TV, Radio and Online
Coverage Schedules
Tuesday, May 11
Mass in Lisbon 1 p.m. ET
Wednesday, May 12
Meeting with the world of culture 5 a.m. ET
Arrival in Fatima & Vespers 12:30 p.m. ET
Blessing of the Candles and Rosary 4:30 p.m. ET
Thursday, May 13
Mass in Fatima 5 a.m. ET
Friday, May 14
Mass in Porto 5 a.m. ET
Upcoming Papal Visits
Papal Visit to Cyprus
June 4 - June 6, 2010
Papal Visit to Great Britian
September 16 - September 19, 2010
The Fatima Children
In the year 1917, in a mountainous region at the center of
Portugal, the Mother of God appeared six times to three young
children. Elsewhere on the continent the “Great War” raged, that
would cost Europe an entire generation, over 37 million lives.
Besides sending her own sons to die (in France and North Africa)
Portugal was in political chaos at home. There was a dizzy
succession of governments following a revolution in 1910. The
monarchy had been replaced by a republic, with a new liberal
constitution separating Church from state. Government officials,
under the influence of Freemasonry, were not sympathetic to the
Faith. But for the people themselves, the Faith was the air they
breathed, as in the village of Aljustrel, a collection of
whitewashed houses on a dusty road in the parish of Fatima.
There Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta were born and raised in homes
where the catechism was their daily bread, stories from the Bible
their recreation, and the word of the village priest was law. Lucia
de Jesus Santos was born, the youngest of seven children, to Antonio
and Maria Rosa Santos, on 22 March 1907. She was a plain child with
sparkling eyes and a magnetic personality, a natural leader to whom
other children looked with confident affection. Blessed with an
excellent memory, Lucia was able to learn her catechism, and make
her First Communion and Confession, at age six. She herself became a
catechist at nine. Lucia would be the constant guide and companion
to her first cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, through the
trials that accompanied the apparitions of the Blessed Mother.
