September 24, 2009. Benedict XVI will travel to Fatima and other cities in Portugal next May. It’s expected that he will celebrate a Mass in the shrine of Fatima on the 13th of that month, 93 years after the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to three peasant children, Jacinta, Lucia and Francisco.

As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote the theological commentary that went along with the fourth secret.

This would be the fifth time the pope visits Fatima’s shrine. Paul VI was the first pope to go there in 1967.

John Paul II made the trip on three occasions: in 1982, 1991 and in the year 2000. He always believed the Virgin of Fatima saved his life when his life was threatened on May 13, 1981, the feast of the Virgin of Fatima.

JM/RS