Cardinal Jose Advincula led the formal elevation of the Maasin Cathedral as a national shrine on Wednesday, urging the faithful to embrace its sanctity and live out faith, hope and charity.
Churchgoers packed the pews for the celebration on the eve of the feast of the cathedral and parish patroness, Our Lady of the Assumption.
During the early part of the Mass, Msgr. Bernardo Pantin, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, read to the congregation the CBCP decree declaring the cathedral as 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.”
Advincula, in his homily, emphasized that the shrine’s holiness comes not just from its physical attributes but from the living faith of its community.
According to the cardinal, a shrine is a “sanctuarium” that is “an embodiment of holiness within space and time.’”
