Does a child have to say many rosaries to go to heaven?

[Bereaborn]

At Fatima, when little Lucia asked Our Lady if Francisco would go to heaven, Our Lady said, “Yes, but he must say many rosaries.”

But why did he have to say rosaries in order to get into heaven? I don’t know many children under ten who have even said one rosary. What did our Mother mean by this statement? What should we learn by it? Should a 9-year-old child be in fear of going to hell for any reason? I’m confused by this statement.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

I think the Blessed Mother’s statement must be understood within the culture she was speaking to and in regards to Francisco’s vocation in particular.

In Portugal in the early part of the twentieth century, it was not unusual for young children to know how to say the rosary and it would not be arduous to have expected them to recite it. In a traditionally non-Catholic country like the United States and in the early twenty-first century, the state of Catholic catechesis is such that it would be a bit unreasonable to expect the ordinary nine-year-old to say “many rosaries.”

Then too, we have to remember that Lucia was asking if Francisco would go to heaven, not whether he would be saved. In the literal mind of a child (as she herself was at the time), Lucia may have been asking whether Francisco would go straight to heaven and with no stops in purgatory. To be ready for heaven immediately upon death, the soul must be spotless, something not likely for even a child above the age of reason, and that might be why the Blessed Mother suggested that Francisco must say “many rosaries” to be granted that privilege.

Yes, any child, even one as young as nine, should be aware of the possibility of hell; but, no, he should not be frightened with dire warnings about going there. He should know that hell exists and that it is possible for anyone to go there by rejecting God, but that he himself should trust in God and pray to meet him one day in heaven.