Digital Marian Helper Spring_2018

24 M arian H elper  • S pring 2018   • marian.org A s a little girl growing up in the 1970s, Sr. Ângela de Fátima Coelho would pray at the tombs of Jacinta and Francisco Marto, two of the visionaries of Fatima. She could never have imagined that years later she would play a lead role in the cause of their canonizations. Sister Ângela — who will be the keynote speaker at the 14 th Annual Divine Mercy Medicine, Bioethics, and Spirituality Conference ( see ad on following page), followed by presentations at th e National Shrine of The Divine Mercy i n Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on May 12-13 — recalls as a child gazing upon the statue of Our Lady of Fatima at the Cova da Iria and knowing she wanted to give herself totally to God as a religious sister. She had another calling on her heart, as well — to become a medical doctor. She graduated with her medi- cal degree in 1995 and was accepted the same year to the Congregation of the Alliance of Holy Mary, a reli- gious order whose mission is to cooperate in the New Evangelization through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, especially by spreading the message of Fatima. For years, Sr. Ângela practiced medicine — even tak- ing care of some of the Marian Fathers in Portugal, who celebrate Mass daily for her community of sisters. On June 25, 2009, Sr. Ângela received an unexpected invitation: She was nominated to become the postulator for the cause of canonization of then-Blesseds Jacinta and Francisco Marto. This was a unique privilege: to verify that a healing is scientifically inexplicable and can be attributed solely to the intercession of the little Fatima visionaries. “When I received the invitation to be [the] postulator … my first reaction was the sense that I was receiving a mis- sion that was bigger than my strength and capabilities,” Sr. Ângela explained. “I was scared. I asked the Lord in my heart: ‘Do You know what You are asking me? I will not make it’ … So I went to pray and in my soul echoed the words of Jesus to St. Paul: ‘My grace is sufficient for you’ (2 Cor 12:9). I then realized that all that was left for me to do was to say: ‘Jesus, I trust in You.’” ‘A gift and a privilege’ By Melanie Williams J oseph R omagnano During the canonization of Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto on last May 13, Sr. Ângela de Fátima Coelho, MD (center), walks with Lucas Baptista, whose miracle led to the saints being canonized.