Parish Renewal and Fatima
THE Second Plenary Council of the Philippines in 1991 noted: “The
present efforts at Church renewal should center on the parish. Without
parish renewal, the family and Basic Ecclesial Communities will not find
a strong supportive ambience, and will continue to feel isolated”
(PCP-II 604). In the same vein, the CBCP has recently noted that “it
would be a lost opportunity if the year of the parish as communion of
communities [2017] would ignore the clarion call of Fatima for prayer,
penance and communion.”
Fatima and Authentic Renewal. Pope Benedict XVI, as
the Philippine Bishops recall, “took pains to spell out the fundamental
significance of the Fatima events and of the message of Our Lady of
Fatima.” He believes that the “point of Fatima” can also be seen “in the
suffering of the Church and the weakening of the forces of good and of
the work of God in our world.”
“If the nation needs healing, the healing will start in our parishes. If the nation needs to crush the forces of evil, it will start in our parishes. If the nation needs to strengthen the presence of God in society, the strengthening of the parishes is the only way.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has written that “the answer to the power
of evil in the world of our time can only come from the transformation
of the heart, through faith, hope, love, through penance and
conversion.” In this sense, for Church renewal, “the message of Fatima
is precisely not a thing of the past. During this Fatima Centennial
(1917-2017) we pray: “that the power of evil be restrained, that the
energies of good might regain their vigor.”
Church Renewal and Prayer. In their pastoral letter
for the “Year of the Parish” (2017) the Philippine Bishops have outlined
some proposals for “a program of action for our parishes and basic
ecclesial communities from the Fatima message.” Our Bishops note: “Pope
Paul VI, in his own summing up of the Fatima message, defined it as ‘a
message of prayer and penance.’ So let it be for our parishes! Our
communion of communities needs a renewed and passionate program of
intense prayer and penance.”
The Bishops continue: “Parishes and communities will be renewed only
through personal and community prayer. Our first mission in the world is
to be a leaven to teach our society how to pray. Our first duty in
communion is prayer.”
“Prayer is an act of love. Every prayer whether of praise or contrition or petition is always a plea for mercy. Prayer is our parish anchor. Prayer is our cornerstone. Parishes and BECs will be renewed as oases of mercy through reparation for sins, frequent confession and acts of mercy.”
Parish Pillars: Eucharist, Scripture, and Mary.
Fostering Church renewal, the Philippine Bishops have presented three
pivotal foundations. “Parishes and communities will be renewed by living
the Eucharist which we receive every day.”
Renewal also springs from Sacred Scripture. “It is the Word of God inviting the confused, the lonely, the bored, the suffering to the joy of the Gospel. It is God’s life humanized in his incarnation; it is human life divinized in his suffering, death and resurrection.”
Our Bishops continue: “Let us envision parish renewal from the
Immaculate Heart of Mary and through the means she gave us at
Fatima—prayer and penance intensified in every parish…. May Our Lady of
Fatima, whom we also invoke as Mother of the Church, pray for us” that
parishes truly become “oases and wellsprings of renewal and mercy!”
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