Like the Seinfeld show, this is a column about nothing!

Last week, I went on a wild goose chase. I thought I had a good idea, but nothing came of it.

In anticipation of The Tablet’s 100th birthday (April 4, 2008), I thought I would do a series of columns about how the paper covered significant events from the past 100 years. Actually, I still think it is a good idea but the first event I chose turned up nothing.

Noting that this year is the 90th anniversary of the Blessed Mother’s apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how The Tablet reported on those momentous days.

Seven times between May and October of 1917, three children at Fatima, Lucia Santos and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto claimed to have seen and spoken with Mary, the Mother of Jesus. She reportedly told the children to pray for peace and the conversion of Russia, placing a special emphasis on the recitation of the Rosary.

There were reported “miracles” about the “dancing sun,” said to have been witnessed by more than 70,000 people. News reports were printed in the local European newspapers at the time.

I went back to our bound edition of 1917 papers and found out that we didn’t have a word about those happenings. It’s not that we didn’t carry news dispatches back then, since there was a full complement of local and international news on our pages.

The biggest story of the year was Pope Benedict XV’s persistent effort to bring peace to a world that was being torn apart by the conflict we know as World War I. Stories predicted a stronger and more prominent role for the papacy in world affairs because of the role played by Benedict in trying to achieve peace.

There were also plenty of stories about the Knights of Columbus and the tremendous support it was providing for Americans involved in the war effort. “Knights Hard at Work on Plans for War Service” - in the July 7, 1917 edition - was typical of the times.

There also was a full package of local diocesan news. In June, Father Lawrence Bracken was appointed chaplain of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Father James H. Casey became chaplain at Fort Hamilton. An interesting footnote in the story was that when Father Bracken arrived for duty, it was learned that Washington had already assigned a full-time chaplain and Father Bracken was asked to await further placement.

The June 2 issue announced that 16 men would be ordained to the diocesan priesthood that morning at 7:30 a.m. by Bishop Charles McDonnell at St. John the Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant. It was the largest class of new priests in years. The most prominent name among the class was Father Henry M. Hald who went on to be Superintendent of Schools.

The June 9 paper contained a front page story about the death of Mother DeChantal, one of the founding 15 members of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the diocese.

In September, a diocesan priest, Father Francis A. Woods, apparently drowned while swimming on vacation. His body was not immediately found.

And in October, the first installment of Patrick Scanlan’s “From the Managing Editor’s Desk” appeared. It was to run for the next 51 years. It was clear from the start that Scanlan felt the best hope for peace in the world was through the Church and the papacy.

But what are we to make about the lack of news from Fatima?

Maybe it was because the Church is generally slow to accept alleged apparitions and wished to give no credence to claims until they could be properly investigated and given merit. That certainly would reveal a different standard of news reporting at the time than what we practice today.

Fatima Celebration

The diocesan commemoration of the Fatima apparitions began in May with a Mass celebrated by Father Al Guthrie, chaplain of the local Blue Army. A committee has been formed and is planning another celebration in October at St. James Cathedral-Basilica to coincide with the anniversary of the last of the appearances at Fatima. For more about these local celebrations, call Father Guthrie at St. Fidelis rectory in College Point, 718-445-6164.

We went looking for a miracle to write this column. We found out that the answer lay in the ordinary things of everyday life.