Northern Dioceses Fatima Pilgrimage, September 2024 - Part 1
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Northern Dioceses Fatima Pilgrimage, 19-26 September 2024 - Part 1 By Pilgrimage organiser Patrick Cunningham๏ปฟ
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Over recent years the World Apostolate of Fatima has visited a number of Churches in the Northern dioceses of England and Wales (WAF-E&W), primarily to promote awareness of the events that took place in Fatima, Portugal, over 100 years ago, and also to encourage devotion to our Holy Mother who constantly intercedes for all Humanity. ๏ปฟ
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Due to this increased awareness WAF-E&W arranged a pilgrimage to Fatima for pilgrims from the Northern Dioceses, with the help and support of Canon Stephen Watson from St Pauls, Alnwick, Fr Manoj Punchakunnel from St Pauls, Cramlington, Fr Saji Thottathil from St Matthews, Jarrow, and Fr Bill Serplus from St Aelred’s at York. ๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
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Forty-eight pilgrims inclusive of the four parish priests, plus Deacon Rob Wareing from St Pauls, Cramlington and Sister Bridget Okoye from the Daughters of Divine Love Congregation, Birmingham, joined the pilgrimage which took place between 19th to 26th September 2024. ๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
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Pilgrims travelled by coach to Manchester Airport, to board the flight to Lisbon, Portugal, and then finally via coach transfer to Domus Pacis Hotel in Fatima.๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
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The Hotel was initially funded by the founding members of the Blue Army (now known as the World Apostolate of Fatima) to provide accommodation for pilgrims from all over the world. Apart from its many rooms and dining facilities, it also has a large conference room, a chapel at ground floor level, and a Byzantine chapel above. We arrived in the early hours of Friday morning, and all went to their rooms to catch up on sleep.๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
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The pilgrimage began with a talk by Mr. Nuno Prazeres and Mrs. Ana Reis, from the WAF-International Secretariat. Fatima is probably the most prophetic apparition the world has witnessed and came at a time when the world was turning away from God. Our Lady came with a message to restore the centrality of God in people’s lives and with a message of hope to bring peace back to the world. We may well ask what have we learnt and what have we done since then.๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
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This is why prayer is so important. Praying the rosary will bring peace to the world.๏ปฟ
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The talk was especially interesting given that Nuno and Ana related personal stories about the events in Fatima during the apparitions from the eyewitness accounts of their respective grandparents.๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
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Nuno told a story from his grandfather who had known Francisco. One day his grandfather was playing Hide and Seek with Francisco and some other boys.๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
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Everyone had been found except Francisco, so all the boys started to look for him and eventually they found Francisco on a tree praying the rosary. He had simply forgotten they were playing a game and prayed the rosary. For Francisco God was the centre of his life, and the meaning of his life was to pray.
Ana recalled that her grandmother was about 2 years old at the time of the apparitions. The people of the village were mainly farmers and shepherds, and often quite poor, and so handed down clothes. When her grandmother turned 6-7 years old, she was given a blouse to wear by Jacinta Marto’s mother, Olympia, and she was told that now she was wearing the blouse of Jacinta she now has to be as good as Jacinta was!
Her grandmother lived a long life and died a few years ago at the age of 97. She would pray the Rosary every day of her life and follow the requests of Our Lady of Fatima.
Later, that day we had a tour of the shrine which lies over the apparition site of the Cova da Iria, at Fatima. The Shrine has two Basilicas, one at either end of the sanctuary area. The Basilica of the Holy Rosary was begun in 1928 (11 years after the apparitions of Our Lady in 1917) and was consecrated on 7th October 1953. It has 15 altars and is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.
The painting above the high altar depicts the message of Our Lady to the little shepherds (Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta), prepared by the Angel of Portugal through their encounter with Christ in the Eucharist. The tombs of Saints Francisco and Jacinta lie on either side of the high altar, and Blessed Lucia lies next to Jacinta’s tomb.
The Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, dedicated on October 12, 2007, has a seating capacity of 8,633. A smaller chapel, the Capelinha, was built at the apparition site and is the heart of the sanctuary. The marble pillar on which the statue of Our Lady rests is the exact spot where she appeared. Four million people visit the sanctuary each year.
The pilgrimage itinerary for the week included daily Mass and visits to sites of interest as well as free time to explore the shrine’s many chapels, including those for perpetual Adoration and Reconciliation. Masses were held each day, most of which were presided over by the priests and deacon from our pilgrimage group. This included a Mass at the Chapel of the Angel of Peace at the shrine, Mass at St Anthony’s, the local Fatima church where the seers went to Mass and to pray, and the church at Santarem (This visit included veneration of the Eucharistic bleeding Host).
A Rosary and candlelight procession was held each night at the Chapel of Apparitions; this was a very moving experience and well worth attending. Every Sunday, the Sanctuary holds a morning international Rosary, followed by an international Mass. Thousands of people were in attendance as the Statue of Our Lady of Fatima was processed to the outdoor altar.
On the Sunday we were in attendance there was a special blessing of helmets for motorcyclists. The event is held annually, drawing many thousands of motorcyclists from across the region. The blessing added to the atmosphere at the shrine showing reverence in a spiritual gathering and fostering community support by raising funds for the purchase of an adapted wheelchair for a 23-year-old resident of Peniche who became a paraplegic after a motorcycle accident in 2021.
The second part of this account will continue next month
Join us for a brief video sneak preview featuring a group of our Fatima Pilgrims as they embark on the extraordinary experience of travelling together to Fatima, Portugal.
Our young people are showing a great enthusiasm for the message of Fatima. View a recent interview conducted by EWTN Great Britain about what Fatima means to them.
Have you recently participated in a WAF Five First Saturday Fatima Visitation? We would greatly appreciate your feedback on the experience. Please share your thoughts with us.
Some Unique Aspects of Fatima by Timothy Tindal-Robertson, © August 2025 The message revealed by the Blessed Virgin at Fatima is distinct from all other Marian apparitions by virtue of the following unique aspects which it alone possesses. 1). Continuing Association with the Papacy The most important feature of the apparitions is that Our Lady came to Fatima in direct response to an urgent appeal to heaven from Pope Benedict XV. Thereby, as I have shown in my CTS booklet, Message of Fatima in the Life of the Church and Teaching of the Popes, 1917-1997 , her intervention began an association with the papacy which has steadily increased in the reigns of succeeding popes. But the most significant advances of all in the papal acceptance of Our Lady’s message have taken place in the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, culminating in the Holy Year 2000, when Fatima attained its highest ever papal recognition through three unprecedented initiatives of the Holy Father, as I have recounted in detail in my CTS booklet, Fatima in the Third Millennium , issued in 2001. Firstly, on 13 th May 2000 Pope John Paul II travelled to Fatima to beatify two of the three little shepherds chosen to receive Our Lady’s message, Francisco and Jacinta; secondly, at his direction the text of the third part of the secret was released by Cardinal Ratzinger, together with his Theological Commentary, on 26 th June; and finally, on 8 th October John Paul II made his unprecedented Act of Entrustment of the Third Millennium to Mary Most Holy, during the Jubilee Mass of the Bishops, attended by around 1500 Bishops, and in the presence of the well known statue of Our Lady, which at his request had been specially brought to St Peter’s from the Sanctuary of Fatima. Has the Mother of God ever made such a touching intervention, in direct response to an urgent plea from the Chief Shepherd of all the faithful, at a dire moment in 1917 when the raging inferno of the First World War had descended to new depths of horror, with the prolonged rain and the introduction of deadly gas weapons ? Having been rebuffed in all his attempts to negotiate peace, Pope Benedict XV sent out a pastoral letter to the whole Catholic world, dated 5 th May 1917, in which he urged all to pray fervently to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for peace, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “Mother of mercy and omnipotent by grace”. At the same time the Pope directed that the invocation “Queen of Peace, pray for us” should be added to the Litany of Loreto. Eight days later, the Blessed Virgin appeared to the three shepherd children at Fatima, and the last words in her first apparition constitute a direct response to the urgent plea of Benedict XV: “Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war”. Providentially, at the very moment the Blessed Virgin was appearing at Fatima, the future Pope Pius XII was being consecrated Bishop. He became known as “the Pope of Fatima” because he was the first pope to consecrate the whole human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on 31 st October 1942. The unique nature of the papal association with Fatima is commemorated in the painting which hangs above the high altar in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima, in which are depicted the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, and Popes Pius XII, John XXIII and Paul VI. 2). Fatima mentioned three times in the Second Vatican Council As a private revelation which one is not obliged to believe, but which is highly commended, Fatima is unique in being mentioned three times by Pope Paul VI in the Second Vatican Council. The Pope addressed the Council Fathers on 21 November 1964, at the end of the third session, when the Council approved the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, whose final chapter 8 is entitled “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the mystery of Christ and the Church”. In his address, Paul VI considered it “particularly opportune” to recall Pius XII’s consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; bearing that in mind, he announced that he was sending a special mission to carry the Golden Rose to Fatima; and he ended by proclaiming, “to your Immaculate Heart, O Mary, we finally commend the entire human race” (cf. Message of Fatima , p. 59). 3). Fatima the richest ever supernatural manifestation of Our Lady In a message to all the world’s priests on 13 May 1963, Cardinal Larraona, speaking as Pope John XXIII’s legate at Fatima, declared that Our Lady’s message contains “inexhaustible treasures and spiritual riches … Fatima is a living realisation of the Gospel ... indeed, never has there been a supernatural manifestation of Our Lady of such rich spiritual content as that of Fatima, nor has any recognised apparition given us a message so clear, so maternal, so profound”. Pope John Paul II said that the Church has accepted the message of Fatima because it contains the “truth and call of the Gospel itself: ‘repent and believe in the Gospel’ (Mk 1:15) ... 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” (Homily at Fatima, 13 May 1982). It is “the true Gospel of Christ, presented anew to our generation” (General Audience, 17 May 2000). 4). Parallel papal consecrations, to the Sacred Heart (1899,) and the Immaculate Heart (1984) The Blessed Virgin’s request for the Pope to consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart, in a certain way parallels Our Lord’s request in June 1897, to Sister Mary of the Divine Heart (the Countess Droste zu Vischering), in which Jesus asked the Pope to consecrate the world to His Sacred Heart. Pope Leo XIII said this act, which he carried out on 11 June 1899, was “the greatest act of my pontificate”. John Paul II fulfilled Our Lady’s request, when he consecrated the world including Russia to her Immaculate Heart at St. Peter’s, Rome on 25 th March 1984, in the presence of the venerated statue from Fatima. On 17 November 2001, Sister Lucia confirmed to Archbishop Bertone that this act “was accepted in heaven”. As a result of Our Lady’s intervention, the dire persecution ceased which the Church had suffered from Marxist atheist persecution in Central and Eastern Europe (see my book Fatima, Russia & John Paul II ), and those countries have experienced the resurrection of the Church. 5). Fatima a unique prophetic warning of and spiritual remedy for current evils The message of Fatima is unique in containing a prophecy which constituted a warning of as well as a specific spiritual remedy for the most grave evils to have afflicted the 20 th century, namely: the two World Wars, and the spirit of the rejection and denial of God (the “errors of Russia”). These errors continue to threaten the Church, especially in the once-Christian West, through secularism, materialism, and the increasingly grave violations of the sanctity of human life and the family. The extent of the problem is such that “today as never before, humanity stands at a crossroads”, the Pope stated, in his Act of Entrustment of October 2000, and European culture “gives the impression of silent apostasy” in which people have everything and “live as if God does not exist” ( Ecclesia in Europa , 9). It is “because its message announces many of the later events and conditions them on the response to its appeals” that Fatima “is certainly one of the greatest .. signs of the times”, the Pope wrote to the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima on 1 October 1997. “Private revelations approved by the Church … help us understand the signs of the times and to respond to them rightly in faith”, Cardinal Ratzinger explained in his Theological Commentary issued on 26 th June 2000. By his teaching and acts, John Paul II has lived Our Lady’s message. Heaven is now awaiting the response of all people of good to follow the Pope’s example, and evangelise themselves and their communities through prayer, penance, offering up the sacrifices encountered in fulfilling one’s daily duties, amendment of life, daily recitation of the Rosary (according to the sublime teaching in John Paul II’s Rosarium Virginis Mariae of 16 Oct. 2002), and the Five First Saturdays Eucharistic communion of reparation for sin. The Blessed Virgin promised that “in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph … and a of peace will be granted to the world … if my requests are heeded”. As the Pope said, on returning to Rome after beatifying Francisco and Jacinta at Fatima on 13 May 2000, “let us receive the light that comes from Fatima, let us be guided by Mary. May her Immaculate Heart be our refuge and the way that leads us to Christ”. Francisco and Jacinta, two young shepherd children who were chosen by heaven to receive, live and convey the message of Fatima to the Church, responded to Our Lady’s requests with such fidelity and commitment that John Paul II declared them Blessed in heaven. They were canonised by Pope Francis at Fatima on 13 May 2017. May Mary’s Immaculate Heart obtain for us the grace to respond, “Yes, we are willing”, just as they did. 6). Francisco and Jacinta as youngest non-martyr Saints Finally, Francisco and Jacinta are the first children in the history of the Church who became saints in the normal course of their family life, and not through martyrdom. And that Pope John Paul II said they became saints through their heroic fidelity and commitment in fulfilling the requests of Our Lady, and not because of the exceptional supernatural manifestations that they experienced. Their lives are a demonstration that the message of Fatima is meant for the family, and that to live it will bring about sanctification for all.
The World Apostolate of Fatima will be holding the international Fatima congress and pilgrimage on 5th-12 December 2025. The theme of the congress is based upon the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Places of pilgrimage will be Pontevedra and Santiago of Compestela, Spain.
Some beautiful images from the Welsh National Shrine of Our Lady of the Taper visitation of the NPVS of Our Lady of Fàtima and the Relics of Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto this weekend. Ave Maria.
A beautiful homily delivered by Archbishop John Wilson of the Archdiocese of Southwark, focusing on the Immaculate Heart of Mary and its significance for us in the present day.
Our WAF England and Wales Fatima pilgrims participated in the anniversary celebrations of the 12/13th July. This year they made a detour before arriving at Fatima - staying at Santiago for two nights enabling them to visit the Basilica of St James, and to visit the nearby town of Pontevedra where on 10th Dec 1925, Our Lady fulfilled the promise made on 13th July in 1917, that she would come to ask for the First Saturdays devotion to be practised. Canon Jason (WAF Spiritual Director - England & Wales) reminded us: At Fatima during the July apparition after the vision of Hell, Our Lady said to the Shepherd Children. “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. Read More from Fr Jason
๏ปฟ One of the major themes of the Fatima messages is the importance of the the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and that of the Precious Blood of Jesus appears in the apparition at Tuy in 1929. The Precious Blood of Jesus serves as a powerful reminder of His love and sacrifice for humanity. It symbolizes redemption and grace, inviting us to reflect on our own relationship with Christ. By honouring His sacrifice, we grow closer to understanding God's unconditional love and mercy. On the other hand, the Immaculate Heart of Mary represents pure love, compassion, and devotion. Mary, as our Mother, offers a model of faith and obedience. Her heart is filled with love for Jesus and for all of us, and she continually intercedes for us. At Fatima, Mary urged the faithful to pray for the conversion of sinners, and this emphasises the profound connection between these two themes: through Jesus’ Blood and Mary’s heart, we find a path to healing and salvation.
An inspiring talk by the WAF, England & Wales Spiritual Director, Canon Jason Jones As we commemorate the anniversary of the First Five Saturdays, Canon Jason provides invaluable insights into how the Immaculate Heart of Mary beautifully mirrors the Sacred Heart of Jesus, emphasizing the deep interconnectedness between both devotions.
