Few apparitions of the Virgin are approved by the Church, but Fatima is one of them. They occurred in 1917, and according to the Portuguese cardinal Jose Saraiva, this message continues to be relevant 100 years later.
CARD. JOSÉ SARAIVA MARTINS
'It is a call to faith, a call to conversion, and ;to peace and hope. These four calls constitute the core message of Fatima, a message that unfortunately today people have forgotten.
The pope goes to Fatima to remind today's men and women ;of those four calls that we should never forget; if we want to live in peace, we have to live as men, to live as brothers.' The cardinal dealt with the beatification process of the Virgin's little shepherds, Jacinta and Francisco It was a unique process, because no non-martyred child had been beatified.
CARD. JOSÉ SARAIVA MARTINS
'The first condition for beatification is to have practiced virtues to a heroic degree, and it was said that the children did not have that capacity. I was against that, because it did not match the facts. Jacinta and Francisco demonstrated ;heroism that I would like to find in many adults.'
The Virgin revealed three secrets to these three young shepherds, and the common denominator was the call to conversion. She prophesied wars and persecutions, and a wounded Church because of the sins of men. Yet she also conveyed a message of hope, because God does not abandon the world in spite of its crimes.
This could be part of the message that Pope Francis will transmit to the world from Portugal, a message that is very in tune with his last catechesis on hope. ;
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