大象传媒

A hundred years ago this week (13th May), three children reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary while they were playing on a hillside. The oldest of them was only ten. Yet so convincing was their account that soon crowds were gathering at the site of the event, near the small Portuguese town of Fatima.
It's now one of the most important centres of Catholic pilgrimage in the world, with millions of visitors each year, and two of those three children are being canonised - recognised as saints - when Pope Francis visits the town this week. Catholics in Wales are marking the centenary with services and processions across the country featuring a statue of the Virgin Mary - and relics of the two youngest children.
Fatima is just one of many shrines around the world where pilgrims flock to take inspiration from similar apparition events - from Lourdes in France to Knock on the west coast of Ireland and Guadelupe in Mexico. But what are we to make of claims of such appearances? Are they real ... or the product of hallucinations or other psychological factors? And what does it say about the place of the Virgin Mary in the church.
Photo: (c)2017 Shrine of Fatima.