Palma asks Catholics to join nat’l consecration

CEBU, Philippines - Following the directive of  the  Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), a simultaneous nationwide National Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary will take place in all cathedrals, parishes, shrines and chapels today.

Archbishops and priests will offer the Act of Consecration before or after the 10 a.m. mass.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma is reminding the Catholic faithful to join the activity.

Palma will be at the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at 10 a.m. today to ordain a group of Piarist fathers and will be conducting the consecration after.

In an interview, Palma said he wrote to President Benigno Aquino III, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and all other government officials to take part in the celebration of the feast of Mother Mary.

“Being a predominantly Catholic country, dako kaayo ug kahulugan when we consecrate to the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” said Palma.

“This National Consecration is a way to formally reaffirm that our country is indeed “pueblo amante de Maria” – a people truly loving Mary the Mother of Jesus, the Lord, a people in a true sense made one by this love and devotion which we bear, by God’s great gift, to the Mother of God,” Palma’s letter stated.

He added that this is part of the Year of Faith observance, and part of the nine-year preparation for the 2021 celebration of the coming of the Christian Faith to our land in 1521 or five hundred years ago. —/MBG (FREEMAN)