A Marian "seal" on the whole Holy Year: this is the meaning of the extraordinary pilgrimage of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima to the Vatican for the Jubilee of Bishops, scheduled for October 6-8. The "Act of Entrustment to Mary" already on the Jubilee Calendar for Sunday, October 8, will thus have a particularly meaningful character, almost a crowning of the Great Jubilee: the Virgin of Nazareth, to whose "Fiat" we owe the Incarnation, extends her protective, maternal embrace over the whole Church which commemorates the birth of Jesus and experiences the fruits of the Redemption.

The venerable icon of the Virgin of Fatima will remain in Rome for three days, from Friday October 6^th to Sunday, the 8^th. It will return to Portugal on Monday morning, after the homage of the Holy Father and of the Jubilee pilgrims, to whom throughout the Holy Year Mary has been presented as a "model of lived faith" (TMA, 43). In fact, the Virgin of Nazareth has been set before the faithful from the first announcement of the Jubilee, when John Paul II pointed her out to the Church as the "Star which guides their steps to the Lord" (TMA, 59). In this light, the Act of Entrustment to Mary takes on the sense of a natural completion, according to what is written in the introduction to the Calendar of the Holy Year 2000, which sees as a unity the Jubilee of Christ and "the Jubilee …of the Mother" (n. 12).

The program of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in Rome begins with the arrival of the image at Ciampino on Friday 6 October. It will be transported privately to the Chapel in the Papal apartments in the Vatican. On Saturday morning, the Memorial Feastday of Our Lady of the Rosary, the statue will be brought in procession to St. Peter’s Basilica where it will be available for the veneration of the faithful. In the afternoon, the image will be brought out to the Square, where the Holy Father will join all the bishops present for the celebration of their Jubilee in reciting and meditating the Holy Rosary. In the evening, the statue will be brought to the Sisters of the cloistered monastery "Ecclesia Mater" in the Vatican.

On Sunday morning, 8 October, the Pope will celebrate Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Square together with the bishops. In the presence of the Virgin of Fatima, the Act of Entrustment to Mary will be read. This act begs the protection of the Mother of God on the Church and the world at the beginning of the Third Millennium. Following this, the statue will be returned to the Holy Father’s private chapel.

Monday morning, the Cardinal Secretary of State, Angelo Sodano, will preside at a farewell ceremony in the San Damaso courtyard, after which the statue will be taken to Fiumicino airport for the return to Portugal.

 Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of theYear 2000
Vatican City, 12 September 2000