THE LITTLE SHEPHERDS OF FATIMA, EXAMPLES OF EVANGELIC LIFE

VATICAN CITY, MAY 17, 2000 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, John Paul II expressed his gratitude for having been able to make the third pilgrimage to Fatima of his pontificate. He visited the shrine on May 12-13 in order to beatify the two little shepherd children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto.

"At Fatima, just as at Lourdes," said the Holy Father, "the Virgin chose children, Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia, as the recipients of her message. They accepted it with such faith that ... they themselves became examples of evangelic life."

The Holy Father recalled that Francisco "was a good child, reflective, a contemplative soul, while Jacinta was vivacious and rather impressionable but sweet and kind."

"With the two little shepherds of Fatima, the Church has proclaimed two young children as Blesseds because, although not martyrs, they demonstrated that they heroically lived Christian virtue, notwithstanding their tender age. Heroism of children, but genuine heroism. Their sanctity does not depend on the apparitions but on the faithfulness and commitment with which they responded to the singular gift they received from the Lord and Mary Most Holy."

John Paul II emphasized that his pilgrimage had been an act of "thanks to Mary," both for what she communicated to the Church through the little shepherds and "for the protection she has given me throughout my pontificate. I sought to symbolically renew my thanks to her with the gift of the precious episcopal ring that Cardinal Wyszynski gave me a few days after my election to the See of Peter."

"As the time seemed appropriate, I felt it right to make public the contents of the so-called third part of the secret. ... I gave thanks for what divine mercy wrought through Mary's maternal intercession during the 20th century. In the light of the Fatima apparitions, the events of that much troubled historical period assume a particular eloquence. ... We cannot but thank the Lord for the courageous witness of so many heralds of Christ who remained faithful to Him, even to the point of sacrificing their own lives."

The Pope concluded by indicating that "a message of conversion and hope emanates from Fatima to the whole world," a message that "from the experience of everyday life, invites believers to pray assiduously for peace in the world and to do penance in order to open hearts to conversion."

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