Church intensifies info drive on Calungsod

THREE months before the canonization of Pedro Calungsod, the Cebu Archdiocese had launched a massive information drive about the life of the Visayan martyr.

The campaign is targetting catechists and lay leaders, who shall then be tasked to preach about the life and martyrdom of Calungsod.

Msgr. Vicente Tupas Jr., chairperson of the committee on catechesis for the Cebu celebration of Calungsod’s sainthood, said the campaign will entail lectures, multi-media presentation and a film on the life of Calungsod.

Tupas said there are almost 6,000 catechists in the Archdiocese of Cebu, the biggest in the entire world.

He said eight catechists have been given a chance to attend the canonization rites in Rome on October 21 but only six have committed to go.

Aside from catechetical lectures, Tupas said books, comics, film, and souvenirs such as stickers and key chains with themes on Calungsod’s life and martyrdom are being disseminated.

Margie Matheu, co-chair of the lay secretariat, said the primer on Calungsod’s life, martydom, and glorification are also being translated in five different dialects in Luzon.

She said the Manila Commission for Calungsod’s canonization is holding public symposia so the Visayan martyr will be made known to the people.

Meanwhile, an image of Calungsod that was made in Paete, Laguna is set to arrive today for presentation to Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu Ricardo Cardinal Vidal who is in the process of choosing the “model image” of Calungsod that will be brought to Rome.

Calungsod, a teenager from the Visayas, was among the first to serve on a mission organized by Fr. Diego de San Vitores to the Ladrones Islands in the Western Pacific, Marianas, on June 16, 1668.

Trained by the Jesuits, Calungsod mastered catechism and learned how to read, write and deliver discourses in Visayan, Spanish and Chamorro.

On April 2, 1672, he and Fr. Diego were speared with a cutlass by two villagers in Tumhon, Guam, for catechizing and baptizing the natives.