Meeting with Monsignor Alberto Cosme do Amaral, Bishop of Leria (12 May 1982)

On Wednesday, 12 May 1982, the Holy Father met with Monsignor Alberto Cosme do Amaral, Bishop of Leiria, at the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima, whom he addressed with the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops present, whom he enjoined to “be loyal to yourselves, take care of your inheritance of faith, spiritual values ​​and honesty of life, which you received from your ancestors, in the light and with the blessings of the most holy Mary.”  

Mr Bishop of Leiria, Monsignor Alberto Cosme do Amaral,
Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops,
my beloved brothers and sisters.

1. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ!

And his Mother, most holy Mary!

Yes, with her and for her in this moment the supplication so often prayed and sung here breaks out of my heart: "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love you!".

This first thought of adoration of mine, manifested in this blessed land of Fatima, is addressed to the Holy Trinity: Blessed be God, rich in mercy, for the great love with which he loved us! Indeed, created in his Word, the Son, reconciled through the blood of the same Son, becoming his family, built upon the foundation of the apostles in the building (of the Church), to become, through the Holy Spirit, the dwelling place of God ( cf. Eph 2, 4ff) we must repeat without respite: "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love you!".

Ave Maria!

Blessed are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus! Hail, full of grace, Mother of God and our Mother! In the fulfillment of your prophecy, O Lady, here, entering this your home of Fatima, and greeting you, adored Mother, allow me to use the words you have taught us, to proclaim before the brothers:

“My soul magnifies the Lord / and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior” ( Lk 1, 46)!

2. And now, all brothers and sisters who listen to me: I greet you cordially, with all my affection I give you a fraternal embrace of peace and I confess to you my great joy for this meeting, in this place and together with you; and in this joy I wanted you to see all the gratitude that fills my soul, gratitude that brought me here, to share with you not only the Gospel of God, but life itself (cf. 1 Thess 2, 8).

Yes, it is with a soul that overflows with these feelings - your own feelings, after all - that I thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bishop of Leiria, for having expressed these feelings with the delicate words of greeting and with the repeated invitations that you addressed to me so that I could visit this Sanctuary of Fatima; thank you all for the warm and welcome welcome you gave me!

3. Gratitude, communion, life! These three words contain the explanation of my presence here on this day; and if you allow me, also of your presence. Here I touch on the highlight of my trip to Portugal. I would like to tell you something:

I had been meaning to come to Fatima for a long time, according to what I already had the opportunity to say upon my arrival in Lisbon; but, since the well-known attack occurred in St. Peter's Square, a year ago, upon regaining consciousness, my thoughts immediately turned to this Sanctuary, to place my thanks in the heart of the heavenly Mother for having saved me from danger. I saw in everything that was happening - I never tire of repeating it - a special maternal protection from the Madonna. And in the coincidence - there are no simple coincidences in the plans of divine Providence - I also saw an appeal and, who knows, a call to attention towards the message that left here, 65 years ago, through three children, children of humble people of countryside, the shepherd children of Fatima, as they are universally known.

4. And I am here with you, a pilgrim among pilgrims, in this assembly of the pilgrim Church, of the living, holy and sinful Church, to "Praise the Lord, for his mercy is eternal" (Ps 135.1); personally, to sing this mercy, because it was “thanks to the Lord that I was not destroyed; yea, his mercy had no end” ( Lam 3, 22). I wish to repeat today, once again, before you, beloved brothers and sisters, these words that I said in the first audience after the attack (7 October 1981); they express an echo of what happened on that day, May 13th last year; express gratitude to the Almighty, to Our Lady our Mother, to the patron saints and to all those who, directly or indirectly, contributed to saving my life and helped me recover my health.

It was "thanks to the Lord that I was not destroyed": I said it for the first time on the occasion of the feast of the Virgin of the Rosary; I repeat it today, in Fatima, which tells us so much about the Rosary - about the recitation of the third part of the Rosary - as the shepherd children used to say. The Rosary, the third part of her, is and will always remain a prayer of gratitude, love and confident supplication: the prayer of the Mother of the Church!

5. I came on a pilgrimage to Fatima, like most of you, beloved pilgrims, with the crown in my hand, the name of Mary on my lips and the song of God's mercy in my heart: he too "has done great things for me . . . His mercy extends from generation to generation” ( Lk 1, 49-50).

By preparing this meeting with you, I was able to test the ancient and deep-rooted devotion to the Madonna among you. It manifests itself clearly not only in the great manifestations of faith or in the great moments in the history of the beloved Portuguese people, but also and above all in the everyday life and habits of people, families, communities, in such a way as to permeate all its culture. Over the centuries, and we could perhaps say, always among the simple and humble people, in the ancestral line of Portugal, a valid interpretation of its vast culture, language and life habits has been expressed through religion and Christian life. In a certain sense, life was centered and organized around religious events; and here, always in the foreground, the figure of the Madonna. It was a source of joy for me to gather such information. And now it is an even greater joy to verify with my own eyes this convergent devotion of yours to the Mother of God.

Be loyal to yourselves, take care of your inheritance of faith, spiritual values ​​and honesty of life, which you received from your ancestors, in the light and with the blessings of the most holy Mary; it is a rich and good legacy. And do you want me to teach you a "secret" to preserve it? It's simple, and it's no longer a secret: "pray, pray a lot: pray saying the crown every day."

6. Gratitude, communion and life: these are the feelings that bring us together, pilgrims here "gathered in the same place", we who form the current generation of the Church, for whom Pentecost has already happened; gathered "with Mary, Mother of Jesus", we wish here to confirm our assiduity to the "teaching of the apostles, to fraternal union, to the breaking of bread and to prayers" (cf. Acts 2, 42).

We have come "in a spirit of prayer and penance" to this place already honored by the presence of my predecessor Paul VI, of venerated memory, always alive and welcome in our memory; place sanctified by the prayers and sacrifices of generations of pilgrims to Fatima. And in harmony of feelings, in harmony of charity, we come above all to thank and implore divine mercy, without ceasing to raise our supplications to ask for fidelity to God and fidelity in Christ to our brother men, to ask for peace and love , within the Church among those who profess to be Christians and throughout the human family.

In the festive expectation of realizing all this completely in tomorrow's Holy Mass, we live this pilgrimage of ours fully from now, in the Eucharist, offering ourselves to God, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in thanksgiving and availability; we offer our sacrifices in union with Christ the redeemer and, with our soul in prayer of expiation and propitiation, we repeat: Lord "Jesus, it is for your love, in reparation for sins and for the conversion of sinners" (third apparition - July 1917).

May God grant that tomorrow, when we return from our pilgrimage, after these hours of intimacy with Christ, with the "Father who is in heaven" and with Mary our Mother, we will be vivified by the Holy Spirit "poured into our hearts" (cf. Rom 5, 5), we can leave with joy "praising God and enjoying the sympathy of all the people" (cf. Acts 2, 47): of those who were unable to come and of those who did not want to come, to whom our equally extends sympathy, our proposal of love and the certainty of our prayers.

7. You certainly know that since my youth I have cultivated the Christian practice of pilgrimage: and in my apostolic journeys as successor of Peter - from Mexico to Equatorial Guinea - the visits, as a pilgrim, to Marian Sanctuaries were, from a personal point of view, some of the highest moments of my encounters with the People of God scattered across the earth, and with our brothers and sisters in the great human family. And it is always with emotion, the same emotion as for the first time, that I place in the hands of the Most Holy Mary all the good that I may have done or will still do in the service of the Holy Church.

In this hour, here in the Sanctuary of Fatima, I want to repeat now in front of all of you: “ totus tuus ”, all yours, O Mother! I ask that you offer me, me and all these brothers, hiding and covering our poverty with your merits and those of your divine Son, to the "Father of mercy", in homage of gratitude. And that we are accepted, blessed and strengthened in our good intentions, which we want to tie like an ideal wreath of flowers, with a ribbon "woven and gilded" for you, O Mother: to do "everything that he (Christ) tells us" ( Jn 2, 4).

Give us your blessing, Lady, our beloved Mother!

1) From German

I cordially greet the German and Dutch speaking visitors: coming from Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium.

We have gathered here to entrust our hopes and fears with childlike trust to the pure and maternal Heart of Mary. At the same time we want to show our willingness to make our heart and spirit available to the love of Christ with all our strength: for the salvation of ourselves and all our brothers, wherever they live.

United spiritually with Mary, the Mother of the Church, we want to pray together and entrust our hearts to God.

2) From English

Dear English-speaking pilgrims,

I am grateful to you for your presence in Fatima. I thank you for coming to watch and pray with Christ, and to entrust your lives and all your hopes to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is she - the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of his Church - who invites us to open our hearts to her appeal, so that the Gospel which speaks of prayer, conversion and penance may spread.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is the decisive hour in the life of the Church of this generation. We are all invited to convert to new life. We are all invited to approach the Throne of Grace with confidence to obtain graces (cf. Heb 4, 16). We are all invited to go to Jesus through Mary.

3) From French

I would now like to address my greeting to the pilgrims who have come here, to Fatima, from many other countries, first and foremost to the French-speaking pilgrims.

Dear brothers and sisters, may the Lord bless you for having undertaken this act of faith with me! Let us prepare, in prayer, to celebrate the Virgin Mary, to praise her, to welcome her evangelical message, to entrust to her the immense needs of the Church and the world. Through the intercession of this Mother, we will ask for the graces of conversion that the world needs to enter more fully into the salvation brought about by Christ to revive in hearts today the certainties of faith, the commitments of justice and peace, in charity and feelings of hope!

4) In Italian

I now greet you, Italian pilgrims, who have wanted to participate with me in this vigil in honor of the Madonna, here, in this privileged place. I ask you to join intimately in the prayer which I wish to address this evening to the most holy Mother of God for the great intentions which are so dear to me and to you: for peace between Peoples and Nations; for the spiritual growth of the Church; for the conversion of those who reject the love of God; for the serenity of those who suffer in spirit and body; for the sanctification of families. In this hour of grace, let us make ourselves open and available to the call of God, who suggests resolutions of penance and interior renewal, and, following the example of Mary, let us give a generous and demanding response: "Here I am, let whatever you have be done to me. said” (cf. Luke 1, 38).

5) From Spanish

I cordially greet all the pilgrims who have come from Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries. I invite you present here and all those who follow us through radio and television, to participate in this prayer vigil in which, with the maternal intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we will raise our prayers to the Lord for the Church and for there to be peace throughout the world.

May devotion to the Virgin, our Mother, make everyone feel the need for conversion to follow Christ so faithfully, who is the way, the truth and the life of all men.

6) From Polish

I cordially greet my compatriots who, together with the Cardinal Metropolitan of Krakow Franciszek Macharski and the Bishop of Tarnow Jerzy Ablewicz, have come as pilgrims to Fatima to pray with the Pope in this Marian Shrine.

In you and through you I greet all my brothers and sisters at home and abroad. I know that they are present here spiritually and participate in my prayer of thanks.

May the Mother of Christ embrace my fellow countrymen with the love of her Immaculate Heart and watch over the present difficult circumstances of my homeland.
 

Copyright © Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana