2023-05-13 03:09:00
May 12, 2023 / 8:09 p.m
Since the apparitions of the Virgin of Fatima in Portugal in 1917, the Chair of Peter has been occupied by nine Pontiffs. Only four of them reached the sanctuary where the Mother of God revealed herself to the three little shepherds.
The first Successor of Peter to make a pilgrimage to Fatima was Saint Paul VIand he did so on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first apparition in Cova da Iría, on May 13, 1967.
“We want to ask Mary for a living Church, a true Church, a united Church, a holy Church,” said Saint Paul VI in his homily before thousands of faithful gathered in the sanctuary.
The second to visit the place was Saint John Paul II, on May 13, 1982, on the first anniversary of the attack perpetrated against him in San Pedro Square. On that occasion, he visited Fatima to thank the Virgin for having protected him.
10 years after being “saved” by the “maternal hand” of Mary during the attack, the Polish Pope returned to Portugal to visit the sanctuary in gratitude. Also in the Jubilee of the year 2000 he went there, where he beatified the visionaries Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
“The message of Fatima is a call to conversion, warning humanity not to play the ‘dragon’ game… Man’s ultimate goal is Heaven, his true home, where the heavenly Father, with his merciful love, awaits everyone”, pointed out the pilgrim Pope.
When commemorating the 10th anniversary of the beatification of the little shepherds, Benedict XVI he also made a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Fatima. On May 13, 2010, he celebrated a massive Mass. There the Pontiff said that “he who thinks that the prophetic mission of Fatima is finished is mistaken.”
“Our blessed Mother has come from Heaven offering the possibility of sowing in the hearts of all those who take refuge in her the Love of God that burns in hers. At first there were only three, but the example of their lives has spread and multiplied in numerous groups all over the face of the earth”, she highlighted.
In 2017, on the occasion of the centenary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the three little shepherds in Cova da Iria, it was the Pope Francisco who made a pilgrimage to Fatima and presided over the canonization of the brothers Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
The Holy Father arrived in Fatima on May 12, where he prayed the Rosary for peace in the world with the faithful and blessed the traditional candles before the procession with the image of Our Lady.
During his homily at the canonization of the visionaries of Fatima, he assured that Mary, “foreseeing and warning us about the danger of hell” to which a life without God leads, appeared in Fatima to three little shepherds to “remind us of the Light of God that dwells in us and covers us.
“Fatima is above all this mantle of Light that covers us, both here and in any other part of the earth, when we take refuge under the protection of the Virgin Mother to ask her, as the Salve Regina teaches, ‘show us Jesus’”, he pointed.
Two Cardinals, who would later be elected Successors of Peter, also made a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Fatima.
On May 13, 1956, then-Cardinal Roncalli (later to become Pope Saint John XXIII) presided over the pilgrimage ceremonies for the anniversary of the apparitions. While Cardinal Albino Luciani (later to be John Paul I) was in Fatima on July 10, 1977.
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