At Mary's Feet

The biggest obstacle to Christian reunion is the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility. The second biggest is the degree of veneration that Catholics--but not Protestants--accord to Mary, the Jewish girl who became the mother of Christ. Indeed, many Catholics look askance at one of the great symbols of Marianism--Fatima, the small Portuguese village near which three shepherd children claimed to have seen, on May 13, 1917, the first of several visions of Mary. If for no other reason than the youngsters' impressionable ages--seven, nine and ten--there is widespread skepticism about the authenticity of the Fatima apparition.

Nonetheless last week, on its 50th anniversary, Pope Paul VI became the first Roman Catholic pontiff to visit the shrine of Fatima. The "spiritual motive" of his fourth papal journey outside Italy,* Paul announced, was to seek Mary's "intercession in favor of the peace of the church and of the world." The Vatican denied suggestions that the Pope was also making amends to Portugal for his visit to India following its conquest of Portuguese Goa, insisting that the trip would be "completely private" and "rapidissimo." Despite the disclaimer, the Portuguese were ecstatic.

"Peculiar Ideologies." Traveling aboard a Portuguese Airways Caravelle, the Pope landed at a military airfield near Monte Real, delivered a short speech on arrival, and rode in an open-topped black Rolls-Royce 25 miles to the Fatima shrine, where he celebrated Mass before a crowd estimated at 700,000. In an address, Paul called for a "united church." At the same time, he issued another warning against what he deems doctrinal excesses in church renewal. The Ecumenical Council, he said, "has opened up new vistas in the field of doctrine." And yet: "What terrible damage could be provoked by arbitrary interpretations replacing the theology of the true and great fathers of the church with new and peculiar ideologies." Clearly referring to Viet Nam, he invoked the traditional symbol of Mary: "The world is in danger. We have come to the feet of the queen of peace to ask her for the gift, which only God can give, of peace."

Afterward, the Pope greeted the only survivor among the three children who reported seeing the Fatima vision--Lucia dos Santos, now a 60-year-old Carmelite nun--and conferred briefly with Portuguese Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. Eleven hours after his arrival, Paul was winging back to Rome. Whatever its temporal effects on peace, many Catholics regarded the Pope's visit as a religious incongruity. To encourage ecumenism with Protestants, the Second Vatican Council did not emphasize Mary, and the exaggeration of Marian devotion in Catholicism has since declined. In the light of Paul's conservatism on doctrinal issues, though, some knowledgeable observers suggested that a key reason for his pilgrimage to Fatima was to curb any extremes in the de-emphasis of Mary.

* The others: to the Holy Land and India in 1964, the U.N. in 1965.

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