Templete will be Cebu ‘landmark’

IT will take about a month to finish the templete or small temple, said Fr. Raul Gallego, chairman on the committee on venue.

This will house the altar and liturgical activities, and must be large enough to “acommodate the presiding officer and the concelebranting bishops.”

Part of the structure may remain as “landmark” after the national thanksgiving Mass.

It features a triangular cover at the center, and a palm design reaching upward with a cross on top.

The palm is a traditional symbol of matrydom in the Catholic church while the cross stands for “transendence, man reaching out to God.”

The templete was designed by Fr. Brian Brigoli with the assistance of architects, engineers, and designers.

Before returning to Cebu, the image of Pedro Calungsod will go on a national pilgrimage or “Duaw Lungsod” immediately after the Oct. 21 canonization rites in Rome.

“This will be chance for Pedro to be introduced as a Filipino saint. Hopefully, this will be a grand way to promote his devotion, not just for the region but for the whole of the Philipines. I hope he will be own by everyone as a Filipino saint,” said Fr. Marvin Mejia, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

After arriving in Manila, Calungosd’s image will be travel to Vigan, Bicol, Samar, northen Mindanao, Negros, Iloilo, and Bohol.

The destinations represent the countyr’s four ecclesiastical provinces existing in 1772 – Nueva Segovia, Vigan, Manila, Nueva Caceres (Naga), and Cebu, said Mejia.

The image will arrive in Cebu three days before the national thanksgiving Mass on Nov. 30.

The Luzon leg is led by Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle. The Visayas-Mindanao leg is led by the Cebu Commision.

Calungsod was a teenage catechist and assistant on a mission organized by Jesuit priest Fr. Diego de San Vitores to the Ladrones Islands, now known as Guam.

He was speared with a cutlass by hostile natives in April 2, 1672 when he and Fr. Diego were baptizing villagers. Their bodies were then tied together and thrown into the sea.