Nat’l shrine declaration for Jaro cathedral

The Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral, the seat of the Archdiocese of Jaro, will be formally declared the National Shrine of Our Lady of Candles (Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria) to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the canonical coronation of the patroness of Western Visayas on February 2.

Daily Masses as part of the activities started on January 24 and will end on February 1 during the coronation of the image, according to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) News Service.

The coronation will be held at 5:30 p.m. after a Novena Mass at the balcony of the cathedral.

Eleven Masses will be celebrated the next day, starting at 4.30 a.m. Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo will officiate the Mass at 7 a.m., during which the formal declaration of the National Shrine will be made. Capiz Archbishop Jose Advincula will do so at 5:30 p.m.

The cathedral will become the second national shrine recognized by the CBCP in the Visayas, next to the Basilica del Santo Niño in Cebu City, and the 19th in the country.

The late Pope John Paul II canonically crowned the image of Our Lady of Candles, the only Marian image in the Philippines to be accorded the stature, on Feb. 21, 1981.

Created through a papal bull by Pope Pius IX on May 27, 1865, the Jaro Archdiocese is the fifth oldest diocese in the country. It originally covered Panay, Negros, Romblon and Palawan, Jolo, Zamboanga, Cotabato and Davao.

It was elevated into an archdiocese on June 29, 1951, by Pope Pius XII and now includes Iloilo and Guimaras provinces, with the Dioceses of Bacolod, San Jose de Antique, San Carlos and Kabankalan as suffragans, according to the CBCP News Service. Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas