For the twelfth consecutive year, the Shrine of Fatima is organising holiday weeks for parents with children with disabilities. Within this initiative, children and young people with disabilities will be looked after by volunteers for a week, so that their parents “can enjoy some rest and have an opportunity for moral and spiritual enrichment”. 22 young people, 9 couples, and 15 volunteers are taking part in the first round of the programme, which has started yesterday, Sunday 22 July. The guests are given free accommodation by the Shrine at the “Casa Francisco e Jacinta Marto”, run by the Silent Workers of the Cross. “For 12 years, the Shrine has been a forerunner in the care of this weakness, which is a sort of perpetual childhood”, a statement from Fr. José Nuno Silva, head of the Department for the Pastoral Care of the Message of Fatima (DPMF), reads. “This makes perfect sense, at a Shrine where childhood is of paramount importance”: “Here is a service to which we must pay more attention”, since these young people, by their behaviour, show “an inner attitude of trust in that they only ask to be loved”. “For the first time this year, we have five shifts, instead of four, due to high demand”, a statement on the website of the Shrine reads.