MANILA, Philippines — An official of the Quiapo Church acknowledged what was apparently the last homily of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle for the Traslacion of the Black Nazarene, as he bid goodbye to the cardinal last Thursday.
Monsignor Hernando Coronel, rector of Quiapo Church which is also known as the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, said that they will miss Tagle who will leave the Archdiocese of Manila after Pope Francis appointed him to a key Vatican office in charge of spreading the Catholic faith.
Coronel said that Tagle has been the light and has given direction to the past Traslacions of the Black Nazarene.
“He is the torch, giving direction and light to our past Traslacions. We will miss Cardinal Chito,” Coronel said in Filipino, using Tagle’s nickname a few minutes before he ended the midnight mass for the Traslacion.
Tagle served as the homilist during the midnight mass.
Pope Francis had appointed Tagle as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which was previously known as the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, or Propaganda Fide, a position also known as the “Red Pope.”
Tagle did not mention anything about his appointment to the Vatican in his nearly one-hour homily on Thursday, but he acknowledged Coronel, who sent him well wishes and prayers on his new post.
The Vatican has yet to name Tagle’s replacement.
In another development, Coronel said that Quiapo Church will assess all the complaints of the devotees on the changes with this year’s Traslacion.
“We will listen to all of them. It is a learning experience for all of us. What is applicable, we could apply. What is not, we have to learn from that,” Coronel said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines website.
Despite the complaints, Coronel lauded the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and the city government of Manila for a peaceful and orderly Traslacion on Thursday.
He said that it was the first time that they finished the Traslacion early, and no devotees were able to climb onto the carriage of the Black Nazarene due to the “andas wall” composed of more than 2,000 police officers.
He, however, explained that the andas wall was not put up to stop devotees from getting closer to the Black Nazarene but only to ensure a safe, smooth and faster procession.
Organized chaos
Philippine National Police (PNP) OIC Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa asked for understanding as he said police personnel were just doing their jobs, following the spate of complaints against the new security measures implemented for the yearly procession.
“For myself and on behalf of the PNP, to whoever was hurt, stepped on, whose cellphones were confiscated, etc., I would like to ask for apologies if ever anyone was hurt,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English in an interview over radio dzMM.
Gamboa said they hope the public would support the new measures in the next Traslacion, as police only want a peaceful and orderly conduct of the procession.
He noted that there was resistance to the changes implemented earlier this week, such as a human wall of cops guarding the andas or carriage and the new route.
“It is expected, whenever you introduce changes, many will criticize. As I said, we have to balance also the sentiments, most especially (of) the devotees, because although our primary concern is security, we need to balance these things,” Gamboa added.
Police are preparing their report to be presented to church leaders on lessons from this year’s Traslacion that would be the basis for adjustments for next year’s procession.
Gamboa said they want to move forward and improve on the security measures implemented this year.
Metro Manila’s top cop earlier deemed Traslacion 2020 a success, being one of the fastest processions of the Black Nazarene in recent years.
The procession ran for over 16 hours, five or six hours faster than in previous years, with around 3.03 million devotees joining the rites of the procession and at Quiapo Church. – With Romina Cabrera