Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Sanctuaire de Notre Dame de Fatima—Marie Médiatrice

I stumbled on the fact that Le Sanctuarie de Notre Dame de Fatima—Marie Médiatrice was having a procession to commemorate the second apparition of Mary at Fatima (which was actually on June 13th, but oh well), and figured it would make for a good pilgrimage for the day (although I skipped the procession for the Mass scheduled earlier in the evening at 6p).

I arrived at the church which was mostly empty at about 5.50 and spent some time in prayer and meditation and then realized it was after 6 and there was no Mass beginning. I watched a man walk to the front of the church, disappear through a door there and then return, walking to the back of the church. Perhaps there would be no Mass? I got up and the Black man a pew in front of me said something and I responded, Je ne parle pas français. He nodded and I walked to the back of the church planning on departing when I noticed a sign that said (in French—I don’t speak it, but I can read it at a painfully basic level) that weekday Masses take place in the baptismal chapel. I looked ahead and saw a few people sitting around what seemed to be a makeshift altar over the baptismal font. I asked a woman waiting there, Il y a un Messe ici aujourd’hui? Oui, she responded. I sat down a moment, then thought to go back to the man I’d left in the main church. Je croix que le Messe est en le petit chapelle, I told him. He followed me there and a few moments later the priest arrived (about fifteen minutes after the scheduled Mass, but I guess Gallic time isn’t such a rigid construct).

There were five laypeople attending the Mass, two of whom were assisting (a lector and altar server) and the priest spoke in a low voice throughout, as if he were celebrating a private Mass without any of us present. The man I met in the main church, in the middle of the Mass, slipped up to the altar, deposited a thin sheaf of papers on it, and disappeared from the chapel.

I found myself thinking about this, pondering the act. I imagine a lot of people would be happy to dismiss this as mere superstitious behavior, but then I’m reminded of the story of the woman with a bleeding wound who felt that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’s garment she would be healed (spoiler, she was). And I think about Jesus’s reaction, which was not, woman, you need to understand dogma and doctrine and approach religion rationally, but simply, “your faith has made you whole” and she was healed even before Jesus acted and it seems to me that perhaps just as likely, this man’s faith had that same pure simplicity.