Pope Francis said that Our Lady of Fatima did not appear “so that we could see her”, but as a warning against a “godless” way of life, as he canonised two of the seers last Saturday.
Standing before the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pope Francis said: “We declare and define Blessed Francisco Marto and Blessed Jacinta Marto as saints.”
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims broke out in applause before he finished speaking.
The relics of the young shepherd children, encased in two thin golden crosses, were placed in front of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, the “lady dressed in white”, as the siblings and their cousin described her.
The Marian apparitions began on May 13, 1917, when nine-year-old Francisco and seven-year-old Jacinta, along with their 10-year-old cousin Lucia dos Santos, reported seeing the Virgin Mary. The apparitions continued once a month until October 13, 1917, and later were declared worthy of belief by the Church.
After contracting influenza, Francisco died on April 4, 1919, at the age of 10, while Jacinta succumbed to the illness on February 20, 1920, aged nine. The children, beatified by St John Paul II in 2000, are now the youngest non-martyrs to be declared saints.
Before his arrival at the shrine, the Pope met Portuguese prime minster Antonio Costa and then went to the sanctuary that houses the tombs of St Francisco and St Jacinta and their cousin Lucia, who died in 2005 at the age of 97. The diocesan phase of her Cause concluded in February and is now under study at the Vatican.
Pope Francis stood for several minutes in front of the tombs with his eyes closed and head bowed.
In his homily at the canonisation Mass, the Pope reflected on the brief lives of the young saints, who are often remembered more for the apparitions than for their holy lives. But it is Mary’s message and example, rather than an apparition, that are important, he told the crowd, which Portuguese authorities estimated at about 500,000 people.
“The Virgin Mother did not come here so that we could see her. We will have all eternity for that, provided, of course, that we go to heaven,” the Pope said.
Instead, he continued, Mary’s messages to the young children were a warning to all people about leading “a way of life that is godless and indeed profanes God in his creatures”.
“Such a life – frequently proposed and imposed – risks leading to hell. Mary came to remind us that God’s light dwells within us and protects us,” the Pope said.
The hopeful message of Fatima, he explained, is that men and women have a mother and, like children clinging to her, “we live in the hope that rests on Jesus”.
Pope Francis called on the pilgrims to follow the example of heroic virtue lived by St Francisco and St Jacinta, particularly their insistent prayer for sinners and their adoration of “the hidden Jesus” in the tabernacle.
This continual presence of God taught to them by Mary, he said, “was the source of their strength in overcoming opposition and suffering”.
By following their example, the Pope said, Christians can become “a source of hope for others” and counter “the indifference that chills the heart” and “worsens our myopia”.
“We do not want to be a stillborn hope! Life can survive only because of the generosity of other lives,” he said.
It is with the light of hope, the Pope added, that the Church can radiate “the true face of Jesus” and reach out to those in need.
“Thus may we rediscover the young and beautiful face of the Church, which shines forth when she is missionary, welcoming, free, faithful, poor in means and rich in love,” he said.
Pope Francis has said he has doubts about claims that Mary continues to appear in the village of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He made the remarks to journalists on his flight home from Fatima, Portugal.
Asked about the apparitions’ authenticity, the Pope referred to the findings of a commission chaired by Cardinal Camillo Ruini. “The report has its doubts, but personally, I am a little worse. I prefer the Madonna as Mother, our Mother, and not a woman who’s the head of a telegraphic office, who every day sends a message at such an hour.
“This isn’t Jesus’s Mother,” he said. “And these alleged apparitions don’t have much value. I say this as a personal opinion, but it is clear. Who thinks that Our Lady says, ‘Come, because tomorrow at this time I will give a message to that seer?’ No!”
Three of the six young people who originally claimed to have seen Mary in Medjugorje in June 1981 say she continues to appear to them each day. The other three say Mary appears to them once a year now. Pope Francis told reporters that the investigations into the very first apparitions must continue.
Three commissions – two by the diocese and one by the then Yugoslavian bishops’ conference – have concluded that they could not affirm a supernatural event was occurring.
The Pope acknowledged that the “spiritual and pastoral facts cannot be denied: people go there and convert, people who find God, who change their lives. There isn’t magic there.” Francis has appointed Archbishop Henryk Hoser to study the pastoral needs of the town and its pilgrims.
A Venezuelan pilgrim has described how he travelled to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima last week to appeal to the Virgin Mary to help free his country.
José Antonio dos Santos said he came to “ask the Virgin of Fatima the same thing she offered in her message 100 years ago, which was peace for Portugal and freedom for the Portuguese people who were oppressed.”
Amid hundreds of thousands of pilgrims waving banners and flags at the 100th anniversary celebration, Mr dos Santos stood tall in the front row, waving a large Venezuelan flag that read: Virgin de Fatima, te pido libertad para Venezuela (“Virgin of Fatima, I ask for freedom for Venezuela.”)
Mr Dos Santos, along with his sister Natalia and fellow countrymen Adrian Pita and David Pereira, were camped out in the shrine’s square since the early morning in the hope that their message would be brought before the Pope and Our Lady of Fatima. “That is why I stayed all night since yesterday in the shrine,” Mr dos Santos told CNS, “to be close to the altar and convey through this banner the cry of my people.”
Pope Francis asked tens of thousands of pilgrims on Friday to reflect on “which Mary” they chose to venerate – “a woman blessed because she believed always and everywhere in God’s words, or a ‘plaster statue’ from whom we beg favours at little cost?” The Pope said Mary could not be an image “of our own making”.
The crowd fell silent as the Pope spent several minutes praying to Our Lady.
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