Ahead of Pope Francis visit hotels, inns in Leyte all taken

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines –  Scores of hotels, inns and pension houses, and hundreds of lodging houses in Palo town and this city are now fully booked by visitors, months ahead of the scheduled visit of Pope Francis I on January next year.

The regular rates of these establishments have been doubled as well, including the cost of foods in these areas, according to various sources.

Foreign and Filipino pilgrims were prompted to make lodging reservations with their families and friends here in students' boarding houses and even in residential houses, virtually leaving other interested visitors with almost nothing else for a place to stay during the papal visit.

Father Amadeo Alvero, social communications director of the Archdiocese of Palo, estimated that more than a million will come to Leyte to witness the visit of Pope Francis.

Regarding the venue for the Papal Mass, Alvero said the Vatican has yet to announce its final choice among the Tacloban Airport, the Tacloban port and the government center in Palo, seat of the archdiocese.

"No venue yet. We still wait for the announcement from the Vatican regarding the venue for the Papal Mass and the itinerary of activities of Pope Francis I's visit," he said.

"What is important is that we are assured that the pope will visit us, victims of Yolanda. This will be a great blessing for all of us, and this deserves a great preparation, especially spiritual, from all of us who will encounter the Vicar of Christ," he said.

Alvero said the archdiocese's committees have been conducting meetings every day to tackle the preparations for the rare visit of the pope in Leyte.

"What is meaningful for all those who will welcome him is for themselves to do the challenge of Christ of being merciful. So the preparation now is for the community to become one of mercy, every member of which shall do acts of compassion, like visiting the sick and the prisoners and the hungry and forgiving those who have wronged them. Going to confession is also encouraged among the faithful," said Alvero.

In a CBCP online news, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle cited the Holy Father's first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), reminding the faithful that in "encountering Jesus in the Gospel, we are filled with joy and love enabling us to reach out to our brothers and sisters."

"The message of Pope Francis's first apostolic exhortation, 'Evangelii Gaudium,' 'The Joy of the Gospel,' on evangelization reminds us that in encountering Jesus in the Gospel, we are filled with joy and love, enabling us to reach out to our brothers and sisters," Tagle said

Pope Francis' book The Church of Mercy "urges us to joyfully go out and sow God's mercy, where there is suffering, division and injustice," said Tagle, adding that CBCP's call to revive the Works of Mercy by making an act of mercy everyday in order "to make mercy our national identity."

Meanwhile, 254 families who survived Yolanda and temporary living in bunkhouses at Barangay Candahug in Palo have objected to the reported plan of the municipal government to move them out of the area, which shall be used instead for pilgrims during the papal visit.

Recent reports said that Mayor Matin Petilla might move these families out of the bunkhouses to a relocation site, in order for these shelters to be used by pilgrims instead. This matter has yet to be confirmed though.