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qHis Answer was brief, "h can be summed up in two words Fatima and Saiazar. And Salazar was the fruit of Fatima"
FATIMA By
the:Rt. Rev. Mgr. Laurence Forristal in "The
Far East").
SIXTY-NINTH YEAR.
In the summer of 1999 I was in LisThe day after our arrival in that city, Father Ralph Hunt, of San Franbon.
cisco, who was my travelling companion, and I had a lengthy interview with the editor of one of Lisbon's daily In the course of papers, "A Voz."
our conversation, I asked this veteran newspaperman, who had lived through the dark days of the Liberal anti-Catholic regime, what he considered the chief cause of Portugal's resurgence. (During our short stay in the country v-e saw evidence on every side of a It was clear, vigorous Catholicism. even to a casual observer. that Portugal was once more becoming "the land of Maria Santissima.")
Where Our ;Cady Spoke to an Old land . . . and The man who, under Providence, has re-made Portugal.
He told us how in 1917 Catholicism was everywhere on the defensive, if not in full retreat. Nine out of ten Portuguese writers were in the camp of the enemy. To acknowledge oneself a practical Catholic meant being branded as an unenlightened reactionary. Even those who were not positively hostile regarded religion as a relic of the past and the Church as a dying institution, which could never again exert an influence on human society. Many of the Church's loyal children were in exile. Those who remained felt themselves powerless to stem the tide of infidelity. Then in 1917 came the apparitions of Fatima, and though few people realised it at the time, from that moment the Church's counter-attack began. After Fatima came Salazar. Though we had only a few days to spend in Lisbon, my friend and I wanted to see the man who, under Providence, had re-made Portugal. Through the good offices of the editor of "A Voz" and a Jesuit friend, an interview was arranged. It was the thrill of a lifetime to meet and speak with this statesman, who has shown the world the way out of the morass of
materialism. (The editor of "The Far East" has told me this article must not exceed 1,500 words. It would require more than 15,000 to tell the story of Salazar and the "Estado Novo.") Most of the twenty minutes allotted to us were spent in answering Sala-
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Roused it to new cars questions about the
Portuguese
in America. "Have they kept the faith? Are they true to their tradiWe were glad to be able, tions?" from our limited experience, to give him answers which made his eyes light u" with joy. We had heard of his "tired eyes," but on that day at least there was no evidence of tiredness in them. There was little to be learned in such a short interview, but we were perfectly satisfied. We had seen and spoken to the statesman who did not want to be a politician, and who would gladly relinquish his office if the nation no longer needed him. We had seen the man who had fashioned the new Portuguese Constitution along the lines of the Papal Encyclicals, and had thereby given new life and hope to his nation.
Where Our Lady Spoke. The day after our interview with Salazar, we arrived in Fatima. It was raining as we journeyed by automobile from the episcopal city of Leiria, and the hill country in which the village of Fatima stands seemed dull and gloomy in contrast with the beauty spots of Lisbon, which we had seen in the bright sunshine. As we climbed the grades leading to the plateau we passed the huge Stations of the Cross strung out along three miles of the road. It was not a day of pilgrimage. With the exception of two priests, four Sisters, and the permanent staff of the
Shrine there were few people in evidence. The little mountain village which, according to legend, took its name from an Arab maiden who became a convert to the faith during the Moorish wars, was unknown to the outside world until 1917. It was not even considered worthy of mention on the large-scale maps of Portugal. On May 13, 1917, three peasant children, who had spent the day caring for a flock of sheep at a place called Cova da Iria, returned home in the evening with a strange story. They had seen a beautiful lady, who had told them she would meet them at the same spot on the thirteenth of the month for six consecutive months. She said she came from heaven, and in October she would tell them her name. She advised them to say the Rosary frequently and with devotion. The children's parents regarded the story as a fabrication, and the mother of the oldest of the three, Lucia de Jesus, took vigorous measures to cure her child of lying. (Lucia was ten years old at the time. The other children were cousins of hers, named Francisco and Jacinta Marta, aged nine When the and seven, respectively.) story became known in the village, no one believed the children and many mocked them. However, when June 13 came, no attempt was made to prevent them from going to Cova da Iria, and about sixty people, chiefly out of
curiosity, accompanied them there. Again the children claimed they saw the beautiful lady, and that she spoke to them for about ten minutes. The others who were present saw nothing unusual. They heard Lucia's voice but no other. On July 13 about 3,000 people from Fatima and the neighbouring parishes gathered at the Cova. Again, it was the same as the previous month. The children said the lady informed them that in October she would tell them who she was and what they wanted, and would perform a great miracle so that all the people might believe. So it continued with slight variations during the remaining months. Each time the crowd increased -15,000 in August, 25,000 in September. The ecclesiastical authorities and the Catholic press treated the whole matter with reserve, not to say scepticism. The Liberal journals, on the other hand, gave it extensive space and put forward various theories to explain the visions. The most charitable explan ation was that they were due to autosuggestion, but some hinted at a priestly plot to establish a Portuguese Lourdes, a national factory for the production of miracles-and money. As a result of this publicity, unfavourable as it was, the whole nation was talking about Fatima by the time October 13 came around. At least 50,000 people gathered at the little mountain (Continued on Page 11.)
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