PILGRIMAGE
A Triumphant Pilgrimage to Fatima Caroline Shaw reports on the ICKSP Pilgrimage to Fatima led by Cardinal Burke
T
hroughout 2017, many thousands of faithful Catholics from around the world gathered at the shrine of Fatima to mark the centenary of the Apparitions. In November an international gathering of Catholics joined the Institute of Christ the King’s pilgrimage to Fatima, led by His Eminence, Raymond Cardinal Burke. Canon William Hudson, whom many readers know, led a group from Brussels. I don’t think any of us realized how large the pilgrimage was going to be until the first evening, when our small contingent walked into the Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary and saw the great church full to bursting, with every seat taken and pilgrims standing 3-deep around the side altars and 10deep at the back. There were pilgrim groups from every country in which the Institute has an apostolate: the United Kingdom and Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and the USA, and even a group from the Institute’s apostolate in Gabon. All ages were represented, with many young children and babies in attendance, and an atmosphere of great joy prevailed throughout the three days.
Institute priests and seminarians worked hard to ensure that everything was as beautiful as possible © Elrica d'Oyen Gebert
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Solemn High Mass for All Souls in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary © ICKSP
One thing that strikes a pilgrim of a more traditional inclination when first arriving in Fatima, is how modern, even ugly, so much of it is. If one imagined the Cova da Iria as a rocky terrain dotted with olive trees, as described in Sister Lucia’s memoirs, the reality of concrete and modernist architecture comes as quite a shock. One could write a long critique of the architecture and sculpture that has been installed in recent years at Fatima, but that is not for this article. Happily, the first Mass of the pilgrimage, a Solemn High Requiem Mass for the feast of All Souls, was celebrated at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, a traditional and dignified church which houses the tombs of all three seers. Mass was celebrated by Monseigneur Gilles Wach, the Prior-General of the Institute, with Pontifical Assistance from Cardinal Burke. It was the first time that a pre1962 Solemn High Mass (with Pontifical Assistance) had been celebrated in the Basilica since Vatican II, and what a splendid and dignified occasion it was.
It was particularly moving to watch the procession into the church of the Institute’s female religious, the Sister Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus, together with the large number of seminarians of the Institute; a great tide of young men and women from all corners of the world who are dedicating their lives to God. The first night was foggy, and the following morning dark clouds gathered ominously as the pilgrims surged into the ugly modernist Basilica of the Holy Trinity for the Pontifical Mass of the Sacred Heart (this being the First Friday of the month), celebrated by Cardinal Burke. The interior of the basilica is a horror, but it has the advantage of space: it can hold up to 9,000 pilgrims and we numbered, according to estimates, somewhere over 4,000 that morning. This meant that everyone got a good view of Cardinal Burke processing up the aisle wearing his magnificent cappa magna, a sight that few will ever forget. The Institute had transported everything
SPRING 2018
