Totus Tuus week celebration Papal Nuncio blesses Negros Occ

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Archbishop Gieuseppe Pinto, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, arrived in the city the other day, blessed the province of Negros Occidental and its people, at the start of the Totus Tuus Week or the Blessed John Paul II Week celebration.

Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the papal nuncio arrived from Rome and honored with a caravan from the airport in Silay City to the streets of Bacolod where hundreds of people, mostly students and teachers, waved white and yellow flaglets to welcome him.

Pinto was ushered to the Capitol where he decided to go out of the vehicle and shook hands with some people before going up the Capitol steps where he blessed the crowd and the whole province. He then went to the San Sebastian Cathedral where a larger crowd awaited him and the MassKara dancers performed for him.

Pinto was in the city to see also the projects for the Blessed John Paul II, one of which is the John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family with its director, Msgr. Victorino Rivas. 

Rivas, also vicar general of the Bacolod Diocese, said the JP II National Institute is the Pope’s legacy, named after him and the only school put up to share his Nuptial Theology.

The papal nuncio also visited the 8-storey Pope John Paul II Tower and the Centro Giovanni Paolo II Research Center, which is set to be inaugurated today (Feb. 15) after yesterday’s inauguration of the center’s Retreat and Resort at Brgy Punta Taytay. Another JP institution in Bacolod is the JP II Cultural Center at the Sacred Heart Seminary.

A Eucharistic Celebration was officiated by Pinto yesterday afternoon at the San Sebastian Cathedral, after which he was feted with a welcome dinner by Marañon, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra.

The papal nuncio’s arrival marked the start of the Totus Tuus! Week in Bacolod (February 13 to 20), marking the 31st anniversary of then Pope John Paul II’s visit to Bacolod on February 20, 1981 where he addressed the multitude at the reclamation area.

Rivas said ‘Totus Tuus’, a Latin phrase for “All Yours!” or “Completely Yours!,” means “a total commitment to God,” the motto of Blessed John Paul II during his Papacy. 

The highlight of the weeklong celebration would be the national conference on nuptial theology, titled “Blessed John Paul II’s Nuptial Theology: Call to Family Ministry, Agenda for Humanity,” attended by diocesan officials of the Commission on Family and Life and heads of Catholic schools, among others.

Earlier on Sunday, Fr. Jose Granados, vice president of the Pontificio Istituto Giovanni Paolo II per Studi su Matrimonio E Familigia in Rome, Italy, was welcomed by the Bacolod Diocese and the JP II National Institute.

Granados said the mission of the church is to foster the values of family and marriage. “The ministry of the family inspires all of the churches’ activities as it touches all persons and all Christians in some aspects of their lives. There is no vocation of Pope John Paul II that is not connected with the family,” he said.

Bacolod was also designated by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines—via its Episcopal Commission on Family and Life—the seat of the Philippines campus of the Pontificio Instituto Giovanni Paolo II per Studi Su Matrimonio e Famiglia in Rome as a venue for pastoral reflections on marriage and family, said Granados.

The JP Institute campus at the University of St. La Salle meanwhile offers a two-year masters degree course specializing in marriage and family, which is recognized by the CHED, Rivas added.