Virgin's image is reminder of the miracle at Fatima
By Sandi DolbeeRELIGION & ETHICS EDITOR
SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
The statue gets a steadying hand from Monsignor Frederick Florek at St. Therese.
For a moment, as the flickering candlelights illuminated people's faces and they stood shoulder to shoulder in the church courtyard, Justin Wright felt a sense of unity.
Harmony.
They were bound together by the same feelings.
“You don't get to see a lot of moments like that,” said Wright, 33.
The object of their affections: a statue of an image of Mary, mother of Jesus, known as Our Lady of Fatima.
About the size of a young girl, the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima is visiting San Diego parishes this month, and on Monday night it was at St. Therese Roman Catholic Church in Del Cerro.
About 700 people turned out for the afternoon and evening adoration. The evening ceremony began with a candlelight procession to usher in the statue, carried into the sanctuary on a platform. She was then placed at the front of the church, vases of roses arranged on the floor beneath her, along with a box for prayers and petitions.
Wright said Mary's image “reminds you of the simple things that can impact lives.”
“And how humans complicate it,” said his fiancé, Catalina Amparano, 32.
Amparano collected tokens of the visit for her sister and niece, who live in Imperial Valley. Her niece is named Fatima, in honor of this apparition that is said to have appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917.
By Sandi DolbeeRELIGION & ETHICS EDITOR
SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
The statue gets a steadying hand from Monsignor Frederick Florek at St. Therese.
For a moment, as the flickering candlelights illuminated people's faces and they stood shoulder to shoulder in the church courtyard, Justin Wright felt a sense of unity.
Harmony.
They were bound together by the same feelings.
“You don't get to see a lot of moments like that,” said Wright, 33.
The object of their affections: a statue of an image of Mary, mother of Jesus, known as Our Lady of Fatima.
About the size of a young girl, the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima is visiting San Diego parishes this month, and on Monday night it was at St. Therese Roman Catholic Church in Del Cerro.
About 700 people turned out for the afternoon and evening adoration. The evening ceremony began with a candlelight procession to usher in the statue, carried into the sanctuary on a platform. She was then placed at the front of the church, vases of roses arranged on the floor beneath her, along with a box for prayers and petitions.
Wright said Mary's image “reminds you of the simple things that can impact lives.”
“And how humans complicate it,” said his fiancé, Catalina Amparano, 32.
Amparano collected tokens of the visit for her sister and niece, who live in Imperial Valley. Her niece is named Fatima, in honor of this apparition that is said to have appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917.
During the program, Carl Malburg, the statue's custodian and traveling companion, told of the messages that Mary gave to the children.
“She said, 'War is the punishment for sin,' ” Malburg told the people in the pews. “She said, 'If you do what I tell you to do, there will be peace.' ”
She asked for prayers, devotion and conversion. Those things, she had said, could save the world.
The statue has traveled the world on a teaching mission since 1947. It stands nearly 4 feet tall, weighs about 100 pounds, with a golden crown and a beaded robe.
Malburg sees it as more than an icon. “When you come up here and kneel, you feel that there is somebody there. You feel like the eyes are alive or something.”
Gina Bliss, 48, brought her three teenagers to the event. “I just want my kids to really look up to the Virgin,” she said. “And when they're in trouble, to ask for her help.”
“She said, 'War is the punishment for sin,' ” Malburg told the people in the pews. “She said, 'If you do what I tell you to do, there will be peace.' ”
She asked for prayers, devotion and conversion. Those things, she had said, could save the world.
The statue has traveled the world on a teaching mission since 1947. It stands nearly 4 feet tall, weighs about 100 pounds, with a golden crown and a beaded robe.
Malburg sees it as more than an icon. “When you come up here and kneel, you feel that there is somebody there. You feel like the eyes are alive or something.”
Gina Bliss, 48, brought her three teenagers to the event. “I just want my kids to really look up to the Virgin,” she said. “And when they're in trouble, to ask for her help.”
