No in-person Masses for Cebu’s Sto. Niño feast

DEVOTION In this 2018 photo, thousands of devotees wave their hands as the image of the Sto. Niño makes its way to the altar at the Pilgrim Center of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño in Cebu City. —INQUIRER PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — For the second consecutive year, all Masses for the 457th Fiesta Señor in this city will be held online.

While cases of COVID-19 here have dwindled, local officials and leaders of the Catholic Church decided to cancel in-person Masses, which used to draw thousands of people from different parts of the country before the pandemic struck.

Fiesta Señor is the religious celebration held every third Sunday of January in honor of the Sto. Niño, or the Holy Child Jesus. Its cultural counterpart is the Sinulog Festival.

According to the Augustinian friars of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño de Cebu, the open-air Pilgrim Center will accept visitors who wish to light candles and pay homage to Sto. Niño.

Online

The original image of the Sto. Niño, which was given by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan as baptismal gift to Cebu’s Queen Juana in 1521, is kept inside the basilica and will be off-limits to the public this year.

Fr. Nelson Zerda, the basilica rector, said the Cebu City government and church officials agreed to again drop the holding of physical novena Masses as a safety precaution amid the continued threat of COVID-19 and its latest variant, Omicron.

He said all novena and feast day Masses from Jan. 7 to Jan. 16 will be streamed online on the official Facebook page of Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño and some social media pages of news outlets.

Motorcade

Before the 6 a.m. opening Mass on Friday, a motorcade of the Sto. Niño image will be held in the streets of Cebu City starting at 4:30 a.m.

On Jan. 15, the eve of the Fiesta Señor, a grand motorcade will bring the image of the Holy Child to the neighboring cities of Talisay, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, and the town of Cordova.

The image will cross the newly constructed Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway that connects mainland Cebu and Mactan Island before returning to the basilica.

Only a limited number of vehicles will be allowed to join the convoy while policemen will be deployed at some parishes where the motorcade will stop.

Zerda encouraged parishes to also hold their own novena Masses in honor of Sto. Niño so people from the provinces will no longer have to go to the basilica this year.

As of Jan. 4, Cebu City had 43 active cases of COVID-19.