Pope Francis said that he intends to visit Portugal in 2017 on the centenary of the apparitions at Fátima.
In an interview on Rádio Renascença today he stated that the country is "privileged to have the Shrine of Fatima."
"I have only been to Portugal once, many years ago, on the way to Rome in a plane that made a stopover in Lisbon. I want to go to Portugal for the centenary, but 2017 is also the 300th year of Our Lady of Aparecida* and I promised to go there too," said His Holiness.
Pope Francis, with an enviable grasp of modern day travel, said it was easier to get to Portugal than to Brazil, explaining that it is a country where you can go back and forth on the same day "or take one and a half or two days to go to the Virgin in Brazil."
Asked how the Portuguese can prepare for his visit, Francis replied, "by praying."
Francis will be the fourth pope to visit Portugal, after a visit from Paul VI, three by John Paul II and one by Benedict XVI.
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*Our Lady of Aparecida (Nossa Senhora Aparecida) is a celebrated 18th-century clay statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the traditional form associated with the Immaculate Conception.
The image is widely venerated by Brazilian Catholics, who consider her as the principal patroness of Brazil.
Historical accounts state that the statue was originally found by three fishermen who miraculously caught many fish after invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The statue is currently housed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Aparecida, São Paulo, Brazil.
