The members of the World Apostolate of Fatima in Ukraine, particularly those of the parish of the Mother of God, in Lviv, have an old desire to welcome the visit of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima to their region. This became more so at this particular time of war and tension with Russia. Therefore, on March 10, the Greek Catholic Archbishop and Metropolitan of Lviv, Mons. Ihor Vozniak, wrote a letter to the Rector of the Shrine of Fatima, in Portugal, to formally request the visit of the Statue, “in order to ask her intercession and protection for Ukraine and for the whole world”, he wrote.
The Shrine of Fatima received the letter and immediately decided to send the Pilgrim Virgin Statue nº 13, a replica of the original one, to Ukraine. She will travel via Krakow, in Poland, this week. The Statue will remain for a month in Ukraine and will be welcomed and transported by the Greek-Catholic community of Lviv, where there is a large group of members of the World Apostolate of Fatima, with whom we are deeply united, both spiritually as well as through our assistance.
Our Lady in Fatima insistently asked us to pray for peace. The visit of Our Lady Statue to Ukraine is part of this spiritual and pastoral mission to install peace in this country and in the world.
Historic note: In 1971, a group of pilgrims of the World Apostolate of Fatima, USA attempted to deliver a Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady to Russia that had been blessed at Fatima by Pope Paul VI, but she was denied entrance. While sitting on a ship in the Ukranian port of Odessa, they made the decision to fly the statue to Moscow in a chartered plane, wrap it in rags, and secretly process it through the heart of Red Square. It was then flown back to the ship and later placed at the Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Washington, New Jersey where it came to be known as the “Odessa Pilgrim Virgin Statue”. A few years ago, this very Statue was offered by the Apostolate in USA, to the Catholic parish community in Kazan, Russia where she is still venerated.
