John Paul II Institute to hold Christmas concert

BACOLOD CITY , Philippines  — The Centro Giovanni Paolo II Foundation, Inc. (CGPFI) will hold a concert dubbed, “Christmas in our Hearts,” on December 21 at 6 p.m. at the Grand Ballroom of the Planta Centro Bacolod Hotel and Residences in this city.

More than 20 popular Christmas songs will be performed by the Colegio San Agustin—Bacolod Kalinaw Chorale, the West Negros University Big Band, and Niza Limjap, with Michael John Tambasen as musical director and Rudy Reveche as stage director.

Monsignor Victorino Rivas, president of the CGPFI, said the concert will be for the benefit of the Blessed John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, a project in this city of Blessed John Paul II himself.

“We hope to raise funds to make this newly established foundation (CGPFI) the cause for the stability of this papal project in Bacolod,” Rivas said.

The Blessed John Paul II Institute, in consortium with the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod, has been existing for almost 12 years already, Rivas said.

Simply called the JP II Institute, it is not merely named after the beloved pope; it is, in fact, an institute the pope himself created, and the only school he had put up, thus it can be considered one of his living legacies, Rivas said.

The JP II Institute in Bacolod—the only one of its kind in the Philippines and to some extent, in Asia—is part of the worldwide Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, Rivas added.

The CGPFI, meanwhile, was established to sustain the projects of the JP II Institute and ensure its valuable service to the Church in the Philippines and part of Asia, he added.

Rivas said that through the support of benefactors and friends, the Institute has been able to pursue the vision of Blessed John Paul II and to faithfully carry out his mandate to train academically and pastorally priests, religious, and lay.

The teachings of Blessed John Paul II are centered on the family as a focal point of evangelization, and marriage is the subject and object of pastoral concerns, Rivas added.

Blessed John Paul II was born as Karol Juzef Wojtyla on May 18, 1920. He was pope from October 16, 1978 until his death on April 2, 2005 at the age of 84. Merely six years later, on May 1, 2011, the feast of the Divine Mercy, he was proclaimed “blessed” at beatification rites in Rome, a step closer to sainthood.

Blessed John Paul II visited Bacolod on February 20, 1981.  (FREEMAN)