Marco Carvalho
Three teenage pilgrims, representing the Portuguese-speaking Catholic community of the Diocese of Macau, recited the Rosary at the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fátima, early last week. The youth were part of a first wave of a dozen pilgrims who landed Tuesday afternoon at the Humberto Delgado Airport, Lisbon, on a flight from Helsinki.
In the Portuguese capital, the group, under the supervision of Father Daniel Ribeiro, was welcomed by relatives of some of the young members of the delegations, and also by representatives of the host families that opened their arms and their houses to the local devotees. The group spent the pre-event days in the parish of Alqueidão da Serra, not far from the Shrine of Fatima.
“We were based thirteen kilometers from Fatima, in a mountainous region. The families are very welcoming. They are quite a friendly people. A good number of them perform agricultural activities, not in the least because it is an eminently rural area. Nevertheless, the people are all very kind and welcoming. We are very pleased,” the parish vicar of the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady told O Clarim.
Given the proximity to the ‘Altar of the World’, Fatima was, inevitably, the group’s first stop in the two-week trip to Portugal, a journey that will reach its climax starting August 1 with the participation in the 37th edition of the World Youth Day.
In the Cova da Iria shrine, the young pilgrims embarked on the first of many noteworthy moments of faith. “The expected date of arrival in Alqueidão da Serra, both for the group from hailing from Macau and the group coming from Poland, was Wednesday, the 26th of July. But ten pilgrims from our very own group ended up arriving earlier in Lisbon, on the 25th of July. They arrived late that afternoon, boarding an air connection from Finland. This circumstance offered them the opportunity to get to know Finland’s capital, Helsinki,” Father Daniel Ribeiro recalled.
“These first pilgrims, when they arrived in Lisbon, there were some people waiting for them. Usually, at the airport, there were always World Youth Day volunteers guiding those that arrived. But there were also relatives of some of these youngsters, who took them to Fatima. In Fatima, they took part in the recitation of the Rosary with three young pilgrims from Macau’s Portuguese community praying the Rosary in the Chapel of the Apparitions. As soon as the Rosary ended, they went to the host families’ house where they were welcomed and had dinner,” the Dehonian missionary added.
The reunification of the 31-strong Portuguese-speaking young Catholics from Macau, who will participate this week in the World Youth Day events, only took place on Wednesday afternoon, the day on which Alqueidão’s church hosted a particularly important moment for the Diocese of Macau’s pilgrims. The celebration brought together local parishioners and youngsters both from Macau and from Poland.
“The great majority of the pilgrims arrived on the 26th together with the group coming from Poland. Soon after they landed in Lisbon, they were taken to Alqueidão da Serra. The Portuguese-speaking community was responsible for celebrating Mass on Wednesday at 6 pm. I celebrated this Eucharist, and all the young people, including the Poles, were present at this celebration. The parishioners of Alqueidão da Serra also took part in the Mass,” explained Father Daniel Ribeiro.
Welcomed with an open heart
The small civil parish, part of the municipality of Porto de Mós, is one of hundreds, that, from the north to south of Portugal, have welcomed, over the last few days, as many as 70 thousand young pilgrims, hailing from the four corners of the Earth. In addition to the 31 representatives from the Diocese of Macau, Alqueidão da Serra also welcomed a smaller group of twenty young Poles. The reception and the acceptance that were shown to the pilgrims, regardless of the language they spoke, the parish vicar of the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady claims, could hardly have been more encouraging.
“The reception was quite good. It was very obvious people had been preparing for quite a long time to host our group. We were very pleasantly welcomed. Even though people didn’t know each other before, it was a very pleasant, a very sincere moment. We were able to appraise the affection and the wholeheartedness with which they welcomed the group,” the Brazilian priest declared.
After being enthusiastically welcomed by the population of Alqueidão da Serra, the local pilgrims spent the entire day of Thursday at the Sanctuary of Fatima, where they arrived with the mission to pray for the intentions of Macau’s Catholics after a five kilometer walk.
“On Thursday, the local pre-event program began and we took part in some of the initiatives organized by the Diocese of Leiria/Fátima. We had a small pilgrimage to Fatima. Of the thirteen kilometers that separate Alqueidão da Serra from the shrine, five were covered by the pilgrims on foot,” Father Daniel Ribeiro explained.
On Friday, we took part in track games in Porto de Mós, an initiative that brought together at the county seat about four hundred juvenile pilgrims from various parts of the world who were welcomed at the vicariate. In the afternoon, the youngsters visited one of the main ex-libris of the region, the Mira d’Aire Caves. During the weekend, initiatives with a diametric amplitude took place. On Saturday, Leiria hosted a meeting with all the young pilgrims that were received by the diocese. On Sunday, the focus was once again centered in Alqueidão da Serra: the young pilgrims from Macau and Poland took part in the Eucharist, where they were invited to share their expectations and their experience of faith.