The Catholic Church in Portugal says it has assembled over 15,000 pages of testimony and documentation to support Lucia's case.

Lucia was one of three shepherd children who said the Virgin Mary appeared to them in the town of Fatima 100 years ago.

Lucia's cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who also witnessed the apparitions, died when they were aged nine and 11 of pneumonia. They were beatified in 2000.

The case for Sister Lucia's beatification is the first step toward canonisation as a saint.

The documentation will be sent to the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The Catholic bishop of Coimbra, Virgilio Antunes, said the documentation on Sister Lucia took eight years to compile. It includes information from 11,000 letters she wrote as well as some 61 witness statements.

If the Vatican congregation's experts agree Lucia lived a virtuous life, her case will be sent to the pope, who signs a decree attesting to the candidate's virtues.

Pope Francis is to visit Fatima in May, to mark the centenary of Our Lady's visitation to the children.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• Yahoo News
• Image: The Call to Fatima

Desde la Fe, the weekly of the archdiocese of Mexico, wrote of a statement from Sr Lucia dos Santos.

This comes as Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced his intention to promote same-sex marriage in the country, the Catholic News Agency reported.

The Mexican paper recalled comments Cardinal Carlo Caffarra made to the Italian press in 2008, three years after the death of Sr Lucia.

Cardinal Caffarra was asked about a prophecy of Sr Lucia that spoke about "the final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan".

The cardinal said several years previously, he had written to Sr Lucia's bishop, asking for her prayers.

This came after St John Paul II had commissioned Cardinal Caffarra to plan and establish the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family

The cardinal received an unexpected response, bearing Sr Lucia's signature.

"In that letter we find written: ‘The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about marriage and the family'," the cardinal said.

"Don't be afraid, she added, because whoever works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue.

"Then she concluded: ‘nevertheless, Our Lady has already crushed his head'."

Cardinal Caffarra added that "speaking again with John Paul II, you could feel that the family was the core, since it has to do with the supporting pillar of creation, the truth of the relationship between man and woman, between the generations".

"If the foundational pillar is damaged, the entire building collapses and we're seeing this now, because we are right at this point and we know it."

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: The Call to Fatima