THORNTON, CA, OCT. 15, 2000 -      Three little girls were pasturing their sheep on the hills of Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 1917, when they were entranced by an "apparition of Mary". There were a total of six apparitions to the three children, plus one visitation to just one of the girls, but these events have been enshrined and subsequently venerated around the world ever since.

     In the "Catholic nations" of the world, such as Mexico, Guatamala, Cuba, Philippines, and many others, veneration to Mary is carried with a fervant devotion, often celebrating with parades, carrying statues of the virgin through the streets of the cities, with participants often demonstrating their worthiness and carrying out penance by floggings and by walking the parade route barefooted. Once upon a time, Americans would have looked upon such a parade of ardent devotion and chantings in honor of statues of Mary as something that could only take place on the news and in a foreign country. But not so today, for in Thornton, California, there is annually such a celebration which draws 50,000 people from all over the western U.S. Hundreds of little girls dressed up like the "Queen of Heaven" wearing elegant white gowns, donning sparkling crowns, and followed by flowing trains of satin and velvet. Scores of statues borne on the shoulders of humble penitents. Many in the parade, which lasted almost an hour, were chanting "Hail Marys" in monotone, while many marched humbly along barefoot, in order to endure more pain and thus earn some merit for a dear relative alegedly in purgatory. The whole scene appeared so "pagan" to a Protestant onlooker such as myself, and a study into the origins of these practices prove that I was not far wrong in my impression.