http://www.fatima.org/essentials/facts/popeapprov.asp On October 13, 1951 the Pope's Legate, Cardinal Tedeschini, was sent to Fatima for the closing of the Holy Year. He told the crowd that Pope Pius XII had himself seen, repeated in Rome, the Miracle of the Sun that had occurred at the last Fatima apparition. It is clear that the Holy Father chose Fatima for this major event, to bring attention to the Message of Our Lady of Fatima. The Holy Father had, in fact, been graced to see the Miracle of the Sun on four separate occasions the previous year: October 30 and 31, November 1 (the day Pius XII solemnly defined the dogma of the Assumption), and November 8 (the octave of the same solemnity). This is Portugal.... Lisbon the Targus River in October 1951 when the President Salazar and the military were greeting the Vatican legates to attend the Pilgrimage to Fatima.