Fatima, Portugal, May 14, 2010 / 07:01 am
Fr. Federico Lombardi, the spokesman for the Vatican, said it was not a surprise that hundreds of thousands of people were in Fatima for Pope Benedict's Mass at Fatima yesterday. He recognized a "vitality" in the response and commented on the Holy Father's observation that the prophetic mission of Fatima is not complete.
Estimates put the number of pilgrims in Fatima for Wednesday morning's Mass at around half a million between those who filled the enormous esplanade that sprawls before the Church of the Most Holy Trinity and the tens of thousands of others who joined in from the adjacent streets.
"The crowd of about 500,000 faithful that have participated this morning in the Mass celebrated by the Pope on the esplanade of the Shrine of Fatima is not a surprise," said Fr. Lombardi in an Avvenire newspaper report. He added, "for the Christian people, Papal trips are always occasion for a great mobilization."
Fr. Lombardi noted that there were more people there than in the times of John Paul II, who also was joined by thousands of pilgrims on May 13, 2000 when he celebrated the beatification Mass for Jacinta and Francisco and on two other occasions.