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STATUE ON TOUR
By LINDA M. LINONIS
austintown
The message of the mira- cle at Fatima is founded on three directives — prayer, penance and reparation.
The traveling United Nations International Pilgrim Virgin Statue will be featured at sites in Mahoning, Portage and Trumbull counties during a five-day tour from Wednesday through Sunday.
Katie Moran and her mother, Dorothy Kolenich, are co-chairwomen of the World Apostolate of Fatima, Warren/Youngstown Division. Kolenich is a member of St. Mary Church in Warren and Moran belongs to St. Anne Byzantine Church in Austintown, where the statue will first be displayed.
The statue, the women said, is one of four hand-carved solid cedar statues crafted by Jose Thedein, and blessed by Pope Pius XII on May 13, 1947.
The bishop of Fatima sent the statues out into the world to spread the message of Fatima.
The 4-foot statue that will be in the area was originally brought to the United States on Dec. 8, 1952, for the United Nations.
“The interesting thing about the statue is that you can’t get your ‘fill’ of it,” Moran said.
People can look at other statues or religious icons and appreciate them and that’s enough. With this statue, Moran said, people don’t want to look away.
“By coming to see the statue, people can seek the physical blessings they need,” Kolenich said.
The Rev. Richard Whetstone, pastor of St. Anne, added that he and others have witnessed the change in expression on the face of the statue.
“People can come and see the statue and experience the love of the mother of God,” he said.
A sister statue of this one toured the area twice — 1983 and 1986, Moran said. People were anxious to see it, Kolenich said.
She acknowledged the change and decrease in church membership and attendance overall and wondered what the impact of the statue’s tour would be.
“People really need to see it,” she said, citing that the need for the Blessed Virgin’s help in these troubled social and economic times.
“We hope people come out to see the statue.”
Father Whetstone said the miracle at Fatima was the repeated apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children, L ∫cia dos Santos, 10, and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto.
The apparitions took place at Cova da Iria near the children’s home village of Fatima in Portugal.
There were six appearances of the Blessed Virgin in 1917 — the first was May 13 and the last Oct. 13; all were on the 13th of the month except in August when the apparition was Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption.
The children had been prevented from going to Cova da Iria on Aug. 13 by officials who thought the children’s story was disruptive.
The Marto siblings died as a result of the 1918 influenza epidemic; Lucia (1907-2005) became Sister Mary Lucy of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart and was a Roman Catholic Discalced Carmelite nun.
Kolenich said the World Apostolate was previously known as the Blue Army. It was founded in 1946 by the Rev. Harold V. Colgan, a priest of St. Mary Church in Plainfield, N.J.
Moran said that the directives of prayer, penance and reparation are summed up in reciting the rosary daily as a devotion to the Blessed Virgin, wearing a scapular (a cloth with a religious image) as another sign of consecration to the Blessed Virgin and offering up one’s daily duties.
“It’s doing this with a joyful heart,” Moran said. “God will bless the world if we stop sinning.”
Moran said the Blessed Virgin also revealed three secrets to the children of Fatima.
One was a vision of hell with devils and demons and another was the prediction of World War I and II and the conversion of Communist Russia.
These were revealed in 1941.
The third secret, to be disclosed in 1960, was not made public until 2000. It relates to turmoil within the church.
Moran also talked about the “miracle of the sun” that took place Oct. 13, 1917.
She said the day was rainy but at noon, “the sun danced across the sky” and “spun off different colors.”
The sun seemed to get closer to earth, Moran said, then went back into the heavens.
“It wasn’t mass hysteria,” she said, adding that those at the cova were drenched before then dry afterward.
Miracles such as the blind seeing and the deafing hearing occurred, she said.
Moran was in a History Channel special in 2009 on Fatima; she also broadcasts at noon Saturdays on www.radiomaria.us. She speaks to local organizations about Fatima.