CBCP DECLARATION Our Lady of the Rule church in Lapu-Lapu is a nat''l shrine

The Our Lady of the Rule (Mahal nga Birhen sa Regla) Church in Lapu-Lapu City has finally been declared National Shrine by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

This was after over a year of waiting since the Archdiocese of Cebu and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart petitioned the CBCP to elevate the church''s status into a National Shrine, says Ang Bag-ong Lungsoranon, official publication of the Cebu archdiocese.

Parish priest, Father Pedro C. Arguillas MSC, will celebrate a Pontifical Mass on May 24 as a ceremony for the declaration.

Expected to attend the celebration are Cebu archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Manila archbishop Gaudiencio Cardinal Rosales, CBCP president Angel Lagdameo, Papal Nuncio Fernando Filoni and other high-ranking church officials.

In last year''s city fiesta, Cardinal Vidal announced that the Philippine bishops were waiting for the declaration of the Mahal nga Virgen sa Regla church a national shrine for pilgims and devotees.

He even added then that the Episcopal Commission on Divine Worship of the CBCP had already approved the petition of the archdiocese for such elevation of church status. The CBCP however had officially announced the declaration only recently.

According to the laws of the Church, the CBCP''s commission will endorse for the declaration of a certain parish church into a national shrine if it is a center of devotion for the Lord, for the Blessed Virgin, or for a particular saint.

For many years since, devotees from as far as Mindanao flocked to the Mahal nga Virgen sa Regla church every November 21, its annual feast day, or every Saturday being its day of devotion.

The old icon of the Mahal nga Birhen sa Regla in the church has been looked up to by devotees as miraculous. - Ferliza C. Contratista/RAE