Highlights of Timothy Tindal-Roberson’s Participation in the International Marian Conference in Rome, 7–8 October

I became associated with Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima through publishing Francis Johnston’s Fatima: The Great Sign, in 1980, with the imprimatur of the Bishop of Fatima. This book is recognised by the Pontifical International Marian Academy as one of the most important and comprehensive English-language studies on Fatima, and it is held in the official collections of the Pontifical Marian Institute (Marianum) in Rome and the Vatican Library (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana).  


The photograph on the back cover shows the Pope reading Johnston’s book when he was in the Gemelli Clinic, following the assassination attempt, and there is a copy in the Pope’s private library in Poland. So, it is possible that this work helped the Pope to decide to carry out the consecration of Russia requested by Our Lady. 

The peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to my book Fatima, Russia and Pope John Paul II, still in print, which was approved in the Polish edition by the Pope himself, who said, “Good, let the people read it and learn who brought them their freedom” when he was presented with a copy. 


In 1998, the CTS published my booklet The Message of Fatima in the Life of the Church and the Teaching of the Popes, followed by Fatima in the Third Millennium in 2001, and currently has in print Fatima, the Family and the Church, for which I wrote the introduction and Donal Foley compiled the prayers and devotions. 


From 2002 to 2018 I was elected national president of the WAF EW, which was approved by the Bishops’ Conference in 2004.  


The WAF was founded in the United States in 1947 by Father Harold Colgan and John Haffert to call people to fulfil the requests of Our Lady of Fatima, already by 1950 it counted a million members, and the work was blessed by Pope Pius XII.


On 7 October 2005, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the WAF was recognised by the Vatican as an international public association of the faithful, and the WAF’s international episcopal moderator is the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima. 

 

The purpose of the Apostolate is to make the message of Our Lady of Fatima known, lived spread throughout the Church, in fidelity to the Gospel and the Church’s. Its intense activities all serve this spiritual purpose. 

 

Those who wish to become members sign a Pledge to offer each day the sacrifices required by their duties, to pray five decades of the Rosary daily while meditating on its mysteries, to wear the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel as a sign of consecration to Our Lady and her Immaculate Heart, and to offer sacrifices and penance in reparation for sin and the conversion of sinners. Each year the signed pledges of new members, or lists of their names, are presented to Our Lady in the Capelinha. 

 

A particularly important part of the Apostolate’s work is promoting the devotion of the five First Saturdays, as requested by Our Lady at Pontevedra on 10 December 1925, and in 2025 the WAF international president wrote to bishops’ conferences throughout the world urging them to encourage its adoption. 

 

The WAF’s International Secretariat is based at Domus Pacis in Fatima, from where it maintains contact with national associations, supports the formation of members and leaders, and helps coordinate pilgrimages, congresses and visits of the Pilgrim Virgin statues, which have visited the Philippines, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. It also manages publications, archives and a website in seven languages. 

 

The Secretariat welcomes pilgrimages to Fatima, receives many prayer intentions, and every month leads the Rosary in the Capelinha which can be followed online. The WAF’s international strategic plan for 2023 – 2027 gives national associations a common framework while allowing each country to respond to its own circumstances. 

 

The WAF promotes Children of the Eucharist, to help children learn about Jesus through adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, reaching some 200,000 children in 1,000 schools in eight countries, and the WAF also supports One Million Children Praying the Rosary for Peace, promoted by Aid to the Church in Need. 

 

In December 2025, Domus Pacis hosted an international congress on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Apostolate also supports the cause of beatification of Venerable Sister Lucia dos Santos, it has an international fund to assist projects, and it participates in meetings of international associations in the Vatican. 

 

A most important development in the work of the WAF EW was the resolution by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in May 2025 endorsing the five First Saturdays devotion, coinciding with the visitations of the WAF’s national Pilgrim Virgin statues to our cathedrals in 2025 and 2026. Archbishop Mark O’Toole of Cardiff-Menevia has been appointed our Patron Bishop and Fr Richard Nesbitt is the newly elected National Spiritual Director, following the recent death of Canon Jason Jones. Currently we have spiritual directors in eleven of the twenty-one dioceses, we also have a spiritual director representing the Polish community, and our next pilgrimage to Fatima is planned for 10–17 September 2027. 

 

Finally, the conference was shown two posters from the International Secretariat that portray the objectives and extent of the WAF’s work, which can also be found in full detail online in the WAF International websites.