He will return with his immense heart, with his heart of fire, his poor man's soul
and his smile. He will return! And the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph!

FROM LOURDES TO FATIMA

In the eighteenth century, under the reign of Joseph I, Portugal experienced for the first time, with the cabinet of the Marquis of Pombal, the tyranny of an anti-Catholic power that wanted to secularise the State. It was at this time that Freemasonry solidly implanted itself in the country, while the Jesuits, who constituted the great strength of the Portuguese Church, were expelled from all the domains of the Crown. Subsequently, the power and the domination of the lodges endured without anyone succeeding in effectively opposing them. They succeeded to such a point that Blessed Pius IX became alarmed, declaring to Portuguese pilgrims in 1877: « You have a terrible and powerful enemy, Freemasonry. It is unleashed and wants to destroy in your country the last vestiges of Catholicism. »

The course of events, however, had already changed.

In fact, the Portuguese, at least those who remained unshakeably attached to their Protectress and Queen, welcomed with an extraordinary enthusiasm the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 and, by this very fact, the apparitions and message of Lourdes four years later. The ancient covenant of the little Lusitanian nation with the Immaculate was renewed.

According to the best historians, it is the very ardent devotion of the Portuguese to Our Lady of Lourdes that brought this people to be favoured with the marvels of Fatima and the admirable restoration of a political authority favourable to the Church.

MIRACULOUS CURES

Canon Barthas wrote: « Among the foreign pilgrimages to the Grotto of Massabielle, those of the Portuguese were the most fervent. » (From the Grotto to the Holm Oak, Fayard, 1960, p. 38)

Moving testimonies on them can be found in the Annals of Our Lady of Lourdes.

In 1878, Fr. Vieira, chaplain of the hospice of mercy in Lisbon, made known publically his project of taking a « mobile hospital » to Lourdes, that is to say « thirty-two sick people declared incurable by science ». A brief from Pius IX authorised a prelate of the Household of His Holiness, Mgr Maigre, to be the doctor for the pilgrimage.

The audacious enterprise of the chaplain aroused the fury of Freemasonry, the adepts of which came to inveigh against the pilgrims at their departure, while the Patriarch of Lisbon blessed them with all his heart.

« Despite the rapidity of the steamship, it took them five days to reach Lourdes. They arrived there in the evening of 17 May, stifled by the heat and dust, overcome with fatigue. These poor sick people were pitiful.

« The next day in his homily, Fr. Vieira addressed uplifting words to them: « Like the Apostles we say to the Saviour: We have left all we had to follow You. What will be our reward? »

« We have left our families and our country. We came to pay homage to the Immaculate Conception, to pray to Her for these incurable disabled people, but also for our dear country and for the Holy Catholic Church. We are few and unworthy of divine favours, but our hope is founded on the merits of our forefathers: the Mother of God will look upon the faith and charity of the Portuguese who, in past centuries, sowed the Gospel in the East and on the farthest shores.

« “We will be rewarded, if not by striking exterior miracles, at least by inner graces, the best ones for the present life and above all for eternal life.”

« It was a touching spectacle to see these sick persons helping one another and giving each other their arms two by two in order to participate in all the pious exercises. Thus it was that the blind, with candles in their hands, followed the candlelight procession.

« Their courageous faith was rewarded. The learned and serious prelate, Mgr Maigre, witnessed two cures that seemed supernatural to him.

« Fr. Antoine Jean-Baptiste Assomption from the diocese of Leiria, sixty-three years of age, had always been short-sighted. In 1847, the state of his eyes forced him to abandon the holy ministry. Nine years later, in 1856, the sight of the left eye was completely lost and the right eye was almost in the same state. From then on, the poor priest no longer said anything other than the votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin, which he recited from memory. After 1876, unable to find his way around, he renounced the consolation of celebrating it.

« On Saturday, 18 May 1878, the day after his arrival in Lourdes, he was taken to the pool into which he plunged completely. Suddenly, he glimpsed a faint light: it was the window of the pool. He perceived it, he saw, he was cured.

« Joyful but calm, he went to the Grotto to thank the Immaculate Virgin. In the evening he went to the residence of the chaplains where two doctors observed that he easily read all sorts of characters. It was very surprising that he saw perfectly despite the cataract that still existed. It was already thin, however, and in a few days it disappeared entirely.

« The next day, the good priest resumed the celebration of daily Mass, which he had not been able to do for twenty years!

« At the same time as the blind priest, a poor woman, Marie des Douleurs, an assistant in the Augustinian Convent of Chelles in Lisbon, was transported to the pools. Forty-eight years old, her right side had been entirely paralysed for five years: she was unable to walk or stand up. Descended into the pool, she got out of it a few instants later and, alone, without any support, she ran to the grotto to join her thanksgiving to that of Fr. Assomption.

« A dispatch brought the news of the two cures to Lisbon, causing keen emotion there. » The Portuguese press became fascinated by Lourdes and its miracles.

« In thanksgiving, a Magnificat was sung in the Grotto on 18 May, and a solemn Te Deum at Lisbon on 8 June. »

The columnist of the Annals concluded: « Our Lady of Lourdes crushes the head of the Serpent: She confounds incredulity by multiplying miracles; She revives faith and noble devotions. »

THE DESCENDANTS OF POMBAL… AT LOURDES!

The prince regent, Dom Fernando, made the pilgrimage to Lourdes on 14 June 1878 with the Infante Dom Augusto and the Countess Edla.

« The same day, the columnist of the Annals reported, other Portuguese arrived at the sanctuary including the valiant champion of the Catholic cause, Dom Almeida. Thus descendants of Pombal were at the head of the movement that was bringing the noble country back to the centre of unity. »

It was during a pilgrimage to the Pyrenean sanctuary that Fr. Luiz Rua received the inspiration of establishing a convent of the Good Shepherd in Porto where two cures were obtained in 1887 through novenas to Our Lady of Lourdes.

The numbers of Portuguese led to the Grotto by their bishops and supervised by their priests did not cease to increase. During their “national pilgrimage” in August 1909, 1,250 Portuguese arrived in the City of the Immaculate. The following year, they were twice as numerous: « There was nothing more beautiful than the procession of the 2,500 Portuguese on 12 August: from the parish church, they marched slowly through the city streets singing hymns and saying the Rosary. Four bishops closed the procession, preceded by a cavalry officer in uniform, who is said to be a descendant of the illustrious Pombal family.

« One looks curiously at the energetic and swarthy faces of the men, the multicoloured neckerchiefs and scarves of the women; he listens to this distinctive tongue, a sister of the Castilian language, and which, nevertheless, is profoundly different.

« A final ceremony gathered them together on 16 August: Portuguese youth offered the national standard to Our Lady of Lourdes. After having kissed it, the standard bearer gave it to the Bishop of Faro who in turn kissed it. Then, with a few words that sprang from his heart, the prelate asked these youths to make the firm resolution to practice the Christian virtues that made the glory of Portugal, and that would still ensure it in the future. »

QUEEN AMÉLIE AND MOTHER MONFALIM

Marie-Amélie of Orléans, Louis-Philippe's great-granddaughter, married in 1886 the heir to the Portuguese throne, Dom Carlos of Braganza. She had « the faith of the half-hearted for a “distant God” », when she arrived in the Land of Holy Mary. She was deeply touched and converted, however, by « the simple and intense faith of the Portuguese people ».

The historian Stéphane Bern relates her confidences:

« It was during the large popular processions that I felt myself as though carried away by the religious inspiration and the Catholic fervour of the throng that was pressing around me, while I was following the procession of the priests with a rather distant respect. There was no longer hypocrisy or guile but a true and generous belief totally filled with joy. This is why I like to join in processions: that of Corpus Christi, of the Sacred Heart, and, above all, in December, the procession of Lausperene, which ends the feast of the Wounds of Christ. When my car is stopped by a parish procession that is following the statue of a saint, or when the cross of Christ and the holy relics pass by, I never miss getting out of the car and going to kneel among the women of Lisbon, Coimbra or Porto.

« It is the faith of the Portuguese people that allowed me to conserve and strengthen my newly-found faith when I lost my little Marie-Anne. In those days of distress, I could have said to myself that the God who had saved my first child and who permitted that I lose the second was an absent God or, at least, One that was indifferent to the sorrow of men. Yet every day I saw, I see, the common people, who live in the immediate proximity of suffering and death, offering their torments to God, leaving it to divine Providence to decide, and drawing from the Christian fountain-head their courage and their hope. » (Stéphane Bern, I, Amélie, the Last Queen of Portugal, Denoël, 1997, pp. 193-194)

The queen thought very highly of the great aristocratic family of Cezimbra that had an intense devotion for Our Lady of Lourdes. The Marquess of Cezimbra had placed Her image on the bedside table of all her children and when one of them was sick, she gave him water from the miraculous spring to drink, and if the illness was serious, she promised to dress him for one year in white and blue, the colors of the Apparition.

One of her daughters was named “Mary of Lourdes”. In Portugal, moreover, for half a century, it was the most common name given to newborn girls.

As for the eldest, Dona Eugénia, she entered the Congregation of Dorotheans, and took the name of Mother Monfalim. When she became superior of the College of Quelhas in 1907, she continually made novenas to Our Lady of Lourdes in order to obtain special graces for her students. She associated one or several Dorotheans with this project, asking them to pray with her at the far end of the park, where there was a statue of the Apparition in a little grotto. As the heat was oppressive during the summer, a Dorothean sister suggested to her one day to go rather to pray in the chapel because, there also, the Virgin of Lourdes was honoured by a beautiful statue. « Well! Mother Monfalim replied, it is because it is a small penance to walk to the grotto in this heat that I like to go at this hour, for every prayer accompanied by sacrifice, even if it is small like this one, prompts the Heart of Our Lady even more to take care of us. »

Queen Amélie, a great benefactor of the Dortheans, shared the devotion of Mother Monfalim. In February 1910, two years after the assassination of her husband, Carlos I, when her son, King Manuel II, was increasingly threatened by the Republican conspiracy, she went on pilgrimage to Lourdes: « I went to the sanctuary to pray to the Blessed Virgin with all my soul. »

Her supplications for the political and moral recovery of Portugal were going to be answered, but after the trial of the persecuting Revolution that proclaimed the republic on 5 October 1910.

THE EXILES IN THE SHADE OF THE GROTTO

Mgr Leite de Vasconcelos, the holy Bishop of Beja, banished by the republicans, as well as numerous exiles, victims of the Revolution, sometimes entire families, took refuge in Lourdes. They became in this manner « perpetual pilgrims of their unfortunate country ».

The columnist of the Annals wrote: « This pious colony lives close to the Grotto, trembling for the fate of relatives and friends who remain in the country. They offer their trials, prayers and sacrifices for the salvation of their dear country.

« Thus, we imagine with what joy the emigrants learned that courageous compatriots, despite countless obstacles and vexations, were preparing a pilgrimage to Lourdes. On 27 September 1913, four hundred and sixty Portuguese arrived here under the leadership of the valiant Bishop of Portalegre, Mgr Antoine Moutinho. More than two hundred exiles were waiting for them at the station and gave them an enthusiastic welcome.

« Monday at the Grotto, an exiled priest made tears flow by evoking recent bereavements, profaned religious liberties and, above all, by recalling that nations return to the Faith through prayer, sacrifice and persevering supplications. »

The columnist ended his account by a wish full of hope that was going to prove prophetic: « May this very edifying pilgrimage draw down on Portugal the blessings of Heaven and hasten the happy day when this noble country, freed from those who oppress it, will recover its religious faith and, under the aegis of the Immaculate Virgin, will resume the course of its glorious destiny! »

Four years later, the Holy Dove, « hidden in the cleft of the rocks, in the coverts of the cliff » (Sg 2.14), made Herself seen and heard at Fatima.

THE PROPHECY OF FATHER BENEVENUTO DE SOUSA

Why did the Immaculate choose to descend into this out-of-the-way place, lost in the massif of the Serra de Aire? It seems that She wanted to respond to the expectation and prophecy of Fr. Benevenuto de Sousa, who had constructed a sanctuary to honour Our Lady of Lourdes in 1908, twenty kilometres from there, in the parish of Assentiz. A great preacher, a journalist with an incisive pen, founder of periodicals that were widely read throughout the country, Fr. Sousa argued against the republicans and the free thinkers, by announcing that the Virgin of Lourdes was going to liberate Portugal from the Masonic powers (Documentaçao critica de Fatima, Vol. 4, t. 3, 2007, pp. 441-442).

The fiends, however, thought that they had gotten the upper hand during the revolution of 1910, when they drove Fr. Sousa out of the region and profaned his sanctuary. They wrote in O Livre Pensamento, The Free Thought: « This lady of Lourdes did not defend herself against a strong volley of blows that smashed her to pieces on a beautiful moonlit night… Everything of this lady of Lourdes totally disappeared, even the debris, for she did not work the miracle of rising from the dead or of regaining her place… » (ibid.)

Well, yes She did! She regained Her place by coming in person to the Cova da Iria.

As for the faithful who came to the place of the apparitions, near the holm oak, they sang the Ave Maria of Lourdes, which the poet Mendes Leal had translated into Portuguese in 1886. Furthermore, the first hymn in honour of Our Lady of Fatima was composed on the melody of the Ave Maria of Lourdes.

APOSTLES OF LOURDES… AND OF FATIMA!

It is noteworthy that the ecclesiastics who were good pastors for the seers of Fatima, who inquired into their revelations, and who propagated devotion to the Apparition, were great devotees of the Virgin of Lourdes.

Fr. Cruz, whose reputation for holiness was very widespread, heard the confession of Lucy in 1913, which earned the child the grace of a smile from Our Lady. Fr Cruz had gone on pilgrimage to the Grotto of Massabielle, notably in 1899, after having suffered a serious pleurisy that greatly weakened him. Later on, he was the first to preach openly the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and to lead the prayer of the pilgrims.

Before he knew Fatima, Canon Manuel Formigao wanted to propagate in Portugal devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes. He had this idea in 1909. Returning to his country after having obtained his doctorate in theology and canon law in Rome, he had planned to stop three days in the Pyrenean sanctuary.

« I was filled, he related, with such great enthusiasm by everything I saw and heard at Lourdes. I listened to a homily of the Bishop of Valence affirming that the re-Christianisation of France would be the fruit of the diocesan pilgrimages to the City of the Immaculate. These words, which seemed to me the revelation of a great secret, impressed me so much that I decided to prolong my stay.

« Thus I remained a whole month as a nurse at the Hospital of the Seven Sorrows. Before leaving, I promised the Blessed Virgin to dedicate my life to spreading devotion to Her in my own country, especially by organising diocesan pilgrimages to the Grotto.

« When I was appointed professor at the major seminary of Santarem, the study of certain subjects, new to me, prevented me from keeping my promise. Alas! During the following year came the Revolution that persecuted the Church, and pilgrimages became impossible.

« I was waiting impatiently for the time when I could fulfil my promise, when in 1917 I heard of the apparitions of Fatima. At the beginning I was incredulous, and when I went there for the first time on 13 September, it was to try and find a way to put an end to this “fraud”.

« I spoke with the seers, with their parents, and with the local people. I was convinced that the children were not lying, that they were perfectly normal and sincere, and also that no one in their entourage was “coaching” them to say the things they did.

« The vision of the “sign of God” on 13 October confirmed me in my belief in the apparitions. I began to wonder whether my mission was to bring the Portuguese to Lourdes or rather to lead them to know and love Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. »

Canon Formigao, in fact, devoted himself to this new mission: he was, with zeal and goodness, the spiritual director of the seers, but he also became the first historian of the apparitions of Fatima, an effective worker for their official recognition, as well as an apostle of the reparatory devotion of the five First Saturdays of the month.

Lourdes, however, always remained for him, as for many Portuguese, the exemplary divine manifestation, the essential reference point:

« Incredulous people, including a few priests, were stating that they would only believe in the supernatural character of the marvellous events of Fatima if, in this arid and sterile terrain, water should appear, as it did at Lourdes near the rock of Massabielle. The realisation of the very thing that these Christians of little faith took to be impossible shook them deeply. »

All the more so because the Immaculate multiplied miracles:

« Fatima became a second Lourdes, no less marvellous than the first. Sometimes these cures were effected during or at the end of novenas made in honour of Our Lady; at other times, by using a mixture of water and earth taken from the site of the apparitions; and still other times after the internal or external application of water from the fountains at the Cova da Iria. » (Report of the Canonical Commission)

THE RATIONALISTS CONFOUNDED

Fr. José Ferreira de Lacerda, a friend of the parish priest of Fatima, volunteered to be the chaplain of the Portuguese expeditionary corps that left in 1917 for the Artois front. He left Portugal on 2 May and made the pilgrimage to Lourdes three days later.

Recalled to Portugal in the autumn, he argued against the Jornal de Leiria, the local weekly of the Republican Party, about the miracle of 13 October 1917:

« I vehemently dispute the validity, Mr. Miguel, of your epithet “curate swindle” to describe the extraordinary phenomena that I witnessed along with thousands of persons belonging to all social classes. In this great manifestation of faith, which in the end was joined by persons who were until then incredulous, there were leading figures in the world of science and thought. One of these personalities, whom I knew in Coimbra and who has always enjoyed great consideration in the university milieu because of his knowledge and honesty, said: “In the presence of facts of this nature, science must admit to being powerless to explain such a phenomenon for which astronomy had made no allowance.” »

« Admit then that you missed a great opportunity to remain silent. » (O Mensageiro, 18 October 1917)

Furthermore, Fr. Lacerda himself inquired into the apparitions: « Being aware of the attacks of Zola and others against Lourdes, Paray-le-Monial, Loreto, etc., we have drawn up a questionnaire composed of no less than thirty-six different questions that we are going to ask the parish priest of Fatima, the parents, the children, and even the neighbours. » (ibid., 8 November 1917)

In order to win the trust of Jacinta, he offered her a rosary that he had brought back from Lourdes. The child summarised for him in one sentence the message of 13 October 1917: « Our Lady said that if the people did not want to mend their ways, the world would end; otherwise, if they wanted to mend their ways, the war would end. »

Fr. Lacerda admired the piety of the pilgrims, for example during the ceremonies of 13 May 1922, while the chapel of the apparitions remained sadly damaged by the attack of the previous 6 March and « the government had telegraphed to the civil governor of Santarem that he should use all means to stop the people from gathering at Fatima. »:

« The procession approaches. Tens of thousands of people participate in it with banners, angels, crosses, offerings, in a word, there are moments when one would think that he was at Lourdes. At night, when the candlelight procession sets off, we once again imagine ourselves at Lourdes! One day when we were participating near the Grotto in one of these admirable manifestations of devotion, one of those present, filled with enthusiasm, his eyes full of tears, exclaimed: “How lovely it is!” This is also the feeling that we experience: “How beautiful it is! How beautiful it is!” » (O Mensageiro, 20 May 1922)

« Perhaps there is less order, less symmetry, less organisation, less pomp than at Lourdes, a journalist noted, but what richness, what simplicity, what exuberance in the expression of faith! »

« When the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary enters the enclosure reserved for the sick, enthusiasm verges on frenzy. Cheers ring out in the air, acclamations follow acclamations, and everyone sheds tears of emotion and tenderness. » (Viscount de Montelo, As Grandes Maravilhas de Fatima, 1927, p. 219)

On 13 May 1923, the charming shower of mysterious petals of 13 September 1917 reoccurred before the eyes of the marvelling pilgrims. Here is the testimony of Henrique Weiss de Oliveira, a medical doctor and former Freemason who was converted at Lourdes:

« I saw, with particular clarity, twice, what the common people, in their language full of imagery but very exact, likened to almond tree petals. These very white and glittering petals fell from very high up, rapidly and gently. When they arrived close to the ground, they disappeared. The sun was blazing, and the atmosphere extremely limpid and serene. »

« I finally concluded that natural phenomena of this sort do not exist because no one has either known of them or described them. Consequently, I inclined to think that it was a question of supernatural phenomena.

« Today, I firmly believe that it was so because I have become aware of numerous testimonies allowing me to reconstitute the phases of the phenomenon in question. »

This shower of petals that flowed from the sun symbolised the abundant shower of graces accorded by the Immaculate to Her children who publicly showed Her their love, without fear of the judgement of others.

Neither the blasphemous articles of the republican press against the « Jesuitical prank » (sic) nor the ukases of the government claiming to ban the pilgrimages of Fatima discouraged the faithful. They flocked to the Cova da Iria to recite the Rosary there and sing the Creed of Lourdes, as they used to say, that is, the Creed of de Mont that the Portuguese had known and learned at Lourdes. On 13 October 1924, they were 150,000!

The war waged by the government against Fatima showed, if such evidence were needed, the anti-Christian character of the regime born of the revolution of 1910. Nevertheless, the leaders of the Centro-Catolico were only fighting for a modification of legislation, because they remained subject to the orders of Benedict XV rallying them to the Republic. The journal O Dia, of 13 October 1924, was amazed at their blindness:

« The republic of Freemasonry and civil registration has decided to remove the last illusions of the Catholics who were thinking that a compromise with it was still possible, by gaining its good graces in return for a servile adherence… Catholics have continued to live without abandoning their impassivity, without even replying that the millions of faith-filled hearts could not be crushed, either by the heels of the muddy boots of a few hundred conscienceless brutes, or by the miserable ukases of renegades and apostates who usurp power – since it belongs to the nation – and we find ourselves obliged to snatch it from their impious hands. »

PENANCE! PENANCE! PENANCE!

Mrs. Assunçao Avelar, who welcomed and hid Lucy in Lisbon for a few weeks, wrote to Canon Formigao on 20 April 1920: « I am really overwhelmed by the infinite mercy of Our Lord and the most Blessed Virgin towards our unfortunate country where they have been so greatly offended. Our Lady recommends penance, as at Lourdes, and unfortunately so few understand the need of reparation for so many crimes. »

The Bishop of Leiria was predisposed by his devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes to understand the demands of Heaven. In the chapel of his family home, Mgr da Silva venerated a beautiful statue of the Virgin of Lourdes, placed right above the altar. Furthermore, before his elevation to the episcopate in 1920, he had already gone twelve times to the Pyrenean sanctuary, including four times as director of a pilgrimage. Later on, the bishop still returned there as long as his infirmities allowed.

In the letter of canonical approval of the apparitions, he stressed the continuity between Lourdes and Fatima: « The voice of Mary that calls men to penance is raised particularly in times of calamity, when Her children or the nations, victims of their ingratitude and sins, are close to perishing, when the prophetic words are borne out: “I called and you would not answer.” (Is 65 12) This is what happened at La Salette, at Lourdes, and finally, at Fatima. »

In April 1922, Canon Formigao was worried. He warned Mgr da Silva that the Cova da Iria was in great danger of becoming a place of profane festivities: « Before long, it will be distressing to see all along the road an endless succession of taverns, contrasting in an unworthy manner with the spectacle of the faith and piety given by the pilgrimage of Fatima. Even at Lourdes, where the pilgrims are so exploited, we do not see that. The innate tendency of our people is to transform places of devotion into fairgrounds. »

Mgr da Silva took the necessary measures to preserve the penitential character of the pilgrimage, which actually became its specific character. Observers and journalists noticed it: « In Fatima, we are not deafened by the noise of a popular fair. » All distractions such as fanfares and fireworks are unknown there, « and they even stand up against the trade of the stallholders. This is singularly remarkable in a country where, under pretext of religious feasts, the people pour plenty of money into pagan entertainment.

« On 13 October 1925, pilgrims came on foot over distances as great as fifteen and twenty leagues (seventy-five and a hundred kilometres). Moreover, they were laden with provisions, for there was neither hotel nor inn on the site. Thousands of people spent the night walking on the roads and, at Fatima, some slept under the holm oaks, while others stayed up and prayed during the night. All consented to many sacrifices. This is the first miracle of Fatima! » (A Defesa, 31 October 1925)

There did not exist a railway line to the Cova da Iria. As for the roads, they were « horrible », according to drivers. « Nevertheless, we are content, a pilgrim wrote, for I suppose that Our Lady wants them that way in order to put the devotion of the faithful to the test. In Lourdes, for example, there are already too many conveniences and entertainment abounds. » (Novidades, 14 October 1925)

During the large pilgrimages, the penitents were so numerous that they had to wait for hours outside the confession chapel in long lines, whatever the weather was like. Canon Barthas, who knew Mgr da Silva well, wrote: « The very good and pious Bishop of Leiria, organiser of the pilgrimage, suffered horribly from ulcers on his legs, the origin of which went back to his stay in prison in the days of the persecution. We have heard him confide to us, however: “I offer my sufferings so that the pilgrimage of Fatima may always remain a pilgrimage of penance.” »

THE GRACE OF A NATIONAL DICTATORSHIP

The pilgrims of Fatima were insistently invited by Mgr da Silva, but also by Canon Formigao and zealous pastors, to pray for « the resurrection » of their country. Let us at least quote a passage from the first prayer to Our Lady of Fatima that bears the imprimatur of Mgr da Silva, dated 30 March 1925: « O Mary conceived without sin, look upon Portugal, pray for Portugal, save Portugal; the more it is guilty, the more it needs Your intercession. A word from You to Jesus and Portugal will be saved. O Jesus, obedient to Mary, pardon us, save Portugal! Ave Maria », etc.

The Bishop of Beja developed the same thought in his preaching during the pilgrimages of the Crusade Nuno Alvares: « At the beginning of each decade of the Rosary, Mgr. José do Patrocinio Dias comments on the mystery in a spirit of reparation for the great misdeeds of Portugal. He denounces the secularism that he considers a social sin. He affirms that it is necessary to Christianise laws, schools, and habits. He ends thus: “We are in Fatima with the aim of making acts of national satisfaction and reparation for the offenses made to God in our country. It is by means of expiation and reparation that nations recover.” »

Furthermore, the Portuguese who had emigrated to Lourdes did not forget their country. Their supplications and their sacrifices touched the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the military uprising of General Gomes da Costa, which was launched in May 1926 in Braga when two hundred thousand faithful were praying there to the Virgin of the Sameiro, put an end, after a few convulsions, to the anarchy that had been reigning in the country since the proclamation of the Republic in 1910.

Colonel Vicente de Freiras stated in the newspaper Portugal, the unofficial organ of the new government: « The army does not need to rely on the support of any party to govern. Furthermore, the army must govern against the parties. » (Arnaldo Madureira, A Igreja catolica na origem do Estado novo, 2006, p. 133)

Mother Monfalim, like most of the Portuguese people, saw in this restoring of an independent, stable political authority, which was soon favourable to the Church, a grace of Our Lady. On 28 May 1927, she wrote to her sister Mariana: « One year ago today the “good revolution”, that Our Lady of Sameiro protected from the top of Her hill, took place! This morning, here on the property, we had a procession of children both poor and rich, and when we were exactly in front of the statue of Our Lady and I was pronouncing the act of consecration, we heard artillery salvos because it was the national holiday! How beautiful it was! Personally, it seemed to me that it was Portugal that, at this very hour, wanted to honour its Queen and “hail” Her as in the past on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. »

SALAZAR AND CARDINAL CEREJEIRA

It was only after a pilgrimage to Lourdes that Professor Oliveira Salazar entered definitively into the government as minister of Finance.

We know this thanks to the testimony of a Portuguese stretcher-bearer of the Pyrenean sanctuary, José Gomes Pereira da Silva. He related that one August morning in 1927, a Frenchman approached to question him about five pilgrims on their knees who were praying at the Grotto: « You are Portuguese, do you know these men?

– Yes, I know all of them. There is the deputy Dinis da Fonseca, Fr. Cruz the “saint”, Dr. Tomas de Gamboa, director of the Catholic journal Novidades, and Professors Oliveira Salazar and Gonçalves Cerejeira, of the University of Coimbra. Why do you ask me this question?

– It is because these gentlemen have spent the entire night on their knees praying for Portugal. One could say that they wept more than they prayed. » (Mensagem de Fatima, no 82, p. 4)

On 27 April 1928, the day that he was appointed Minister of Finance, before the other ministers and high ranking civil servants, Dr. Oliveira Salazar replied to the Prime Minister, Vicente de Freiras: « You do not have to thank me for having accepted this responsibility, for it represents for me such a great sacrifice that I would never have done it as a favour, or out of kindness to someone. I am making this sacrifice for my country as a duty of conscience, performed calmly and serenely. »

He added: « Nevertheless, I would not have taken this heavy burden on myself if the conditions for effective work had not been assured me. »

Calling on Salazar to straighten out the catastrophic financial situation passed on by the former power was an event as important as, if not more important than, the military uprising of 28 May 1926. After having saved the country from bankruptcy, Salazar was promoted Prime Minister in 1932 and fulfilled the heavy responsibility as a « minister of God for the common good » for thirty-five years, while his friend, Fr. Cerejeira, became Patriarch of Lisbon in 1928.

Invited in 1945 by President Salazar to return to Portugal, Queen Amélie went on pilgrimage to Fatima on 8 June: « Kneeling in the little chapel of the apparitions, she related, I prayed with all my soul to Nossa Senhora for the happiness of Portugal.

« It was with tears in my eyes that I saw my dear country recover. » (Bern, op. cit., pp. 314-315)

The fact that the corporative regime established by Salazar was « the showcase of Our Lady », according to the beautiful expression of our Father, infuriated the Christian Democrats. One must read what Professor Charles Journet, the future cardinal, disciple of Jacques Maritain, and friend of Paul VI wrote:

« People talk about a “dance” of the sun, a “shower of flowers”, and after that, they tell us that “the greatest miracle”, “the miracle of miracles” is the present flourishing situation of Portugal. »

« Just who do you think we are, gentlemen? The imprimatur can protect you from heresies; it is powerless against stupidity.

« O great mysterious Virgin of the Gospel of Christmas and the Gospel of the crucifixion! O great blessed Théotokos, both redoubtable and maternal! O gentle and profound Virgin of the Ave Maria, of the hymns of the Church and the litanies! O Mother of the Seven Sorrows! Will Your faithful, in these days when they have more need of You than ever, have only these paper flowers to smell? » (Nova et Vetera, May-August 1948)

This most certainly blasphemous article echoed the perfidious criticism of Fr. Dhanis.

FATIMA, A SIGN OF CONTRADICTION

In 1947, the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima met with a triumph in Portugal and then in Spain, where the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, with General Franco, the head of State, in the first place, paid Her their filial homage of love and veneration.

When She was approaching Hendaye, the French authorities ordered the police at the border post to forbid Her entry into France. At that time the Christian Democrats, who had seized power in both the Church and the State thanks to the Liberation, still maintained a scandalous blockade against Spain. Furthermore, the reason « for this ban was not only the “legal” closing of the border, Canon Barthas explained, but fear that the processions on the roads and outdoor Masses would be a sort of preparation for fascism ».

The Croix de Paris went so far as to suggest that the Virgin should leave Spain by the Mediterranean in order to go to Italy!

Finally, the fervour of the Basque people got the better of the bans. « On 18 June 1947, the police commissioner came up with the subterfuge of letting Her enter France by means of a “customs clearance form for Belgium”, as though for an ordinary package. »

She was taken to Lourdes, not on 13 July as planned, but at the beginning of the month. Of course, upon Her arrival, « the automobile that carried Her met a group of three hundred Portuguese who were coming back from Rome where they had attended the canonisation of St. John of Britto. They descended from the station to the Grotto. Joy and acclamations! »

There were, however, few Frenchmen among the twenty thousand pilgrims who honoured Her on 3 and 4 July in the Marian city: seven nations were represented, and the Bishop of Tarbes was not even there to preside over the ceremonies!

One month later, Our Lady of Fatima had already left France, because some bishops had refused Her entry into their dioceses.

The Christian Democrats did all they could to exclude the Pilgrim Virgin from the kingdom of the Lilies because at Fatima She had reproved in advance, in Her prophetic Secret of 13 July 1917, their dishonest compromises with the Communists and Socialists – in a word, their betrayals.

At the same time, in Portugal, the detractors of Salazar proved themselves likewise to be adversaries of the Immaculate. In fact, in February 1949 during the presidential election campaign, the writer Tomas da Fonseca appealed to Christians in an article published in the A Republica newspaper to vote for the liberal candidate, General Norton de Matos, former grandmaster of Freemasonry. Now, in this article in favour of the opponent of Salazar, da Fonseca attacked Fatima!

« The following Sunday, at the simple appeal of an improvised committee, three hundred thousand Portuguese gathered at the Sameiro, near Braga, around the national basilica of the Immaculate Conception to make reparation for the insult made by the impudent rag to the Queen of the country. »

The protest movement in the country was such that Norton de Matos wanted to withdraw from the electoral competition. When his candidature was administratively maintained, he only won one percent of the votes.

As soon as she received the electoral result, Sister Lucy expressed her thanksgiving: « Our Lady is Mother of Mercy; this is why we were saved once again thanks to Her protection. »

In 1954, for the centenary of the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception, Cardinal Cerejeira led more than a thousand Portuguese to Lourdes. « What was impressive, remarked the Bishop of Lourdes at the opening of the ceremonies on 19 August, is the profound agreement between the message of Massabielle and that of the Cova da Iria. »

More perspicacious, the Patriarch of Lisbon showed, in his homily on 22 August how Fatima is a world event, the message of which prolongs and completes that of Paray-le-Monial and Lourdes: « In Fatima, the conversion of Russia was predicted by the most Blessed Virgin who also predicted the war, this “horrible, horrible” war, from which you, the French, have suffered so much.

« Fatima brings a great hope to the whole world: peace. Let us ask it with fervour from the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As little Jacinta used to say, it is to Her that God has entrusted it. Let us be sure that in the end, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph. »

The centenary of the apparitions of Lourdes was celebrated solemnly at Fatima by a triduum from 10 to 12 May 1958. Then on the 13^th, the young bishop of Fatima, Mgr Venancio, recommended to the half-million pilgrims to pray particularly for France. A few hours later, in Algiers, the popular uprising called the army to power to save French Algeria.

Of course, this patriotic reaction was eventually betrayed…

No one, however, had placed it under your patronage, O You, our Mother, who descended at Lourdes and Fatima in order to invite us earnestly to mend our ways and in order to reveal the power that God has given to your Immaculate Heart.

« Undoubtedly we pray, wrote our Father, but not as God wills. We pray in France that God give peace but without giving up our errors and our baneful passions. We want the end of the nightmare, but without regretting the insane political opinions that are its direct cause and without renouncing anything of our comfort.

« In His paternal love, God is eager to assist us; He will do so, you can be sure, as soon as we authorise Him to do it by our true conversion and our remorse. For He only helps those whose faith is pure; He only saves a people submissive to the truth. » (Letter to My Friends n° 109, 13 May 1962)

Brother Francis of Mary of the Angels.