Senegal’s Inter-Diocesan Entity Suspends Pilgrimage to Holy Land amid COVID-19 Challenges

“For all these reasons, and not wanting to take the slightest risk and potentially expose the lives of future pilgrims, it seemed more than appropriate to suspend operations and to resolutely join the dynamic of the fight against the pandemic,” CINPEC officials say.

They appeal for “understanding of all, especially future pilgrims who have regularly registered and who have, on many occasions, expressed their confidence in making this journey of faith in all serenity.”

“CINPEC renews its commitment, as a Church service, to work, as soon as the external conditions allow it, for the promotion, organization and supervision of the Catholic Pilgrimage to the Holy Places of Christianity,” CINPEC officials add.

They acknowledge “the wisdom of our Bishops who, since the beginning of the pandemic, have taken the full measure of their responsibilities to, each time, formulate relevant recommendations that consecrate the primacy and sacredness of life over all other considerations.”

“We join through prayer, the immense efforts that are being deployed by the public authorities, the Church, the health authorities and people of good will to eradicate this virulent coronavirus pandemic from the face of the earth,” CINPEC leadership says in the June 16 statement.

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Last month, Catholic Bishops in Senegal canceled the annual national Marian pilgrimage amid COVID-19 restrictions.

Instead of the major assembly of pilgrims in Poponguine, a small village on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean in Senegal, the Bishops recommended that “the celebration of the 133rd edition of the Pilgrimage be lived at the level of the Parish communities of our Dioceses, with the celebration of Marian Masses, preceded by the recitation of the Rosary.”

Senegal has recorded 42,118 cases of the coronavirus including 40,667 recoveries and 1,156 related deaths.

Last year, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Catholic Church leaders cancelled the annual national pilgrimage to Poponguine.

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.