Portugal's government has decided to give public sector employees the day off on May 12th to mark the Pope’s arrival in the country in preparation for Saturday and Sunday’s celebrations in Fátima to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions.
The extra day’s holiday has not gone down well with some Socialist Party MPs who rightly point out that the celebrations are not until the Saturday and question why there should be a day off on the preceding Friday.
MP Ascenso Simões said that granting this extra day off "does not make any sense", since on the Friday, "there is only a candlelight procession at night - the celebrations are on the Saturday."
MP Isabel Moreira writes on Facebook that: "It is because of decisions like the one by the Government to grant a day off when the pope goes to Fatima that we realise the regime is immature.”
Socialist Party parliamentary leader Carlos César agreed with the government's decision, saying he did not consider it excessive to give State employees a day off.
As well as kissing babies, Pope Francis will canonise two of the three shepherds, Jacinta and Francisco, on in the centenary of the "apparitions" in Cova da Iria in 1917. Buried at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, the two children will be the youngest non-martyrs ever to be canonised.
The third child, Lúcia dos Santos, became a nun and died in 2005 at the ripe old age of 97. A process that might lead to her canonisation also has been opened.
Francis also has scheduled meetings with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Prime Minister, António Costa.
Pope Francis is the 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as Bishop of Rome, and sovereign of Vatican City.
The eighty-year-old Pope Francis is the fourth pope to visit Fátima, after Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
