Our Lady of Fatima has traveled the world for 70 years and touched millions of hearts. The statue itself is delicate, but her message of peace is unbreakable.
Father Kevin Kilgore can’t be too careful. He’s been trusted with taking this statue of Our Lady of Fatima from the shrine of the Marian apparition in Portugal all the way to his parish of St. Pius X in Old Tappan, New Jersey.
“She’s in been in war zones, she’s been in places of peace, she’s been in grand cathedrals, she’s been in Rome and over 70 years it’s the faith of our Church,” said Fr. Kilgore.
Fr. Kilgore and Ricardo Casimiro led a group of nearly 30 parishioners on a pilgrimage to Fatima to bring the statue back, husband and wife Mitchell and Christine Arthur were there, Christine says she came back changed.
“It also made me really want to spread her message, I was always more of a quiet prayer, keep it to myself but now I really want it to be out there,” said Christine.
In 1917, three shepherd children saw the Blessed Mother before them in the town of Fatima, Portugal. A church and shrine were built around the exact location of the vision and today it’s one of the most popular Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world.
Fr. Kilgore said the hope for this pilgrimage is that it will touch young people ahead of World Youth Day in Lisbon this summer.
“This would become an opportunity to support young people who can become leaders in our church so we wanted to invest in them and give them the experience of grace, of faith, of an international church and bring that back to their parishes,” he said.
The statue will leave St. Pius X on Monday and travel to 13 other parishes across the Archdiocese of Newark before making its way back to Portugal at the end of the month.