10,000 Pilgrims of the Society of St. Pius X this Weekend at Fatima -- "Largest Pilgrimage in 100 Years at Fatima"

10,000 Faithful are expected at the Fatima Pilgrimage of the Society of St. Pius X this weekend, which has already generated media attention in the run-up. It is the fourth Fatima Pilgrimage of the FSSPX. The first took place in 1987 with Archbishop Lefebvre  

(Lisbon) This is not the first pilgrimage of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X to Fatima. What is new, however, is that this year's pilgrimage, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Virgin Mary, is given special attention by the Portuguese media. The international Fatima pilgrimage of the Society of Pius X will take place next weekend. Since the 11th of August a novena has been held.

Eucharistic Worship at Night - Militia Immaculatae

On Saturday, 19 August, Father Franz Schmidberger, Rector of the Priestly Seminary of Zaitzkofen, celebrates Holy Mass at 3 pm in the Shrine. Afterwards a procession with rosary to the place of the apparition Os Valinhos takes place. At 20:30 the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and a Benediction follows.

Light procession in Fatima

On Sunday, August 20, at noon, worshiping the Eucharistic blessing will end at 6:30. At 9:30 am a pontifical High Mass, will be celebrated by the General Superior of the Society of Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay. At 3 pm, a common rosary closes the pilgrimage.

After the rosary, the consecration of the Militia Immaculatae and its members to the Immaculate Heart of Mary takes place in the same locale. The Militia was founded in Rome on 17 October, 1917 by St. Maximilian Kolbe. That was four days after the last Marian apparition in Fatima, which Kolbe at that time still knew nothing. And it was three weeks before the Bolshevik October Revolution broke out in Russia. As if he had known it, Kolbe had with the Militia already created as an antidote to the rearing of totalitarianism and enemies of the Church. In 2000, P. Karl Stehlin (FSSPX), along with the Novus Ordo Militia, also revived Militia Immaculatae in the spirit of tradition.

"Largest pilgrimage to the 100-year celebration comes from conservative community"

The Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias reports in its edition today that 10,000 pilgrims will come to the pilgrimage of the Society of Pius X to Fatima next weekend. The title of the article, however, is obviously formulated with bad intentions:

"10,000 pilgrims protest in Fatima against the present Church"

No Catholic undertook a pilgrimage to "protest" against something. The article itself contains more applicable information.

Even more generous space was given to the FSSPX pilgrimage by the daily newspaper Diario de Noticias. It's headed:

"Greatest pilgrimage on the 100th anniversary comes from conservative community".

The article describes the reasons for the pilgrimage and briefly describes the current situation of the relations between the Society of St. Pius X and the Holy See. A big picture in the article shows Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the Society. The Society has already carried out three pilgrimages to Fatima in the past. The first took place in 1987. 30 years ago, Monsignor Lefebvre also participated. The other two pilgrimages followed in 1997 and 2005.

Are discussions with Rome again at the "starting point"?

The media interest could be related to expectations that Bishop Fellay made statements on the current situation that resulted from Cardinal Müller's letter to the FSSPX's Superior General. Four days later, on 30th June, the Cardinal was dismissed by Pope Francis as Prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine of and the Faith.

Cardinal Müller, on 26 June, informed Fellay that the Congregation for the Congregation at its General Assembly of May had decided that the Society of Pius X and every Society member would have to sign the Doctrinal Preamble as a condition for canonical recognition. Such was offered to Monsignor Fellay in September 2011 by Cardinal Levada, the Prefect of the Congregation of Doctrine and the Faith at that time. The exact wording thereof was never published. Little changes could be made, as Cardinal Levada explained to the Society (see the chronology of the conversations between the Holy See and the Pius Brotherhood ).

At the end of June, Cardinal Müller also announced that this conditio sine qua non was endorsed by Pope Francis. The sitution in August 2017 is again or still, what Monsignor Fellay already said in June 2012: one was again at the "point of departure"?

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Diario de Noticias (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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