MANILA – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has endorsed a petition to the Vatican to elevate the National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio to an international shrine.

The endorsement was approved during the CBCP’s 128th plenary assembly in Cagayan de Oro City last weekend, announced CBCP president Bishop Pablo Virgilio David.

“We have approved to endorse the application of the National Shrine of Padre Pio into an international shrine,” David stated in a CBCP News report on Tuesday (09 July 2024).

Located in Santo Tomas, Batangas, the 12-hectare shrine attracts pilgrims from around the globe, especially those seeking healing and refuge. Initially a small chapel, it became the country’s first parish dedicated to a Capuchin saint in 2003.

Lipa Archbishop Gilbert Garcera noted that the shrine has also garnered support from several episcopal conferences across Asia.

“We are convinced there is a need for Rome to recognize it as an international shrine due to the strong devotion to Santo Padre Pio,” Garcera said.

The parish was designated as an archdiocesan shrine in 2008 and declared a national shrine by the CBCP in 2013.

If the Vatican approves the petition, it will become the second international shrine in the Philippines, following the International Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in Antipolo City.

(el Amigo/mnm)

By Junex Doronio

CLAIMING TO BE INDEPENDENT, a panel from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has left the executive committee of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

“’Yung ugnayan namin ay nandoon pa rin, pero ‘yung execom kumbaga wala na kami (Our connection is still there, but in the execom, so to speak, we are not there anymore),” CBCP Commission on Public Affairs executive secretary Father Jerome Secillano said in a radio interview.

This move seemed to jive with the stance of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) which has warned that the CBCP “may be used to deodorize the counter-insurgency task force amid a long list of abuses and violations attributed to it.”

Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes Jr. told the CBCP of the limits of any engagement with the NTF-ELCAC.

“While we believe that the CBCP has by and large stood for basic human rights especially against red-tagging and extrajudicial killings, joining the NTF ELCAC sends the wrong message to the public,” the Bayan official said in a statement.

Secillano maintained, however, that being outside the executive committee, the CBCP panel can always be “somehow honest” with the NTF-ELCAC.

The CBCP earlier reported a survey by Caritas Philippines showing that 90% of respondents are against the church joining the NTF-ELCAC.

(ai/mnm)