MANILA (SE): Jose Cardinal Advincula of Manila, led the formal elevation of the Maasin Cathedral, Southern Leyte province, the Philippines, as a national shrine on August 14, urging the faithful to embrace its sanctity and live out faith, hope and charity CBCP News reported.
The pews were filled for the celebration on the eve of the feast of Our Lady of the Assumption, the patron of the cathedral.
The announcement of the elevation was made during the 128th plenary session of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines [CBCP] in Cagayan De Oro City on July 6 [Sunday Examiner, July 21]. It is now one of only 30 national shrines in the country and the first in the Eastern Visayas region.
During the early part of the Mass, Monsignor Bernardo Pantin, secretary general of the CBCP, read out the decree declaring the cathedral a national shrine.
The document encouraged the devotees to “continually deepen their Christian piety, mature in their Catholic faith, and faithfully fulfill the commandment of Christian charity.”
“This shrine is a sanctuarium not only because it feels holy, looks holy, but because the people who come here are incarnating the call to holiness within their lives embodying the virtues of Christ in their whole being,” Cardinal Advincula said in his homily.
“This cathedral church is not just a place of gathering but also a place of missioning. This church is not just a receiving church but also a giving church. The community is not just a praying community but also a caring community,” the cardinal added.
The cathedral was elevated to national shrine status four years after Bishop Precioso Cantillas of Maasin declared it a diocesan shrine. On August 13, the venerated image of Our Lady of the Assumption in the cathedral received pontifical coronation in a ceremony led by papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown.
