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(Juan Carlo de Vela / MANILA BULLETIN)
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) unveiled markers declaring them as National Cultural Treasures. The declaration coincided with the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the first baptism in the country.
“As our contribution in the commemoration, the cultural agencies of our country have decided to declare the Basilica of the Sto. Niño de Cebu as a National Cultural Treasure, one of the highest recognitions the State can give to a particular built heritage,” said Dr. Rene Escalante Escalante, chairperson of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
Aside from Escalante, the unveiling of the markers was also graced by Papal Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Charles Brown, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino, and friars from the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA), who run the Basilica.
(Quiapo Church / Facebook / FILE PHOTO)
This was the message of Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Charles Brown during Wednesday’s Pontifical Mass celebrating the first baptism that took place in the country.
“So the faith of Christianity was transported in this part of Asia by Europeans and now it is being re-transported to Europe and other places around the world by Filipinos. What do we see in this? We see the universality of the Catholic faith,” said Brown.
Brown said Filipinos have kept the Catholic faith alive even in foreign places.
“What we celebrate with hearts with joy is the fact that in these five centuries, the Catholic faith has entered deeply into the Filipino culture and has produced a distinctively Filipino expression of the unchanging and universal truth of Catholic faith,” Brown said.
MAASIN CITY, Feb. 23 (PIA) The alter ego of Pope Francis in the country will be breaking bread and wine through the Eucharist among the faithful in the island-town of Limasawa, to repeat a historic scene that first happened 500 years ago on an Easter Sunday, March 31, 1521.
Weather permitting and barring any other hitches, Archbishop Charles John Brown, the new papal ambassador in the country, is expected to grace the quincentennial event, along with other visiting bishops and priests, according to Fr. Johnrey Sibi, head of the diocesan committee overseeing the church-based activities.
Based on the advance itinerary obtained by PIA, the ecclesiastical guests are expected to arrive by sunrise in the morning on the day of the celebration, by plane at Maasin airport, and at about the same time the pilgrim image of the Sto. Nino de Cebu will dock at the port of Maasin.