Cardinal Sanchez’ remains laid to rest in Catanduanes

VIRAC, Catanduanes — The remains of Cardinal Jose Thomas Sanchez, the fifth Filipino cardinal, were reinterred on Friday evening, March 17, at his home diocese of Virac in Catanduanes province.

It was the day he would have turned 103 years old.

Sanchez’s remains, which arrived Thursday, were reinterred at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Virac town after being exhumed from the crypt of the Diocese of Novaliches Cathedral in Quezon City.

The reinterment came after the Most Reverend Manolo Alarkon De Los Santos, bishop of Virac, stated in a Diocesan circular released March 10, his “fervent prayers to have the deceased prelate’s remains buried on the island of his birth, recognizing his being a fellow Catandunganon who brought true pride to the diocese.”

Before the reinterment, a procession around Virac town center was held, led by the Diocese of Virac and attended by the late cardinal’s family. A requiem mass followed, marking the reinterment rites for the remains of Sanchez.

Sanchez was born in 1920 in Pandan town in Catanduanes. In 1946, he was ordained priest for the Diocese of Sorsogon.

Aside from being the country’s 5th cardinal, Sanchez was also the first Filipino to hold a high post in the Roman Curia, the highest administrative body of the Universal Church, after being appointed by then Pope John Paul II in 1985 as the Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome.

Sanchez died on March 9, 2012, at the age of 91.

JONA MAE CAMACHO, CONTRIBUTOR

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