As Fatima Anniversary Nears, Thousands Flock to NJ Shrine
by Jeff Diamant
Saturday October 13, 2007, 7:20 AM
Thousands are expected to gather today at a Catholic shrine in Warren County to celebrate the 90th anniversary of what they regard as a miracle: sightings of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, by three shepherd children in 1917.
There's some added buzz this year: Last month, late one afternoon at the shrine, known as the National Blue Army Shrine, some people in a the crowd of 1,000 reported seeing the sun change colors and dance in the sky.
Some claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary and Jesus in the sun; others, the letter M. The crowd, most of them Filipino-Americans, had come to the shrine in honor of the birth of Mary, which Catholics celebrate on Sept. 8.
So far, chatter about the Sept. 8 events has been largely limited to word-of-mouth, a Spanish-language magazine, and a radio station. People have been calling the shrine each day to ask about what happened, said Michael La Corte, executive director at the National Blue Army Shrine, located off Route 31 in Washington Township.
"We have no expectations" of similar visions occurring (today)," said Michael La Corte, executive director at the National Blue Army Shrine, located off Route 31 in Washington Township. "We have no understanding of what happened in the first place."
La Corte, who was not at the shrine on Sept. 8.
The Portuguese shepherd children - Lucia Santos and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto - had said they saw visions of Mary, and heard essential messages from her about the world, on the 13th day of each month in 1917, from May to September. On Oct. 13 of that year, a crowd of about 70,000 gathered for what the children said would be the sixth appearance. Many who were there reported seeing the sun change colors and dart around the sky.
Metuchen Bishop Paul Bootkoski, who was not at the Warren County shrine on Sept. 8, is sending the reports to the Vatican to help determine whether the diocese should further investigate, said Joanne Ward, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic diocese of Metuchen.
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