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At first, everything stopped. The pandemic came to bring silence to places where voices were constantly heard. It was like this in the Shrine of Fatima. The place that usually receives a sea of pilgrims was deserted. In the name of public health, the celebrations were canceled.
In this year of 2020, a May 13 without pilgrims is recorded in the history of the place. But the days go by and they want to resume possible normality. In this sense, complying with specific norms, the celebrations with the presence of the faithful were resumed on May 30 and the first international pilgrimage took place on June 12 and 13.
In August, the published photographs told the new reality. There were already some who dared to go to the place that is filled with light on nights from 12 to 13. There was no blanket of people throughout the room, but there were already small spots painted by the lit candles.
Last night, September 12, the difference was undeniable. Time passes, fear diminishes, the rules tighten, and the pilgrims return. But it was on Sunday that what had not yet been necessary happened: access to the Sanctuary of Fatima was blocked when the enclosure reached the maximum capacity allowed in the context of the pandemic, that is, the pilgrims occupied a third of the usual available space, pursuant. the guidelines agreed between the Portuguese Episcopal Conference and the General Directorate of Health.
Carmo Rodeia explained the process to make this decision to Public, the institution’s spokesperson. “We do not have an exact number of people. What we do have is a camera that we use to transmit the celebrations. There is a permanent surveillance of this camera to really understand how the room is going, because it is a camera that is placed in the tower and we have exactly the perception of whether people are very concentrated or not ”, he emphasized.
Today, “from the moment of communion”, around 11 in the morning, it has been necessary to intervene, preventing new entries. To do this, GNR agents and Sanctuary officials applied the measure “with great ease.” According to the spokesperson, this was the most participated pilgrimage since the indefiniteness and the return of the celebrations with the presence of believers.
The history of Fatima has been made, over the years, of the floods on specific dates. And if at the beginning of everything, more and more people appeared throughout the apparitions, September 1917 was also the date on which the “first great flood in Cova da Iria” was registered.
Earlier this month, the Sanctuary recalled this on its website. According to reports at the time, there should be between 20 and 30 thousand people in the place where the shepherds saw Our Lady for the fifth time.
In Sister Lucia’s Memoirs it is described that that day many people managed to “break through the crowds that … were crowded together” and that they knelt so that the shepherds could present to the Virgin “their needs”. . However, in the midst of so many people, not everyone was able to speak closely with the children and “called from afar.”
In 2020 the “great flood” was repeated, but now with other schemes, rules and care due to the pandemic. We don’t know how many people are on the premises, but it would have been enough to take action. And, outside the Shrine and also from home, some faithful presented their prayers from afar.
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