Thirty-One Years Later, Fatima Pilgrimage 2023 was a Great Success

by Admin · May 15, 2023

Manny de Freitas, the parish youth group leader at Blessed Sacrament parish in Malvern East who started the pilgrimages 31 years ago, stands with Jeanette de Freitas who was a youth group member at the time, at the stand securing the statue of our Lady of Fatima.

The annual Fatima pilgrimage hosted by the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Malvern East, Ekurhuleni took place on Saturday, 13 May 2023. Hundreds of mainly Catholics took to the Johannesburg streets again and completed an on-foot 2-hour pilgrimage. This year marks 31 years since the first pilgrimage, which took place in 1992, organised by the parish youth group with only about 50 young people from the parish participating in the pilgrimage.

This pilgrimage on foot celebrates the apparitions of the Mother of Jesus to three shepherd children in the hamlet of Fatima in Portugal. The first of 6 apparitions took place on May 13, 1917. During these apparitions, Mary under the title of “Our Lady, Queen of the Rosary” appealed for prayer, conversion and peace in the world.

Pilgrims receive communion at the Mass after the conclusion of the Fatima Pilgrimage

“Since these apparitions, millions of people have changed their lives positively and come to practice the messages of Fatima,” explained the co-convenor of the pilgrimage, Manny de Freitas. He said that because these apparitions took place in Portugal, the Portuguese community have a special devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima.

To mark the Fatima Marian apparitions, the Blessed Sacrament parish in Malvern East, led by parish priest Fr Andrew Knott OMI, undertook a pilgrimage on foot. For the second year, and as a departure from all the previous years, not only did St Joseph join the pilgrimage in the form of an additional statue, but the route was different from previous pilgrimages. This year the pilgrimage started at the church and concluded at the church with Holy Mass.