Year in Review 2019 Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst 23 WORSHIP & PRAYER Marian festival celebrates 45th Year Hundreds processed outside Sacred Heart Cathedral Bendigo in honour of Our Lady of Fatima. PHOTO: Chris McCormack. Forty-five years is a long time for a continuous festival in honour of Our Lady and her messages, but that is the history of the October Marian Festival in Bendigo. From the initial Festival held in October 1974 until the 2019 festival at Sacred Heart Cathedral there have been 45 Festivals to honour Our Lady of Fatima and to remind the faithful of the importance of her messages to the world. The first Festival was a huge demonstration of devotion, with a procession of school children and people from the various parishes of Bendigo reciting the Rosary. Bishop Bernard Stewart gave the address and led the crowd with prayers and Benediction at the grotto of Our Lady at St Aidan’s Orphanage. Since that time festivals have been conducted at the Sacred Heart Cathedral. With Bishop Joseph Grech’s installation as Bishop of Sandhurst in 2001, he indicated that he would like the afternoon prayers and devotion to become a much bigger event, starting with the 11 am Mass and involving people from all around the Sandhurst Diocese to come “in pilgrimage” in his own words. He involved the Melbourne Maltese community who have come in great numbers since that time. The 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s Apparitions in Fatima in 2018 was celebrated with a huge festival led by Most Rev Bishop Leslie Tomlinson with a large influx of pilgrims from far afield, involving eight chartered coaches. The industrious Bendigo members of the World Apostolate of Our Lady of Fatima organise these festivals and for 2019 secured the involvement of Most Rev. Peter Elliott who was the main celebrant. He delivered the homily, led devotions and gave an address on Our Lady in the life and theology of John Henry Newman, who was canonised later that day in Rome.
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