27 april, 2017
Portuguese bishops considered that the canonization of Francisco and Jacinta Marto challenges the Church to conversion and recommend the rereading of Sister Lucia’s Memoirs (Fatima in Lucia’s own words) and other testimonies on the spiritual experience of the two little shepherds, which they classify as being part “of the living tradition of the Church”.
“Surrounded by the caring and maternal light of Mary, model for the little ones and the poor, they experience the tenderness and the strength of the loving arm of God, that humbles the proud and raises the humble, making the high and perennial glory of holiness shine in the testimony of their short existence”, highlighted the bishops in a pastoral note on the canonization of the two seers, titled “With Francisco and Jacinta Marto, called to be holy in charity”.
Underlining that the Church rejoices with the canonization to be presided by Pope Francis on the 13th of May, in the Shrine of Fatima, the bishops reminded the life of prayer of the two little shepherds in response to the invitation of the Lady of the Rosary, referring that it was in prayer that they found the “privileged expression of the friendship with God and of the affection to those who live far from Him”.
“Here is the essential that we are to learn from Francisco and Jacinta: each one of us is called to be converted to the image of the child that fully entrusts him or herself to the love with which the Father sustains our life”, they added.
“It is in this sense – of continuous call to conversion of the Church – that we are invited to look at the life example of these children, aware of the seed of faith, hope and love which they sow in human history”, they refer, quoting Pope Benedict XVI in the homily of the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta, on the 13th of May 2010, in Fatima: their life example «spread and multiplied […] in countless groups throughout the world dedicated to the cause of fraternal solidarity».
“Witnesses of God’s mercy, Francisco and Jacinta continue to leaven history with the strength of charity that transforms the hearts”, concludes the Pastoral Note.
The document was released today, at the end of the Plenary Assembly of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, gathered in Fatima since Monday.
