I would like to thank all of you for your prayers and sacrifices made for the intentions of the recent pilgrimage of reparation in Fatima on the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

It was a great pleasure to see that several hundred of our United States faithful had made the trip to Fatima in order to unite with several thousands from many other countries on this momentous occasion.

For those of you who were unable to make the trip, yet joined us in spirit, a brief account of the events might be of interest.

The program began on Saturday, August 20th at 5:00 p.m. Conferences were given in four different languages on the purpose of the pilgrimage ¾ to make reparation to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts of Jesus and Mary and especially for the public desecration of the Fatima Shrine itself on May 5th, 2004. Fr. Couture gave the conference in English to a crowd of nearly 400 pilgrims, who overflowed into the hallways outside the conference room. In the evening a film was shown on the current crises within the Church.

On Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. our Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, celebrated a Pontifical High Mass in a field about a mile from the shrine. During the sermon he spoke to the crowd of nearly 2500 about the reasons for this pilgrimage. "This time what calls us here is the wrath of God; His anger and indignation in front of what is happening ¾ offenses against the Glory of God and against the honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and much more ¾ the eradication of the real message of Fatima; offenses which in whole are in line with the new theology introduced at the time of the Second Vatican Council, which generated the New Mass and Ecumenism. We are here to recall and remember what the Blessed Virgin Mary really said and why she came and that she called for prayer and penance – in the sense of reparation for our sins and for those of others."

In the afternoon many of the faithful attended the Stations of the Cross, long ago erected on the hill where Our Lady appeared on August 19th, near Aljustrel the town where the three children lived. The group following the Stations in English was quite impressive as nearly 400 made the climb from station to station to the summit.

That night a vigil of prayer was held before the Blessed Sacrament from 10:30 to midnight.

Then on Monday, August 22nd, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated by Fr. Schmidberger at 11:30 a.m. There followed several short inspirational sermons and then the procession to the Sanctuary of the Apparitions. The group of nearly 200 priests and religious and over 2000 faithful stretched out through the streets of Fatima as it headed toward the Shrine.

As we entered the Shrine grounds the excitement soon began. With the clergy leading, one of the security personnel tried to silence our small PA system, indicating that it was forbidden on the Shrine grounds. One young man holding one of the speakers indicated that he could not turn it off and after a few excited words the guard walked away.

Meanwhile the group proceeded toward the little Chapel of the Apparitions, where the Shrine Rector had allowed the desecration to take place. A bit of a surprise awaited us there. As the Crossbearer and Acolytes approached the entrance to the Capelhina they were prevented from entering by a barricade set up by a group of security guards. The guards claimed that we needed written permission to enter, even though our prior in Fatima, Fr. Maret, had already set up an appointment for an hour of prayer with the Shrine Rector. As the long line of pilgrims continued to file into the Shrine grounds it appeared that the guards soon thought better of this and opened the barricade for us to enter. All then filed in and knelt around the Capelhina to pray.

It immediately became evident, however, that the Shrine officials did not intend to allow us to pray in peace. It seems that the time of our visit had also been chosen as a good time for the cleaning of the Sanctuary, which continued with vacuum cleaners roaring, through the first half of our Rosary. After the third decade the cleaning women were replaced by several sisters who, using the Capelhina speaker system, tried to drown out our hymns and prayers with their own. The struggle soon came to a climax when one fired up young brother jumped over the barrier in order to try and take the sisters’ microphone away. Security guards were quick to respond, being almost as quick as the sisters were to depart, and they grabbed the young brother and forced him back over the barrier. The shrine authorities then retaliated by blasting music over the Shrine’s larger speaker system.

Despite the attempt to drive us off, we continued with our prayers of reparation and, after finishing our rosary, we made the Act of Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Bishop Fellay, then gave his blessing to the pilgrims and as we processed from the Capelhina a hearty round of applause went up from the crowd.

Thus was performed a small, yet significant, act of reparation for the glory of God and honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We must all continue to perform such acts of reparation in our daily lives especially by prayer and penance, as Our Lady requested. Through these means we can all console our Lord Jesus Christ and his Blessed Mother Mary and work for the salvation of poor sinners. Ad majorem Dei gloriam.