In Spain, the place where Our Lady of Fatima visited Sister Lucia dos Santos at Pontevedra is in a dilapidated state. In this place, Our Lady requested for the first five Saturday devotion, in reparation to her Immaculate Heart.
This special place, where Sister Lucia Stayed, after the Apparitions at Fatima needs special attention.
According to CNA, Father Luis Manuel Romero, the delegate of the Spanish Bishops' Conference said “It’s a shame that such a special place is in this state.”
The architects in charge of the renovation project said that the wood used as a Pillar for the Roof is rotting water leaks and they are suffering Fungal attack, so “the structure must be changed and waterproofed.”
In addition, in a substructure “the supports on the stone walls are deteriorated,” which is why it “has rained inside the shrine,” the priest lamented.
To address the situation, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference has acquired ownership of the place, which until a year ago was owned by the World Apostolate of Fatima in Spain.
Romero told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister news agency, that it is hoped the first phase of the restoration work “will be completed in October.” This includes the most pressing task, which is “to put the new roof on and to redo the floor in the cell of the apparitions.”
“A chapel will be built larger” than the existing one, he said, which will include the cell where one can venerate the exact place where, on Dec. 10, 1925, the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus appeared to Sister LucÃa.
Need for financing
The repair project has an estimated cost of about $900,000, of which only about $200,000 had been collected, an amount that won’t cover even the first phase of the work needed to be done. In addition, another $200,000 must be raised to pay for taxes not foreseen in the first estimate.
According to ACI Prensa, if funding is not obtained for this first phase, the project will not commence.
Currently, donations is being sought through various foundations as well as public institutions like the regional government of Galicia, but there are private benefactors, who are supporting this cause too.
There is a major Crowd funding Website - www.santuariodelasapariciones.org, for donations to execute the Project. This website was launched by a group of lay people in Pontevedra, who were encouraged by Father Javier Siegrist, the pastor of Holy Christ of Mercy parish in Boadilla del Monte in the Diocese of Getafe, Spain.
We in Catholic Gist Int'l had always pushed for the propagation of the message of Our Lady of Fatima and we urge everyone to assist in this great Project, not because of the promises of the Blessed Virgin Mary to us, but because we in our own little way should reciprocate her love for humanity.
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