Believing receives first recipes from the credentials of pilgrims to Fatima

Athe first recipes of the sale of the credential for pilgrims who travel on foot to Fatima are intended for the association Believe, announced today the rector of the shrine, in the presentation of the credential and its certificate.

At the press conference that precedes the international pilgrimage of 12 and 13 October, the last great pilgrimage of the year to the largest Marian temple in the country, Carlos Cabecinhas explained that the initiative, called ‘Via Pacis – Pilgrimage to foot to Fatima’, wants to “value the pilgrimage on foot, promote the paths of Fatima and strengthen the spiritual dimension of the experience of walking to the Cova da Iria”.

According to the priest, the certificate, for pilgrims on foot, individually or in group, marks the arrival to the sanctuary, after a pilgrimage journey, which can be recorded in the credential, because “it is not so much to recognize and mark the arrival to the shrine, as above all to value the journey in its entirety”.

“It means to value the departure, the journey, the arrival at the sanctuary and the return home”, integrating the spiritual dimension that characterizes the experience of the pilgrimage, sustained.

The credential, in foldable format, includes identification fields, indication of the place and date of departure, space for the stamp of the diocese or parish of origin, as well as for stamps collected on the way to Fatima.

“ The document also includes a QR code, which gives access to a page on the site of the Shrine of Fatima which, in addition to a registration form, provides information on the framework of this initiative, the criteria for issuing the certificate and the necessary instructions for obtaining this document ", said the priest.

The rector pointed out that “the credential will also have a component to support the spiritual experience of the pilgrimage, with brief prayer texts to accompany the journey, a prayer for the pilgrimage and another for the arrival and sending”.

“ The proposal thus aims to help pilgrims to live the way, not only as physical displacement, but as an inner path, experience of faith and experience of encounter ", highlighted.

The accreditation has a cost of two euros and can be purchased in the commercial spaces of the sanctuary or the online store and has “associated a charitable social purpose”, by allocating part of the revenues obtained for initiatives or institutions of that nature that will periodically be identified.

The price of sale to the public has “a component to cover the costs of production and operation, amounting to 50 cents”, being the remaining value for the charitable partner component, and the first institution to receive this contribution is to Believe, association of parents and friends of children with cancer.

The credentials are available from Tuesday, when the National Day of Pilgrim is marked.

“ Periodically there will be change [of the recipient entity]”, said Carlos Cabecinhas, referring that, at a later stage, the “sanctuary also intends to involve dioceses, parishes and ecclesial movements, so that credentials can be made available to these Church bodies, at the cost, with the socio-charitative component destined for the diocese itself, parish or movement that will make it possible to sell it”.

On the other hand, the certificate is issued on behalf of the pilgrim who made the pilgrimage on foot and who demonstrated to have fulfilled the defined criteria, and “among the conditions, there is a journey with a minimum distance of 13 kilometres”.

“The number 13 has in Fatima a very special, very special place,” he observed.

Already “the other demonstrative elements pass, although not exclusively or inflexibly, by the position of stamps associated with the pilgrimage’s itinerary, namely that of the place of departure, which is encouraged to be an ecclesial place, the See, the diocese, a parish church” or an ecclesial institution and “places that illustrate and attest the course”, added the rector.

The pilgrimage is confirmed through the specific credentials of the sanctuary, but also through the credential that already exists of the Ways of Fatima or other existing registration supports, with the Rector ensuring that “the initiative of the sanctuary does not intend to exclude any of the initiatives that already exist”.

The certificate can be requested in the services of the Shrine of Fatima from November 29, when the new pastoral year of the temple begins.