Papal Approval of Fatima

Pope Benedict XV, during World War I

On 5th May 1917, Pope Benedict XV, appalled at the horrors of World War I, sent a pastoral letter to the whole Catholic world, urging everyone 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”; and he added the invocation “Queen of peace pray for us” to the Litany of Loreto. 

As if in a direct response to Benedict XV’s appeal, eight days later, on 13th May 1917, the Blessed Virgin appeared at Fatima, and in her parting words directed the three shepherd children: “Pray the rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war”. The instruction to pray the rosary every day was repeated in each of her six apparitions. 

The Apostolic Nuncio first visited Fatima, together with the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, in October 1926, and three months later the sanctuary was granted the faculty for celebrating the Votive Mass of the Most Holy Rosary.

 Pope Pius XI. 6 Jan 1922 to 10 Jan 1939

In December 1929, Pope Pius XI personally blessed at the Vatican the statue of Our Lady of Fatima which had been donated to the Portuguese seminary in Rome. 

Pope Pius XII, 2 March 1939 to 9 October 1958

He became known as “the Pope of Fatima”, partly because he was consecrated Bishop by Pope Benedict XV on 13th May 1917, at the moment of Our Lady’s first apparition to the three shepherd children, and partly because he was the first Pope to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on 31 October 1942. This was the first official, public act by the Holy See signifying the papacy’s approval and acceptance of the Message of Fatima.

On 4 May 1943, Sr Lucia told her spiritual director that Our Lord had promised to end the war shortly, “in consideration of the act which his Holiness consented to carry out”. 

A year later, on 4 May 1944, Pius XII instituted the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, “to obtain, through the help of the Blessed Mother of God, peace for all nations, freedom for the Church of Christ, and the conversion of sinners”. These objectives formed part of the requests of Our Lady in the message she delivered to the shepherd children at Fatima. 

On 13 May 1946, the Pope’s legate, Cardinal Masella, went to Fatima to crown the statue of Our Lady and proclaim her “Queen of Peace and of the World”. 

In America in 1947 Fr Harold Colgan founded the Blue Army, as the World Apostolate of Fatima was originally called. Its international headquarters, Domus Pacis, was officially opened at Fatima on 13 October 1956 by Cardinal Tisserant, Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, acting as the Legate of Pope Pius XII. 

Meanwhile, on 1st November 1950 the Pope promulgated the dogma of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. One year later, on 13 October 1951, Cardinal Tisserant revealed to the huge number of pilgrims at Fatima that in the previous year, 1950, on three dates on either side of 1 November, as well as on 1 November, the Pope had seen a repetition in the Vatican gardens of the stupendous Miracle of the Sun at Fatima on 13th October 1917. This was the miracle that in July Our Lady had promised Lucia she would work in October “for all to see and believe,'' and it was seen by a crowd of around 70,000 people who had made the arduous pilgrimage to Fatima, many coming on foot.

Pope John XXIII, 23 October 1958 to 2 June 1963

Pope John XXIII was the first Pope to have visited Fatima in May 1956 as a Cardinal, when he was Patriarch of Venice. 

On 13 December 1962, John XXIII instituted the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, and on 13 May 1963, the day the new feast was first celebrated at Fatima, Cardinal Larraona, the Pope’s Legate, delivered a message to all the world’s priests in which he stated:

“The message of Fatima is a living realisation of the Gospel … Indeed, never has there been a supernatural manifestation of such rich spiritual content as that of Fatima, nor has any recognised apparition given us a message so clear, so maternal, so profound … Live it and cause it to be lived”.  

Pope Paul VI, 21 June 1963 to 6 August 1978

On 21 November 1964, at the end of its third session, Vatican II 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 an address to the Council Fathers, the Pope stated:

“Today’s Constitution is the first time that an Ecumenical Council has presented such a vast synthesis of the Catholic doctrine regarding the place which the Blessed Mary occupies in the mystery of Christ and the Church … knowledge of the true Catholic doctrine concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary will always be a key to the exact understanding of the mystery of Christ and of the Church”..

The Pope then proclaimed the Mother of God as the Mother of the Church, and made the following statements with regard to Fatima:

Paul VI considered it “particularly opportune” to recall Pius XII’s consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in October 1942; he announced that he was sending a Golden Rose to Fatima; and he ended his address by proclaiming: “To your Immaculate Heart, O Mary, we finally commend the entire human race”. 

On 13th May 1967, the 50th anniversary of Our Lady’s first apparition, Paul VI became the first Pope to travel to Fatima, on a pilgrimage lasting only one day. The day before, 12th May, the Pope’s legate, Cardinal Costa Nunes, read out a letter he had received from the Pope, in which Paul VI wrote:

“Let all then, in such grave circumstances, love and venerate the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, fountain of goodness, mercy and grace; let them endeavour to hasten her indubitable triumph”. 

In his homily at Mass on that occasion, the Pope said he had come to this blessed Sanctuary to pray for peace in the Church, and “peace in the world full of tremendously deadly armaments … therefore we say: the world is in danger”. 

In his Apostolic Exhortation, Signum Magnum, issued on the same day, the Pope recalled the consecration of Pius XII in 1942, and urged “all members of the Church to consecrate themselves once again to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and translate this act into their daily lives. In this way they will comply ever more closely with God’s will”.

After the Mass at the altar in front of the Basilica, the Pope greeted Sr Lucia, the seer chosen by Our Lady to receive her message and transmit it to the Church. With a simple gesture Paul VI presented her to the vast crowd below, and this can be seen as the first public approval by the Pope of the apparitions and the seer chosen to receive them. 

Pope John Paul II, 16 October 1978 to 2 April 2005

Pope John Paul II is the most Marian Pope of the 20th century, and in his book Gift and Mystery, on the Fiftieth Anniversary of my Priestly Ordination (Catholic Truth Society, 1997) he explained how he came to choose the motto “Totus Tuus” from St Louis de Montfort’s Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, as an abbreviation of a more complete form of entrustment to the Mother of God. He wrote that De Montfort “was an outstanding theologian. His Mariological thought is rooted in the mystery of the Trinity and in the truth of the Incarnation of the world of God … thanks to Saint Louis I began to discover the immense riches of Marian devotion” (op. cit, pp. 29, 30).  

Three years after his election, on 13th May 1981 the Pope narrowly survived an assassination attempt in St Peter’s Square. When he visited Ali Agca in prison, his would-be murderer asked him, “why didn’t you die ?” “One hand fired the shot, another guided it”, the Pope replied. The bullet that passed through his body was subsequently taken to Fatima, and inserted in the costly crown of Our Lady, which is only worn at Mass on the 13th of the month. 

Later, in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope (Jonathon Cape, 1994) the Pope reflected, “perhaps it was necessary for the assassination attempt to be made in St Peter’s Square precisely on 13th May 1981, the anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima … so that the voice of God which speaks in human history through the “signs of the times” could be more easily heard and understood” (pp. 131, 132). 

While he was convalescing in hospital, John Paul II had all the documents relating to Fatima brought to him, and decided to carry out the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in accordance with her request on 13th June 1929. 

On 13th May 1982, the Pope went to Fatima to thank Our Lady for saving his life, and delivered a homily at Mass, which is printed in full in Appendix III of the book Fatima, Russia and Pope John Paul II, published in 1992 (a 3rd revised and enlarged edition that is still in print was issued by Gracewing in 1998). In the Pope’s homily he taught “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’. These are the first words that the Messiah addressed to humanity. The message of Fatima, in its basic nucleus, is a call to conversion and repentance, as in the Gospel … Can the Mother, who, with all the force of the love that she fosters in the Holy Spirit, desires everyone’s salvation, keep silence on what undermines the very bases of their salvation ? No, she cannot … the message is addressed to every human being, to all the societies, nations and peoples: societies menaced by apostasy, threatened by moral degradation ... 

“Consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother means returning beneath the Cross of the Son. It means consecrating this world to the pierced heart of the Saviour, bringing it back to the very source of its redemption.

“The successor of Peter presents himself here as a witness to the immensity of human suffering, the almost apocalyptic menaces looming over the nations and mankind as a whole … Mary’s appeal is not just for once. Her appeal must be taken up by generation after generation, in accordance with the ever news ‘signs of the times’. It must be unceasingly returned to.”

The consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that had been requested by Our Lady on 13th June 1929, was carried out by Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square on 25th March 1984, in front of Our Lady’s statue brought from Fatima (the full text of this act is printed in Appendix IV of  Fatima, Russia and Pope John Paul II). The book documents the steps which led to the dissolution of the Marxist Soviet Union, and the resignation in Moscow of President Gorbachev, on 25th December 1991. The Polish translation of this work was published by the Marians of the Immaculate Conception in Warsaw, and during a private audience at which a copy was presented to the Pope, he commented: “Good, let the people read it and learn who brought them their freedom”. 

On 8 November 1989, Sr Lucia sent a letter to Pope John Paul II in which she said that his consecration of 25 March 1984 “was done as Our Lady requested, since 25 March 1984” — quoted in Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words, 16th edition, July 2007, page 124, note 11. 

In the Holy Year 2000, Pope John Paul II carried out three important acts with regard to Fatima. What follows is a summary of the facts as set out in my Fatima in the Third Millennium, published by the CTS of London in 2001. 

The Beatification of Francisco and Jacinta on 13th May 2000 

After a searching enquiry into their lives had found that they had practised to an heroic degree the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, and the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude, on 13th May 1989 the Pope granted them the title Venerable. 

Next came the miracle through their intercession that was required for their beatification. Emilia Santos had been paralysed for over twenty years, and had no feeling from her waist downward. She suffered great pain in the upper part of her spine, could only just move her hands and her head, and two operations and a long spell in hospital had had no effect. After making continuous novenas to the two shepherd children, on 20th February 1989, the anniversary of Jacinta’s death, she was able to stand up and walk freely and painlessly, with the help of a stick. 

On 28th January 1999, it was declared that the cure was “rapid, complete, enduring and scientifically inexplicable”, a meeting of theologians, bishops and cardinals affirmed that the cure was a divine miracle, and on 28th June the Pope ordered that the decree concerning the miracle should be promulgated. 

Pope John Paul II travelled to Fatima to celebrate the Mass for their Beatification, on 13th May 2000. In his homily the Pope referred extensively to the remarkable witness of their lives, as they sought to do what Our Lady asked of them, commenting: “I tell you (citing St Louis de Montfort’s The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary), ‘one makes more progress in a short time of submission and dependence on Mary than during entire years of personal initiatives, relying on oneself alone’. This was how they became saints so quickly.”

In his General Audience on returning to Rome, on 17th May, the Pope said that their holiness did not depend on the extraordinary supernatural manifestations that they experienced, but on their fidelity and commitment in responding to everything that Our Lady asked of them. He went on: “a message of conversion and hope has spread from Fatima throughout the world … which, in conformity with Christian revelation, invites believers to do penance so that hearts may be opened to conversion. This is the true Gospel of Christ … 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”. 

The last sentence is a repetition of the words Our Lady spoke in her apparition of 13th June 1917. 

Pope John Paul II’s Act of Entrustment of the Third Millennium to Mary Most Holy at St Peter’s, on Sunday 8th October 2000

This unprecedented act of entrustment of the whole of the new millennium, that began barely three months after the Pope’s Act of Entrustment, was made at the end of the Jubilee Mass of the Bishops, over 1,400 of whom had come on pilgrimage to Rome from every continent to join in concelebrating with the Holy Father and cardinals. It was the largest gathering of Bishops at St Peter’s since the Second Vatican Council concluded in 1965.  

On Saturday 7th October the Bishops assembled in St Peter’s Square, in the presence of the image of Our Lady which had been brought from Fatima. It was the feast of the Holy Rosary, and in her final apparition on 13th October 1917, Our Lady had declared: “I am the Lady of the Rosary”. 

Rosary groups joined in from each of the five continents, and the fifth mystery was led by Sister Lucia and the community of her Carmelite Monastery in Coimbra, representing the continent of Europe and connected by satellite with St Peter’s Square. In an address at the end of the rosary, the Holy Father announced: “at the end of our Eucharistic celebration tomorrow, we will collegially make our Act of Entrustment to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, while this evening we prepared inwardly for this act, taking the attitude of the Aostles in the Upper Room, gathered with Mary in unanimous and united prayer”. 

In the course of his Act of Entrustment to Mary Most Holy, the Pope said: “You are the splendour which in no way dims the light of Christ, for you exist in Him and through Him. Everything in you is fiat: you are the Immaculate One, through you there shines the fullness of grace. Here, then, are your children, gathered before you at the dawn of the new millennium. The Church today, through the voice of the Successor of Peter, in union with so many pastors assembled here from every corner of the world, seeks refuge in your motherly protection, and trustingly begs your intercession as she faces the challenges which lie hidden in the future …

“Today we wish to entrust to you the future that awaits us, and we ask you to be with us on our way. We are the men and women of an extraordinary time, exhilarating yet full of contradictions. Humanity now has instruments of unprecedented power: we can turn this world into a garden, or reduce it to a pile of rubble. We have devised the astounding capacity to intervene in the very wellsprings of life: man can use this power for good, within the bounds of the moral law, or he can succumb to the short-sighted pride of a science which knows no limits, but tramples on the respect due to every human being.

“Therefore, O Mother, like the apostle John, we wish to take you into our home (cf. Jn 19,27) … Here we stand before you, to entrust to your maternal care ourselves, the Church, the entire world … grant that, thanks to the efforts of all, the darkness will not prevail over the light. To you Dawn of Salvation, we commit our journey through the new millennium, so that with you as guide all people may know Christ, the light of the world and its only Saviour”. 

The continuing papal approval of Fatima was summarised by Cardinal Ratzinger in an interview at Fatima on 13th October 1996:

“In the most solemn way possible Popes Pius XII, Paul VI and John Paul II have already recognised Fatima and were totally committed to this devotion” (Seers of Fatima, Oct-Dec 1996, pp. 6, 7).

The Publication of the Third Part of the Secret by Cardinal Ratzinger, on 26th June 2000, together with his Theological Commentary

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html

These texts are printed in full in Appendix III of Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words, pages 199 – 233.  

Commenting on the status of private revelations, the Cardinal wrote: “Such a message can be a genuine help in understanding the Gospel and living it better at a particular moment in time; therefore it should not be disregarded … the criterion for the truth and value of a private revelation is therefore its orientation to Christ”

Quoting St Paul’s admonition to the Thessalonians (1: 5, 19-21) not to quench the Spirit nor despise prophecy, but to test everything and hold fast to what is good, Cardinal Ratzinger went on to say: 

“Prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean to predict the future but to explain the will of God for the present, and therefore show the right path to take for the future … the prophetic word is a warning or a consolation, or both together … in the private revelations approved by the Church, they help us to understand the signs of the times and to respond to them rightly in faith … to understand the signs of the times means to accept the urgency of penance, of conversion, of faith”. 

After Pope Benedict’s visit to the shrine, in May 2010, the Portuguese Cardinal Martins gave the following clarification in response to a question on what the Pope meant by his reference to the prophetic mission of Fatima, in his homily at Mass in the shrine, on 13 May. Cardinal Martins, who for many years was prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, was born not far from Fatima, and accompanied Benedict XVI on his pilgrimage to the shrine. In May 2000, he was also at the side of John Paul II on his final visit to Fatima. 

Cardinal Martins was interviewed by Angela Ambrogetti for Inside the Vatican, who asked him:

“What would you say to those who speculate on the words of Benedict XVI at the end of the Mass on the 13th May in Fatima, when he said: ‘We would be mistaken to think that the prophetic mission of Fatima is complete’  ?”

Cardinal Martins replied: “It is important to understand the Pope’s words correctly. It is evident that the prophecy of Fatima is not over. It is evident that the phenomenon of Fatima continues to shape the Church and believers. But why ?

“Because the fundamental truths which the Virgin taught in Fatima are extremely relevant and will always be so. Because they are ever-present values, they are natural and thus sacred values, which cannot be renounced and which are not negotiable.

“So Fatima will always have something to say: the content of the message which the Virgin entrusted to the shepherd children and through them, to all men and women of our time. 

“This is why the prophecy is not over, and never will be !” 

(Inside the Vatican, June-July 2010, pp. 11-13). 

Finally, this is Cardinal Ratzinger’s comment on the vision of hell:

The key word is “to save souls”, and the way indicated is devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 

In biblical language, the heart indicates the centre of human life, the point where reason, will, temperament and sensitivity converge, … to be devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means therefore to embrace this attitude of heart which makes the fiat — ‘be it done unto me according to your word’ — the defining centre of one’s whole life. The heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her Heart, has changed the history of the world, because …thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time.  

Pope Benedict XVI, 19 April 2005 to 28 February 2013

In his homily at Fatima on 13th May 2005, Cardinal Policarpo, Patriarch Lisbon, announced that in the Mass he was honouring a promise he made at the end of the Conclave to the newly elected Pontiff, when his turn came to greet him and swear to him communion and obedience: namely, to place his Pontificate at the feet of Our Lady. 

In the Angelus on 5th June 2005, Pope Benedict invoked the Virgin of Fatima in these words:

“The heart that resembles that of Christ more than any other is without a doubt the heart of Mary, His Immaculate Mother, and for this very reason the liturgy holds them up together for our veneration. Responding to the Virgin’s invitation at Fatima, let us entrust the whole world to her Immaculate Heart, which we contemplated yesterday in a special way, so that it may experience the merciful love of God and know true peace”.

Regina Caeli address by Pope Benedict on 14th May 2006

“A way to remain united to Christ, as branches on the vine, is to have recourse to the intercession of Mary, whom we venerated yesterday, May 13.

The message she entrusted to the three little shepherds, in continuity with that of Lourdes, was an intense call to prayer and conversion, a truly prophetic message, above all if one considers that the 20th century was scourged by unheard-of destructions, caused by wars and totalitarian regimes, as well as extensive persecutions against the Catholic Church. Moreover, on May 13, 1981, 25 years ago, the servant of God, Pope John Paul II, felt that he was saved miraculously from death by the intervention of a "maternal hand," as he himself said, and the whole of his pontificate was marked by what the Virgin had said at Fatima.

Although there is no lack of anxieties and sufferings, and although there are still reasons for apprehension about the future of humanity, what the "Lady in white" promised the little shepherds is consoling: "In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph." With this conviction, we now turn to Mary most holy, thanking her for her constant intercession and asking her to continue to watch over the path of the Church and of humanity, especially families, mothers and children.”

To mark the 25th anniversary of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, the statue of Our Lady from the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima was processed into St Peter’s Square on 13th May 2006. At the exact spot where John Paul II fell, a stone was placed with his coat of arms and the date: 13th May 1981. Cardinal Ruini then presided over Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, and read out a message from Pope Benedict XVI expressing the hope that 

the message of Fatima will be increasingly 

accepted, understood, and lived in every community.

Pope Benedict’s visit to Fatima, 11 – 14 May 2010, by Father Lombardi SJ of the Vatican Press Office 

VATICAN CITY, MAY 9, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is going to Fatima to show how God acts in history, which is one of the key lessons of the Virgin Mary's apparitions to three Portuguese little shepherds, says a Vatican spokesman.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, analyzed, in an editorial of the latest edition of the Vatican Television Center program "Octava Dies", the reasons why the Holy Father is visiting Portugal this month, from May 11-14, 2010, on the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto.

"John Paul II wanted the 'third secret' of Fatima to be revealed on the occasion of the beatification of the two little shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta, during the Jubilee of 2000, the transition between two millenniums," said Father Lombardi. "A century was ending characterized by great sufferings, on which in fact the visions of Fatima gave at once a dramatic and luminous interpretation: time of war and of martyrdom, in which the Church and the Pope himself shared profoundly the sufferings and thirst for salvation of the whole of humanity."

The following extracts of the homilies and addresses of Pope Benedict at Fatima are taken from the CTS booklet, Benedict XVI, Shepherds of Fatima.

In our time, in which the faith in many places seems like a light in danger of being snuffed out for ever, the highest priority is to make God visible in the world, and to open to humanity a way to God. (Rosary in the Chapel of the Apparitions, 12 May 2010).

The Lady “come from heaven” [was] the teacher who introduced the little seers to a deep knowledge of the love of the Blessed Trinity, and led them to savour God Himself as the most beautiful reality of human existence. 

We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete … may the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the apparitions hasten the fulfilment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. 

Homily at Mass on 13 May 2010

Pope Francis and Fatima

In response to the Holy Father’s request, on 13th May 2013 the Bishops of Portugal consecrated the pontificate of Pope Francis to Our Lady at Fatima.

On 13th October 2013, Pope Francis made a short Act of Entrustment to Our Lady, in the presence of her statue that had been brought from Fatima. It was the Marian Day in the Year of Faith that had been inaugurated by Pope Benedict XVI before he resigned.

On 12 and 13 May 2017, Pope Francis made an Apostolic Visit to Fatima, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions, and to canonise Francisco and Jacinta.

Before going to Fatima, at his General Audience on 5th April, speaking on the twelfth anniversary of Pope St John Paul II’s death, Pope Francis commented that he had given two great messages to the world: that of the merciful Jesus and that of Fatima. Then the Holy Father said:

“Let us accept these Messages so that they fill our hearts.”

At his General Audience on 10th May 2017, Pope Francis said, "I will go to Fatima on a pilgrimage, to entrust to the Virgin the temporal and eternal destinies of humanity.

“We can say about Mary, the Church, and also about our soul: all three are female, all three are Mothers, and all three give life. We must therefore cultivate the filial relationship with Our Lady because, if this is missing, there is something of the orphan in the heart ... in moments of difficulty a child always goes to his mother. And the Word of God teaches us to be like children, weaned in the arms of the mother” (cf. Sal 131:2)

At the site of the apparitions, the Pope said he intended to present Mary with a “bouquet of the most beautiful ‘flowers’ that Jesus entrusted to my care: that is, my brothers and sisters from all over the world who were redeemed by his blood.” Then the Pope said: “I will give you all to Our Lady, asking her to whisper to each one of you: ‘My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.'” These are the words that Our Lady spoke to Lucia in her apparition on 13th June 1917.

In the Little Chapel of the Apparitions, Pope Francis declared:

“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 … 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’” (quotation from Pope Paul VI’s Address at the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria, Cagliari, 24 April 1970).

In the Capelinha, the Holy Father prayed:

Hail, Mother of Mercy, Lady robed in white! In this place where, a hundred years ago you showed us all the plans of mercy of our God.

On his return to Rome on 14th May, during the Regina Caeli, Pope Francis said:

“Let us allow ourselves to be guided by the light that comes from Fatima … may the Immaculate Heart of Mary always be our refuge, our consolation, and the way that leads to Christ ... At Fatima I was immersed in the prayer of the faithful, prayer that for one hundred years has flowed there like a river, for the maternal protection of Mary for the whole world.” 

With the canonization of Francisco and Jacinta, 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.”(cf. Mt 18, 3-5).

At the closing of the centennial of the Marian apparitions at Fatima, posted on YouTube on October 13, as reported by Vatican Radio, in a video message to the people of Portugal Pope Francis said:

“I want to give you some advice: Never abandon the rosary. Never abandon the rosary. Pray the rosary, as she asked.”

Finally, Pope Francis showed how much he loved and honoured Our Lady of Fatima, when he consecrated Russia and the Ukraine to her Immaculate Heart in St Peter’s Basilica, on 25th March 2022. He had a large statue of Our Lady of Fatima placed close to the high altar, and it was moving to see him sitting beneath it as he gazed up pleadingly at her face from time to time, while he read the act of consecration.