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POPE BEATIFIES JACINTA AND FRANCISCO, ECSTATIC SISTER LUCIA MEETS POPE

Updated: May 14, 2000 05:00 PM GMT
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Pope John Paul II beatified Francisco Marto and his sister Jacinta, two of the three shepherd children to whom the Blessed Mother appeared six times in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal.

"This is a very great day for Portugal and for the whole world," the third visionary, Lucia de Jesus Dos Santos, now a 93-year-old Carmelite nun, told the pope May 13. About a million people attended the ceremony at the Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima near the site where the children saw the visions.

The nun, who looked ecstatic, was dressed in the traditional brown and white Carmelite robes and wore spectacles. She met the pope near the sacristy prior to the beatification Mass for Francisco and Jacinta, her cousins.

Sister Lucia kissed the pope´s hand and she presented him with one of the 300 rosaries she had made for him, the other 299 of which were brought to him as an offertory gift.

Afterwards she took her seat behind the cardinals and bishops for the beatification ceremony and Mass. The pope gave her communion during the Mass and blessed her again before leaving for Rome.

In his homily, the pope spoke of how in God´s plan for mankind, Our Lady "dressed with the sun" came from heaven in search of these children.

She spoke to them "with the voice and heart of a mother," inviting them "to offer themselves as victims of reparation, saying she was ready to lead them safely to God," and they experienced great intimacy with God, the pope said.

God touched the two children in very different ways, the pope said. He led Francisco to know "how sad" Jesus was "because of the sins committed against him," and moved the boy to seek "to console Jesus and make him happy."

The encounter radically transformed Francisco´s life in a way that "is not usual for children of his age." He began to pray very fervently, doing penance and making sacrifices, and attained a mystical union with Jesus, the pope said, adding that Jacinta had similar experiences.

"The great struggle between good and evil" is going on in the world, Pope John Paul said, adding that "man cannot reach happiness by putting God aside. Instead, he ends up by destroying himself."

He cited "two world wars, wars in other parts of the world, concentration and extermination camps, gulags, ethnic cleansing and persecutions, terrorism, kidnappings, drugs, attacks on life and the family" in the 20th century.

"The message of Fatima is a call to conversion, it makes an appeal to humanity not to play the game of ´the dragon,´" the pope said.

Our Lady, "with her motherly concern," came to Fatima "to ask people not to offend Our Lord God anymore, as he is already much offended," he said.

Her motherly concern moved her to ask the shepherd children "pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners." She told them that "many souls end up in hell because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them," he said.

Jacinta "shared and lived this affliction of Our Lady, and offered herself heroically as a victim for sinners," the pope said. When Francisco was very sick, the Blessed Mother told Jacinta that she would take Francisco to heaven and asked whether she wished to stay on after him "to convert more sinners."

Jacinta said "yes" and accepted more suffering, moved as she was by the vision of hell which they had seen in the apparition in July 1917, he said.

In beatifying these children, the pope said, the Church "wishes to place on a lampstand these two lights which God has lit to enlighten humanity in its dark and disturbing hours." He prayed that they may continue to lighten the path for many people.

He concluded by telling the many children present that "Our Lady needs you to console Jesus. ... He needs your prayers and sacrifices for sinners."

The pope had come to the shrine May 12, kneeling in front of the statue of the Blessed Mother and praying for five minutes. Then he placed at the foot of the statue a small red box containing the ring that deceased Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of Warsaw, had given him on his election as pope.

It was one of the Holy Father´s "most treasured" possessions, Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. Many wondered what the gesture meant.

END

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