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Friday, February 25, 2005
Thousands of mourners pay tribute to nun killed in Brazil
WORSHIPPERS SURROUND the casket of Carmelite Sister Lucia dos Santos as it leaves the Coimbra cathedral following her funeral in central Portugal February 15. Sister Lucia, the last of three children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary at Fatima, died February 13 at age 97. (CNS photo from Reuters)
Bishops join papal envoy to celebrate funeral of Sister Lucia COIMBRA, Portugal (CNS) - Most of Portugal's bishops joined Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa, the papal envoy, in concelebrating the funeral Mass for Carmelite Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last of three Fatima visionaries. Sister Lucia died February 13 in her cloistered convent in Coimbra, Portugal, at the age of97. After the February 15 Mass in the Coimbra cathedral, she was to be buried temporarily at the Carmelite convent while preparations were made for final burial alongside her two cousins, Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. On May 13, 1917 - when Lucia was 10 years old, Francisco was nine and Jacinta was seven - the children claimed to have seen the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, near their home. The apparitions continued once a month until October 1917, and later were declared worthy of 00liefby the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo of Lisbon, Portugal, told reporters before the funeral: "Fatima has lost the simple and direct witness of its last protagonist. Now it is up to us to consolidate this great message of faith." Pope John Paul II sent a message, which was read at the funeral, saying, "I remember with emotion the various meetings I had with her and the bonds of spiritual friendship that intensified with the passing of time. "I always felt supported by the daily gift of her prayers, especially in difficult moments of trial and suffering," the pope' wrote. "May the Lord repay her abundantly for the great and hidden service she gave the Church," the pope wrote in the message, re-
leased February 15 at the Vatican. Cardinal Policarpo delivered the homily at the funeral, calling it "a special occasion because Sister Lucia was special." The cardinal said the "extraordinary" gift Sister Lucia received of seeing and hearing the Blessed Virgin Mary would have had no meaning if Sister Lucia had not listened and lived the call to conversion and to following Jesus Christ at every moment of her life. In the same way, he said, the extraordinary grace given to all the baptized is meaningless if they do not allow it to make a difference in their lives. "God calls us and trusts us to fulfill our mission. Lucia recounts in her memoirs the apparition of the Madonl1a with the SImplicity of a child. They received the totally unexpected visions as a mission, as something specific Our Lady was asking them to do," he said. Sister Lucia's specific mission, the cardinal said, was to be "the spokeswoman, the messenger of the revelation. Francisco was a contemplative, he liked to be in silence. Jacinta, in the joy of her childhood, almost never spoke." "Lucia was always faithful to her mission to spread the message of Fatima, which challenges people to penance, conversion and contemplation," Cardinal Policarpo said. The cardinal said, "We are moved today, not so much because of her death, but because today between Fatima and heaven a new bridge has been built." Pope John Paul had asked Cardinal Bertone to preside in his name at the nun's funeral. The cardinal, former secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, met with Sister Lucia and discussed the appari-
tions with her several times in preparation for the 2000 publication of the so-called "third secret of Fatima." Born March 22, 1907, in Aljustrel near Fatima, she and her cousins were caring. for their family's sheep May 13, 1917.After reciting the rosary at midday, the children saw a "woman brighter than the sun" holding a rosary in her hand. The woman told them they must pray much and they must return to that spot at the same hour on the 13th of each month. With some 70,000 gathered around the children Oct. 15,1917 - what was to be the final apparition - the woman told the three youngsters that she was Our Lady of the Rosary and asked that a chapel be built in her honor. The three children had not been to school and could not read and write at the time of the apparitions. Lucia first went to school in 1921. In 1928, she took first vows as a Religious of St. Dorothy and made her perpetual vows in 1934. She transferred to the Coimbra Carmel in 1948. In the late 1930s, Sister Lucia made public the first two parts of the messages from Mary, which the children had kept secret. The first two parts included a vision of hell shown to the children, along with prophecies concerning the outbreak ofWorld War II; the rise of communism and the ultimate triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, including a triumph over Russia if the country were consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. Sister Lucia continued having visions of the Virgin Mary and hearing messages from her as late as the 1980s and perhaps beyond, the archbishop said in 2000.
SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNS)- Dorothy worked in rural Brazil, deMore than 2,000 mourners fol- fending the rights of poor peasants. lowed the casket carrying U.S. This fight made her many enemies, missionary Sister Dorothy Stang as including some of the wealthy resiit wound through the streets of the dents of Anapu. Recently the musmall village of Anapu, on the out- nicipal government declared her "persona non grata," stating her ~kirts of the Amazon jungle. Many mourners carried signs and post- work was hindering the region's ers demanding justice for the mur- development. Local media reported some scattered groups in the dered nun. Sister Dorothy, a 73路year-old city celebrated the nun's assassimember of the Sisters of Notre nation with fireworks. Those who attended the funeral Dame de Namur and an outspoken advocate for Brazilian peasants, expressed concern with the rising was shot several times in the chest tension between peasants and large and head February 12. She was landowners. Brazil sent some buried February 15 on Church- 2,000 troops to the Amazon state owned land near the Anapu River, of Para February 16 after a fourwhere she had created an environ- day string of deaths that included mental project for peasants of the those of Sister Dorothy, a union leader and two workers involved region. Members of the Brazilian bish- in land reform. Brazilian officials said they ops' Pastoral 'Land Commission would accelsaid her work erate agrarian had put her at reform in the odds with region, prioriland barons tizing the susand powerful tainable deeconomic velopment groups. That, model desaid officials, fended by Sisis what eventer Dorothy. tually got her The governkilled. ment also anEven benounced it fore the fuwas analyzing neral, thouthe requests sands of visifor federal tors paid their protection for respects to the key environnun from mental and Dayton, Ohio. social leaders After the fuin the area. neral, they The Pasplaced on top toral Land of her tomb a Commission mahogany NOTRE DAME de Namur said Sister tree that Sister Dorothy had Sister Dorothy Stang was as- Dorothy had nursed. Ma- sassinated February 12 in been receivhogany is one Brazil's Amazon rain forest, ing death of the species where she worked to defend threats for on the verge land rights for rural peasants. nearly four years due to of extinction (CNS photo from Reuters) her activities in the region, in favor of and the tree was said to represent the environ- rural workers. The nun had inmentalists' fight to preserve the formed authorities numerous times of these threats, but never rain forest. Representatives ofthe Brazilian received police protection, said bishops and the Brazilian Congress a commission statement. The last time she went to auwere among those who attended the funeral. Members of the Notre 'thorities was February 9. "If the life of a defenseless reliDame de Namur Sisters' leadership team, who had been meeting gious is taken in this manner, how in Peru, also attended the funeral. will the peasants be treated?" The Brazilian bishops' confer- asked the commission. It said the ence released a note stating that killing could have been ordered by Sister Dorothy was yet "another powerful landowners with whom victim of the fight of the poor for Sister Dorothy had been at odds. Police have identified the gunland." The conference said the asmen and suspect two local ranchsassination of the missionary brought to the surface the urgency ers of ordering the killing. Sister Dorothy's murder came of finding solutions to "serious and shortly after the Brazilian governlong-lasting social debts, such as ment restored logging licenses for a true agrarian reform." As part of the bishops' Lenten parts of the Amazon. The licenses fraternity campaign on peace and had been suspended a year ago ali solidarity, Catholic communities part of an effort to stem deforestaaround the country planned ral- tion. Supporters of restoring the lilies in memory of Sister Dorothy, censes had blocked Amazon transwho had become a Brazilian citi- portation routes and threatened further violence if logging was not rezen. For nearly four decades, Sister stored.
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