Europe

Rome, Italy, May 18, 2017 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At the center of the first joint exhibit between the Vatican Museums and the Jewish museum in Rome is the Magdala Stone, a large decorated stone block from a first century Galilean synagogue which has shed light on synagogue worship before the destruction of the Second Temple.

The Magdala Stone was found during the excavation of an synagogue on the site of what is believed to be Magdala, the hometown of Mary Magdalene. The 4.2 cubic feet limestone block may have been used as a bema, on which the Torah was read.

It is carved on four sides and its top with decorative symbols, most prominently the Menorah which was found in the Jewish Temple – a seven-branch menorah described in Exodus, distinct from the nine-branch menorah associated with Hannukah and the Maccabees.

The stone is the centerpiece of the exhibit “Menorah: Worship, History, and Legend”, shown simultaneously at the Jewish Museum and the Braccio di Carlo Magno Museum in the Vatican, located under the left colonnade in St. Peter’s Square.

The exhibit runs May 15-July 23 and includes roughly 130 pieces, including menorahs from various periods and depictions of them in paintings, sarcophagi, sculptures, and medieval and Renaissance drawings and manuscripts.

This is the first time the Magdala Stone has left Israel or been displayed publicly, and its presence at the Vatican is just “one more sign of the collapsing of the walls between Christianity and Judaism,” in the opinion of Fr. Juan Solana, L.C., General Director of the Magdala Project.

Fr. Solana told CNA that the stone’s presence at the exhibit marks not only an interreligious effort between the Vatican Museums and the Jewish museums in Rome, but also collaboration between Vatican City and the State of Israel.  

“I know that it was a lot of work behind the scenes to make it happen,” he explained. “I think it really shows the importance of interreligious dialogue and especially dialogue and friendship between Catholics and Jews.”

Magdala “is very close to Capernaum, in the old area where Jesus preached and taught and performed many miracles,” Fr. Solana said. “So we believe that Jesus went to Magdala and eventually he went to the synagogue and preached there.”

While they can’t know for sure, it is even possible that Christ used the Magdala Stone himself to display scrolls of the Torah.

The town and synagogue were first discovered in 2009 during excavations in preparation for building a Catholic center in Israel. Stalled by the discovery of the site, the Magdala Center, as it is called, is still in the works.

“We found the whole town of Mary Magdalene,” Fr. Solana said; and the cherry on the top, so-to-speak, was the Magdala Stone.

There are seven synagogues known of from the period of Christ’s life and more or less 50 years before and after, but in no other synagogue have they found this kind of block, he said.

Archaeologists found a total of three stone blocks in Magdala: one from what was probably a school of the synagogue and one which had been reused as a chair of Moses, the place of authority from which the scribes and Pharisees interpreted the Jewish law. The Magdala Stone was at the center of the synagogue.

The stone is considered important for Judaism because Jewish scholars believe it marks a change within Judaism itself, brought about by the influence of Christianity, Fr. Solana explained.

This is because “Jesus destroyed the idea of the Temple as the center of Judaism,” he said, “and it was confirmed by the destruction of the Temple” in AD 70.

The Magdala Stone and the synagogue both pre-date the destruction of the Temple, which has been confirmed by coins found inside which range from AD 5 to 63 – the time of Christ’s life and the first generation of Christians.

Of course, this makes them very important pieces historically, Fr. Solana continued, explaining that the stone itself is a model of the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem. Covered in carvings of Jewish symbols, more even than the Temple itself, it also displays the oldest-known carving of a menorah in Israel.

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Fatima, Portugal, May 15, 2017 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston said that this weekend’s celebrations for the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima can teach us all about the universal call to holiness and conversion.

“I’ve always had a great devotion to Our Lady of Fatima,” he told CNA, adding that he’s been involved in Portuguese ministry for many years.

“I had a Portuguese parish for 20 years and was bishop of Fall River for 10 years, where half the Catholics are Azorean, and in Boston we have so many Cape Verdians and Brazilians – Portuguese speaking.”

The cardinal was the only U.S. bishop to attend the Feb. 13 festivities surrounding the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions in Portugal.

He said that the shrine at Fatima is among his favorite, and said that “it’s very moving to be here but especially be here with the Holy Father, for the hundredth anniversary and the canonization of Francisco and Jacinta. It’s just an unbelievable occasion.”

Particularly touching for him was the offertory at the canonization Mass, when the gifts were brought up by the family of the young boy whose miraculous healing was attributed to the intercession of two of the Fatima shepherd children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, paving the way for their canonization.

The young Brazilian boy, named Lucas, was just five years old when he fell out of a window from a height of 20 feet. His head hit the ground, and he sustained serious injuries and a loss of brain tissue.

Doctors told the family that the boy’s chance of surviving was low, and if he did survive, he would have severe cognitive disabilities or even remain in a vegetative state. However, after the family and a nearby religious community prayed to the young shepherd children, Lucas suddenly made a full recovery, with no lasting effects of the injury.

“I had heard the interview on the television, and he was given up for dead and the cure was so obviously miraculous,” Cardinal O’Malley reflected, “and to see that child come up and give the Pope a hug. It was…very moving and it reminded us that the canonization is about the holiness and the goodness of little children.”

Francisco and Jacinta are the youngest non-martyrs to be canonized, a fact which Cardinal O’Malley saw as significant.

“I think the lesson is that children are called to holiness…when they were beatified, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins who was the Prefect of the Congregation of Saints talked about how modern families entrust their children to professional teachers in schools for 15-20 years of formal academic formation but sometimes they’re not really prepared for life.”

“And these children, their parents were probably illiterate peasants but they taught them how to lead a good life, how to have a deep faith in God, how to love, how to serve, how to work,” he continued. “And in such a short life, they achieved great sanctity and holiness and the fact that the Blessed Mother chose them is very significant.”

Cardinal O’Malley said that the canonization is a reminder “a reminder of how precious children are and that they too are called to sanctity and parents have a great responsibility to transmit the faith to their children and prepare them for life – this life and eternal life.”

And beyond parents and children, the message of Fatima is a call to conversion for all people, he said.

“Jesus is calling us to conversion, calling us to discipleship, calling us to follow him to a life of holiness, to mission, to announce the kingdom by our lives,” the cardinal said, adding that “this is the message of Fatima and it’s very, very relevant and very important.”

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Fatima, Portugal, May 15, 2017 / 11:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Jose Antonio dos Santos, an immigrant from Venezuela now living in Barcelona, made his way to Fatima for the centenary of the Marian apparitions with a special request for Our Lady: a solution for the dire crisis unfolding in his homeland.

Dos Santos, who held a large Venezuelan flag, told journalists May 13 that he came to Fatima to raise “the cry of a people and to ask the Virgin of Fatima the same thing that has come from her message 100 years ago, which was peace in Portugal and the freedom of a country that was oppressed.”

When Mary appeared to three young shepherd children in 1917, she came in the midst of a world embroiled in war – both on a global scale during World War I, and on a more local scale in Portugal itself, which was in a period of instability after the revolution and coup d’état leading to the establishment of the First Portuguese Republic in 1910.

Roughly 220,000 Portuguese civilians died during the war, thousands due to food shortages, and thousands more from the Spanish flu.

“Now the same thing is happening in Venezuela,” Dos Santos said, explaining that as he participates in the centenary celebrations of the Fatima Marian apparitions, he brings with him the petition for “a solution, above all for a country that is without medicine, without food.”

“It’s completely neglected in the entire country,” he said, adding that he hoped his flag would be a visible appeal to Pope Francis, who “who knows what it is to work on the peripheries.”

Dos Santos is originally from Madeira, Venezuela, but has been living in Barcelona for 10 years. He was forced to immigrate to Spain along with his ailing mother and two sisters when the family could no longer access medicine for his mother’s illness.

Riots have spiked in Venezuela in recent years, resulting from unemployment, food and medicine shortages, and President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian policies.

Price controls in 2003 caused inflation rates to skyrocket on basic necessities, barring the access of food and medicines to the people. Poor socialist policies have affected many products, and while they remain affordable on the shelf, they are under-produced and are soon swept off and sold on the black market at a triple digit inflation rate.

Violent riots have fluctuated since the death of the previous president Hugo Chavez in 2013, but gained even more traction after opposition leaders were arrested last year and Maduro’s attempt for more power by dissolving the legislature in March of this year.

Now working as a crewman for an airline company, Dos Santos said the situation in Venezuela has become “impossible.”

The conditions that Venezuelans are living in today is inconceivable, he said, adding that “what the world knows about what is happening there is practically nothing” due to strict control of the media.

Javier Pereira, one of Dos Santos’ three companions, said he appreciates the concern Pope Francis has shown for Venezuela, but voiced doubt that the nation’s government is listening.

“The Pope always asks through prayer and dialogue, but unfortunately the government of Venezuela pretends to agree with what the Pope says, but what is really happening in Venezuela (is) completely different,” Pereira said, explaining that the government is able to keep up the façade because they control the media.

“People don’t know because the media is closed, and they don’t publish. What is published is that yes, they want dialogue to be done, but what is happening, is not (dialogue),” he said.

Giving an example, Dos Santos said that Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino of Caracas was once beaten inside the basilica of Santa Teresa for suggesting that opposition and government forces come to an understanding.

The cardinal had been celebrating Mass for the feast of the Nazareno de San Pablo, one of the biggest devotions in Venezuela, and simply said he hoped “there would be an understanding between people of the opposition and the government,” Dos Santos said.

After Mass, a group of people came to into the sacristy and “they hit him inside the basilica and he had to be escorted out.”

Media don’t report on this type of incident, Dos Santos said, and so the only way people find out about it is through social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, “because the people are the ones using social communication.”

What he wants to ask Our Lady of Fatima, then, is “for freedom and the peace of Venezuela,” and that she would inspire “the governments of the countries that do not intervene” to help.

He said that should he get the opportunity, he would ask Pope Francis “to intercede as an authority, as an important figure, and to mediate, at least for now, a channel for medicine and food.”

“This is why we wanted to come early and be first in line, so that form the altar he can understand the message,” he said, pointing to his flag, which isn’t merely a banner for Venezuela, but “it’s a message from an entire country that cries out for freedom.”

Pope Francis recently sent a message to the country’s bishops, urging them to continue promoting a culture of encounter.

“Dear brothers, I wish to encourage you to not allow the beloved children of Venezuela to allow themselves to be overcome by distrust or despair since these are evils that sink into the hearts of people when they do not see future prospects,” he said in a May 5 letter.

“I am persuaded that Venezuela’s serious problems can be solved if there is the desire to establish bridges, to dialogue seriously and to comply with the agreements that were reached.”

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Portsmouth, England, May 15, 2017 / 03:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An English bishop has asked the people of his diocese to remember the sanctity of human life at all stages as they prepare to vote in the upcoming general election.

In a pastoral letter read in all the churches across the Diocese of Portsmouth May 14, Bishop Philip Egan posed ten questions that Catholics might consider in the election, including questions related to care for the environment, the family, the poor, the sick, the disabled, and persecuted Christians.

These questions could be used to “evaluate a manifesto, or you could put them to a prospective parliamentary candidate,” he said.

Remember the protection of human life at the next General Election,@BishopEgan urges @PortsmouthRC Diocese. https://t.co/uKBIauY19f

— Portsmouth Diocese (@PortsmouthRC) May 12, 2017

Catholics must consider the sanctity of life first and foremost, he noted.

“How far will this or that candidate protect the sacred dignity of each human life from conception to natural death, opposing moves to liberalise the abortion laws, to extend embryo experimentation and to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia?”

The country is holding general elections three years early, on June 8 of this year, in a move by UK Prime Minister Theresa May to strengthen her Conservative Party government for upcoming Brexit negotiations.

In a British general election, all registered voters may vote for one candidate to represent their local area, or constituency, in Parliament. The leader of the party with the most members of parliament after the election becomes prime minister and forms a government.

Preliminary opinion polls show the Conservative Party in a comfortable lead, at around 46 percent, according to the BBC, followed by Labour at 29 percent. The Liberal Democrats are polling at 9 percent, UKIP at 6 percent, and both the Greens and the SNP at 4 percent.

According to The Independent, a leaked draft of the Labour Party’s manifesto says the party “will legislate to extend” abortion rights to women in Northern Ireland.

Bishop Egan reminded his flock in his pastoral letter that as baptized Christians “you and I are different – or at least we are meant to be. Jesus has chosen us to be His disciples within His Body the Church.”

This discipleship should carry over into the way a Christian votes, the bishop said.

“…as Catholics we have a crucial contribution to make to this democratic process,” he said.

In his questions, the bishop echoed Pope Francis and Benedict XVI’s concern for the environment when he posed the question: “How will they care better for the environment, promoting an ‘integral ecology’ with a simpler lifestyle?”

He also asked voters to consider whether candidates support family values, efforts to help the homeless, and the care of the mentally ill.

“And tenthly, how will they foster peace, justice and development abroad, whilst encouraging our Government to stand up for Christians who are being persecuted in such places as Syria and Egypt?”

He also encouraged his people to think about their role as missionary disciples, and in particular to pray for vocations to the priesthood, which “do not come out of thin air”, but from prayer and fasting, he said.

“Please pray for more priests. Why not say the Rosary for this intention? Or offer up your Friday abstinence? Or if you watch a football match, ask God to call one of the players or one of the fans?”

He concluded by asking his people to trust in the Lord and offered prayers for the country ahead of the elections.

“In (Sunday’s) Gospel, Jesus said: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me.’ We believe that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He calls each of of us to discern our vocation and to play our part. As we approach the General Election, let us pray for our country.”

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Fatima, Portugal, May 13, 2017 / 05:23 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday, Pope Francis told those gathered at Fatima, in particular the sick and suffering, to follow the example of the newly canonized saints Francisco and Jacinta, offering their lives &… […]

Fatima, Portugal, May 13, 2017 / 03:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Saturday officially declared Francisco and Jacinta Marto saints of the Catholic Church in front of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at Fatima, Portugal – teaching us tha… […]

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 … […]

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 / 11:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his first day in Fatima, Pope Francis led pilgrims in prayer, asking that the Immaculate Heart of Mary would watch over the joys and sorrows of all mankind as they make their earthly pilgrimage.

“In the depths of your being, in your Immaculate Heart, you keep the joys of men and women as they journey to the Heavenly Homeland. 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.”

“In the depths of your being, in your Immaculate Heart, adorn us with the radiance of the jewels of your crown and make us pilgrims, even as you were a pilgrim,” he said May 12 at the Chapel of the Apparitions.

Pope Francis led the prayer to Mary at the beginning of his two-day pilgrimage to Fatima in Portugal May 12-13 to celebrate the centenary of Mary’s appearance to three shepherd children in 1917.

During the visit, the Pope will also lead the recitation of the rosary at the prayer vigil. In the morning on May 13 he will celebrate Mass, presiding over the canonization of two of the Fatima visionaries, Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

The prayer was prayed in five verses, while in between the assembly sang the refrain, in Latin: “Ave O Clemens, Ave O pia! Salve Regina Rosarii Fatimae. Ave O clemens, Ave O pia! Ave O dulcis Virgo Maria!”  

The Pope prayed the first four verses himself and for the last was joined by those present. The beginning of each verse was addressed to Mary by a different title, including “Mother of Mercy” and “Hail, life and sweetness, hail, our hope, O Pilgrim Virgin, O Universal Queen!”

“With your virginal smile, enliven the joy of Christ’s Church. With your gaze of sweetness, strengthen the hope of God’s children. With your hands lifted in prayer to the Lord, draw all people together into one human family,” he prayed.

The Pope’s prayer frequently recalled the traditional Marian prayer called ‘Hail, Holy Queen.’

“Hail Holy Queen, Blessed Virgin of Fatima, Lady of Immaculate Heart, our refuge and our way to God!” he said. “O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary, Queen of the Rosary of Fatima!”

He asked for the grace to follow the example of Bl. Francisco and Jacinta, and everyone who has devoted themselves to proclaiming the Gospel.

“Thus we will follow all paths and everywhere make our pilgrim way; we will tear down all walls and cross every frontier, as we go out to every periphery, to make known God’s justice and peace.”

Praying for the intercession of the “Lady robed in white,” he recalled all those who are robed in the “splendor of their baptism” and who desire to live in Christ.

“And so we will be, like you, an image of the column of light that illumines the ways of the world,” he prayed, “making God known to all, making known to all that God exists, that God dwells in the midst of his people, yesterday, today and for all eternity.”

“Show us the strength of your protective mantle. In your Immaculate Heart, be the refuge of sinners and the way that leads to God,” he said.

“In union with my brothers and sisters, in faith, in hope and in love, I entrust myself to you. In union with my brothers and sisters, through you, I consecrate myself to God, O Virgin of the Rosary of Fatima,” he concluded.

“And at last, enveloped in the Light that comes from your hands, I will give glory to the Lord for ever and ever. Amen.”

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Fatima, Portugal, May 12, 2017 / 07:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Tomorrow, on the 100th anniversary of Mary’s first appearance at Fatima, Pope Francis will canonize Jacinta and Francisco Marto, two of the three shepherd children who witnessed the Marian apparitions.

A press conference preceding the Pope’s arrival highlighted the miracle that paved the way for their canonization. The miracle involved a Brazilian boy named Lucas, who was miraculously healed through the intercession of the shepherd children.

Jacinta and Francisco both died before age 10 and will become the youngest non-martyrs to be canonized. Sister Lucia, the third visionary, lived much longer, dying in 2005 at the age of 97. The Church is currently examining documents and collecting testimonies for her beautification cause.

In recounting the story of their son’s healing in the face of almost certain death, João Batista and his wife Lucila Yurie could not hold back tears.

“On March 3, 2013, before 8:00 pm, our son Lucas, who was playing with his little sister Eduarda, fell out of a window from a height of 20 feet. He was five years old,” related the boy’s father.

“His head hit the ground and he sustained a very serious injury, which caused a loss of brain tissue,” Batista said during the press conference at the Fatima Shrine.

Teetering between life and death, “he was given medical care in our city, Juranda, and given the severity of his condition, he was transferred to the hospital in Campo Mourao, Parana.”

“When we got there, Lucas was in a deep coma. His heart stopped twice, and they performed an emergency operation.”

It was at that moment that “we began to pray to Jesus and Our Lady of Fatima, to whom we have a great devotion,” Batista said.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>In 2013, their son Lucas fell 20 ft from window, had brain injury. Prayed for <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Fatima?src=hash”>#Fatima</a> kids intercession. Miracle. <br><br>Today, he's fine. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/EWTN?src=hash”>#EWTN</a> <a href=”https://t.co/zxxrQeUAzf”>pic.twitter.com/zxxrQeUAzf</a></p>&mdash; Alan Holdren (@AlanHoldren) <a href=”https://twitter.com/AlanHoldren/status/862728805336715265″>May 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

“The next day we called the Carmelite convent of Campo Mouro to ask the sisters to pray for the boy,” he said. But the community was observing a period of silence, and so the message did not get to them.

As the days went by, Lucas became worse, his father recounted. On March 6, the doctors considered transferring him to another hospital, since their facility did not have the necessary care for a boy of his age.

“They told us that the chance of the boy surviving was low, and if he did survive, his recovery would be very slow,” likely dealing with “severe cognitive disabilities or even remaining in a vegetative state.”

On March 7, Batista said, “we called the convent again.” That time, they were able to get their prayer request to the sisters.

“One of them ran to the relics of Blessed Francisco and Jacinta, which were next to the tabernacle, and felt the impulse to pray the following prayer: ‘Shepherds, save this child, who is a child like you’…she also persuaded the other sisters to pray to the little shepherds to intercede for him.”

“And so they did,” Batista said. “In the same way, all of us, the family, began to pray to the little shepherds, and two days later, on March 9, Lucas woke up and began to speak, even asking for his little sister.” On the 11th, he left the ICU and was discharged from the hospital a few days later.

Since that time, Lucas “has been completely well and has no symptoms or after effects,” the child’s father said. “He has the same intelligence (as he did before the accident), the same character, everything is the same.”

“The doctors, some of them non-believers, said that his recovery had no explanation.”

Batista and his wife are grateful to the doctors who cared for their son, and to the postulator of the canonization cause of the little shepherds, “for all the care given throughout this process.”

But they are especially grateful to God. “We thank God for the cure of Lucas and we know with all the faith we have in our hearts, that this miracle was obtained through the intercession of the little shepherds Francisco and Jacinta.”

“We feel a great joy because this is the miracle that leads to their canonization, but especially we feel the blessing of the friendship of these two children who helped our child and who now help our family,” Batista said.

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