Mozambique: Annual May catholic pilgrimage to take place without pilgrims

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Mozambique: Annual May catholic pilgrimage to take place without pilgrims

8:47 CAT | 08 May 2020

File photo: TVM

The annual May pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Namaacha, the main Catholic pilgrimage in Mozambique, will take place without pilgrims due to Covid-19, the Mozambican catholic church said on Thursday.

Only the bishops will participate in the celebration to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus in the country, the archdiocese of Maputo said in a statement, in line with the ban on all types of events and gatherings, including those of a religious nature, foreseen in the state of emergency in force until the end of May.

Christians can give their candles to parish priests and the restricted group of participating clerics should light them on Saturday afternoon, they said.

The document has a clear recommendation: “Do not go there, participate from your homes,” through radio, television, and Facebook.

“We have entered another month of emergency, we have done very well in the first, we are also going to do the best we can, taking care of ourselves and others, we are not going to falter,” the church said.

The pilgrimage, which takes place every year in the month of May, usually brings together more than 15,000 people from different parts of Mozambique in the largest celebration of its kind in the country.

Pilgrims walk about 80 kilometres to the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Namaacha, Maputo province.

Besides Mozambicans, the pilgrimage usually includes the faithful from neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Eswatini, formerly Swaziland.

Mozambique has a total of 81 positive cases of Covid-19, with no fatalities and 21 people recovered.

Source: Lusa