Pope in Fatima to honor simple children who changed church

Pilgrims walk by a 26 metre tall giant glow-in-the-dark rosary, titled "Suspension" by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, above the entrance of Basilica of the Holy Trinity, in Fatima, Portugal, Thursday, May 11, 2017. Pope Francis is visiting the Fatima shrine on May 12 and 13 to canonize two Portuguese shepherd children whose "visions" of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago turned the sleepy farming town of Fatima into a major Catholic pilgrimage site. (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte) (The Associated Press)

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Two nuns attend a mass at the Chapel of the Apparitions in the Fatima Sanctuary Thursday, May 11 2017, in Fatima, Portugal. Pope Francis is visiting the Fatima shrine on May 12 and 13 to canonize two Portuguese shepherd children whose "visions" of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago turned the sleepy farming town of Fatima into a major Catholic pilgrimage site. (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte) (The Associated Press)

Pilgrims equipped for the rain sit in the front row at the Fatima Sanctuary in Fatima, Portugal, on Thursday, May 11, 2017, more than 24 hours ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis. Pope Francis is visiting the Fatima shrine on May 12 and 13 to canonize two Portuguese shepherd children whose "visions" of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago turned the sleepy farming town of Fatima into a major Catholic pilgrimage site. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) (The Associated Press)

FATIMA, Portugal – Pope Francis and pilgrims from around the world are flocking to a Catholic shrine town in Portugal to honor two poor, illiterate shepherd children whose visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago marked one of the most important events of the 20th-century Catholic Church.

Francis arrives Friday in the town of Fatima to celebrate the centenary of the apparitions and canonize the children. He is hoping the message of peace that they reported 100 years ago, when Europe was in the throes of World War I, will resonate today.

Francis' deputy, Cardial Pietro Parolin, said the importance of Fatima lies specifically in the fact that poor, illiterate children were able to convey a powerful message of love and forgiveness at a time of war when "the talk was of hatred, vendetta, hostilities."