More than 200,000 devotees joined a grand procession last Friday night from the Capitol to the Basilica, where they also heard mass, despite the rain.
The devotees from all over Cebu, estimated at 230,000, did that to celebrate the first 100 years since the last apparition of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal.
In his message after the procession, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma praised the participants for braving the rain just to join the event.
“Para nako, kini grasya sa Ginoo nga as a people, napakita nato ang atong dako gugma ni Mama Mary. Nga mapasalamaton ta sa iyang papel isip inahan ni Kristo ug natong tanan (For me, this is God’s blessing that we, as a people can show our great love for Mother Mary; that we can show how grateful we are for her place as the mother of Christ and mother of us all,” Palma said.
Despite the bad weather, Ananias Amarillo, 39, walked the 2.9-kilometer route from the Provincial Capitol to the Basilica Minore del Sto.Niño not to ask for any favor from the Virgin Mary, but to give thanks.
“I am thankful to Mother Mary for the many blessings our family has received,” Amarillo told SunStar Cebu. He and his wife are expecting their first baby. Amarillo plans to name their daughter Mary.
A moving surprise
Fe Barino, president of the Archdiocesan Commission on the Laity and one of the organizers of the procession, said she had expected 30,000 to join the activity. The huge turnout surprised her.
Cebu City Police Director Joel Doria said that from the initial 200, they beefed up security to 500 because so many parishioners turned up for the celebration. The security force included Barangay Intelligence Network volunteers and some undercover police officers. Teams from the Mobile Patrol Group and the Traffic Patrol Group took their positions near major intersections.
And the station commanders “were all present on the field to watch over the procession,” the city director said. No threat was reported.
“The event was generally peaceful because our security placement was effective. There were no untoward incidents,” Doria said.
The Mother, everywhere
He said there were an estimated 20,000 devotees who joined the procession, but thousands more people joined the mass.
Aside from parishioners from Cebu’s different parishes, 18 parishes in Metro Cebu brought out different images of the Virgin Mary in various carrozas.
The procession started at 8:42 p.m. and ended at 11:02 p.m.
In his homily, Archbishop Palma reminded the faithful that the appearance of the Virgin Mary before Saints Francisco and Jacinta and their cousin Lucia in Fatima 100 years ago proved God’s presence.
“It is a reminder of God’s great love for us,” Palma said.
He also urged the faithful to be like Mary, who accepted the great challenge to be Jesus’ mother.
“We should not shrink from what may be difficult,” he added.
In 1917, Lucia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto were herding sheep in a village in Fatima when they were visited three times by an apparition of an angel.
After the angel’s appearance, the three children witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary starting in May 1917. A few times more, the three children repeatedly saw the Virgin Mary from May to October, when residents of their village witnessed the “dancing sun” miracle.
A century later, children joined their parents and peers for the procession that celebrated the apparitions. They shared photos of themselves and the crowd on their social media accounts (a clear sign of the times), saying how happy they were to have seen it and then made it safely back home . /WITH JOB S