Church seeks more help for Calungsod templete

The Archdiocese of Cebu is appealing for more assistance for the templete and ground work being prepare for the Nov. 30 national thanksgiving Mass for Pedro Calungsod’s sainthood.

Fr. Raul Gallego, chairman of the committee on venue, said the Cebu Contractors Association has already helped by providing contruction equipment but more help is still needed.

“We need equipment like backhoes, loaders and compactors,” Gallego told Cebu Daily News.

Gallego is expecting the templete to be finished on mid November.

“The road network by SM is almost finished. The back filling and levelling of the ground has started. The work on the mound for the templete is 60 percent done, while the whole templete preparations is about 50 percent done,” he said.

The thanksgiving Mass will be held in the South Road Properties in Cebu City.

The area has been reduced by half from 1,500 square meters to 700 sq m. due to financial constraints. The original proposal for the templete was P30 million but church leaders reduced the budget to P5 million.

Gallego said all visiting bishops will be accommodated in the templete.

Organizers of the thanksgiving mass expect over half million people to attend the historic event honoring the second Filipino saint.

Calungsod, a Visayan teenager, joined a Jesuit mission to the Ladrones Islands in 1668.

He was killed by angry villagers four years later while accompanying Fr. Diego de San Vitores to catechize and baptize natives in Tumhon, Guam./Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol