Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles John Brown led the recent canonical coronation of the revered image of Nuestra Señora Delos Dolores De Capas, more popularly known to her devotees as Mater Dolorosa, at the San Sebastian Cathedral in Tarlac City.

Diocese of Tarlac Bishop Enrique Macaraeg thanked the Vatican for the privilege after the Holy See’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments granted the petition of the diocese October 1 last year. The canonical coronation of the Mater Dolorosa was the first to be approved by the Vatican in Tarlac

“It was my deepest honor as a bishop of Tarlac to have petitioned to the Holy Father Pope Francis through the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments last July 2020 for the canonical coronation of the venerated image of the Mater Dolorosa in Barangay Dolores, Capas, Tarlac. The petition was granted last October 1, 2020 on the Feast of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, giving the Diocese of Tarlac its very first Marian image to be canonically crowned,” Macaraeg said over Radio Veritas.

Archbishop Brown, for his part, urged the faithful to lift up their sorrows to the Blessed Mother.

“We bring our own difficulties, our sorrows, and disappointments and place them at her feet knowing that through Mary our sorrows will be transformed eventually into joy because yes, Mary is a Mater Dolorosa she’s the Mother of Sorrows, she’s a sorrowful Mother and she’s also the Queen of Heaven,” the Papal envoy said.

“We, together with Mary, have to bear our crosses, our sorrows but they will turn into joy because Jesus is the joy of our life and Mary is the mother of Jesus who brings that joy into the world,” he added.

The 57-year-old image of the Mater Dolorosa is enshrined at the Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, now known as the Mater Dolorosa Parish. Devotion to her started as early as 1923.