PORTUGAL: Portugal declared today a day of mourning and politicians cut back election campaigning to mark the death of Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, the last of three children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary at Fatima.
Sister Lucia, who as a child in 1917 described visions which, decades later, the Catholic Church said foretold the attempt to kill Pope John Paul in 1981, died aged 97 on Sunday at her Carmelite convent in Coimbra, 150 km (95 miles) north of Lisbon.
She is to be buried at the convent today and her remains will be transferred in a year to nearby Fatima, one of the major pilgrimage sites for Catholics.
The Prime Minister, Mr Pedro Santana Lopes, late on Sunday declared today a day of national mourning.
"I believe that Sister Lucia is a great figure in the recent history of Portugal," Mr Santana Lopes said in remarks carried on TSF radio. A spokesman said he might attend the funeral.
Portugal holds snap elections on Sunday but the Prime Minister's centre-right Social Democrats and their coalition partner, the rightist Popular Party, suspended their campaigns yesterday and today because of the death.
The opposition Socialists, who are well ahead in opinion polls, said they would scale back their campaign activities.
Sister Lucia was said by believers to be the main recipient of prophecies from the Virgin about key 20th century events.
The church kept the details of the third prophecy secret for decades until the Pope's visit to Fatima in 2000. - (Reuters)