MORE than 20 parishioners prayed inside a Roman Catholic church in Barangay Tungkop, Minglanilla, Cebu on Monday morning, April 1, 2024, to protest the plan to renovate the altar where the Risen Christ image is displayed.
The planned renovation will remove the image from the altar of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish, which the group does not want to happen, according to Ranel Madrid, the parish youth representative.
The group wrote a letter, dated Dec. 20, 2023, to Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, questioning the necessity of the planned removal and the timeliness of its removal. They asked if there was something wrong with the current setup that needed to be fixed.
In the letter, the parishioners seek the Archdiocese’s intervention to prevent the parish priest from implementing the planned renovation until their questions are answered.
Madrid said they started praying inside the church at 7:15 a.m. Their activity ended in less than an hour.
Siony Burbos, another parishioner who participated in the prayer activity, said the priest met them and set a general assembly on May 12.
Announcement
Madrid said the project to remove the image, which has been in the church for over 20 years, was announced during a general assembly last December, but not all parishioners were consulted.
The cited reason for the removal is compliance with the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (Girm), which states that a cross should be present alongside the figure of Christ on the altar. Girm refers to the document that provides detailed guidelines for the celebration of mass in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church.
However, Madrid argued that a cross is already prominently displayed in the center of the church.
“For our part, there’s no need for further renovations because we have already met the requirements of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal,” Madrid said.
Madrid added that the lack of a presented budget proposal or plan for the project was another reason for their prayer activity.
Madrid further said the image is important to the parishioners since it is a part of the church’s history.
SunStar Cebu tried to get the statement of the parish priest by contacting the number posted on the church’s Facebook page, but the call could not be completed. / RJM