One for Saint Calungsod

The figure of Saint Pedro Calungsod should bolster the Filipino people’s sense of community just as he has since his canonization last Oct. 21 became an emblem of global Catholic piety.

We hope this point is not lost on government officials and other persons preparing for or attending the Nov. 30 national thanksgiving Mass in honor of the saint at Cebu City’s South Road Properties.

Politicos will be welcome at the religious event but they should arrive recollected and with nary a reminder of their discord-inducing 2013 electoral dreams.

It already is a shame that Lionel Castillano, Cebu provincial election supervisor, had to warn candidates against using the Mass to their advantage.

The ball is now in the court of aspiring elective public servants, some of whom may tag along with President Benigno Aquino III.

They can prove themselves prudent and capable of restraint (that means no non-liturgical handshaking, waving or worse, distribution of premature campaign paraphernalia).

Otherwise they will draw in this anti-epal era a backlash worse than that which afflicted a senatoriable who hung a poster featuring her name and face along the route of the foot procession in honor of Santo Niño de Cebu years ago.

Residents, meanwhile, need to step up as hosts to the multitude who will descend on the Queen City of the South.

The thanksgiving Mass, being at the same time a celebration of Filipino culture that produced someone deemed worthy of being raised to the glory of the altar should be as politics-proof as the annual Sinulog festival can be.

Surely the opposition-dominated Cebu City Council is mature enough to offer at Mayor Michael Rama’s request what help it can to open a devotee city to poor pilgrims.

We appreciate the heightened readiness of the Philippine National Police to keep the peace before, during and after the Mass.

Beyond being externally peaceful, however, Cebu City throughout this occasion should also be more conducive to personal interior awakening.

We in this Cradle of Christianity in the Far East have to pull all the stops to be hospitable to all, especially the least, who will culminate a spiritual journey here.

As an offering, laborer Raul Capacite, 39, is working for meager pay on completing the templete for the Mass. Asosimo Espana, 64, is refurbishing the boat that will carry home Saint Pedro’s image (which yesterday passed through Santa Elena town in the Carmarines Norte leg of its national tour).

We see in their efforts the Filipino capability to serve a cause greater than self. We therefore trust that our bigger institutions can do the same in hosting pilgrims from across the land.

If the devotee city will be too small to welcome so many and they cannot be housed in schools, church halls and parishioners near the Mass site can consider adopting these members of their family in the faith.

What better season than this to put life to the biblical verse, “When I was a stranger, you welcomed me.”