Archbishop rites to be held Nov. 21

Manila will have a new archbishop on Nov. 21 in an elaborate ceremony, marking the first time the city will hold such rites since Filipinos started heading the 400-year-old episcopate.

The date of the turnover ceremony was announced yesterday shortly after incoming Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales arrived from Europe where he had been in a three-week "ad limina" visit to the Pope and pilgrimage in Lourdes, France.

Rosales met with his predecessor Jaime Cardinal Sin at the archbishop’s residence in Villa San Miguel in Mandaluyong City shortly after having breakfast with Apostolic Nuncio Antonio Franco in the latter’s residence. Rosales once served under Sin as an auxiliary bishop in 1974 before being transferred to Bukidnon province as bishop of Malaybalay in 1984.

The ceremony will be held at the Manila Cathedral. Since Archbishop Gabriel Reyes was appointed as the first Filipino head of the Archdiocese of Manila in 1949, no turnover ceremony has been held as he and Sin’s predecessor Rufino Cardinal Santos died in office before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Sin and Rosales merely talked about the latter’s trip, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Manila.

Rosales, however, will stay at the Archdiocese’s office in Manila instead of Villa San Miguel. It was earlier reported that Rosales would rather stay in Manila instead of Villa San Miguel.

Sin is undergoing dialysis for his kidney disease at the Cardinal Santos Hospital in San Juan and his stay at Villa San Miguel was deemed most convenient for him.

Rosales later proceeded to his current Archdiocese in Lipa, Batangas to make preparations for his departure to less than two months from now. – Jose Aravilla