(Fatima, October 13, 2009)
Moved by the announcement of the coming visit of Holy Father Benedict XVI to Portugal, in May of next year, I decided to revisit the Memoirs of Sister Lucia and the text of the third part of the Secret of Fatima. In both cases, the figure of the Pope occupies an important place, although emphasizing different aspects: on one hand, the devotion and very special love, specially on the part of Jacinta; on the other hand, the suffering, persecution and martyrdom to which the Pope is subjected, for being the leader of the Church.
The dramatic words, attributed, in the Memoirs, to Jacinta, tell us the vision she had next to the well: “I saw the Holy Father in a very large house, kneeling in front of a table, with his hands on his face, crying. There were a lot of people outside the house, and some of them were throwing stones at him, others cussing him and using ugly words. Poor Holy Father! We have to pray a lot for him”.
This interior experience reveals a strong devotion, whose meaning reaches far, within the context of Catholic tradition. Notwithstanding her lack of knowledge of the details of the theology regarding the Church and the place occupied by the Pope, his role and magisterium, Jacinta knew the fundamental elements.
First of all, one notices the existence of a personal and important link, which goes beyond any connection of the institutional type. She feels as her own the suffering of the Hole Father, in an attitude of solidarity and communion, proper of someone who senses to belong to the same Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church.
Trying to interpret the language used to express the vision, we could, in a way, think that the “very large house”, where the Pope is kneeling, is the Church. There, as someone who is at the front, in his mission of pastor, on behalf of Christ, he is also the one who most identifies with Christ, the lamb immolated for many. “With his hands on his face, crying” – the Pope assumes as his the sufferings of the Church, object of violence and persecution throughout the world, specially throughout the whole XX Century, the century of martyrs.
Following along the same line of reading, we are told right away that “there were a lot of people outside the house, and some of them were trowing stones at him, others cussing him and using ugly words”. The XX Century was the period of the great schism between believers and non-believers, the century of atheism and, in many cases, the century of great opposition – more open or more veiled – to the Catholic Church. One may, then, take that “outside the house” as meaning the opposition to the Church.
Still within the third Memoir, another text attributed to Jacinta reveals her passion, on the one hand, for the Church and, on the other, for those outside of her: “Don’t you see so many roads, so many ways and fields full of people crying with hunger and not having anything to eat? And the Holy Father in a church, before the Immaculate Heart of Mary, praying? And so many people praying with him?” Maybe what is meant here is not only hunger of food, but specially of a longing, a need for God, which affects so many people walking the roads and ways and fields of this world. It is precisely in this world that the Pope/Church prays and manifests great confidence in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, refuge for all.
In the third part of the Secret of Fatima, now in apocalyptic language, we see again the figure of the Pope, the Bishop dressed in white, who walks together with the persecuted people marked by the hope of redemption which springs from the arms of the Cross erected atop a high hill. It is once again the pastor who walks with his sheep and the teacher of the faith who leads his people, trying to bring them to the springs of Salvation.
Facing the announcement of the coming visit of Benedict XVI to Fatima, we restate our faith in his ecclesial mission and our communion with his intentions, joys and sufferings. Our prayer for the Pope and the church is our way to respond to the request of Blessed Jacinta Marto: “We have to pray a lot for Him”.
Fr. Virgílio Antunes, Rector of the Shrine of Fatima
P.S. Copy of the Editorial of the October 13 issue of “Voz da Fátima”, the official newspaper of the Shrine of Fatima, published in Portuguese only.