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St. Leo’s serving as host church for Fatima Statue

On Sunday, St. Leo the Great Parish in Minot will play a major role in the worldwide observance of the one hundredth anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima. The event recalls six appearances of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the village of Fatima in Portugal between May 13, 1917, and October 13, 1917.

St. Leo’s will serve as host of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima that has traveled across the world since 1947. Its present trip is part of a two-year journey across America to commemorate the 1917 sequence of appearances.

Rev. Justin Waltz, pastor of St. Leo’s, sees the local celebration as “one of the most significant Catholic events in the history of the Minot parish.” He also views it as important to the history of Minot and has scheduled activities for Sunday that are both festive and faith-filled. He said all are welcome to participate, regardless of age or faith.

Eucharistic adoration with the Fatima statue present will occur from noon to 5 p.m. inside the church. This will be followed by a procession of the Eucharist and the statue, led by Father Waltz through downtown Minot from 5 to 6 p.m. At its conclusion, participants will return to the lot on the north side of the church for barbecue, cold drinks, and a bounce house for children. Music also will be provided.

The story of Fatima began against the backdrop of World War I which had introduced Europe to the most horrific and powerful forms of warfare yet seen. A year later, the Communist revolution plunged Russia and Eastern Europe into six decades of oppression under militant, atheistic governments. In tiny little Fatima, a resplendent figure appeared to Lucia, 9, and her cousins, Francisco, 8, and his sister Jacinta, 6, who were tending the family sheep.

“I am the angel of peace,” said the figure, who appeared to the children six times between May 13, 1917, and October 13, 1917.

They described the woman as all in white and more brilliant than the sun. “I am the angel of peace…Please don’t be afraid of me, I’m not going to harm you.” Lucia asked her where she came from, and she responded, “I come from heaven.” She wore a white mantle edged with gold and carried a rosary. She asked the children to pray and devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to say the rosary daily to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.

She also revealed that the children would suffer, especially from the unbelief of their friends and families, and that the two younger children, Francisco and Jacinta, would be taken to heaven very soon. Lucia would live longer in order to spread her message and devotion to the Immaculate Heart.

In the last apparition, seventy thousand people turned out to witness the event, following a promise by the woman that she would show the people that the apparitions were true. They saw the sun make three circles and move around the sky in a zigzag movement. By 1930, Bishop Jose da Silva declared the miracle of the apparitions “worthy of belief,” thereby permitting “officially the cult of Our Lady of Fatima” within the Catholic Church.

The messages Our Lady imparted during the apparitions concerned the violent trials that would afflict the world through war, starvation, and the persecution of the church and the Holy Father the Pope in the twentieth century if the world did not make reparation for sins.

She predicted that the good would be martyred, the Holy Father would suffer, and various nations would be annihilated. The suffering of the popes of the twentieth century has been interpreted to include the assassination attempt on Pope St. John Paul II in 1981. It occurred on May 13, the 64th anniversary of the apparitions.

The Holy Father attributed his escape from certain death to the intervention of Our Lady of Fatima.

The U.S. tour is called “The Fatima Tour For Peace.” Other churches in the Bismarck Diocese where the statue was scheduled to be shown are St. Mary’s Church in Hague, Christ the King in Mandan, and St. Joseph’s Church in Williston.

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