Pope Francis wants a church “open to all without exclusion.” This was reiterated this Saturday in the Marian sanctuary of Fatima, on the fourth day of his apostolic trip to Portugal. From the so-called Chapel of the Apparitions and before a crowd of pilgrims – almost 300,000 souls according to the organizers – Bergoglio once again clamored for a Church with “open doors” in which “everyone can enter”.
“A mother has an open heart for all her children, all, all, all, without exclusion,” insisted the Pope after praying the rosary, which was led by several young people, including a young disabled woman. In what was his second visit to Fatima, he asked that “the world be granted a lasting time of peace.”
The Pope traveled early in the morning from the Figo Maduro air base in Lisbon to the vicinity of the Marian sanctuary by helicopter. He then traveled a stretch of road in the popemobile to participate in one of the most symbolic and emotional acts of World Youth Day (WYD) that will close today with a massive mass in Lisbon.
Related news
He was received with joy and greeted and blessed the hundreds of thousands of faithful who were waiting for him before praying before the image of the Virgin of Fatima, which he presented with flowers and a gold rosary. In the Chapel of the Apparitions he prayed a multilingual rosary, with each mystery in a different language.
This was the second visit of Pope Francis to Fátima, after the lightning trip of just 24 hours that he made on the occasion of the centenary of the apparitions of the Virgin to three little shepherds on May 12 and 13, 2017.
In a speech in Spanish and without papers, after once again giving up reading the planned speech due to his vision problems, Francisco praised the figure of María, the “lady in a hurry” or “apressada” (as they would say in Portuguese) and extolled that “it is never the protagonist” and that “it welcomes everyone and points to Jesus”.
He also invited pilgrims to pray with him for peace. “Now, as at the time of the apparitions, there is also war,” he said, evoking the year 1917, when Mary appeared to the little shepherds. «The Virgin asked that they pray the rosary for peace. She did not ask for it as a favor but, with maternal request, she indicated: ‘Recite the Rosary every day to achieve peace in the world and the end of the war.’ So let us unite our hearts, let us pray for peace”, the Pope asked in the “capelinha”, the exact place where the little Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta lived the Marian apparitions more than a century ago.
lives in danger
Joining the papal prayer for peace was José Ornelas, the Bishop of Leiria-Fátima and president of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, who expressed his “deep joy” at the return of the Pontiff to Fatima. “This sanctuary is deeply identified, particularly in the face of the war in Ukraine, and in so many other sources of conflict in the world that dramatically affect the life and future, especially of children and young people,” said the prelate.
war in ukraine
«The Virgin asked that they pray the rosary for peace. She did not ask for it as a favor but as a maternal request… Let us unite our hearts, let us pray for peace »
They also prayed for children and young people who are victims of “disease, poverty, hunger, conflicts, abuse, injustice and exclusion.”
The Pope and the bishops who accompanied him invited the faithful present to keep a brief moment of prayer and reflection, to ask the Virgin in silence: «Mother, what are you pointing out to me? What is there in my life that worries you, that moves you, that interests you?
After the massive and emotional Marian act, the Pope returned to Lisbon to rest in the Apostolic Nunciature where he is staying. Before presiding over the Vigil in which the attendance of half a million young people was expected in Tejo Park, renamed Campo de Gracia, another of the iconic acts of the papal trip, Bergoglio held a private meeting with members of the Society of Jesus in the school of San Juan de Brito.
Francisco has no “sight” problems
The Vatican specified this Saturday that the Pope had not read the speech he planned to make in Fatima because he preferred to address the faithful “like a shepherd” and “choosing the words that seem most appropriate to him”, but not because of a problem ” of sight”.
“The Pope addresses the people in front of him like a shepherd, choosing the words that seem most appropriate to him, not by sight,” said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, reports Europa Press. This has not been the only improvised speech of the Pontiff in recent days, as on Friday he also made it on the Via Crucis before hundreds of thousands of young people.
#Pope #calls #Church #open #exclusion