NEWARK, N.J. — Our Lady of Fatima made her way home to Portugal — in a manner speaking — through a Mass celebrated June 7 by the Portuguese American community at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.
The Mass was an early celebration of Portugal Day, the official national holiday of Portugal on June 10. As part of the festivities, the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima — one of several that have traveled the world on a pilgrimage of peace since 1947 — was carried by a parade of Portuguese Americans, also known as Luso Americans, to the cathedral basilica’s nave while the faithful waved white handkerchiefs. Many of the hundreds gathered were dressed in traditional attire.
As Our Lady was carried, the congregation sang “Ó Virgem do Rosário” (“Adeus de Fátima”) (“Farewell To Fatima”): “Just one more final prayer as we leave, O Mother Mary! May our hearts ever ring with the words that we sing: Oh Fatima! Farewell! Mother dear, Farewell!”
After this presentation, Father Nuno Rocha, pastor at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Elizabeth, and Father Dani Rodriguez, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Newark, presided over a Mass that honored Our Lady’s message.
The Portugal Day Mass was the latest stop on the Pilgrim Statue’s tour of the Archdiocese of Newark, which began in late April after Father Kevin Kilgore, pastor of St. Pius X Parish in Old Tappan, and Ricardo Casimiro, a campus minister at Montclair State University, retrieved her from the Shrine of Fatima in Portugal.
Since then, the statue has visited roughly 20 churches throughout the four counties that make up the archdiocese.
The Pilgrim Statue concluded her visit to the archdiocese with devotions and a closing Mass celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Michael A. Saporito at St. Pius X Parish in Old Tappan June 10.
“Her presence here reminds us that we’re never alone. Our Lady is always with us in our suffering and our moments of joy. So, visiting the statue is a chance to renew our faith and find hope for the future,” Casimiro told Jersey Catholic, the Newark archdiocesan news outlet.
Casimiro, who received the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima’s Centennial Medal in 2017 for his commitment to Our Lady, and Father Kilgore will be accompanying a group of young adults on a visit to the Shrine of Fatima as part of a pilgrimage to Portugal for the World Youth Day festival in Lisbon Aug. 1-6.
According to the story of Our Lady of Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three young peasant children, Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia, in May 1917 in Fatima. While they were tending their family’s sheep, “a Lady all in white, more brilliant than the sun,” standing above a bush, appeared to the young shepherds.
The children said that Mary, in a message to the world, promised that God would grant peace if Her requests for prayer, reparation and consecration were heard and obeyed.
The statue of Our Lady of Fatima is one of the best-known sculptures in the Catholic world. It is made from Brazilian cedar and depicts Mary dressed in white, as described by the shepherd children.
José Ferreira Thedim sculpted the original statue in 1920 and placed it in the Chapel of the Apparitions in Cova da Iria, where many visit to this day.
But the last surviving shepherd child, Sister Lucia dos Santos, did not feel that the statue resembled the figure she saw, so she provided Thedim with an exact description of Our Lady in 1946.
“The sculptor then tried to achieve the closest physiognomy of the Virgin Mary, and the pilgrim image is, therefore, the one that most resembles the lady brighter than the sun contemplated by Sister Lucia in 1917 at Cova da Iria,” said Casimiro, who has made 40 visits to Portugal’s Shrine of Fatima as part of his studies on Our Lady.
This sculpture — which is now known as the Pilgrim Statue — set out for the first time on its pilgrimage around the world on May 13, 1947, with copies made for additional pilgrimages soon after. The people acclaim this image as the Lady of Peace, who brings light and comfort to humanity in darkness and wounded by the horrors of war and sin, Casimiro said.
