Between September 26 and 29, the Shrine of Fátima will host the 2nd European Pilgrimage of the Deaf, considered by the rector of this religious space as “a festive occasion and a moment of encounter, conviviality and sharing”.
The organization of this pilgrimage is supported by the Pastoral Service for People with Disabilities of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference and, according to the rector of the Shrine of Fatima, Carlos Cabecinhas, the usual pilgrimage of the Portuguese deaf community, this year in its tenth edition, will coincide with the Second European Pilgrimage.
For Carlos Cabecinhas, this will be “a great event” and “a moment when we invite the communities of deaf people from all European countries to come together”.
Every year, at the end of September or the beginning of October, the Shrine of Fatima hosts the national pilgrimage of deaf people.
The 2023 edition was attended by more than a hundred deaf pilgrims, with the Shrine of Fatima providing interpretation in Portuguese Sign Language at many celebrations since 2013.
“The annual holding of this pilgrimage signals and concretizes the attention to inclusion that has been cared for and progressively increased in the Shrine,” said André Pereira, director of the Shrine of Fatima’s Reception and Pastoral Department, in a statement to the newspaper Voz da Fátima.
For him, “on this occasion of encounter, deaf pilgrims can live their condition as pilgrims and baptized people more fruitfully, celebrating the faith as a community, getting to know the message of Fatima more deeply and recognizing themselves more clearly as an integral and integrated part of the People of God.”
