Pilgrimage of Fatima Statue leads to Highland Lakes

BY CHRIS WYMAN
VERNON — On May 13 and 14, Our Lady of Fatima Church in Highland Lakes was host to the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima. An appropriate place for a statue that depicts the apparitions of the Blessed Mother in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 and was blessed by the Bishop of Fatima in 1947.

The apparitions were on the 13th day of six consecutive months, beginning on May 13.

For the month of May, the statue is traveling throughout the Diocese of Paterson in New Jersey. The pilgrimage was initiated and organized by Elaine Golde, a layperson in Succasunna. After learning about the pilgrim statue, she contacted the Pilgrim Virgin Committee in Indiana and was able to have the diocese included in the tour.

Monsignor Robert Carroll (Father Bob), the pastor of Our Lady of Fatima, was asked if the church would like to participate. Upon accepting, he was asked to choose between two available dates; coincidentally, one was May 13, the date of the first apparition.

The pilgrim statue tradition started in 1946 when the original Fatima statue was taken on a pilgrimage to Lisbon by young Portuguese attendees to the Congress of Fatima. They went from town to town, and their welcomed arrivals prompted the bishop to seek additional tours. Sister Lúcia (Lúcia Santos) suggested using the new sculpture by the famous sculptor Jose Thedim. Soon continuing demand required that yet another pilgrim sculpture be created. The same sculptor was employed and based the creation on a description from Sister Lúcia.

It was called the western statue, and has toured the world many times before arriving at Highland Lakes. It was brought there from Saint Thomas the Apostle Church in Sandyston, its previous location. The statue stays at a church one to three days and then is passed to another church.

While in Highland Lakes, a two-day veneration started at 7 p.m. with the carrying of the statue in a procession that was open to all and joined by the Knight of Columbus; a presentation of the message of Fatima was given by the traveling attendant, and then a mass by Father Bob.

About 200 people attended the initial devotion. This was followed by prayer times and quiet times, which alternated until 12 a.m., when the church closed until 7 a.m.

The May 14 vigil started with another mass, and then again prayer times and quiet times alternated until noon, when the statue continued its pilgrimage. It was moved to the Immaculate Conception Church in Franklin and, from there, to Saint Paul Church in Clifton on May 15.

Father Bob hopes that people from other areas will seek the spiritual experience that the Pilgrim Virgin Statue creates as it tours. A list of participating churches can be found on the website www.pilgrimvirginstatue.com.