Catholic Vancouver April 11, 2024
Fatima statue tour extended to include Tuesday visit to Chilliwack
By Nicholas Elbers
The statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which was supposed to end its visit to the Archdiocese of the Vancouver on Monday, is remaining for an extra day.
The statue will be at St Mary's Church in Chilliwack on Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. See schedule below.
After a lifetime of devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and travelling Marian statues, a Surrey pastor was excited to welcome one of 13 official Fatima Pilgrim Virgin Statues to his Surrey parish this month.
Precious Blood pastor Father Ray Usman’s devotion to Our Lady of Fatima started as a child growing up in the Philippines. Families in his neighbourhood had a travelling Marian statue that would stay for a week at each house. Families would gather at the house and pray the Rosary together.
“It sticks in my mind,” he told The B.C. Catholic. “We would kneel down together. My father would lead the Rosary.”
Ultimately, that’s where Father Usman learned to pray the Rosary.
“Growing up, I loved to read the lives of saints,” he said, among them the visionaries of Fatima. “The three children recognized that the souls going to hell and purgatory had no one to pray for them. They decided to offer sacrifices for the souls.”
Inspired by their story, he began to think, “Maybe I could do that also.”
When he reached high school, Father Usman continued the family tradition and joined a youth movement that promoted Marian devotion at the school. The group supported seminarians who came to teach catechism and how to pray the Rosary. The club also maintained a travelling statue of the Blessed Virgin that visited each classroom.
When he heard that Vancouver coordinator Ethelyn David was sponsoring the Fatima Pilgrim Virgin Statue for a pilgrimage across the Lower Mainland, he contacted her and told her, “I want Our Lady to visit our parish!”
David had been looking for larger parishes to host the statue, but Father was persistent. After some back-and-forth, it was agreed that the Blessed Virgin would visit Precious Blood on the first day of its travels: Easter Monday.
“Give us that date,” he told David. “The Virgin Mother wants to visit our parish!”
This will be the second time a travelling Marian statue has visited one of his parishes. The statue stayed for a week when he was an assistant pastor in the Philippines at a parish called Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Father Usman said a couple in the parish community were praying to have a son. He recalls telling them to pray before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. A year later, they had a healthy baby boy.
Father Usman says Our Lady of Fatima and her messages are ideal for Lent. “Prayer in addition to sacrifice can have a large impact,” he said. But it should only be a start.
“It’s not just giving up,” he said. “What do you want to give to the Lord?”
In addition to offering things up, Father Usman suggests being charitable, with more acts of kindness or words of encouragement.
The official Fatima Pilgrim Virgin Statue has been touring parishes across the Lower Mainland since April 1.
The original statue was blessed by Pope Pius XI on Oct. 24, 1952, to send it on its mission of travelling the world and encouraging devotion among the faithful to the Blessed Virgin, praying the Rosary, and offering penance for the world’s sins. Since its blessing, it has travelled across North and South America, Europe, Russia, and even China.
In 1981, at the request of Sister Lucy of Fatima, the statue was brought to her convent in Coimbra, Portugal. Apparently, on that occasion, she remarked on the statue’s similarity to the actual apparition of Our Lady.
The statues have a reputation for helping to bring about many spiritual and physical cures and catalyzing the return to the faith of many lapsed Catholics.
Official itinerary:
- Monday, April 1 - Precious Blood, Surrey
- April 2 - St. Paul, Richmond
- April 3 - St. Edmund, North Vancouver
- April 4 - St. Patrick, Vancouver
- April 5 - Our Lady of Fatima, Coquitlam
- April 6 - Our Lady of Mercy, Burnaby
- April 7 - Canadian Martyrs, Richmond
- April 8 - Immaculate Conception, North Delta
- April 9 - Holy Rosary Cathedral
- April 10 - St. Casimir, Vancouver
- April 11 - Corpus Christi, Vancouver
- April 12 - St. Jude, Vancouver
- April 13 - St. Anthony, West Vancouver (rescheduled)
- April 14 - Our Lady of Fatima, Vancouver
- April 15 - St. James, Abbotsford