PLYMOUTH — One hundred years ago, three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, encountered Mary, the Mother of God.

It was from those blessed apparitions that a worldwide devotion to Our Lady of Fatima spread.

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the “Miracle of the Sun,” which culminated the Virgin’s appearances when thousands of witnesses saw the sun dance in the sky on Oct. 13, 1917, Catholics from across the Archdiocese of Detroit gathered to reflect on the Fatima message.

“Fatima is the most urgent, profound, beyond-a-doubt Marian apparition in the Catholic Church,” said William Thomas of Newman College in Ballyelly, Northern Ireland, during the Our Lady of Fatima 100th Anniversary Conference at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth.

Our Lady of Good Counsel, as well as St. Mary Parish in St. Clair and the World Apostolate of Fatima Detroit Archdiocesan Division in Riverview, were among various parishes and groups across the archdiocese hosting special events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the apparitions.

“Mariology, in all its complexity, is woven into a language of love and can be simple to understand by children,” Thomas said during his talk, Fatima: Actualities and Events, 1917-2017. “In Fatima, Our Lady preached the call to conversion after a century that featured 241 major wars across the world and on the cusp of two major wars that cost millions of lives.”

The conference, Oct. 13-14, featured a Marian procession, two recitings of the rosary and four Masses, along with a series of speakers highlighting the importance of Fatima’s message.

“The message of Fatima, with calls to prayer, sacrifice, devotion, and especially the rosary, is a synthesis of Mariology,” Thomas said. “In Sacred Scripture, God seeks out men and women to save the city of men. In Fatima, God uses three children to relay the message from Our Lady of a call to conversion and a consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”

Our Lady of Good Counsel’s pastor, Fr. John Riccardo, celebrated the opening Mass and gave the opening talk, Have Nothing to Do with the Dragon.

With older students from Our Lady of Good Counsel School in attendance, Fr. Riccardo used the school’s Crusaders logo as an example for how Mary is preparing her children for spiritual battle.

“I do not want to scare you, but you are in a war, you are in a fight, you are in a battle, and the devil; he’s playing to win,” Fr. Riccardo said. “St. Paul says we need to put on our armor and prepare for spiritual warfare. That logo you see on the basketball floor isn’t a logo; it’s a mission statement.”

Fr. Riccardo told the students, and the rest of the estimated 1,000 attendees, how the call to Fatima is a call to spiritual arms given to children.

“These kids played, they told jokes, they were normal kids; they were a lot like you,” Fr. Riccardo said. “These kids had a big heart, and like all kids, they recognized what’s wrong. These children saw people in hell. They began doing little acts of penance, small acts for the sake of others, because they didn’t want people to go to hell.”

Fr. Riccardo reiterated Mary’s call to holiness, warning attendees that the devil is real, and they must be prepared to resist evil.



“Every one of us will die,” Fr. Riccardo said. “When we’re judged, we will stand in front of two faces. And they will only say one word: ‘Mine.’

“Start praying the rosary now, pray for peace; decide to be a saint,” Fr. Riccardo said. “Decide today to live that life, to live like these children.”

Robert Fastiggi, professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, made the Carmelite connection to the message of Fatima.

Fastiggi said the prophet Elijah had defended the faith on Mt. Carmel in Palestine, and while on the mountain, a great rain cloud off in the sea was to signify the end of a great drought, a foreshadowing of Mary.

“The Carmelite order in the 13th century saw this story from 1 Kings as a sign of the Blessed Mother,” Fastiggi said. “They saw the symbol of a young woman as a cloud, coming to end the drought.”

This allegory of Mary as the needed raincloud is repeated at Fatima, only this time, Mary comes as the sun, Fastiggi said.

“At Fatima, she is the sun that dries up the water from the flood of sin,” Fastiggi said. “Both are signs of hope. Mind you, some 70,000 people saw the sun dance at Fatima. They saw the sun spinning, all these different colors. On Oct. 13, Mary said she’d work a miracle. There have been a lot of attempts to explain the miracle, but none can answer why it occurred on that day, the day Mary promised it’d happen.”

Sr. Irenaeus, OP, of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, spoke about the Saturday devotions inspired by Fatima.

“All penance is the call of Jesus, a call that’s meant to turn us away from sin and toward God,” Sr. Irenaeus said. “Sins are wounds, a breach of love. Through repentance, the Church through the power of the cross can forgive sins.”

Sr. Irenaeus discussed how the three Fatima children would engage in small acts of penance, from not complaining when they endured hardships to tying a rope tightly around their waist so they’d experience constant discomfort on behalf of people they knew who were unrepentant.



“When the children saw hell, they saw it was awful, and they didn’t want anyone to go,” Sr. Irenaeus said. “So they began to pray for people and do penance; to give up suffering to God for the sake of penance.”

Sr. Irenaeus recommended attendees take up the Five First Saturdays devotion, where for five first Saturdays of the month, the devotee goes to confession, receives Holy Communion, prays the rosary and allocates 15 minutes to meditation.

“These three children spoke to Mary, but still felt the need to go to church, where Jesus was most present,” Sr. Irenaeus said. “In Fatima, these three children saw incredible images, seeing Our Lady in apparitions, and it led to a total response of love.

“Jesus came to us through Mary, so we must go through Mary to get to Jesus,” Sr. Irenaeus said. “Our response must be the same as Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia. It will look different, but we must respond the same. We must become saints.”

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