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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis led hundreds of thousands of pilgrim faithful in the recitation of the Holy Rosary on Friday evening in Fatima, Portugal, where the Holy Father is on pilgrimage to mark the 100^th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin to three shepherd children there.

After the Rosary, the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, celebrated Mass for the faithful.

Our own Chris Altieri is in Fatima with Pope Francis, and sent us this report.

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The Pope and the pilgrims offered the Joyful Mysteries: the five decades were offered in different languages, beginning with Arabic and then proceeding to a decade in Spanish and Ukrainian, the third in Italian and Chinese, the fourth in English and French, and the fifth in German and Polish.

All throughout the devotion, Pope Francis was seated before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima beneath the canopy that covers the Little Chapel of the Apparitions, where earlier in the day he had left a golden rose in gift: a pilgrim among pilgrims.

It is difficult thing to imagine, and perhaps impossible to describe: hundreds of thousands of people gathered to pray in the several tongues of the earth, alternating between near perfect unison of praise and near perfect silence, aided by a choir of exceptional quality.

In a world that seems to crave noise and a kind of cookie-cutter nonconformity that is an orchestrated imitation of true liberty and authenticity, here on Friday evening there was a natural and easy concord that betold a deeper unity of spirit than mere art can achieve: people of many nations and tongues gathered together to implore the Queen of Heaven to intercede in our behalf and obtain from her divine Son the gift of peace on Earth.

This was a theme on which Cardinal Parolin focused with great intensity in his homily.

“A hundred years after the apparitions,” in which Our Lady instructed the shepherd children to tell the world to convert and pray for peace, Cardinal Parolin said, “it is true that, as Pope Francis has observed, ‘for many people today, peace appears as a blessing to be taken for granted, for all intents an acquired right to which not much thought is given, yet for all too many others, peace remains merely a distant dream.  Millions of people still live in the midst of senseless conflicts.  Even in places once considered safe, a general sense of fear is felt.  We are frequently overwhelmed by images of death, by the pain of innocent men, women and children who plead for help and consolation, by the grief of those mourning the loss of a dear one due to hatred and violence, and by the drama of refugees fleeing war and migrants meeting tragic deaths’ (Address to the Diplomatic Corps, 9 January 2017).”

“In the midst of great concern and uncertainty about the future,” asked Cardinal Parolin, “what does Fatima ask of us?  Perseverance in the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, shown daily by the recitation of the Rosary.  And what if, despite our prayers, wars continue?  Even though immediate results may not be evident, let us persevere in prayer.  Prayer is never useless.  Sooner or later, it will bear fruit.”

“Prayer,” said Cardinal Parolin, “is capital in the hands of God; he turns it to good account in his own times and ways, which are very different from our own.”

In Fatima, with Pope Francis, I’m Chris Altieri

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(Vatican Radio) The Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, celebrated Mass for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered in the great open plaza of the Marian shrine in Fatima on Friday evening, following the recitation of the Holy Rosary with Pope Francis, who is on pilgrimage to the shrine to mark the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady there. Below, please find the full text of the homily Cardinal Parolin prepared for the occasion, in their official English translation...

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Homily of Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Vigil Mass, Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima
12 May 2017

Dear Pilgrims to Fatima,

With joy and gratitude, we have gathered at this Shrine that commemorates the apparitions of Our Lady to the three shepherd children.  We join the throngs of pilgrims who in these hundred years have come here to show their trust in the Mother of Heaven.  We are celebrating this Eucharist in honour of her Immaculate Heart.  In the first reading, we heard the people exclaim: “You averted our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God” (Jdt 13:20).  These words of praise and gratitude were addressed by the city of Bethulia to Judith, their champion, whom “the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth… guided to cut off the head of the leader of our enemies” (Jdt 13:18).  But they take on their full meaning in the Immaculate Virgin Mary.  Thanks to her offspring – Christ the Lord – she was able to “crush the head” (cf. Gen 3:15) of the “ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world”.  He, in turn, “was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:9.17).

As a Mother concerned for the trials of her children, Mary appeared here with a message of consolation and hope for a world at war and for the Church in travail: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph” (Apparition of July, 1917).   In other words: “Trust!  In the end, love and peace will triumph, because God’s mercy is stronger than the power of evil.  What seems impossible to men is possible to God”.  Our Lady also asks us to join in this battle of her divine Son, particularly by the daily recitation of the Rosary for peace in the world.  Even though everything depends on God and his grace, we still need to act as if everything depended on us, by asking the Virgin Mary that the hearts of individuals, the homes of families, the history of peoples and the fraternal soul of all humanity be consecrated to her and placed under her protection and guidance.  She wants people who entrust themselves to her!  “If they do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and have peace” (Apparition of July, 1917).  In the end, what will win the war is a heart: the Heart of the Mother will obtain the victory, at the head of millions of her sons and daughters.

This evening, we offer thanks and praise to the Most Holy Trinity for the commitment of so many men and women to this mission of peace entrusted to the Virgin Mother.  From East to West, the love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary has won a place in the heart of peoples as a source of hope and consolation.  The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council met in order to renew the face of the Church, and presented itself essentially as the Council of love.  The faithful, the bishops, the Pope did not fail to heed the requests of the Mother of God and of man: the whole world was consecrated to her.  Everywhere groups and communities of believers continue to grow.  Awakening from yesterday’s apathy, they now work to show to the world the true face of Christianity.

“If they do what I tell you, they will have peace”.  A hundred years after the apparitions, it is true that, as Pope Francis has observed, “for many people today, peace appears as a blessing to be taken for granted, for all intents an acquired right to which not much thought is given, yet for all too many others, peace remains merely a distant dream.  Millions of people still live in the midst of senseless conflicts.  Even in places once considered safe, a general sense of fear is felt.  We are frequently overwhelmed by images of death, by the pain of innocent men, women and children who plead for help and consolation, by the grief of those mourning the loss of a dear one due to hatred and violence, and by the drama of refugees fleeing war and migrants meeting tragic deaths” (Address to the Diplomatic Corps, 9 January 2017).  In the midst of great concern and uncertainty about the future, what does Fatima ask of us?  Perseverance in the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, shown daily by the recitation of the Rosary.  And what if, despite our prayers, wars continue?  Even though immediate results may not be evident, let us persevere in prayer.  Prayer is never useless.  Sooner or later, it will bear fruit.  Prayer is capital in the hands of God; he turns it to good account in his own times and ways, which are very different from our own.

Our responsorial psalm was the Canticle of the Magnificat, with its sharp contrast between the “great” story of the nations and their conflicts, the story of the great and powerful with its own chronology and geography of power, and the “little” history of the poor, the humble and the powerless.  The latter are called to work for peace with another force, with other seemingly useless or ineffective means, such as conversion, reparation, and trust.  They are asked to halt the advance of evil by plunging into the ocean of divine Love as resistance – not surrender – to the banality and the inevitability of evil.

What must we do?  Let me explain with an example(cf. Eloy Bueno de la Fuente, A Mensagem de Fátima. A misericórdia de Deus: o triunfo do amor nos dramas da história, ²2014, 235-237).  If someone passes us a counterfeit banknote, a spontaneous and even logical reaction could be to pass it on to somebody else.  This shows us how ready we are to fall into a perverse logic that takes over and makes us spread evil.  If I act according to this logic, my situation changes.  I was an innocent victim when I received the counterfeit banknote, a victim of the evil of others.  But once I decide to pass the counterfeit notes to someone else, I am innocent no longer.  I have been won over by the seductive power of evil, creating a new victim.  I have become an agent of evil, now responsible and guilty.  The alternative is to halt the advance of evil, but that happens only by paying a price, by keeping the counterfeit banknote and thus freeing others from the advance of evil.

This is the only reaction that can stop evil and prevail over it.  Human beings win this victory when they are capable of a sacrifice that becomes reparation.  Christ carries it out, thus showing that his way of loving is mercy.  This excess of love can be seen in the cross of Jesus.  He takes on the full weight of the hatred and violence that rain down on him, without responding with insults or threatening revenge.  Instead, he forgives, and thus shows that there is a greater love.  Only he can do this, taking on – as it were – the “counterfeit banknote”.  His death was a victory over the evil unleashed by his tormentors, which all of us are.  Jesus, crucified and risen, is our peace and reconciliation (cf. Eph 2:14; 2 Cor 5:18).

“You averted our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God”.  Let us pray at this evening vigil as a great pilgrim people, following in the footsteps of the risen Jesus, enlightening one another and helping one another to advance, based on our faith in Christ Jesus.  The Fathers of the Church tell us that Mary conceived Jesus first in faith and then in the flesh, when she said “Yes” to God’s call to her through the angel.  But what took place in a singular way in the Virgin Mother takes place spiritually in us whenever we hear the word of God and put it into practice, as the Gospel says (cf. Lk 11:28).  Imitating Mary’s generosity and courage, let us present our bodies to Jesus so that he can continue to dwell in our midst.  Let us offer him our hands to caress the little ones and the poor, our feet to draw near to our brothers and sisters, our arms to shore up the weak and to work in the Lord’s vineyard, our minds to think and plan in the light of the Gospel, and above all, our hearts to love and make decisions in accordance with God’s will.

In this way, may the Virgin Mother shape us, pressing us to her Immaculate Heart, as she did with Lucia, Blessed Francisco and Blessed Jacinta.  On this centenary of the apparitions, with gratitude for the gift which the event, the message and the shrine of Fatima have been throughout the past century, let us join our voices to that of the Virgin Mary: “My soul magnifies the Lord… for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant… his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation” (Lk 1:46-50).

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Fatima, Portugal, May 12, 2017 / 02:47 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis asked pilgrims in Fatima on Friday evening to think about the qualities the Virgin Mary possesses, being careful not to make her into something she is not – especially elevating her mercifulness above that of her Son.

“Pilgrims with Mary … but which Mary? A teacher of the spiritual life, the first to follow Jesus on the ‘narrow way’ of the cross by giving us an example, or a Lady ‘unapproachable’ and impossible to imitate?”

“The Virgin Mary of the Gospel, venerated by the Church at prayer, or a Mary of our own making: one who restrains the arm of a vengeful God; one sweeter than Jesus the ruthless judge; one more merciful than the Lamb slain for us?” Pope Francis asked May 12.

It is through Mary’s cooperation and participation in salvation that she also became a channel of God’s mercy, he explained, praying that with Mary, we might “each of us become a sign and sacrament of the mercy of God, who pardons always and pardons everything.”

“No other creature ever basked in the light of God’s face as did Mary,” he continued, and “she in turn gave a human face to the Son of the eternal Father.”

Pope Francis greeted pilgrims before leading the rosary at the Chapel of the Apparitions on the first night of his two-day pilgrimage to Fatima May 12-13 to celebrate the centenary of Mary's appearance to three shepherd children in 1917.

During the visit to Fatima, the Pope will also say Mass, presiding over the canonization of two of the Fatima visionaries, Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

In his greeting, Francis said that we do a great injustice to God and his grace if we speak of his justice without speaking also of his mercy. “Obviously, God's mercy does not deny justice, for Jesus took upon himself the consequences of our sin, together with its due punishment,” he said.

Because Christ redeemed our sin upon the cross, “we put aside all fear and dread, as unbefitting those who are loved,” he explained.

Speaking of the rosary he would pray shortly, he said that in the recitation of the prayer’s mysteries we can contemplate the moments of Mary’s life: the joyful, the luminous, the sorrowful, and the glorious, as they happen, the Pope said.

“Each time we recite the rosary, in this holy place or anywhere else, the Gospel enters anew into the life of individuals, families, peoples and the entire world.”

Quoting from his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, Pope Francis said that in looking at Mary we are able to believe again “in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness.”

“In her, we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong, who need not treat others poorly in order to feel important themselves.”

“Thank you for your welcome and for joining me on this pilgrimage of hope and peace,” he said, assuring those united with him, either physically or spiritually, that they have a special place in his heart.

He said that he felt Christ had entrusted them all to him, especially those most in need, as Our Lady of Fatima taught in one of her apparitions to the shepherd children.

“May she, the loving and solicitous Mother of the needy, obtain for them the Lord’s blessing!”

Ending his message with a prayer, Francis prayed that “under the watchful gaze” of the Virgin Mary they may all come to sing about the mercy of God with joy and gladness, crying out that the God would show to him and to each of them the mercy he has shown his saints.

“Out of the pride of my heart, I went astray, following my own ambitions and interests, without gaining any crown of glory!” he prayed. “My one hope of glory, Lord, is this: that your Mother will take me in her arms, shelter me beneath her mantle, and set me close to your heart. Amen.”

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Fatima, Portugal, May 12, 2017 / 04:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At a vigil Mass with tens of thousands gathered in the Portugal town of Fatima, Cardinal Pietro Parolin delivered a homily stressing the Virgin Mary’s desire to console all humanity and to have humanity join her in prayer against evil.

“In the midst of great concern and uncertainty about the future, what does Fatima ask of us? Perseverance in the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, shown daily by the recitation of the Rosary.”

If wars continue in spite of our prayers, he said, we should persevere in prayer.

“Prayer is never useless,” he stressed. “Sooner or later, it will bear fruit. Prayer is capital in the hands of God, he turns it to good account in his times and ways, which are very different from our own.”

Cardinal Parolin, who is the Vatican Secretary of State, spoke ahead of the May 13 centenary of the beginning of the Marian apparitions at Fatima. Pope Francis is visiting the Portugal town for the occasion.

“As a Mother concerned for the trials of her children, Mary appeared here with a message of consolation and hope for a world at war and for the Church in travail,” the cardinal continued. He cited the apparition’s July 1917 words: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

The cardinal said this is a call to trust that in the end, love and peace will win out “because God’s mercy is stronger than the power of evil.”

“Our Lady also asks us to join in this battle of her divine Son, particularly by the daily recitation of the rosary for peace in the world,” the cardinal said, encouraging the faithful to ask the Virgin Mary that individuals, families’ homes, the history of nations and all humanity are “consecrated to her and placed under her protection and guidance.”

“She wants people who entrust themselves to her,” he added, citing the July apparition’s words that if the people did what she told the seers, “may souls will be saved and have peace.”

“In the end, what will win the war is a heart: the Heart of the Mother will obtain the victory at the head of millions of her sons and daughters,” he said.

Cardinal Parolin reflected on the widespread devotion to Mary inspired by Our Lady of Fatima.

“From East to West, the love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary has won a place in the heart of peoples as a source of hope and consolation,” he said. “The faithful, the bishops, the Pope did not fail to heed the requests of the Mother of God and of man: the whole world was consecrated to her. Everywhere groups and communities of believers continue to grow. Awakening from yesterday’s apathy, they now work to show the world the true face of Christianity.”

The cardinal cited Pope Francis’ observation that many people today take for granted the blessing of peace, but for many others it remains “merely a distant dream.”

“Millions of people still live in the midst of senseless conflicts,” the Pope said to the Vatican Diplomatic Corps on Jan. 9. “We are frequently overwhelmed by images of death, by the pain of innocent men, women and children who plead for help and consolation, by the grief of those mourning the loss of a dear one due to hatred and violence, and by the drama of refugees fleeing war and migrants meeting tragic deaths.”

Cardinal Parolin reflected that Mary’s Magnificat prayer shows a sharp contrast between the great and powerful and the “little” history of the poor, the humble and the powerless.

“The latter are called to work for peace with another force, with other seemingly useless or ineffective means, such as conversion, reparation and trust,” he said. “They are asked to halt the advance of evil by plunging into the ocean of divine Love as resistance, not surrender, to the banality and the inevitability of evil.”

How a Christian should respond to evil was a focus of the cardinal’s homily.

He noted the “perverse logic” of someone who realizes he has received a counterfeit bill and is tempted to pass it on to someone else. This temptation, if acted upon, would turn oneself, an innocent victim, into someone who victimizes others.

“The alternative is to halt the advance of evil, but that happens only by paying a price, by keeping the counterfeit banknote and thus freeing others from the advance of evil,” he said. “This is the only reaction that can stop evil and prevail over it. Human beings are capable of a sacrifice that becomes reparation.”

For the cardinal, this sacrifice is like that of the Crucifixion.

“Christ carries it out, showing that his way of loving is mercy,” Cardinal Parolin said. “This excess of love can be seen in the cross of Jesus. He takes on the full weight of the hatred and the violence that rain down on him, without responding to the insults or threatening revenge. Instead, he forgives, and thus shows that there is a greater love.”

“Christ’s death was a victory over the evil unleashed by his tormentors, which all of us are,” he added. “Jesus, crucified and risen, is our peace and salvation.”

He pointed to the Virgin Mary’s response to God as a model for every Christian.

“The Fathers of the Church tell us that Mary conceived Jesus first in faith and then in the flesh, when she said ‘Yes’ to God’s call to her through the angel,” he said. “But what took place in a singular way in the Virgin Mother takes place spiritually in us whenever we hear the word of God and put it into practice.”

The cardinal encouraged the faithful to imitate Mary’s “generosity and courage” and present themselves to Jesus “so that he can continue to dwell in our midst.”

“In this way, may the Virgin Mother shape us, pressing us to her Immaculate Heart, as she did with Lucia, Bl. Francisco and Bl. Jacinta,” he said.

“On this centenary of the apparitions, with gratitude for the gift, the event, the message and the shrine of Fatima…throughout the past century, let us join our voices to that of the Virgin Mary: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord... for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant... his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation’.”

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By Carol Zimmermann

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Marietta Jaeger-Lane has faced the death penalty issue head-on.

In 1973, when her 7-year-old daughter was kidnapped during a family camping trip in Montana and murdered by her captor, the mother of five said she would have killed the person who did it with her "bare hands."

"But my Catholic faith calls me to something different," she said, explaining how she came to a change her opinion on the death penalty, which she likened to a "wrestling match where God won."

Jaeger-Lane, speaking to reporters in a May 11 press call officially launching the National Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty, said most people have "a gut level response to acts of extreme violence, but when they are educated on the reality of the death penalty, they begin to rethink their position."

She told reporters that her daughter's kidnapper called her a year to the day of the kidnapping and was arrested soon after, but she asked the prosecutor for the alternative sentence of mandatory life without parole. Only when the kidnapper was offered that, she said, was he willing to confess to the murders of three children, including her daughter Susie, and a 19-year-old.

For decades, Jaeger-Lane, who forgave her daughter's killer, has spoken out against the death penalty, urging people to see that capital punishment does not bring the closure or healing that victims' families are seeking. She said it also denies the criminals the chance for the "mercy of God working in their lives."

She said she signed the anti-death penalty pledge, sponsored by Catholic Mobilizing Network, because she believes "the Catholic community can be the one to end the death penalty."

She also is convinced there is more Catholics can do, stressing that she would like to hear priests speak out against the death penalty as they do against abortion as a pro-life issue. She also pointed out that many parishes have prison ministries -- noting that she is part of a ministry that visits a prison every week -- but she thinks there needs to be more of an outreach of support for victims' families.

They need to be listened to in their desire for revenge, she said.

Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, who also took part in the press call, similarly urged the church to take up the "ministry of accompaniment" to support victims' families.

The bishop, who signed the pledge May 9, stressed that its key components call people to be educated on the death penalty, advocate against it and pray for it to end.

He said Catholic bishops have spoken out for decades against the death penalty, stressing that the "human dignity in every human being must be respected."

The idea for the pledge campaign began in January, said Catholic Mobilizing Network executive director Karen Clifton. She said Arkansas' bid to execute eight death-row prisoners in a 10-day span in April -- four were ultimately put to death -- "exacerbated the situation and showed it as a very live example of who we are executing and the reasons why the system is so broken."

The pledge campaign is supported in part by a $50,000 grant from the U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign. It can be signed here: https://catholicsmobilizing.org/action/pledge.

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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim.

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Junno Arocho Esteves

FATIMA, Portugal (CNS) -- Mary's example of believing and following Jesus is what matters most; she cannot be some image "of our own making" who Christians barter with for mercy, Pope Francis said.

On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Marian apparitions at Fatima, the pope asked tens of thousands of pilgrims May 12 to reflect on "which Mary" they choose to venerate, "the virgin Mary from the Gospel" or "one who restrains the arm of a vengeful God?"

Is the Mary they honor "a woman blessed because she believed always and everywhere in God's words or a 'plaster statue' from whom we beg favors at little cost?" he asked.

As the sun set at the shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima, pilgrims held thousands of lit candles, filling the square with a fiery light before Pope Francis led them in praying the rosary.

The pope already had visited the shrine earlier in the evening, arriving by helicopter from Monte Real air base. Excited crowds, waving flags and white handkerchiefs, cheered as he arrived in his popemobile.

He then made his way to the Little Chapel of the Apparitions where Mary appeared to three shepherd children May 13, 1917. The apparitions continued once a month until Oct. 13, 1917, and later were declared worthy of belief by the Catholic Church.

The festive cheering of the crowd turned to near absolute silence as the pope spent several minutes with his head bowed and hands clasped in prayer, occasionally looking up at the statue of Mary venerated by his predecessors and millions of devotees across the globe.

Pope Francis then recited a prayer he wrote, an expanded version of the traditional "Salve Regina" ("Hail Holy Queen").

Alternating his verses with a choral refrain venerating the "Queen of the Rosary of Fatima," the pope consecrated himself to Mary and entrusted to her intercession a suffering humanity where blood "is shed in the wars tearing our world apart."

Begging Mary's assistance, the pope prayed that believers would "tear down all walls and overcome all boundaries, going to all peripheries, there revealing God's justice and peace."

"In the depths of your being, in your immaculate heart, you keep the sorrows of the human family, as they mourn and weep in this valley of tears," the pope prayed.

He also presented himself before the image of Mary as "a bishop robed in white," a reference to the third secret revealed to the children at Fatima. Published 83 years after the Fatima apparitions, the vision described the image of a "bishop dressed in white" shot down amid the rubble of a ruined city.

The official Vatican interpretation, discussed with the visionary Sister Lucia dos Santos before its publication, was that it referred to the persecution of Christians in the 20th century and, specifically, to the 1981 assassination attempt on the life of St. John Paul II.

As Blessed Paul VI and retired Pope Benedict XVI did before him, Pope Francis placed a small silver vase containing 24-karat gold roses at the foot of the statue. Embedded in the statue's crown is one of the bullets used in the assassination attempt against St. John Paul II on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13, 1981.

Returning to the little chapel for a nighttime vigil, Pope Francis reminded pilgrims to pray, as Mary taught the children at Fatima, for "those most in need" of God's mercy.

"On each of the destitute and outcast robbed of the present, on each of the excluded and abandoned denied a future, on each of the orphans and victims of injustice refused a past, may there descend the blessing of God, incarnate in Jesus Christ," he said.

Pope Francis held up Mary as a "model of evangelization," particularly because Christian men and women can look at her and see that "humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong."

Those who emphasize God's punishment of sinners, he said, commit "a great injustice" to him by not recognizing that sinners "are forgiven by his mercy."

"Mercy has to be put before judgment," he said, "and, in any case, God's judgment will always be rendered in the light of his mercy."

"With Mary, may each of us become a sign and sacrament of the mercy of God, who pardons always and pardons everything," he said.

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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