The World Apostolate of Fatima held an international theological-pastoral congress on “The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary”, Dec. 5 – 7, 2025, along with a pilgrimage to Pontevedra, Spain for the Dec. 10 opening celebrations of the centennial of the First Saturday Devotion. Members and friends of the WAF from 26 nations attended the event, including from the United States, Canada, Korea, Ukraine, Germany, United Kingdom, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Spain, Czech Republic and more.
The congress opened on Saturday, Dec. 6, with Most Rev. José Ornelas Carvalho, bishop of the diocese of Leiria-Fatima, who spoke on The Heart of God in Sacred Scripture. Biblically, the heart is a symbol of understanding, love, memory, discernment and intelligence, and as such, expresses the centrality and real identity of the human person, he said. To think with the heart means to perceive reality from within. Jesus’ Heart reveals where God is present; It identities the life of the Father within, with the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives us His Heart fully and completely from the Cross – love and mercy – a pure gift to all who will accept it. The punishment of God is when God is not there, noted Bishop José. “If you choose that He not be there in your humanity, when it passes away, what is left is what is not there, and it will be the fire of God’s justice.”
Other presenters included Dr. Teresa Messias from the Catholic University of Portugal, speaking on The Sacred Heart of Jesus in the History of the Church; Fr. Stefano Cecchin, O.F.M., President of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, on The Heart of Mary in the History of the Church, and Fr. Carlos Cabecinhas, Rector of the Shrine of Fatima, on The Immaculate Heart of Mary at Fatima.
Sister Angela de Fatima Coelho gave the keynote address on the final day: Consecration and Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sister Angela is the Vice Postulator of the Cause for Beatification and Canonization of Ven. Sister Lucia de Jesus, and is currently Superior General of the Congregation and Vice President of the Conference of Religious Institutes of Portugal.
She spoke of the meaning of reparation – to restore and to console. At Fatima, especially, we hear of reparation meaning to console the Heart of Mary, she said.
Reparation restores the broken bonds of sin
Before sin, the three relationships that made up human beings was our relationship with God, our relationship with one another and our relationship with nature. After the fall in the Garden of Eden, these three bonds were broken, she said. “My will with God was broken; Adam and Eve were expelled from His presence and the Garden. My humanity was broken; we see Cain killing Abel. Even the relationship with nature was broken; we see the flood with Noah. Eleven chapters into Genesis and we have all these consequences of sin.”
During the Pascal Mystery, Jesus restores these broken bonds and brings us back into harmony with the Father. He no longer calls us servants and friends, but for the first time – after the Resurrection – He calls His disciples brothers. “We become children of God; God becomes our Father,” she said. “Today, every time I do an act of reparation – my First Saturday, a rosary, a sacrifice – I am doing it in union with Him, with the Pascal Mystery, helping to restore the consequences of sin today. And that’s where my reparation receives greater efficacy. When we do an act of reparation, we increase our relationship with God and become more and more aware of ourselves as children of God. We increase our brotherhood and we help creation to benefit. Reparation is cooperation in the history of salvation.”
Reparation is to Console.
In his last encyclical, Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis asked the question: How we can pray to the Lord of life, risen from the dead and reigning in glory, while at the same time comforting him in the midst of his sufferings? (155) The same can be asked of the Blessed Mother: How can we console her if she is in the glory of God? We are facing a mystical path, a spiritual journey, noted Sister Angela.
“If God saved me 2000 years ago from my sins today, then my consolations today will also console His Heart, 2000 years ago. God still suffers in the mystical body. When we commit sins, He, our head, suffers, because we are His body. And the mystical body of Christ cannot be split. The natural desire to console Christ, which begins with our sorrow for what he endured for us, grows with our honest acknowledgement that our bad habits our compulsions, our attachments, our weak faith, our sins hurt His heart. What we do today touches the heart of God.”
The name Emmanuel, foretold by the prophet Isaiah, means “God with us.” Therefore, she added, God cannot be indifferent to our love for Him or our rejection of Him. “If He is indifferent, then it is not God with me,” she explained, “If it is God with us, that means what we do touches His heart. That is why consolation is still important.”
The pilgrimage concluded with a trip to the Shrine of the Apparitions in Pontevedra where Sister Lucia received the request for the First Saturday devotion, and opening ceremonies at the Basilica of Santa Maria La Mayor. The final stop was a Mass at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where St. James the Apostle is buried.
The Holy See has granted a Marian Jubilee Year indulgence to the Convent-Shrine of Pontevedra, Spain, from Dec. 10, 2025 to Dec. 10, 2026. This same privilege was extended to the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Asbury, New Jersey. All who make a pilgrimage to either Shrine during this jubilee year, and fulfill the required precepts, may obtain the indulgence associated with the Jubilee.
Barb Ernster is the National Coordinator/Communications Manager/Editor for the World Apostolate of Fatima USA.
