(ZENIT News – Porta Luz / Fatima, 06.11.2024).- Sister Angela Coelho, born in Portugal, grew up linked to the devotion and spirituality that flows from the events that occurred in Fatima more than 100 years ago, with the apparitions of an Angel, the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus to three little shepherds. Apparitions and messages that continue to nourish the spiritual life of many faithful. But its relevance also occurs due, in part, to the prophetic influence of those messages
We talked about this with Sister Angela Coelho, who was the Postulator of the Causes of Canonization of Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco Marto, and above all because of her personal link with Sister Lucia of Fatima. Today Sister Angela works to obtain from Heaven and the Church something that for her is an evident truth: Sister Lucia of Fatima’s sanctity.
Q: You are the Postulator of the Cause of Canonization of Sister Lucia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos (Sister Lucia of Fatima). She died in 2005 . . . Did you have the opportunity to know her before her death? How did that meeting impact your life?
A: Yes, I had the opportunity to meet her on five occasions between 2001 and 2004. What impressed me most was the sanctity of her life. Her very normal, very natural style made me understand that holiness isn’t something that transforms one into an odd person. She was a very concrete person of our time.
One of the things that most impressed me was a visit she had from an important gentleman of the United States, who had many requests and questions, above all requests for Sister Lucia for one or another intention. And she always answered him: “I pray, but you also must pray the Rosary every day. In face of all requests, that was her answer. Then I said to myself . . . if this woman, who knows much more than we do, insists that we pray the Rosary every day, this prayer must have something that is very important.
Q: Of the personal documents written by Sister Lucia that you know of today, and which are not of public access . . . Please, can you refer to one of them that you consider of high value for the process of canonization of the little shepherdess?
A: Well, I cannot talk about the documents that have not yet been published. But I can mention (that they show) her immense love for the Eucharistic Jesus, for the Virgin, for the Heart of Mary and her great love for her brothers and sisters who wrote to her asking for prayers. So Sister Lucia is truly a woman who intercedes, who prays a lot for us.
Q: The revelations that are attributed to an Angel, to the Virgin, to Jesus which occurred in Fatima and other places, are stories of Lucia. What are the main arguments of the Authorities of the Church to declare as credible the apparitions and revelations that Sister Lucia attests?
A: In the first place, the contents of the messages are all coherent with the public revelation and the Doctrine of the Church. There is nothing, nothing in the Virgin’s sayings that is contrary to the Doctrine (of the Church). Moreover, the conduct of the visionaries was always morally very faithful to the teachings of the Church and also very obedient to the Church. However, a very important sign to approve the apparitions was the miracle of the sun that the three little shepherds anticipated three months before, which 70,000 people saw and in their (thousands) of testimonies said they saw.
Q: Please mention a personal experience or that of third parties that have convinced you that Sister Lucia of Fatima is a Saint.
A: Reading her texts, I am personally convinced of her high level of sanctity surrendered for us. But there are also stories of many graces – none has characteristics of a miracle – that prove to me how people go to Lucia to ask for something, trusting in her intercessory power.
Q: Did Sister Lucia have doubts about the veracity of the apparitions and the revelations received? Why did she doubt? How did she resolve these doubts?
A: It happened briefly between Jjne and July of 1917. People who said to her that it was all a deception and she doubted at times. She resolved these doubts because Jacinta and Francisco prayed a lot for her.
Q: As Postulator are you already informed about some possible miracles that are attributed to God’s extraordinary mercy through Sister Lucia of Fatima’s intercession?
A: There are no miracles yet.
Q: Was the reality of sexual abuses, of conscience and power attributed to members of the clergy, warned about in some way in the Fatima messages or in some writings of Sister Lucia of Fatima?
A: In no Fatima message or writing of Sister Lucia is there any warning on this subject.
Q: Sister Lucia and the events linked to Fatima seem far from our time. What is there relevance? Is there a Fatima spirituality that speaks to today’s young people?
A: The very self-referential characteristic of our society, very isolated, much affected by loneliness; with fear of existence, of what happens daily, delinquency, health, economic problems, the future. In face of these things, Fatima offers as a gift sent from Heaven the answers to be able to cure these wounds and asks us for commitment. For instance, in the face of self-referentiality, the Angel and the Virgin talked of Adoration, of putting God at the center. Moreover, in face of fear of existence and loneliness, Fatima offers Mary’s Heart as refuge and way to reach God and, as the Church teaches, Fatima says that you have a family, that you don’t walk alone and that this Church is your family.
When one looks at the Virgin’s requests, such as praying the Rosary , the First Saturdays, Eucharistic Adoration it’s obvious that Fatima is more relevant today than 100 years ago.
Q: In one of your conferences broadcast on YouTube in 2023, speaking of the third secret of Fatima and, concretely, the death of the “Bishop dressed in white”, which referred to a Pope, you pointed out: “The Church’s pilgrimage has not yet ended, that is why the third secret is open. In this sense, It’s not fulfilled. What’s going to happen to the Pope? I don’t know that, if it has been fulfilled or not as I believe that it is still open” . . . In your opinion should we still hope in the fulfilment of the prophecy of that third secret of Fatima, which shows the death by martyrdom of a Pope?
A: Well, I don’t know what the Lord will do. When I said that it is open it’s not that a Pope is literally going to die in a violent way, but that he continues suffering and, with him, many people suffer. It is in this sense that the secret of Fatima continues open.
Q: Francisco wanted to console God, Jacinta offered herself for sinners . . . and Sister Lucia? What could be the seal of her spiritual identity?
A: I think it’s her surrender for the Church in obedience. Obedience up to death and death on a cross, as talked about in the Letter to the Hebrews. A woman totally obedient to the Church, who gives herself for the Church through her prayers and sacrifices. Also a sister we have in Heaven from whence she intercedes for us as she also did on earth.
Article published originally in PortaLuz.
