Mexico City – 9 December 2020

1. Tracking shot of faithful carrying a Virgin of Guadalupe figure while entering the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe complex

2. Faithful entering the basilica in lines

3. Faithful sanitizing their hands as they enter

4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Hector Luna Lopez, faithful, unemployed bricklayer:

"I think we can never pay her (the Virgin) enough; nothing will be enough, not even the promises we make, the walk, the kneeling. I feel that I will never be able to thank her enough. I come to pray for everyone, for the whole world, so that this pandemic situation will improve. I wish there were not so many deaths from this."

5. Various of faithful Karina Rojas walking on knees towards the Basilica

6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Karina Rojas, faithful, university student:

"My mother is in the hospital, she is in a very serious health condition, and I have much faith that Our Lady will help me so that she will soon be home with me."

7. Faithful entering

8. Security personnel checking the entrance of the faithful on screens

9. Security camera screens showing people

10. Faithful entering

11. Various of faithful Valentin Salamanca singing with his group, wearing T-shirts with the image of the Virgin

12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Valentin Salamanca, faithful who came from the state of Oaxaca:

"Thank God and 'La Morenita' (the Virgin), that I was able to be a good kidney donor. I live only with my left kidney, I donated the right one to my brother, and it was a miracle that she favored me".

13. Faithful on moving walkway admiring the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe

14. Image of the Virgin of Guadalupe

15. Faithful

16. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Flor Felipe, faithful, 24-year-old, came from the state of Oaxaca:

"What I feel is a great emotion. I feel very happy and excited because it is my first year here and for nine years now, I have wanted to participate in this group and come here in gratitude."

17. Various of faithful outside the basilica

The last faithful arrived at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, before the cancellation of what's considered the world's largest Catholic pilgrimage, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of the pilgrims arrived on foot, some carrying large effigies of the Virgin.

The church has recommended that the Guadalupe celebrations be held in local churches or at home, avoiding gatherings and with the appropriate health measures.

Groups of only 500 faithful were allowed to attend each of the eight daily masses, to maintain social distance.

The basilica holds an image of the Virgin that is said to have miraculously imprinted itself on a cloak belonging to the Indigenous peasant Juan Diego in 1531.

The church recognized that 2020 has been a trying year and that many of the faithful want to seek consolation at the basilica, but said that conditions don't permit a pilgrimage that brings so many into close contact.

At the basilica, church authorities said they couldn't remember its doors being closed for another December 12.

But newspaper reports from nearly a century ago show that the church formally closed the basilica and with withdrew priests from 1926 to 1929 in protest of anti-religious laws, but accounts from the time described thousands sometimes flocking to the basilica despite the lack of a Mass.

Mexico City has been tightening health measures as the number of infections and hospital occupancy begin to creep up again.