Jolo cathedral marks 40th day since deadly blasts

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Catholics on Sunday marked the 40th day since the deadly bombing of the cathedral in Jolo town in Sulu.

The two improvised bombs that went off in the cathedral in the center of Jolo on January 27 killed 24 people and injured 30 others.

Members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation in Cotabao City, whose missionaries are overseeing churches and Catholic schools in Sulu,  said Monday the symbolic rite on Sunday at the Jolo cathedral was led by a colleague, Monsignor Romeo Saniel.

Saniel is the administrator of the Jolo vicariate.

The OMI has been involved in humanitarian missions in Sulu and in Tawi-Tawi since the 1940s.

Saniel was quoted in radio reports here Monday as saying that the families of the people killed in the bombing were traumatized by the loss of relatives in the attack.

“Pain is still deep, sorrow still paralyzing but hope of letting go is a grace of God. We remembered the martyrs who died inside the cathedral,” Saniel said.

Gunmen killed two members of the OMI —  Bishop Benjamin de Jesus and missionary Ben Inocencio — in one attack after another in downtown Jolo several years before.

An American OMI priest, Clarence Bertelsman, was wounded in a bungled attempt by Abu Sayyaf bandits to snatch him while he was leading a mass inside the Sulu provincial police camp in Jolo in 1992.

Saniel said Sunday’s prayer rite inside the Jolo cathedral was held under tight security.