October 13, 1930

A Pastoral Letter

… In virtue of the ideas expressed and others which we are omitting for the sake of brevity, humbly invoking the Divine Holy Spirit and confident of the protection of the Most Holy Mary, and after hearing the Reverend Consultants of this our Diocese:

We judge it right:

1) to declare as worthy of credence the visions of the children in the Cova da Iria, parish of Fatima, of the Diocese, on the thirteenth day of each month from May to October 1917.

2) to permit, ex officio, the cult of Our Lady of Fatima.

It remains for us, beloved brethren in Our Lord, to warn you that, if, for us, it is a great reason for joy and consolation, this grace that the Most Holy Virgin has granted us, greater is the obligation on us to correspond with Her goodness.

… We recommend to you, dearest brethren, in a special manner, affection for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, to St. Joseph, to the holy souls in Purgatory, to the daily recitation of at least five decades of the Rosary, avoidance of sins of the flesh, of immodest attire and immoral readings; the practice of penance, which Jesus so much insisted on, and the Virgin, Our Lady recalled so much to mind; charity towards all our brethren and principally towards the sick and the poor.

… This Pastoral Letter of ours is to be sent to the Reverend Parish Priests to be read and explained to the faithful in the customary manner.

       Leiria, October 13, 1930

       + Joseph, Bishop of Leiria