DUE to his tight schedule, President Benigno Aquino III might miss the chance to meet Pope Benedict XVI during the canonization of Blessed Pedro Calungsod on October 21 in Rome. Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Archbishop Jose Palma, together with Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, met with the President Wednesday [...]
MSGR. Ildebrando Leyson is right. Nobody knows how Blessed Pedro Calungsod looked like. All we know, based on historical records, is that Blessed Pedro was a young indio who hailed from the Visayas. The 17th century Spanish chronicler Franciscan friar Francisco Ignacio Alcina described young Visayan natives as usually light brown, better built than Tagalogs, [...]
I RECEIVED varied reactions on my column last Saturday entitled “Pedro Calungsod was an Ilonggo.” Some accused me of being anti-Catholic and should be condemned and ostracized by the church. Others urged me to apologize to the church for spreading misinformation about Calungsod. They also questioned my credibility as a journalist for using Google and [...]
CEBU CITY — No one really knows what Blessed Pedro Calungsod looked like, but the image chosen to represent him “is that of every man,” said a church official. “Many people look like him,” said Msgr. Ildebrando Leyson, who has worked on the cause of sainthood for the Visayan catechist for more than a decade. [...]
I WAS born in Olingan, Dipolog City in the province of Zamboanga del Norte. I saw the first light of day in that place. I took my elementary and secondary education there and studied college in Zamboanga City. I transferred to Cebu in 1987. Since then, I have been based here due to my profession. [...]
THE 40-day Lenten season begins today, Ash Wednesday, with the ritual of placing ash on the foreheads of mass-goers. There will be slight changes to this year’s commemoration of the passion, crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, with the recent announcement that lay catechist Pedro Calungsod will be canonized on Oct. 21, 2012. Fr. Mhar [...]
“What’s the big deal about saints?” –From an inquiry to a Catholic internet site How many saints are there in heaven? That and the fuss over saints are usually raised by the skeptic or heretic who’s fascinated though not awed by saints. We now have our own saint, Pedro Calungsod, the country’s second and Cebu’s [...]
IT’S actually a bit of a downer to note that the Visayas, almost five centuries since Catholicism was introduced in its shores by a Spanish fleet led by Ferdinand Magellan, could only produce one saint so far. But that also explains the eruption of joy after Pope Benedict XVI announced recently the canonization of seven [...]