Aug 11, 2008

Tour in Oklahoma City Diocese




The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima is currently touring the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City through August.

The statue arrived in Oklahoma on Saturday, Aug. 2 at St. Peter Catholic Church in Guymon.
The mission of the tour is to spread Our Lady of Fatima’s message that was given to the children of Fatima and to bring the presence of Mary to people, according to the Sooner Catholic, the official archdiocese newspaper.
During the presentation at Oklahoma parishes, a tour spokesman and custodian of the statue will discuss the statue and the message of Fatima. Each parish has its own schedule of events that will occur when the statue arrives.

For more information, go to the statue’s official web site http://www.pilgrimvirginstatue.com/
Meanwhile, if you’d like to catch one of the presentations, here is a listing of several statue tour dates and parishes, courtesy of the Sooner Catholics:
Aug. 2, St. Peter Catholic Church, Guymon
Aug. 3, St. Peter Catholic Church, Woodward
Aug. 5, Church of St. Mary, Ponca City
Aug. 6, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Bison
Aug. 7, Saints Peter and Paul, Kingfisher
Aug. 8, St. Matthew Catholic Church, Elk City
Aug. 10, St. Patrick Catholic Church, Anadarko
Aug. 11, Holy Family Catholic Church, Lawton
Aug. 12, St. Helen Catholic Church, Frederick
Aug. 14, St. Thomas More, Norman
Aug. 15, St. John the Baptist, Edmond
Aug. 16, Immaculate Conception, OK City
Aug. 17, Christ the King, OKC
Aug. 18, St. Eugene Church OKC
Aug. 19, Our Lady of fatima Church, Nicama Park OKC
Aug. 20, Sacred Heart, OKC
Aug. 21, St. Wenceslaus, Prague, OKC
Aug. 22, Sacred Heart Konawa OKC

For Inquiries: Please Call 219-6883818

San Francisco Chronicles

After all the years and all the parishes, all the grateful hugs, the tearful confidences, the fervent pleas for special prayers -- all the miracles -- Carl Malburg still believes that he's not the best man for the job.
"When people ask me to say prayers for them, I often say, 'If you knew me you'd be asking someone else to pray for you,' " he says. "I am very ordinary."
Possibly, but his job isn't. Malburg, 63, is the official custodian of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, a 40-inch-tall, carved mahogany Mary, as she is said to have appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917.
Appeared, that is, with two exceptions: a 7-inch gold crown and white satin cape that adorn the statue these days when it is shown.
"Neither a cape nor a crown was at Fatima, but we always display it that way because we want to give Mary more honor," says Malburg. "She is a queen. But at Fatima she came as a mother, in a simple white dress."
Being the Pilgrim Virgin statue's keeper means that Malburg is on the road for three weeks a month, for 11 months of every year. This Christmas will find him in India. A Michigan native who now lives in Munster, Ind. (when he's home), Malburg drives if the journey is less than 1,000 miles and flies if it's more than.
The statue rides shotgun in his car -- in a seat belt -- and in the seat next to him on planes.
"Once in a while one of the airlines will put us in first class, but that's usually in a foreign country where the people are all Catholic," he says.
Wherever the statue goes, Malburg also packs display lights and dozens of boxes crammed with pamphlets, rosaries and brown scapulars --
symbols of devotion and protection since 1251, when St. Simon Stock said the Holy Mother first pressed a scapular into his hands.
On a foundation's shoestring budget, Malburg's lodgings are nearly always in a rectory or parishioner's home. And he's been at it for more than 10 years.
"I'm a traveler, a wanderer," he says, then adds with a little grin, "They call me a roamin' Catholic."
Malburg and the Fatima statue just ended a three-week, 23-parish journey around the San Francisco Archdiocese. The trip commenced with a special Mass on Sept. 1 at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Mill Valley and concluded last Sunday at St. Isabella Church in San Rafael.
"Since it was carved in 1947, more than 100 million people have venerated that statue," Malburg says, taking a break in the sun from his duties inside St. Cecilia Church in San Francisco. "It's why we have to have a sign that says, 'Please do not touch her, she will touch you.' "
To many non-Catholics, Virgin Mary sightings are right up there with UFOs and alien abduction stories. But to the world's 1 billion practicing Roman Catholics, places like Lourdes in France, Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guadalupe in Mexico and Fatima are where the mother of Jesus appeared, spoke of peace and penance, worked miracles and continues to work them. Pope John Paul II has credited Our Lady of Fatima for allowing him to survive an attempted assassination.
Millions of faithful travel each year to Portugal and the once-humble site of the 1917 series of six apparitions. Tens of thousands belong to Fatima societies, such as the Blue Army, and pray to replicas of Fatima in their own churches. Two of the shepherd children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, died in childhood -- as the Virgin said they would -- and were beatified by the church in 2000. The third, Lucia dos Santos, became a Carmelite nun. She is 93 and cloistered in Portugal.
It was Sister Lucia's description of Mary that Portuguese sculptor Jose Thedim used to carve two statues in 1947: one to travel east through Russia, one to go west. The eastern version now spends most of its time in Fatima; the western version has been on the move since its creation.
"People ask me, 'Where does the statue stay?' " says Malburg. "It stays on the road. It doesn't have a home."
On the rare occasions when Malburg is back in Munster, the Fatima statue stays in a Chicago monastery, a Hammond, Ind., nursing home or at Malburg's house: "My wife has fixed a nice place for it in our living room."
But the nice place is not an altar. The crown and cape remain packed, and Malburg and his wife say their nightly prayers as usual, in their bedroom, not in front of the statue.
That Malburg should have a wife at all might seem something of a miracle in itself, what with his travel schedule and all. His predecessor, retired by illness, was a lifelong bachelor. All custodians before that were priests.
Fortunately though, Rose Marie Malburg was "quite dedicated to Fatima things" long before she married Malburg nine years ago. She runs http://www.pilgrimvirginstatue.com/, edits the foundation newsletter and makes a few trips a year that don't require her to live out of suitcase for too long.
"I had this job a year before we became engaged," says Malburg. "She knew what she was marrying -- a wanderer."
Besides, when her husband does come home, Rose Marie gets to hear about "all the little miracles" that occurred on his journey.
"The church wants us to be careful using that word, miracle," he says. "They officially recognize only a couple a year, but there are probably 1,200 that you and I might see."
In the Fatima statue's 56-year existence, there have been several documented and photographed reports of it shedding tears. People have seen its tiny, rosebud mouth smile, its extraordinary brown glass eyes follow theirs.
Meanwhile, Malburg has lost count of the women and men who have prayed to the statue and been cured of all manner of malady. Cancer, alcoholism, drug addiction, suicidal depression, wayward spouses, grief over an abortion, loss of faith in God.
"Usually, it's spiritual things like the cure of alcoholism, but occasionally we have a physical cure, and it's quite astounding," he says. Describing two incidents -- a man whose incurable cancer disappeared and a young woman who'd fallen away from the church but came back after 17 years -- Malburg ranks the latter above the former: "God does not interfere with our free will, so the conversion of a sinner is most significant. The guy who was cured of cancer, 20 years from now, he'll be dead of something else. But that young lady's conversion, that miracle will last for eternity."
For all his self-deprecating jokes, when Malburg tells those kinds of stories, a quiet, grateful wonder creeps into his voice and onto his face. Before he accompanied Our Lady all over the Western Hemisphere, he was raised on a timber farm and worked as a lumberjack for 20 years.
So, unlike his predecessors he does not call his mahogany companion "she." So? His relationship with and devotion to the woman the statue honors are obviously deep and rich.
After more than a decade, after hundreds of setups and take- downs, hundreds of historical talks to grade-schoolers and senior citizens, hundreds of intimate confidences and joyous accounts of comfort and deliverance, Malburg seems as open and obedient as the three shepherd children.
"This is very exciting work," he says. "Every day is different, yet every day we expect some kind of marvels. One day, when it might seem to get mundane,
I'll hear a report of someone who's been helped, and suddenly I'm full of thrills again, and wondering what's around the next corner."
E-mail Stephanie Salter at ssalter@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Aug 10, 2008

Pilgrim Statue in Ireland 2005

Pilgrim Fatima statue attracts huge crowds on Kildare

30,000 people in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin have attended services where the beautiful statue of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima has been on display.
The fifty eight year old statue, which was crafted by artist who sculpted the magnificent statue at the Marian shrine in Portugal, arrived in Ireland on 5th July, and leaves this Sunday.
On its whistlestop tour of the Kildare and Leighlin diocese, it has visited 22 towns and villages in Kildare, Laois and Carlow and Wicklow. Mr Carl Malburg, who accompanies the statue, said they had given out over 25,000 scapulars to visitors and that he estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 people had come to the services. “We are very, very pleased,” he told CatholicIreland.net.
In each venue the statue prompted a great outpouring of piety and devotion. In Prosperous for example, hundreds of people flocked to the church on the evening of 15th June. Children dressed in their first communion outfits led the procession around the church grounds as everyone recited the rosary.
Finally the magnificent statue was brought inside where Mr Malburg spoke of the message of Fatima, encouraging people to say the rosary, and offer their daily crosses for the reparation of sin. He pointed out that people had to undergo sufferings in their lives anyway, but if they offered up their sufferings for sinners they became a precious gift to save souls. His address was followed by benediction and a blessing of scapulars.
The next day hundreds of people attended a special Mass. Many left petitions in the box beside the Fatima statue, and throughout the day, there was a stream of people to the Church.
In other parishes, like Monasterevan, people held all-night vigils near the statue.
“People really feel touched by this statue of Our Lady,” said Mr Malburg. “There seems to be someone there with it. It has a presence. People come away with a feeling of peace and joy that they are near their mother.”
Maura O’Brien, Irish representative of Pilgrim Virgin Committee which manages the tours for the statue, said that it has been the best tour the statue has had so far and she has been surprised at the large numbers attending the services.
In its tour, the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima has visited Graiguecullen, Portlaoise, Killeen, Ballyfin, the Curragh Camp, Nurney, Kilcock, Newbridge, Muine Bheag, Ballon, Portarlington, Prosperous, Baltinglass, Carlow, Tullow, Myshall, Abbelyleix, Hacketstown, Graignamanagh, Emo and Monasterevan.
Its final visit, this weekend, was to the parish of Askea where it was in the Holy Family Church on Saturday. Its next stop will be the United States, and Austria during the second half of July.
Carl Malburg has been accompanying the statue for twelve years. Donations given at the churches he visits pay his “stipend” and travelling expenses. The statue travels in a specially made soft padded bag, and always occupies a seat of its own on a plane, with the seat belt firmly buckled around it!
It was sculpted in 1947 by José Thedim, based on the description of Sr Lucia, one of the three young visionaries who saw Our Lady each month from May to October 1917 in Fatima, Portugal.

Aug 9, 2008

History of the Int'l Pilgrim Statue

The history of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue begins in 1946. At that time, after the youth of Portugal attended a Congress in Fatima, they took the Statue from display in the Cova on pilgrimage to Lisbon. As they walked the route they stopped at the towns and people gathered to pray. In Lisbon when they entered the cathedral, the miracle of doves occurred. Many other phenomena also occurred inspiring devotion and inspiring the fervor among the people.The statue was returned to its place in the Cova de Iria but many people wished for a visit in their own communities. The Bishop asked Sr. Lucia in a letter about sending the statue on tour. Sr. Lucia responded with a letter suggesting that the new statue, just then being made, by the famous sculptor Jose Thedim be used as a pilgrim statue. The Bishop agreed and, on May 13, 1947, this new statue was blessed and named the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima.Almost before it began its journey, so many places wanted her visit that it was realized a second statue should also be blessed. This second statue, made also by Jose Thedim, was completed and blessed by the Bishop of Fatima on October 13, 1947 (Exactly 30 years to the day after the great miracle of the sun which was to draw the world's attention to Mary's message.) His Excellency remarked that this would be the Western statue and that the two statues would travel about until finally they could enter Russia.The Bishop of Fatima entrusted the Western statue to Mr. John Haffert, who later became the cofounder of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima in America. It entered the United States, through Canada at Buffalo, New York, on December 8, 1947. (December 8th being our patronal Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception.) At Buffalo 200,000 people lined the streets and welcomed Our Lady on that occasion. To fulfill the mandate of the Bishop to travel, teach and inspire, Mr. Haffert assigned the first custodian, Fr. McGrath of Canada. The statue has always had a full time custodian and has never stopped traveling in its entire 54 years. Succeeding Fr. McGrath, was Fr. Breault, and others have continued to the present time.The miracles, favors, and signal graces were so numerous from the very beginning that even the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, reflected on them in his famous radio address to the pilgrims at Fatima, May 13, 1951. He recalled having crowned the Fatima statue in 1946: "In 1946 we crowned Our Lady of Fatima as Queen of the world, and the next year, through her pilgrim image, She set forth as though to claim Her dominion, and the miracles She performs along the way are such that we can scarcely believe our eyes at what we are seeing."Physical cures attributed to the presence of the Statue have been documented many times. The changes in expression and coloration, and even the pose of the statue have been reported innumerable times. But, the important miracles are the spiritual cures and gifts Our Lady bestows. The sudden conversion of a stubborn heretic is a good example. Another important miracle is the enlightenment of someone who has resisted the idea of statues or the idea of praying to saints. The spiritual miracles are infinitely more valuable than the things we can see, touch, or measure.

Peace Plan from Heaven

The Peace Plan from Heaven is a call for prayer and penance offered in reparation for sin. Our Lady said at Fatima, "war is a punishment for sin."She asks for Communions of Reparation on the First Saturday of the month and that each day:We offer up each act as a sacrifice for sin. That we pray the Rosary daily. That we be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart and wear the Brown Scapular as a sign of this consecration.

Int'l Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima

The world-famous International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima was sculpted in 1947 by Jose Thedim, based on the description of Sr. Lucia, one of the three young seers who saw Our Lady each month from May to October 1917 in Fatima, Portugal.On October 13, 1947, in the presence of some 150,000 pilgrims, the statue was blessed by the Bishop of Leiria at Fatima, Portugal to be the pilgrim, the traveler. Sent out to bring the Message of Fatima to the world, the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue has traveled the world many times, visiting more than 100 countries, including Russia and Red China, bringing the great message of hope, "the peace plan from heaven," to millions of people. Many miracles and signal graces are reported wherever the statue travels including shedding tears many times.In 1951, Pope Pius XII remarked: "In 1946, we crowned Our Lady of Fatima as Queen of the World and the next year, through Her Pilgrim Statue, She set forth as though to claim Her dominion, and the favors She performs along the way are such that we can hardly believe what we are seeing with our eyes." The Pilgrim Virgin Committee was formed to carry out the mandate set down by the Bishop of Fatima in 1947 and now, after 54 years, Pope John Paul II says that the Message of Fatima is more urgent now than ever. So, the Pilgrim Virgin Committee continues to bring the statue to the world and the demand for visits of the statue remains.