Dakar, 16 June, 2021 / 1:24 pm (ACI Africa).
The leadership of Senegal’s National Inter-Diocesan Committee for Catholic Pilgrimages (CINPEC) has announced the cancellation of the 2021 pilgrimage to the Holy land amid “persistence” of COVID-19 pandemic in the West African nation.
“The National Inter-Diocesan Committee for Catholic Pilgrimages (CINPEC), acting in the name of the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Dakar, regrets to announce its decision to suspend the organization of the 2021 edition of the Catholic Pilgrimage to the Holy Sites of Christianity,” CINPEC officials say in a statement issued Wednesday, June 16.
They add, “Such a decision, taken after careful consideration, is essentially linked to the persistence of the pandemic in Senegal and in the world, especially in the countries traditionally visited by pilgrims.”
CINPEC leadership further says the decision to cancel the spiritual journey follows “an urgent recommendation of the Bishops of Senegal who, during their last session, held in Cap des Biches, had suggested the suspension of the Pilgrimage.”
Getting travel documents has also been problematic, the leadership says, and explains, “Foreign embassies, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese living Abroad, pointed out that they had no visibility on the period considered (August-September) to guarantee the delivery of visas to the future pilgrims, except for imperative reasons.”