ILOILO CITY – As part of the country’s commemoration of the 500 years of Christianity, the Jaro Archdiocese hierarchy vows to send more priests to do foreign missionary work when the pandemic is more manageable.
Jaro Archbishop Jose Romeo Lazo said the gift of the Roman Catholic faith should not only spread within the archdiocese that covers Iloilo City, Iloilo province and Guimaras province.
“Our archdiocese is ready to send more missionaries to other countries as long as it is safe to travel again,” Lazo assured during the Holy Mass at the historic Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral.
Lazo noted how the Jaro Archdiocese has been implementing the 1957 encyclical of Pope Pius XII on Fidei Donum (Latin for the “Gift of Faith”) priests.
Last November 2020, Lazo flew to Kenya and brought along priests to be assigned at the Holy Family Parish in Kaaleng, Turkana County.
The Holy Family Parish is the first adopted mission parish of the Jaro Archdiocese in Africa.
Lazo reiterated that there’s a responsibility in sharing the faith to others in the same manner when the Spaniards arrived 500 years ago.
Fr. Angelo Colada, the social communications director, said the Jaro Archdiocese and parishes have other activities including both actual and virtual presentations due to the restrictions of the pandemic.
There was also unveiling of the marker for the statues depicting the 1521 arrival in Limasawa at Saint Vincent Ferrer Seminary.