WORLD APOSTOLATE OF FATIMA, ONITSHA ARCHDIOCESE FROM SEPTEMBER
2016 TO JUNE 2017
The World Apostolate
of Fatima in Onitsha Archdiocese has been working assiduously for the
dissemination of the message of Fatima to every nook and cranny of the
Archdiocese. The following activities
have been carried out successfully for the preparation of the centenary and in
the centenary year proper. These are;
1.
Feast of our Lady of Mt. Carmel (July 16th)
2.
Feast of our Lady of the Rosary
3.
Conference of Leaders
4.
Children of the Eucharist
5.
Centenary flag off in the month of March,
April and May
6.
Feast of our Lady of Fatima (May 13th,
Centenary day proper)
7.
Promoters retreat/election
8.
Pilgrim visit of our Lady to parishes
9.
Centenary celebrations at parish, zonal and
regional levels
10.
Meeting with patrons, patronesses and pillars
11.
Devotions
12.
Promotion work
1. Feast of our Lady of Mt. Carmel
(July 16th) --- This was celebrated at the regional level
where new members were enrolled into the scapular confraternity thereby making
them full members of the apostolate and they also signed the pledge from which
has been sent to Fatima.
2. Feast of our Lady of the Rosary
---- This is
one of the yearly activities of the apostolate in our archdiocese which we call
Rosary Carnival because rosaries are shared to the passersby during rosary
procession by the promoters while the rest of the members pray the rosary. In
2016, ten thousand (10,000) rosaries were shared to the people living around
Nkpor and its environs, through this, many souls were converted to the Church and
many also joined the apostolate.
3. Conference of Leaders --- This is a forum where
all the archdiocesan executives, regional, zonal and parish leaders and
secretaries plus leaders of committees go to St Scholastica Monastery Umuoji to
pray and draft a programme for the year. This year’s conference was done on
Friday 17th – Sunday 19th February, 2017 and it is done
annually, every third week of February.
4. Children of the Eucharist ---- All the Cadet in the
archdiocese gather every month of March before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament
to console Him as the Children of Fatima did. It is done in the month of March
because of the numerous activities done by the archdiocese in the month of October
which is the worldwide time. This year’s celebration was done at SS John &
Paul Awada on Saturday, 22nd April, 2017. It recorded about 1,200
Cadets around the archdiocese in attendance.
5. Centenary flag off ---- The flag off was done
in the months of March at St Jude’s Parish Fegge (Onitsha Region), April at St
Anthony’s Parish Nkpor (Dunukofia Region) and May at SS Peter and Paul East
Niger (Iyiowa Region), the three major regions in the archdiocese duly represented.
This is to create awareness for the feast of our Lady of Fatima (May 13th)
which is the centenary day proper. At the May flag off which was done on May 7th,
the 4th Centenary edition of our magazine called Rose was launched
to help in disseminating the message of Fatima.
6. Feast of our Lady of Fatima (13th
May, Centenary day) ---- It was a
huge success as the whole of the Christian faithful in Onitsha Archdiocese together
with WAF members in the archdiocese gathered to celebrate the Centenary of our
Lady of Fatima which had about 20priests in attendance, numerous Rev. Brothers
and Sisters and an uncountable number of faithful. Highlights of the events
were; rosary procession, mass, adoration, confession, talks etc. It was indeed
a memorable event.
7. Promoters Retreat/Election ---- Promoters of our
archdiocese went to the monastery on Saturday 17th – Sunday 18th
June, 2017 for prayers and election, which was successfully done and newly
elected executives were prayed for. This is in preparation for the task of
promoting the Fatima message in the archdiocese and all the parishes where WAF does
not exist.
8. Pilgrim visit of our Lady of
Fatima to parishes ---- To mark the Centenary of our Lady of Fatima
and because all of us cannot make a pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal the
executive deemed it fit to take the human sized statue of our Lady of Fatima to
parishes for the members and the parishioners of all the parishes visited to
gain blessings and favours from our Lady of Fatima. This has been on for the
past two years and will be rounded off in the month of October, 2017. There were
Centenary celebrations at parish, zonal and regional levels, the idea is to
take Mary to everyone for Centenary blessings and favours.
9. Meeting with Patrons,
Patronesses and Pillars ---- This was
done on Sunday 12th March, 2017 so as to create a mutual
understanding between the executives, patrons, patronesses and pillars and to
discuss on the achievements so far and way forward and it was a huge success.
10. Promotion work ---- Visitation to
parishes and opening of more cells were also organized within the period in
review through the assistance of the Archdiocesan promoters for spiritual
upbringing, spreading of the message of Fatima and establishing of WAF centres
in new parishes where it had not spread to.
11. Devotions ---- Throughout the period
this report covered, all devotions within the archdiocese were maintained such
as cell hour, first Saturday rosary processions, first Saturday devotion,
weekly general prayer, novenas etc to fulfil our Lady’s request at Fatima.
Signed:
Bro Vincentmariae Atuorah Sis Ozioma Azubogu
President Secretary
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