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Pilgrims’ access to the Sanctuary of Fatima will be hampered by barriers and security forces during the May 13 celebrations, marked this year with only guests, the Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs said today.
In an interview with Agência Lusa, the Secretary of State Duarte Cordeiro stressed that these barriers will prevent pilgrims from entering the access to Ourém and, within Ourém, from accessing the Shrine.
“There is a concern. The Church and Sanctuary of Fatima decided to celebrate on May 13 in the Basilica and the Sanctuary, but only with guests. This means that it is not desirable for pilgrims to go to Fatima, “he said.
Duarte Cordeiro is the member of the Government who establishes the connection, in the field of the fight against the pandemic, between municipalities, health, social security and civil protection entities in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley area (LVT), which includes the Fátima Sanctuary, in the municipality of Ourém and district of Santarém.
The minister stressed that there is a “close link” between the Government and the Sanctuary of Fatima and that it will be through the Ministry of Internal Administration that the Executive will support “an operation that means trying to avoid trips to Fatima and that there is a concentration of pilgrims “
“There will be an operation, which was designed by the Civil Protection Commission of the Santarém District and which will obviously have the support of the security forces regarding its implementation to avoid, in the end, an agglomeration of people in the Sanctuary”, said. .
This operation, he emphasized, “implies the creation of barriers that, in the end, allow the access of visitors to the Shrine to be avoided, since the celebrations will take place in the Basilica and in the Shrine only with guests.”
“This implies not only preventing citizens outside the municipality of Ourém from moving to Fatima”, but also creating barriers that limit the movement of pilgrims “within the Sanctuary itself, because there are hotels and there may be people who stay in hotels and also there is to avoid this displacement, “he explained.
The Government has decided that the celebrations of May 12 and 13 at the Sanctuary of Fatima may have celebrants, guests and staff, who must maintain a distance of two meters due to the covid-19 pandemic, according to a published order. Thursday at Diário da República, signed by the Ministers of Internal Affairs and Health.
As “the celebration of the Fatima apparitions is relevant to the Portuguese Catholic community”, the Government considers that, if the terms established in the order are fulfilled, public health will be “adequately guaranteed”.
Between the afternoon of the 12th and the end of the morning of the 13th, pilgrims will not be able to access any space in the sanctuary, he adds.
At the beginning of the week, the president of the Civil Protection Commission of the Santarém District, Miguel Borges, defended that the Government should again prohibit traveling outside the residence councils to avoid the presence of pilgrims in Fatima, as was done in Fin Easter week and May 1st.
Portugal registers 1,114 deaths related to covid-19 and 27,268 infected, 7,093 of them in the LVT region, according to the epidemiological bulletin published today by the General Directorate of Health.
The country went into disaster on Sunday, after three consecutive periods of state of emergency since March 19.
This new phase of the fight against the covid-19 provides for mandatory confinement for sick people and under active surveillance, the general duty of home collection and the mandatory use of masks or visors in public transport, public assistance services, schools and commercial establishments.
The municipalities of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Greater Lisbon and the Setúbal Peninsula) and the inter-municipal communities of Lezíria do Tejo, Médio Tejo and Oeste are part of the LVT region.
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