TWO weeks after undergoing gallbladder surgery, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma met yesterday with organizers of the celebration of Blessed Pedro Calungsod’s Oct. 21 canonization.
Palma and his predecessor Ricardo Cardinal Vidal met with the planning committee to work out details of the celebration that includes a thanksgiving Mass on Nov. 30 in Mandaue City.
Yesterday’s meeting was Palma’s first public appearance since his surgery.
“Thank God, I am okay now,” he said.
Palma underwent gallbladder removal surgery last April 3 after he complained of acute stomach pains.
“I have more piles of work because I went on vacation. But it’s okay. I’m thankful to Cardinal Vidal who took many of the schedules,” Palma said.
He cancelled trips to Iloilo, Mindanao, Samar and Manila upon the advice of doctors.
Palma was supposed to attend a dialogue he called the other day with groups opposing the Cordova reclamation project. Insteady he was represented by Cordova parish priest Fr. Alvin Lao.
The thanksgiving Mass has been moved to Mandaue City from its original proposed venue in the South Road Properties (SRP).
Palma said engineers told them it would be very costly to fill the site with soil to prevent it from being muddy in case of rain.
The new venue may be near the Cebu Doctors’ Hospital in Mandaue City.
Event engineers presented a miniature model and designs of the proposed stage and location set up.
The Nov. 30 Mass will be held when the Cebu delegation to the Calungsod canonization in Rome return home.
Souvenir items such as Blessed Pedro Calungsod bookmarks, key chains, collar pins, stickers and 150,000 catechism booklets about the first Visayan Cebuano saint are also being planned. /UP masscom Intern Peter L. Romanillos and Correspondent Jessa Marie J. Agua