QC’s Mt. Carmel church now a national shrine

OUR LADY OF MT. CARMEL SHRINE. Home to a Marian devotion rooted in the 1600s. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

During the 1950s, residents of New Manila, Quezon City, heard Mass either at Immaculate Conception Cathedral (actually their parish church) in New York, Cubao, or at the Christ the King Seminary on E. Rodriguez. Some even had to cross Aurora Boulevard to go to the Carmelite Convent on Gilmore.

In the heart of New Manila was the convent of the Pink Sisters on Hemady, but it could never accommodate all the Sunday churchgoers, especially since there were no Saturday anticipated Masses until toward the late ’60s.

In those safer times, when the roads didn’t have litter and the air was cleaner, people in general preferred to walk to church. Maybe the better to show off their Sunday best—when people still dressed up for church? Or perhaps walking was part of this beautiful ritual of going to church to worship.

Members of the New Manila community had to walk to the fringes of their subdivision or drive to the Sta. Mesa parish or Sto. Domingo Church to hear Mass every Sunday. They waited long to have their own church dedicated to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. And when it happened, it was welcomed with jubilation, especially by those who took a vow to wear the Lady’s Brown Scapular.

The Filipinos’ devotion to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was supposed to have started in the 1600s when the Augustinian Recollects bound for Manila received an image of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel from the Carmelites in Mexico. The Marian statue that eventually found its way to Philippine shores perhaps did not survive the ravages of time since there seems to be no record of it. But the devotion to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel flourished nevertheless. The all-steel gothic San Sebastian Church in Quiapo, for one, honors the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel as its patroness.

In 1923, the Carmelites—actually just four nuns—finally arrived in the country and set up a convent in Iloilo province. The Carmelite fathers followed in 1947 and focused their missionary work in that part of Quezon province that eventually became Aurora province.

When the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, was in Rome in 1952, the papal delegate sought an audience with the Prior General of the Carmelite Order. In that meeting, Vagnozzi, who earlier figured in the pre-investigation of the previously discredited miracle in Lipa, Batangas province, asked for more Carmelites to be sent to the Philippines and for a monastery and church to be established in Manila.

The Irish Carmelite friars who were sent to the country for this particular mission initially considered building at either Horseshoe Drive (behind what is now Robinson’s Magnolia) or on Araneta Avenue.

Broadway star

In 1954, however, the Carmelites decided in favor of a 17,155-square meter property (an entire block) along Broadway (between 4th and 5th Streets). It was a cogon field that was part of the original estate that belonged to Magdalena Hemady, the “balae” or in-law of the late nationalist Sen. Claro M. Recto. Lot price: P180,000.00.

On Dec. 30 that year, the cornerstone was blessed and invited to grace the occasion was then President Ramon Magsaysay, who was represented by daughter Mila (later Valenzuela).

It took a decade for the church to be completed, and finally inaugurated by J. Rufino Cardinal Santos on July 16, 1964, the feast day of Mt. Carmel. A beautiful image of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel from the Talleres de Maximo Vicente was installed at the right side altar. Behind the church is the St. John of the Cross Seminary.

Brides’ choice: Real, ‘reel’

Since the church is visible from Aurora Boulevard, specifically at the corner of Madison Street where there is a bridge, many Catholic motorists make the sign of the cross when they pass the area as a sign of respect.

Mt. Carmel church became a popular location for wedding scenes in the movies. But in real life, most brides stayed away since mortuary chapels are located below the church.

In the old days, most wakes were held at the home of the deceased or at Funeraria Paz or Nacional. While other churches allowed wakes to be held inside the premises, these were accommodated only one at a time and confined within the side altar.

But the Carmelite friars of Mt. Carmel church were ahead of their time. Aside from mortuary chapels, they also put up a crypt for cremated remains.

Today, with many other big churches in Metro Manila also offering the same services, much of the stigma borne by Mt. Carmel church as a “lamayan” (wake) site has disappeared. On Fridays and Saturdays, weddings are held in this church every two hours. It is now favored by a lot of brides because of the aisle that allows them to have a long walk to the altar. The fee charged by Mt. Carmel for wedding ceremonies is also relatively low at P15,000, compared to P25,000 in other churches. There is big parking lot and a community center that can be used for wedding receptions.

From both sides of town

Declared a parish in 1975, Mt. Carmel church has 90,000 parishioners who belong to practically just two socioeconomic brackets: the millionaires/billionaires who live in those New Manila mansions (a townhouse unit there may cost as much as P40 million) and the informal settlers of Damayang Lagi and Barangay Valencia.

Although it has turned golden, Mt. Carmel church is still a work in progress. Until 2000, the less attentive churchgoer could doze off or daydream through the homily because of the bad sound system. That problem had since been remedied and the improvements continue under the leadership of parish priest, Fr. Joey Mabborang. And for the first time since it was built, the church exterior was finally given a coat of paint.

Since the last quarter of the year, renovations have been ongoing (although currently suspended this holiday season). By next year, the church will have a more beautiful and brighter main altar. Plans are also underway to have the church air-conditioned—but only if finances allow it.

On Dec. 14, the church will again be undergoing a major change in status as it is proclaimed the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Archbishop Socrates Villegas will lead the rites that begin at 9 a.m.

As a National Shrine, Mt. Carmel will have to go beyond its parochial duties. From three Masses a day, the church will have as many as six on weekdays to accommodate pilgrims from all over the country and even from abroad. There will also be confessions all day long.

This development only proves how God truly works in mysterious ways: The New Manila community that once didn’t even have its own church now has a Shrine that will play a key role in propagating further the devotion to the Blessed Mother.