Rector of the Sanctuary maintains optimism that Pope visits Fatima in 2027

O rector of the Shrine of Fatima, Carlos Cabecinhas, said today to maintain optimism in the face of a possible visit to the temple in 2027 of Pope Leo XIV, who will be admitted on Tuesday to remove a pulmonary nodule.

“ I begin by saying that I have no inside information (...), it is only a deep conviction that the Pope can come or that it is very likely that the Pope will come next year”, he told journalists Carlos Cabecinhas, at the press conference that precedes the international anniversary pilgrimage of October, which begins today.

The priest said that the news of the Pope's health problem does not make him lose his optimism.

“I maintain optimism”, he said, referring that recently the apostolic nuncio, Andrés Carrascosa Coso, “says ‘the Pope will certainly come to Fatima when his agenda allows him and will come as soon as he can’”.

For the rector of the sanctuary, those “are prudent statements of those who do not know the date yet”.

“ But it is this comfort that is left to us, of the Pope's desire to come to Portugal and to come to Fatima. That is why I maintain this optimism in relation to next year, but if it is not possible next year, then it is on the first occasion that this is possible”, added Carlos Cabecinhas.

Also at the press conference, the president of the pilgrimage on 12 and 13 October, Archbishop José Cordeiro of Braga, considered that Pope Leo XIV’s attitude on Sunday when he announced to the faithful in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican that he would be submitted to an intervention, “was disarming”.

“ The way he said it also disarmed us and at the same time expresses this trust, because he says he trusts doctors, trusts in science, trusts the people who accompany him”, said José Cordeiro.

Noting that in Fatima one always prays for the head of the Catholic Church, the prelate wished that Leo XIV “senses this consolation”.

“From our closeness, from our friendship, from our deep communion and we entrust to the Mother’s heart that she accompany and enlightens the doctors who will assist him, who will accompany him, so that as soon as possible he can resume all his activities”, he said, remembering that Leo XIV has planned a trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru next month.

The Vice President of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference also reiterated that “the Pope is always present in the Shrine of Fatima and in the life of the Church”.

“ The internment takes place on October 13. ... It is an added motivation for him to also feel, from this great sanctuary, that thousands and thousands of people, also in many parts of the world, united to Fatima and not only those who are here, have this spirit even more intense and profound with the successor of Peter and with him we live health and sickness, joy and sorrow, as is also said in the sacrament of marriage”, he added.

Leo XIV announced on Sunday that it would be operated “in the coming days” to a “circumscribed to the lung”, which was detected “in a very early phase”.

Today, the Vatican announced that the Pope will be admitted on Tuesday at the end of the morning at Gemelli hospital in Rome to undergo surgery to remove the pulmonary nodule.

On 19 May, the President of the Republic, António José Seguro, invited the Vatican's Head of State to visit Portugal in 2027, on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the events of Fatima and when 500 years of formalization of the apostolic nunciature in Portugal are marked.