[ad_1]
The Sanctuary of Fátima registered a 50.6% drop in income until September and amicably terminated a contract with 14 workers, due to the covid-19 pandemic, Dean Carlos Cabecinhas said today.
At a press conference, Carlos Cabecinhas said that “until the end of September, the sanctuary had a 50.6% drop in income and the drop in donations, in the same period, was 46.9%.”
“Without pilgrims, obviously we also lost income and, by the end of this year, we will surely have a negative result,” he stressed.
According to the rector of the Shrine of Fatima, “2020 has been one of the most difficult, without pilgrims and with a drastic decrease in work flow.”
“This year, between March and August, we had the cancellation of 436 groups that registered. Between October and November we only have 97 groups registered ”, he lamented, recalling that, last year, in October alone, 733 groups were registered.
Aware that resources are not inexhaustible, the Sanctuary of Fatima went ahead with a restructuring plan, which “has been underway since the middle of the year” and culminated in “14 friendly termination agreements,” according to Carlos Cabecinhas.
“To avoid dismissals we had to consider adjustments and that led us to seek solutions to safeguard the institution, but always with a horizon of social responsibility,” he guaranteed.
The bishop of the diocese of Leiria-Fátima, António Marto, also declined to speak about the layoffs.
“There was no plan to make layoffs, there was a restructuring plan for strict management in times of emergency,” the cardinal told reporters.
According to Carlos Cabecinhas, “friendly agreements have always arisen at the initiative of the employees themselves.”
“First we held meetings with groups, so that no one felt directly pressured, and it was always the employee himself who had to express the desire to adhere, or not, to this proposal,” he said.
Throughout the year, the Sanctuary of Fátima also registered “the passage of four employees to retirement, 15 dismissals at the initiative of the worker and 18 non-renewals of fixed-term contracts”, part of which were students who worked part-time .
The rector recognized that these are “difficult times for everyone” and that the lack of pilgrims affects not only the sanctuary, but “the entire life of the city of Fátima and its surroundings.”
“We have tried to be attentive to situations of need and we have increased social support to individuals and families by 60%,” he said.
This support and others to social solidarity institutions “add up to about 800 thousand euros”, a figure that does not include the support that the sanctuary gives to the Church in Portugal, he added.
[ad_2]
