Canonization: The Rector of the Shrine of Fatima Received the News with “a great joy”

Canonization: The Rector of the Shrine of Fatima Received the News with “a great joy”

Father Carlos Cabecinhas Underlines the Importance of this Decision for Fatima

Francisco and Jacinta Marto’s canonization that will take place during the 13th of May ceremonies will be the “apex of all the celebrations planned for the Centennial”, such news was therefore received with “a great joy” and a feeling of “deep gratitude”, as was stressed out today by the Rector of the Shrine of Fatima.

Father Carlos Cabecinhas underlined that, even without these canonizations the celebrations of the 100-year Anniversary of the Apparitions would have been nonetheless accomplished, but “the fact that this ecclesial recognition will take place in Fatima, on the 13th of May, in the presence of the Holy Father, makes this moment the apex of all the celebrations planned for the Centennial”.

Therefore, the news of the canonization on the 13th of May, during the Pope’s pilgrimage, is welcomed with “deep gratitude”.

“Gratitude to God, to concede us such a grace as having new saints as models and intercessors; and gratitude also to the Holy Father who took the decision to proceed to the canonization in this very place” he said.

Besides, the fact that the canonization, as was the case with the beatification (in 2000), will take place in Fatima, led Father Carlos Cabecinhas to emphasize a “very special” feeling regarding the decision taken today in the Consistory, in the Vatican.

“Because, it is this Shrine that keeps their relics; because it is in this Shrine that their tombs are; very special because through the election of Fatima for this solemn act of the universal Church we find an acknowledgement of the importance of Fatima for the whole world, and an acknowledgement of Fatima as a true ‘school of holiness’”, he pointed out.

“Finally, very special because the canonization of the two youngest seers of Fatima will be the culmination of the great celebration of the Centennial of the Apparitions”, said the Rector of the Shrine.   

Thereby, he renewed his invitation to the Portuguese to come to Fatima and to join “with a renewed spirit” to Pope Francis, so as to pray with the Holy Father and to thank God for the holiness of the Little Shepherds.

At the public consistory held this morning in Rome, the Holy Father announced that the canonization of the blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto will take place in Fatima on the 13th of May, during the commemorative ceremonies of the first Centennial of the Apparitions in Fatima, presided by Pope Francis.

The two seers are therefore the youngest saints not martyr of the Catholic Church. On the 23rd of March, Pope Francis had approved the miracle necessary to the canonization of the brother Francisco (1908-1919) and the sister Jacinta (1910-1920); only the place of the ceremony was to still to be defined.

Fatima had already been elected as the place for the beatification of the two Little Shepherds on the 13th of May 2000, during the visit of John Paul II.

Francisco and Jacinta Marto’s canonization process is therefore ending here, 65 years after D. José Alves Correia da Silva, then Bishop of Leiria, started the diocesan phase of the process for the two Little Shepherds, on the 30th of April 1952.

A canonization is the confirmation, from the Catholic Church, that someone is worthy of universal public worship, and can be presented to the Faithful as intercessor and model of holiness.

Actually, the diocesan Church had been celebrating, on the 20th of February, the liturgical feast of the blessed Portuguese, date that coincides with that of the death of Jacinta Marto.