Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) — When Pope Francis travels
to the Portuguese town of Fatima
this weekend, he will be lending his blessing to a religious phenomenon that
has captivated Catholics for a century: It involves visions of the Virgin Mary,
supernatural meteorological events and apocalyptic prophesies of hell, Soviet
communism and the death of a pope.
For
doubters, the Fatima story is a trumped-up
tale built around hallucinations. For believers, Fatima 's
message of peace, prayer and conversion from sin is as relevant today as it was
100 years ago, when three illiterate shepherd children first reported seeing
visions of the Madonna.
The pope will canonize two of those children
on Saturday and is likely to make his own Fatima
message of peace and conversion as a weapon against secularism and the
persecution of Christians today.
Here are details about Francis'
Friday-Saturday trip to Fatima .
WHAT HAPPENED AT FATIMA ?
The three shepherd children, siblings
Francisco and Jacinta Marto and their cousin Lucia aged between 7 and 10 at the
time, said the Virgin Mary appeared to them six times in 1917 and confided to
them three secrets. The first two described an apocalyptic image of hell,
foretold the end of World War I and the start of World War II, and the rise and
fall of Soviet communism.
In 2000, the Vatican disclosed the long-awaited
third secret, describing it as foretelling the May 13, 1981, assassination
attempt against St. John Paul II in St. Peter's Square.
John Paul credited the Virgin Mary with
saving his life. One of the bullets fired at him rests in the crown of the
statue of the Virgin at the shrine.
Portuguese
church officials initially doubted the veracity of the apparitions. Many
doubters, though, became believers after the so-called "Miracle of the
Sun" on Oct. 13, 1917. According to legend, the Fatima "seers"
had predicted that the Virgin would perform a miracle that day, and tens of
thousands of people flocked to Fatima and saw
what witnesses reported was a vision of the sun "spinning" in the sky
and zigzagging toward Earth.
The Portuguese church declared the visions
authentic in 1930.
WHAT WAS GOING ON AT THE TIME?
At
the time of the apparitions, Europe was still in the grip of World War I and Portugal 's Catholic Church was facing a crisis
after Portugal
became a republic in 1910.
The
republican government introduced a host of anti-clerical laws, including
prohibiting religious teaching at schools. Priests and bishops were exiled.
In
that context, the visions helped reinvigorate a persecuted church, giving it
"a strong eruption of the supernatural in that difficult moment,"
said Monsignor Carlos Azevedo, who headed the commission that compiled 15
volumes of Fatima documentation.
Church
officials point to the reported secrets about a Second World War, the dangers
of Soviet communism and the persecution of the pope and Christians in general,
as evidence of Fatima 's prophetic message.
WHAT
DO PEOPLE DO IN FATIMA ?
Like
the shrine at Lourdes , France , Fatima
draws millions of pilgrims from around the world — about 6 million annually —
to give thanks to Our Lady of Fatima, or to pray for help.
Many
walk to the town, which is 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Lisbon . Some complete the last few hundred
meters (yards) on their knees. Others toss wax limbs into a fire beside the
Chapel of the Apparitions as they recite prayers for healing.
The
shrine also contains dozens of shops where trinkets are sold alongside
rosaries, bibles and assorted images of the Virgin Mary, including one that
changes color with the weather.
WHY
IS THE POPE GOING NOW?
Initially,
Francis had planned to travel to Fatima merely
to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions. Francis added a bonus event
to his visit by announcing in March that he had approved the miracle needed to
make saints of Francisco and Jacinta Marto — who died of influenza within two
years of the initial apparitions.
He
will be the fourth pontiff to visit Fatima ,
after Pope Paul VI marked the 50th anniversary in 1967, John Paul came three
times and Benedict XVI visited once, in 2010.
After
becoming a nun, Lucia became the main raconteur of the Fatima
secrets. She died in 2005. In February of this year, Portuguese church officials
completed the first phase of her beatification cause by sending more than
15,000 pages of testimony and documentation to the Vatican for review.
WHAT WILL THE POPE DO IN FATIMA?
Francis
arrives on Friday afternoon and meets privately with Portuguese President
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
After
a spin in his popemobile at Fatima , he'll pray
at the chapel dedicated to the apparitions and send a greeting out to the
crowd, which is expected to number up to 1 million people.
On
Saturday, Francis meets with Prime Minister Antonio Costa and visits the
basilica built on the site where the children reported the first apparition.
He'll celebrate the canonization Mass in the main square, lunch with his
bishops, and return to Rome
in the evening.
Barry Hatton reported from Fatima , Portugal .