A National Thanksgiving

CEBU, Philippines -  As early as 11am, people were converging to prepare for the much-awaited Thanksgiving Mass in celebration of the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod, Bisaya, the second Filipino saint. Many came from all over -- the Philippines and abroad -- to venerate the latest saint of the Catholic Church who was not a learned man of the cloth, but a teenage lay catechist who died a martyr for his faith.

Parishioners, young and old, accompanied the carrosas of their patron saints: 80 carrosas from the northern parishes and 75 carrosas from the south which participated in the afternoon procession that culminated at the Templete, a generous donation of Mr. Henry Sy of the SM Group of Companies, in the South Road Property (SRP) grounds.

 According to church records, some 1.2 million devotees attended the Thanksgiving Mass, along with dignitaries led by President Benigno Aquino III, Vice President Jejomar Binay, Governor Gwen Garcia, Mayor Michael Rama and attendant government officials;  Most Rev. Giuseppe Pinto - Apostolic Nuncio in the Philippines, Papal Nuncio Osbaldo Padilla - a Cebuano, Jose Antonio Cardinal Tagle - Archbishop of Manila, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales - Archbishop Emeritus of Manila, Chief Postulator (the one who worked unceasingly for the Cause of Pedro Calungsod in the Vatican) Agustinian friar Rev. Fr. Fernando Martinez Rojo, O.S.A., five (5) archbishops and fifty-nine (59) bishops, aside from the host prelates – Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma.

 In his beautiful homily, Cardinal Vidal described San Pedro's life as the unifying factor today, even if he lived 340 years ago. His was a life lived in Christ's love, a love that braved sacrifices and faced death. Cardinal Vidal pointed out that San Pedro's love meant that he "died" many times for Christ, before his actual death – when he left the comfort of home and family at a very young age to spread the gospel, when he refrained from youthful indulgences enjoyed by the sexually promiscuous Chamorro young men, when he lived a life of deprivation in the far-flung mission of the Marianas.

 "Some people die even before they start to live, because they refuse to love," Cardinal Vidal pointed out. "San Pedro lives on because he refused to give up on love." ...on his love for Christ that has transcended centuries of near oblivion and has retained its simplicity of fervor.

 Cardinal Vidal concluded: " When we respect our nature, we subsume all nature to its Creator, thus, God, will be all in all. This, no less, is the essence of sainthood."

 We now echo the good Cardinal when he proclaimed: "Mabuhi si San Pedro Calungsod!"  And with that, we take comfort in proclaiming: Mabuhi ang Pilipinas! (FREEMAN)