5,000 street kids, disabled children receive 1st communion at IEC

5,000 kids receive their first communion during the mass presided by Ricardo Cardinal Vidal at the 51st IEC in Cebu. NESTOR CORRALES/INQUIRER.net

CEBU CITY—Some 5,000 children from across the Philippines received their first communion on Saturday afternoon as part of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) here.

Retired Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu Ricardo Cardinal Vidal administered the first communion to the children—some were street kids, deaf and mute.

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“I know the feeling because I was once like them,” Cardinal Vidal said in his homily.

Cardinal Vidal took his first holy communion during the first IEC in Manila in 1937.

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In an ambush interview on Friday, Cardinal Vidal hopes that one of the first communicants could be a priest.

The prelate eventually became a priest and a cardinal. He was also a former president of the Catholics Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The mass was held at the Cebu City Sports Center attended by thousands of Catholic faithful. IDL