Over 30 thousand pilgrims participated on Sunday, September 13, in the Mass of the International Anniversary Pilgrimage at the Sanctuary of Fatima, according to data from the Sanctuary itself. The celebration commemorated the fifth apparition of Our Lady to the three shepherd children, which occurred on September 13, 1917. Among the participants are thousands of foreign pilgrims, with 95 groups and 4,633 pilgrims from 26 countries officially registered by 3:00 PM on September 11, with Portugal having the most registered participants (1,375), followed by Poland (860) and Italy (463).
Mgr. José Manuel Imbamba, Archbishop of Saurimo and President of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (CEAST), was the main speaker at the celebration. In his homily, he placed forgiveness at the center of Christian life, warning about parents who no longer speak to their children, siblings who have cut ties, and couples who live as strangers under the same roof. Drawing from Jesus' response to Peter—to forgive "seventy times seven"—he insisted that mercy cannot be subjected to limits, stating that "the Christian cannot live doing the accounting of forgiveness."
The Archbishop's reflection also extended to the social and international dimension. Using the Gospel parable of the two debtors, he criticized how "some powerful countries suffocate and depress smaller countries through unjust debts." He also clarified that forgiving does not mean denying the evil committed or erasing the truth, defending that "forgiveness is not a feeling, it is a decision," capable of liberating and transforming the present and the future.
At the end of the homily, Mgr. José Manuel Imbamba entrusted to Our Lady families and a world marked by division, praying for world peace and defending that it can only be born from "reconciled hearts" capable of breaking the cycle of hatred and revenge. The Pilgrimage took place within the framework of the Sanctuary's 2025-2027 pastoral biennium, under the theme "Heart of Mary, path to see God."
