Affirm hope in another Portugal
Portugal has entered the last phase of deconfinement and it is hoped that it will be the decisive one. It is important at this time not to forget the victims of the pandemic and to open up horizons of hope. With this objective, a hundred personalities launched the National Day of Memory and Hope 2021, which will take place on the weekend of October 22nd to 24th. This initiative has the high sponsorship of the President of the Republic and a dedicated website at the address memoriaeesperanca.pt.
As much as so many want to continue to insist on a denial attitude, it was thanks to vaccination that the intensity of the pandemic went from moderate to reduced. This can be seen above all in the reduction in pressure on health services and in the mortality associated with covid-19.
Now it is important not to forget those affected, directly or indirectly, and those who succumbed to this pandemic. It is essential, as you can read in the manifesto that launched the Jornada, “to make mourning take away”. To this end, we call on everyone to promote initiatives with the objective of “paying tribute to what they left, accepting the suffering and the narratives of those affected by the pandemic and its consequences, and celebrating and thanking all those who took care of their health and alleviated the suffering and the pain of so many”.
It is also intended to “give density, face, life and collective meaning to the numbers, statistics and graphs” of this pandemic.
A Journey, however, is not just made of memory. It is remembered so as not to forget – but also to affirm hope in “another world”. A World in which there is a greater awareness that “we are all in the same boat”, as Pope Francis so preached during this pandemic crisis. In which “the model of society centered on having and not being” is questioned.
The success of this Journey will depend not only on national dynamics, but also, and above all, on local dynamism and originality.
All are summoned. The manifesto highlights religious communities, municipalities, schools, health institutions, cultural entities, the media. We are all called to remember and, above all, to affirm hope in another Portugal.
Priest