Marco Carvalho
About a hundred faithful gathered at Saint Dominic’s Church last Wednesday afternoon to witness the beginning of the celebrations of the novena to Our Lady of Fatima. The nine days of devotional praying will culminate next Friday with a Mass presided over by Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-Sang, followed by the traditional pilgrimage to Our Lady of Penha Chapel. The pilgrimage will once again take the form of a motorcade, given the aggravation of the epidemic scenario in several cities of mainland China.
On Wednesday, the devotees who attended the recitation of the Rosary in Saint Dominic´s Church, which was followed by the Eucharist, prayed for the conversion of sinners, for world peace and for the end of the Covid-19 pandemic as well. The three petitions of supplication guide the overarching intentions of the nine-day novena. The nine days of devotional praying to Our Lady of Fatima, Father Luís Sequeira claims, is one of the manifestations that best define the religiosity and the sense of faith of Macau’s Catholic community. The Jesuit priest, who was the ecclesiastical assistant of the Congregation of Our Lady of Fatima for over a quarter century, believes that the relevance of the May 13th celebrations exceeds and outweighs the size of the relatively small Catholic community that lives and prays in Macau. Father Luís Sequeira, the former superior of the Society of Jesus in Macau, says, “In my opinion, the two great celebrations of the Christian community in Macau are the celebration of the Passion of Our Lord, followed by Lent and the Holy Week, and the celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.”
He adds, “What we can usually see is that it is not only the Christian community that takes part in these celebrations, but also non-Christian people or, at least, people that are not usually very connected to the Church. This aspect, it seems to me, is very relevant. It transforms us Catholics into beacons of faith in a society that, for the most part, is not Catholic at all.”
In the years before the Covid-19 pandemic upended life in Macau and in the neighboring regions, the procession of Our Lady of Fatima used to bring to Macau hundreds of Catholics, tourists and onlookers from countries and regions such as neighboring Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia and Singapore. The relevance of the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima led the Catholic Diocese of Macau, under the aegis of Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-sang, to take responsibility for the organization of both the novena and the procession. The decision, Father Luís Sequeira believes, acknowledges the importance that the local Catholic Church attaches to the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.
“In 2019, on the centenary of the Fatima apparitions, the bishop recognized that it was inevitable that, sooner or later, the diocese itself would have to assume the responsibility to maintain this practice and this devotion, always with the help of the congregation of Our Lady of Fatima, nevertheless. I would say that, in fact, from the beginning, adherence to this celebration has always been a very clear expression of the acceptance and the recognition of the devotion Our Lady of Fatima enjoys in Macau,” the Jesuit priest maintains.
A greater expression of faith
The procession of Our Lady of Fatima took place for the first time ever in Macau in 1929, thanks to the initiative of Father António Gonçalves Roliz. One year later, in 1930, the image of the Virgin took to the streets of the city and embarked on a pilgrimage to the Chapel of Our Lady of Penha.
Over the last nine decades, the novena and the procession to Our Lady of Fatima became for many local Catholics the most far-reaching expression of the Catholic faith in Macau. Judith Antunes, who on Wednesday was responsible for the recitation of the Rosary in Saint Dominic’s Church, claims that not even the Covid-19 pandemic has hindered the devotion and kinship that the local Catholics – and the Macanese community in particular – feel for the Virgin of Fatima. “As we are still facing the threat of the epidemic, the procession won’t take place. But we’re going to gather there, in Penha, where the consecration to Our Lady of Fatima will take place. We will do everything as we used to do. The only thing different is the fact that the procession won’t take place. It’s the only thing,” Mrs. Antunes explains. “In the Cathedral Church, we have the image of Our Lady of Fatima. This image was donated by Portugal to Macau on May 13th, 1943. Normally, Catholics from Hong Kong would also come to Macau to take part in the procession and Catholics from China as well. That was the custom. People from Macau, Hong Kong and China would gather here on May 13th,” Judith Antunes, for whom the full observance of the novena is seen as a spiritual obligation, recalls.
Cíntia Badaraco, who insists on attending the novena every year, shares the same fervent kinship to Our Lady of Fatima. Devoted to the Virgin of the Rosary of Fatima, Mrs. Badaraco asserts that the zeal and dedication is shared by the entire Catholic community of Macau. She says, “I come here every year. I have been taking part in the novena for many years now, and I intend to continue participating as long as I can. We all have a great faith in Our Lady of Fatima. I, personally, am very devoted to Our Lady of Fatima,” Mrs. Badaraco further tells O Clarim, “I attend both the novena and the procession. This year, once again, the procession won’t take place. Our Lady of Fatima will be taken to Penha Hill in a motorcade, and then we will pray the Rosary there.”
A major expression of faith, the procession of Our Lady of Fatima was included by the government in the list of Macau’s intangible heritage. The initiative – along with the awareness of the enormous tourist potential of the religious celebration, brought a new visibility to Marian devotion in Macau. The phenomenon does not disquiet Father Luís Sequeira, although it is important to ensure that faith does not give way to a celebration devoid of meaning. “The tourist aspect does not bother me, I must say. The procession is an open, more public expression. If it were to become just a demonstration, as if it was a show, it would be difficult for me to accept that. I hope that the deep devotion to Our Lady will not be lost as an expression of a sufficiently enlightened faith that transforms, in fact, the life of each and every one of us,” the former superior of the Society of Jesus in Macau says. Father Luís Sequeira goes on to tell O Clarim, “And it is in this sense that the novena is quite important, because it offers the Christian community, during nine days, a time of greater prayer, a time of greater penance and sacrifice, and also of service. It is something that is more intimate, more personal and more spiritual. The two sides, I think, are complementary.”
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