FATIMA, Portugal, APRIL 29, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The room at the Fatima shrine where Benedict XVI will stay next month — as his predecessor did in 2000 — is a simple one-bedroom apartment that boasts nothing special.
Nossa Senhora do Carmo House, which belongs to the Fatima shrine, will house the Holy Father during his pilgrimage this May 12-13.
According to the shrine’s press office, Benedict XVI will stay on the second floor in the same rooms John Paul II used in the year 2000. It is a simple one bedroom apartment, with a bathroom, small office and small living room.
The apartment looks out on an interior patio and is very similar to other apartments of the house, where some of the shrine’s chaplains reside or others involved in temporary service. Also housed in these apartments are groups of pilgrims on retreat or faithful who go to Fatima for meetings organized by movements and institutions of the Church.
The Vatican services responsible for the organization of papal visits have not asked for any special condition, either for accommodation or meals.
The Holy Father will arrive in Fatima by helicopter, landing at 5:10 p.m. on May 12. He will stay in Nossa Senhora do Carmo House until 8 a.m. on May 14, when he will bid the city farewell.
Lucia Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, saw Our Lady in a series of apparitions in Fatima that took place from May 13 to Oct. 17, 1917.
