Fatima, Portugal, May 10, 2017 / 12:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Fatima visionary Lucia dos Santos was saintly woman – not because she saw visions of Mary, but because of her raw humanity, simplicity, and even her sense of humor, says the cardinal who opened her cause for canonization.
When asked about the most “saintly” quality Lucia had, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins said it was “her humanity. She was a person that was human.”
“The saints are all human, they are like any other person. Very intelligent, very concrete, very pleasant and welcoming,” he said.
As for Sister Lucia, “she was a very smart, concrete woman.” This can be seen in the way she documented what she saw during the Fatima apparitions, he said, noting that since her cousins had passed away, all of it was done by her alone.
“If Lucia weren’t a concrete, intelligent person, not all of the documentation that’s there would have been done, through which we know the whole story of Fatima,” he said.
But despite to her intelligence and her humanity, the cardinal said the visionary was “very simple,” but was also “a jokester” with a healthy sense of humor.
Cardinal Martins, 85 and the Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, knew Lucia personally during the last few years of her life. He spoke to CNA about his relationship with visionary, sharing memories of Lucia and some of the light-hearted jokes the two of them exchanged.
Who was Lucia?
Lucia dos Santos was the youngest in a family of seven. However, at 10-years-old, she was the oldest of the three shepherd children who witnessed apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary from May-October 1917. The other two were her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who were just 9 and 7, respectively.
While the Marto siblings died shortly after the apparitions, as Mary had predicted, Lucia outlived her cousins by many years, and was the one to write down accounts of everything they had seen.
Shortly after the deaths of her cousins, at age 14 Lucia was sent to attend school with the Dorothean Sisters of Villar, and in 1928 became a sister of St. Dorothy. In 1946, she transferred to the convent of the Carmelite Sisters of Coimbra, Portugal and took the name Sister Maria Lucia of the Immaculate Heart.
She received visions and messages from both Mary and Jesus on several more occasions throughout her life, including the visions in 1925 that led to the Five First Saturday devotions, which include saying the rosary, receiving communion and confession, and meditation during the first Saturday of five consecutive months.
Sr. Lucia died in 2005 at the age of 97, at the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she had lived since 1948.
Memories
Cardinal Martins, who himself is Portuguese, said he had “many interactions” with Sr. Lucia, particularly during his tenure at the Congregation for Saints. He headed the dicastery from 1998-2008, during which he brought forward some 1,320 blesseds, though many were part of large groups done together.
Having lived in Rome for at least three decades, serving in various capacities, the cardinal said he, like the rest of the city, typically takes his vacation in mid-August.
It was during one of these vacations that he accepted an invitation to go to Coimbra and celebrate Mass for the Carmelite sisters on the Aug. 15 Feast of the Assumption. After Mass, the cardinal sat with the community and talked with them for a while, even answering some questions.
“We spoke about everything, they asked whatever questions they wanted, without limits, and I responded,” he said, noting Sr. Lucia was also present, and he was also able to speak with her for the first time.
Lucia “was a very humble person, simple, very intelligent, and very confident,” he said, explaining during another visit, he was again sitting with the community after celebrating Mass for them.
He recalled that there was an empty seat by him, so he motioned for Lucia to come sit next to him.
Martins recalled that once she sat down, she leaned over and told him, “Eminence, you’ve made me your secretary, eh?” After a laugh, the cardinal jested, saying in return, “Sister Lucia, please, don’t say this, I am not worthy of having you as a secretary!”
Martins said Lucia was always full of little quips, and at one point jokingly threatened to stop sending rosaries to the Pope if he didn’t allow the beatification of her cousins – Francisco and Jacinta Marto – to take place in Fatima, rather than in Rome.
At the time, as a rule of thumb both canonization and beatification Masses were held Rome. However, it was Cardinal Martins who later changed this, requesting that beatifications take place in the local diocese instead. His request was approved by Benedict XVI, and the change was made in September 2005.
The cause of Francisco and Jacinta was officially opened in 1946, and although the change hadn’t officially been made yet, they were beatified by St. John Paul II May 13, 2000, the 83rd anniversary of the first apparition, during his third visit to the Fatima shrine.
But a year before the beatification, while plans were still in the works, Lucia had jokingly told Martins to relay to the Pope “if the beatification is not done in Fatima, but in Rome, I, Lucia, won’t send him rosaries anymore.”
The jest was in reference to the fact that in her final years Lucia made rosaries and sent large numbers of them to the Pope, who would distribute them to pilgrims and people he met.
“Clearly, I didn’t say it,” the cardinal said, recalling that on the day of the beatification, both he and Lucia had a brief conversation in the sacristy before the celebration began.
He told Lucia she could be now grateful to the Pope for having approved celebrating the beatification Mass in Fatima. However, Lucia again jested, saying “I’m not grateful to the Pope, absolutely no. I am grateful to God who inspired the Pope for the beatification.”
“This is how it was. With Lucia, we were like siblings,” the cardinal said, adding that Lucia’s humor wasn’t the only thing that stood out about her.
“She was also very intelligent,” he said. People often perceived her as someone “in another world,” who was perhaps a bit disconnected, but in reality, the opposite was true: “she was very concrete, and very intelligent.”
As an example, he recalled that at one point the Carmelite sisters had to build another convent when they exceeded the maximum number of sisters who can live in one of their monasteries.
When it came time to start construction on the convent after plans had been laid, Lucia was the one sent to oversee the project, making sure the architect built new monastery according to the specifics of how Carmelite convents are organized.
“Lucia went in car to tell the architects concretely how they had to do the cloister. This is a very concrete person, no?” the cardinal said. “She wasn’t an abstract person like many thought, no.”
Cause for Canonization
After Lucia passed away in 2005, the diocese had to wait five years before opening the beatification cause, as is custom in any potential saint.
However, after just two years, Cardinal Martins asked Benedict XVI to grant a dispensation for the three remaining years, allowing them to open the cause immediately.
I began the process of beatification. Certainly she knows, that to begin the beatification process for a person, five years need to pass after their death. Five years. To research the person, talk to people, etc.
Martins said he asked for the dispensation because “it’s a very big grace for the Church in Portugal and for the universal Church.” In response, Benedict granted it, saying “you know the situation better than me, so let’s do whatever you say.”
A few days later, the cardinal traveled to Coimbra with the official decree in hand. However, since the news hadn’t yet been made official, he was not allowed to say anything, not even to the sisters in Lucia’s convent.
“Everything was secret,” he said, explaining that he simply told the sisters he was passing through and requested to say Mass. “The sisters thought I was passing through Coimbra for another reason, they didn’t know anything about the reason I was there.”
“It was my duty to keep it a secret,” Martins said, recounting how at the end of Mass, before giving the final blessing, he read aloud the decree, signed by himself and the Pope, stating that the beatification process for Lucia would officially begin early.
Immediately “the sisters began to cry,” he said, and were amazed that he hadn’t let on anything of his real intention for coming beforehand.
The local Church in February 2017 finished collecting documents to examine Lucia’s heroic virtue, concluding the diocesan phase of the investigation.
“Now it’s up to the congregation for the Roman phase. They must study the documents gathered on Lucia,” he said, noting that this will be a hefty task given the fact that there are some 300-400,000 letters written by Lucia during her lifetime, including letters written by her and her responses to letters she received from other people.
Although many have speculated that the speed with which Lucia’s cause moves forward could go into turbo-mode with the aim of having a beatification during the centenary year of the apparitions, Cardinal Martins said that given the vast amount of content to study, it will likely still be a while.
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It is a fraud, and the alleged “seers” are liars. Just as one example, the former Father Vego was expelled from his order and laicized. According to the “seers” Our Lady was telling them that he was innocent and should continue to administer the sacraments. Meanwhile, Vego and his mistress, a nun, conceived a child. So, either the “seers” are lying, or Our Lady is.
Try reading Ivo Sivric: The Hidden Side of Medjugorje: A Theologian’s Observations, Vol. 1
or
https://archive.org/stream/MedjugorjeAfter21YearsMichaelDavies/Medjugorje+After+21+years+Michael+Davies_djvu.txt
or
https://www.catholicstand.com/truth-medjugorje-donal-foley-part/
“The provision was made as an acknowledgment of the “abundant fruits of grace” that have come from Medjugorje”
Yeah, like the Legionaries of Christ had abundant fruits of grace; which was in spite of the fact that Marcial Maciel was evil. Or the “fruits of grace” of Garabandal, which ended up in schism.
All those “fruits of grace” of people who went to Medjugorje after the bishop had forbidden official pilgrimages are the result of disobedience – a hallmark of the alleged apparitions. Tell me, if the Vatican does end out saying the apparitions are false and forbidding pilgrimages, how many of Medjugorje’s devotees will defy authority – again.
Our Lady of Medjugorje – Pray for us.
Of the Pope’s approach, we read: “‘The first apparitions, which were to children, the report more or less says that these need to continue being studied,’ he said, but as for ‘presumed current apparitions, the report has its doubts,’ the pope said.”
About fifteen years ago, I think, I ran across a volume in a used book store, written by a secularist researcher who was simply curious about such things as apparitions (author and title forgotten). Near the end was a short interview piece with psychologist-priest Fr. Benedict Groeschel. Groeschel claimed no deep research into Medjugorje, but offered the possibility that the original apparition was, in fact, real but that the rest might be more like “echoes” coming from the seers rather than from Mary.
Apparition always come with the possibility that they are real, or not real, or real-and-misunderstood, or pious-but-not-real inventions or our complex minds.
It seems plausible that the seers are too vulnerable to the impact of their original “experiences” (an inadequate word) which were/are real. The eternal simply does not fit well within the temporal (von Balthasar refers to the singular Incarnation as an incomprehensible “collision” between the Creator and His creation; the Second Person of a mysterious Triune God wills to enter into His own creation. Say what?!! Hence the Nicene Creed, an act of Faith).
The idea of after-the-fact temporal ripples or echoes, probably mixed with wishful thinking and subjective editing, could explain a lot. (On the two occasions when I heard one seer and then the other, touring North America, the particular events were not very convincing.)
Peeling back these layers, the spiritual fruits and healings of Medjugorje do claim attention. And, also, as for the scandals at Medjugorje, the Father of Lies is probably active. One lesson from Scripture is that if Satan is not present (flushed out), then Christ might not be present either.
Recalling Fr. Groeschel, it might be that Pope Francis is getting this thing just about right.
Fascinating comment, Mr. Beaulieu. Thank you.
“Groeschel claimed no deep research into Medjugorje, but offered the possibility that the original apparition was…”
Yes. But may I interrupt. A good start to convincing others…an “expert” opinion to be offered during an interview to be couched in pious, humble yet “professional” terms. I like my doctors to diagnose without seeing all the lab results or radiological studies…and then offer understandings that are quasi-solutions.”
Exactly the kind of “thinking” we should take seriously…because it was Benedict Groeschel…or if that’s not enough by referencing von Balthazar? Why not reference St. John of the Cross who had more to say than von Balthazar about these topics and who is I believe a Doctor of the Church? Why reference the Trinity here? A summary/conclusion beyond criticism?
Groeschel had a fault, a habit of talking too much above and beyond his scope of practice really yet still enthusiastically with a kind of overconfidence, a stand up comic one moment then utterly humble “religious” quality, very NY, even playing to the audience at times…not just during that “declining” period before his retirement. I met him twice, in NY and NJ and heard him speak. But his books exhibit some of that same conflation between a description and a diagnosis where he provides the answer (in contrast to the “other” Franciscans still unreformed?…though his own reform group subdivided). He was inclined by nature to say more, to speculate (which is an illness within the practice of psychology itself)….as he did in that unfortunate interview in 2012 that was cited in a New York Times article…referencing seductive “youngsters” (14-18 years old, including even close to “canonical” ages) and asserting that he was “inclined to think” first offenders had “no intention of committing a crime” and should not be jailed (How about getting shuffled around the Archdiocese and country along with a prescription for Holy Hours?) This was blamed on the effects of aging, disease process and the effects of a car accident in 2004. But it sounds more like an excerpt from a chat in a conference room at the Chancery vs… his required apology for “lack of clarity.” His statement was perfectly clear. And his statement about Medjugorje? Yes indeed, “no deep research” claimed…sadly, through the many many good years and graced good works and homilies Groeschel never heard an “expert” say “I do not know and I cannot say now” or seemingly so.
2019. NOT the case with Medjugorje. Except…maybe if it can all be repackaged…
Yes, another chance for Bergoglio to “get it right” (for those who consider confusion and nonsense and “process” an accomplishment) and value “discernment” where there is NOTHING to “discern.”
Life without details.
The best part? Bergoglio reverses what Benedict did with regards to Medjugorje and figures it all out ahead of time in a nice politically repackaged with a bow on top basket! Nice!
How frequently a “simple” temptation itself starts out with a “good” (a positive, a pleasure) but somewhere in the middle or even only at the very end does it go off the rails and land you in Hell’s path…and it may or not be reveal that the “good” at the beginning came from the Evil One.
In some minds, the absence of demonic pattern/activity might indicate Christ is not present…but is this a comprehensive view, a reliable spiritual litmus test or simply another attempt to dress up “no deep research” as a positive takeaway and an insight on some allegedly higher level?
Wow! Is it really that complex? Nothing is impossible for God!