Pope leaves Portugal after week marked by heat and church crisis // Firefighters injured as flames roar in hot weather
Portuguese news in English on Monday, August 7, 2023.
Pope leaves Portugal after week marked by heat and church crisis
Pope Francis and many of the estimated 1.5 million pilgrims who filled Lisbon on the hottest weekend of the year so far have bid farewell to the city. In his farewell speech, the pontiff compared the influx to the massive waves of up to 30 metres that break an hour and a half up the road at Nazaré, Diário de Notícias reports, and urged the tens of thousands of World Youth day volunteers to be “surfers of love”. Over five days in Portugal, the Pope frequently deviated from his prepared remarks over many addresses repeatedly preaching inclusivity, the Associated Press reported in English. His message that “everyone, everyone, everyone” is welcome in the church was re-broadcast as part of a DJ set that kicked off at 7am on Sunday in Parque Tejo, where thousands of young people had slept on mats, cots and the bare ground ahead of Mass.
The pontiff’s visit was dimmed by an independent commission’s findings just six months ago that at least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy in Portugal over several decades. He addressed the issue on his first day in the country, saying the crisis, “calls us to a humble and ongoing purification, starting with the anguished cry of the victims, who must always be accepted and listened to", Reuters reported, in English. Later in the week, it emerged Francis went straight from that address to bishops, priests and religious sisters to meet with 13 survivors of child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic Church in Portugal, Público reported. The Vatican described an “atmosphere of intense listening” in the roughly one-hour meeting as part of the “path towards reconciliation”.
But the scandal was not handled as adeptly by all sides. Oeiras Council’s decision to remove a crowdfunded “memorial” billboard in Algés highlighting the number of victims sparked outrage and accusations of censorship, Lusa reported. The council, which initially said the billboard was illegal advertising, later put the billboard back up in a less prominent spot and placed a billboard welcoming the Pope to Lisbon where the memorial had been, Expresso reports. Filipa Almeida from the Coração Silenciado (Silenced Heart) church abuse support group and a victim herself, said it hurt to see the billboard pulled down,” Diário de Notícias reported. She said it showed a lack of respect and conveyed the message survivors were still worth nothing.
The event also generated criticism for the millions euros in state funding spent on it, best typified by street artist Bordallo II, who organised a team to sneak into Parque Tejo and roll out a giant carpet of €500 notes ahead of the Pope’s visit.
Firefighters injured as flames roar in hot weather
Fourteen people, mostly firefighters, have been injured in a fire that burned more than 6000 hectares near Castelo Branco, Público reports. The fire was in the “resolution” stage on Sunday afternoon but with a lot of work still to be done, firefighters said. At one stage, there were more than 1000 people fighting the flames along with 331 vehicles and four planes, across a large area with many population centres spread in between. Fourteen people were lightly injured, including eight that needed to be hospitalised. Another serious fire is still burning in Odemira, after evacuations in Ourém, near Óbidos, and the temporary closure of the A5 motorway due to a fire in the Lisbon suburb of Campolide, Lusa reports. Évora, Santarém, Castelo Branco and Portalegre were placed under a red alert today due to the hot weather, along with 10 other districts in orange alert, Público reported. But Internal Affairs Minister José Luís Carneiro said the government would not declare a more serious situation of alert “for now”, Público reports.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and his counterparts in Italy, Greece, Croatia, Malta and Slovenia joined in an “appeal for the Mediterranean” to the European Union, Público reports. It calls on countries to accept the “duty” to act with a “collective force” to slow and reverse the effects of climate change.
Jessica ‘lost her right to childhood in a mediaeval way’
Four of the five accused, including her mother and supposed nanny, of qualified homicide by omission over the death of Setúbal girl Jessica have been convicted to the maximum 25-year prison term, Diário de Notícias reports. The three-year-old died last year suffering more than 70 beating and puncture wounds, burns, strong head knocks, violent hair pulling and exposure to illicit substances such as cocaine and methadone. She’d been left at the nanny’s house as a guarantee for a €200 debt from her mother for alleged practices of witchery.
In brief
Former banker to go on trial in Banco Espírito Santo case. Prosecutors allege former BES president Ricardo Salgado lead a criminal organisation at the top of the bank and used “sophisticated and complex methods” to take money from the bank and defraud clients. (Público)
Median salary rises almost €100 to €1358, gains purchasing power. The 6.3% May increase translated to a real wage raise in the phase of 4% inflation. (Dinheiro Vivo)
Short-term rental licences surge 68% to historic maximum. In the first half of the year, 11,285 Alojamento Locais were registered, a figure a representative body for the industry blamed on restrictions in the government’s incoming Mais Habitação bill. (Diário de Notícias)
Auchan Portugal buys Minipreço for €155 million. The purchase of the Dia group gives the hypermarket firm 489 Minipreço and Mais Perto supermarkets spread across the country. (Público)
On a lighter note
What would a major meeting with a prominent foreign leader be without a Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa handshake. Nothing, my friends. It would be nothing. And Marcelo being Marcelo, that handshake is going to be vigorous. Never mind that Pope Francis is 86, often uses a wheelchair and has been in and out of hospital repeatedly this year. The important thing is that he feels welcomed — very firmly welcomed — to Portugal.
“Very firmly welcomed “ 🤣🤣🤣