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 The Vatican has recently announced that Pope Francis has added a brief visit to Fatima when he goes to Portugal in August to attend the 2023 World Youth Day. On Saturday, August 5th Pope Francis will go to Fatima from Lisbon by helicopter in order to pray for an end to the war in Ukraine. This will be his second papal visit to Fatima. His previous visit was on May 12, 2017. Various stories of Vatican diplomatic efforts to help end the war in Ukraine have appeared in the news for some time. Most have reported little progress. Perhaps Pope Francis is trying to get a little additional help by visiting Fatima. It would be good of us to help his efforts! Vatican News had an interesting article on the upcoming visit which can be viewed at: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-07/pope-francis-portugal-fatima-second-visit-peace-ukraine.html . The official Papal schedule is listed below. Remember the time listed are those in Europe which is a good 6 to 9 hours ahead of US time zones. So, most of us will be asleep while some of these events are occurring. It will be interesting to see how much coverage this gets in our news stations. Saturday, 5 August 2023 LISBON - FATIMA - LISBON 08:00 Departure by helicopter from Figo Maduro Air Base in Lisbon to Fatima 08:50 Arrival at Fatima Stadium 09:30 RECITATION OF THE HOLY ROSARY WITH SICK YOUNG PEOPLE at the Chapel of Apparitions of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima 11:00 Departure by helicopter from Fatima Stadium to Lisbon 11:50 Arrival at Figo Maduro Air Base in Lisbon 18:00 PRIVATE MEETING WITH MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS at “Colégio de S. João de Brito” 20:45 VIGIL WITH YOUNG PEOPLE at “Parque Tejo” |
