every day: either we decide that we shall tell the truth, come what may, and expect our fellows to do the same, or there can be no fellowship to speak of.
That is the story to which Pope Francis’s pilgrimage has called our attention, before which is the story of the Queen of Heaven who calls us to prayer for the conversion of hearts and for peace on Earth, and beyond which is a future, the details of which are uncertain, but the outcome of which is foretold: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
What happens in the space between is up to us.
That’s what we call “a story with legs” in the trade.
In Fatima, I’m Chris Altieri.
(from Vatican Radio)…