Pastoral Letter

“PROCLAIMING A YEAR

OF FAVOR FROM THE LORD”

On the Occasion of the Archdiocesan Celebration

of the Quadricentennial Year 1995 as a Jubilee

of Thanksgiving, a Year of Pardon.

August 15, 1995

 

To my dear people of God in the Archdiocese of Manila:

 

Four hundred years ago, on August 14,1595, an edict by Pope Clement VIII established the Archdiocese of Manila. Through the centuries the Church of Manila has travelled the pilgrimage of life and faith secure in the unfailing guidance of the Lord’s infinite love and goodness.

 

Today, therefore, in solemn commemoration of that wondrous and blessed event we raise our hearts and souls in grand thanksgiving and praise for this special gift.

 

Today heralds the beginning of a jubilee, the great Biblical and Church tradition that allows a sacred pause for a period of celebra­tion, for an examination of what has been and for a preparation of a time that ushers in a new beginning and a renewal of the spirit.

 

As shepherd of the flock of the Archdiocese of Manila, a ministry entrusted to me by our Lord Jesus Christ, through His Holiness Pope John Paul II, I declare this QUADRICENTENNIAL YEAR OF 1995, A JUBILEE YEAR FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE OF MANILA. I proclaim this year, as a YEAR OF FAVOR FROM THE LORD (Is 61:2; Lk 4:19).

 

On this our jubilee; we exult God’s goodness, we thank Him for His manifold blessings and we humbly beseech his mercy for all our failings as a people.

 

Thus on this day August 15, the solemn Feast of the Assumption of Mary, our Blessed Mother, until August 15,1996 is a year dedicated to a jubilee marked by our thanksgiving to God and our plea for His mercy. The culmination of this Jubilee year will be the celebration of the SECOND PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF MANILA from the 15th to the 31st of August 1996.

 

We thank the Lord for blessing our country and the Church of Manila. God has been with us: in our life, in our history fraught with conflict and pain, poverty, natural and man-made disasters but also animated by joys, by peace, by harmony and our sincere efforts to live up to Christian truth and ideals.

 

God our loving Father has given us Mary as gift, to be our own mother, our powerful intercessor through all the times of travail and afflictions. Her maternal protection shows us the way to the heavenly Father. Her wisdom teaches us to discern the will of Her Son so that we may fulfill His word for our salvation. We frame our celebration of this jubilee year with her great feasts because it is to the patronage of Mary, our Mother and Mother of the Church that we entrust our entire country, our Archdiocese.

 

At the same time we look back on the past four hundred years. We acknowledge the innumerable times when we, as individuals and communities of the Lord’s disciples, have failed to make proper use of God’s gifts. God’s graces have never been wanting and it is this assurance that emboldens us to totally entrust ourselves to him and to his divine mercy, aware that he welcomes our reconciliation to his heart. Our jubilee thus celebrates the Lord’s gift of unwavering pardon.

 

We ask the Lord to forgive us our many offences against our fellowmen, against ourselves, which are real sins against Him. We implore His compassion for the times we forgot to love Him through our brothers and sisters, for the hardness of our hearts when we turned away from those in need, for the cruelty of our ways when we violated the rights of others, for our apathy and indifference to his beloved creation, our earth and everything he made to fill it. We kneel in abject supplication for our pride because we mistakenly believed that our human structures and systems could replace or supplant God’s own plan and will.

 

We ask pardon because we seek to make whole and ever new our relationship with God, our Father. And through this invigorating relationships likewise we hope to renew our bonds with each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord.

 

We may go through this process of renewal and reconciliation by ourselves. But in this year of jubilee, I exhort the faithful of the Archdiocese of Manila to make this act, an act of the community. I ask you to gather in Churches, in the House of the Lord and there, in oneness and unity, together give praise and thanks and ask pardon.

 

I have designated special sites, accessible churches in the archdio­cese as centers for these pilgrimages. Here the faithful — the clergy, the Religious and the laity — can all be together in their prayer and desire to obtain sacramental forgiveness. These acts will also gain plenary indulgences both for the living and the dear departed. I have asked our priests to be available for confessions — regularly, frequently, if possible at all times — to absolve even the reserved sins, except those falling under the specific prerogative of the Holy Father.

 

I encourage all parishes in the archdiocese, that through this jubilee year, they may organize groups of pilgrims to hold penitential celebrations with sacramental Confession and Absolution for indiv­idual penitents (cf. Collectio Rituum pp. 96-122, 390-417).

 

These are the different churches of pilgrimages in the Archdiocese during this Quadricentennial Jubilee Year.

 

a.     In the Ecclesiastical District of Manila:

 

1.    the Minor Basilica of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Intramuros;

2.    the Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo; and

3.  the Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz in Binondo.

 

b.                     In the Ecclesiastical District of Quezon City-North:

 

1.    the Church of Our Lady of Mercy in Novaliches; and

2.    the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Good Shepherd in Fairview Park.

 

c.                     In the Ecclesiastical District of Quezon City-South:

 

1.    the Santo Domingo Church or the Shrine of Our Lady of La Naval along Quezon Avenue;

2.    the Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace or the EDSA Shrine in Ortigas Avenue; and

3.    the Immaculate Conception Parish Church in Cubao.

 

d.    In the Ecclesiastical District of Makati:

 

1.    the Immaculate Conception Parish Church in Pasig;

2.    the St. John Bosco Parish Church along Pasay Road, Makati City; and

3.    the Santuario de Santo Cristo in San Juan.

 

e.                     In the Ecclesiastical District of KALMANA:

 

1.    Our Lady of Grace Parish Church, in Grace Park, Kalookan City;

2.  the St. Francis of Assisi and Sta. Quiteria Parish Church in Kalookan City

3.    San Bartolome Parish Church in Malabon

 

f.                      In the Ecclesiastical District of PPLM (Pasay, Para-                                               ñaque, Las Piñas and Muntinlupa):

 

1.  the St. Andrew Parish Church in Parañaque;

2.  the Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, in Baclaran, Parañaque;

3.  the Sta. Clara de Montefalco Parish Church, in Pasay; and

4.  Our Lady of the Abandoned Parish Church in Poblacion, Muntinlupa.

 

As we look forward to the common celebration of the Second Provincial of Manila next year by the ecclesiastical jurisdictions within the Ecclesiastical Province of Manila, I exhort the brother Bishops of the suffragan Dioceses of Malolos, lmus, San Pablo, and Antipolo and the Apostolic Vicariate of Palawan to join us in this celebration and to designate churches of pilgrimages within their own ecclesiastical spheres.

 

Every month and during the key liturgical seasons of the year, the Archdiocese will be issuing pastoral and liturgical guidelines for catechesis, homilies and seminars on how we can better celebrate this year of thanksgiving and pardon.

 

May the blessing of the Lord and the supplication of the Blessed Virgin Mary accompany us in these celebrations of God’s overflow­ing gifts for the whole Archdiocese.

 

 

Devotedly in Christ,

 

 

 

(Sgd. ) + JAIME L. CARDINAL SIN, D.D.

Archbishop of Manila

 

 

 

Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother

August 15, 1995