Village builds church for Blessed Pedro

For the past six years, Roman Catholic residents of Barangay Cantabaco in Toledo City have been building their parish church. Now, they are asking for the intercession of Blessed Pedro Calungsod for the speedy completion of the house of prayer, hopefully before his canonization on Oct. 21.

After all, the church will be the first in Cebu province to bear the name of the Visayan martyr. It will serve Cantabaco and four other neighboring villages. Cantabaco has chosen Blessed Pedro as patron saint because its people can relate to him. For one, building chapels was one of the tasks assigned to the teenaged Pedro when he joined a group of Jesuit missionaries in a bid to Christianize natives in Guam in 1672.

Pedro persisted in his assignment as hostile natives began to persecute and drive away the missionaries, their associates and converts. Even when they were advised to return to their headquarters, Pedro stayed behind until he was martyred for being faithful to the Jesuit priest, Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores.

Poor village

In Cantabaco, members of the Blessed Pedro Calungsod Parish Church have weathered grinding poverty to lay the foundations of their place of worship.

In 2006, a wooden chapel was built on a hilltop lot donated by a resident, architect Servillano Mapeso, and his wife, Josephine. It was a satellite of the distant parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Barangay Don Andres Soriano, also in Toledo.

Looking at the faithful flocking to the chapel, Fr. Russel

Eummanuel Sungcad realized the need to put up a church to cater the spiritual needs of people in far-flung Cantabaco and the neighboring barangays of Campo 7, Campo 8-Minglanilla, Campo 8-Toledo and Loay.

The Mapesos donated the land for the church upon the plea of Mount Carmel priests like Msgr. Gerardo Juamao-as and Fr. Michael Hisoler.

Model for youth

Sungcad said the residents chose Blessed Pedro as patron saint for his being an ideal model for the youths. “The fact that Pedro Calungsod was a patron of the youth was a case of good timing, and he was close to us in culture, language, looks and features,” he said.

The youth helped raise money to complete the church’s expansion. They organized concerts, meals-for-a-cause, fun runs and bingo socials, said Arnold Ubas, 28, a member of the parish pastoral council.

Cash also trickled in from poor families to set up the eight main columns, Mapeso said.

As construction went on, parish life became more vibrant.

From the 21,000 Catholics in the five barangays, more joined the ranks of church servers. From two sacristans, 21 chapels and five lay ministers, the parish now has 35 chapels, 80 sacristans and 60 lay ministers.

Concrete structure

The six-year-old church surrounded by towering green mountains is now a concrete structure with eight walls featuring stained glass windows that depict scenes from the Christianization of Cebu, mysteries of the Holy Rosary and the life of Blessed Pedro.

It has newly tiled floors.

The church needs at least P4 million more for the finishing job, before Blessed Pedro officially becomes a saint, said Mario Joel Baylosis, 44, president of parish pastoral council. The money will be used to do the belfry, ceiling, sanctuary, walls, basement, rectory, churchyard landscaping and parking lot.

“We need more benefactors,” Mapeso said. “There are already many volunteer construction workers.”

Enthusiasm was renewed after Pope Benedict XVI approved the canonization of Blessed Pedro on Oct. 21.

Six-year wait

“I am very happy. The whole barangay is very happy. We have the first Blessed Pedro parish in Cebu and we have been waiting for six years for him to be canonized,” Baylosis said.

Baylosis used to assist in construction projects in Cebu City. Now his time is divided between rearing his five children and leading a parents-teachers association and the parish council.

He said he had been asking God, through the intercession of the migrant Blessed Pedro, to be reunited with his wife, Rowena, who has been working as a domestic helper in Lebanon and Italy.

Msgr. Ildebrando Leyson, a lead promoter of the cause for Blessed Pedro’s canonization, told the Cantabaco residents that Blessed Pedro would be glad to give them aid since he was once a carpenter.