Cardinal Jose Advincula led the formal elevation of the Maasin Cathedral as a national shrine on Wednesday, urging the faithful to embrace its sanctity and live out faith, hope, and charity.
Churchgoers packed the pews for the celebration on the eve of the feast of the cathedral and parish patroness, Our Lady of the Assumption.
During the early part of the Mass, Msgr. Bernardo Pantin, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, read to the congregation the CBCP decree declaring the cathedral as a national shrine.
The document encouraged the devotees to “continually deepen their Christian piety, mature in their Catholic faith, and faithfully fulfill the commandment of Christian charity.”
Advincula, in his homily, emphasized that the shrine’s holiness comes not just from its physical attributes but from the living faith of its community.
According to the cardinal, a shrine is a “sanctuarium” that is “an embodiment of holiness within space and time.’”
“This shrine is a sanctuarium not only because it feels holy, looks holy, but because the people who come here are incarnating the call to holiness within their lives embodying the virtues of Christ in their whole being,” Advincula said.
The Manila archbishop also highlighted that the shrine serves not just a place for gathering and worship, but also a site for mission and outreach.
“This cathedral church is not just a place of gathering but also a place of missioning. This church is not just a receiving church but also a giving church. The community is not just a praying community but also a caring community,” Advincula added.
The CBCP approved the Maasin diocese’s petition to declare its cathedral as a national shrine during their plenary assembly on July 6. It is now one of only 30 national shrines in the country and the first in the Eastern Visayas region.
The elevation to national shrine status also took place exactly four years after Bishop Precioso Cantillas of Maasin declared the cathedral as a diocesan shrine.
On August 13, 2022, the cathedral’s venerated image of Our Lady of the Assumption received pontifical coronation in a ceremony led by papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown.
