On May 13th, the Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. During his May
2010 visit to Portugal, Pope Benedict presided a special mass for tens of thousands
of pilgrims on this feast day in Fatima, to honour the tenth anniversary of the beatification
of Francisco and Jacinta, two of the three children to whom Our Lady appeared in the
small Portuguese village almost a century ago. The two shepherd children died when
they were still very young.
But Sr. Lucia Dos Santos, the last of the three
to survive, lived in her convent in Coimbra, Portugal until her death in 2005 at the
ripe age of 98. Pope John Paul II had a special relationship with Sr. Lucy as she
is also known. Theirs was a friendship that spanned decades,- until the Pope John
Paul's own death in 2005, less than two months after the passing of Sr. Lucy. The
two had kept in touch regularly – up to the very last days of their lives – and as
you’ll soon hear in this program by Tracey McClure, with special reason...