In time for St. John Paul II’s 98th birth anniversary on Friday, the Manila Cathedral will again hold a public veneration of the vial containing the late pontiff’s blood.
From May 18 to 20, the cathedral will put the blood relic on display, just a month after it was first shown to the public.
According to the rector, Fr. Reginald Malicdem, the second public veneration is for those who were not able to see the relic in April.
The three-day public veneration will start from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
On Saturday, a Mass will be held at the cathedral, with Fr. Joel Jason of the Archdiocesan Ministry for Family and Life presiding.
The blood relic was donated to the cathedral in December last year by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisw, the pope’s former secretary.
Born Karol Jozef Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland, in May 18, 1920, John Paul II served as the leader of Roman Catholic Church from 1978 up to his death on April 2, 2005.
He visited the Philippines in 1981 and 1995. —Jovic Yee