The Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Light (Cainta Church) in Cainta, Rizal was recently granted a special bond of spiritual affinity with the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of four major basilicas in Rome, Italy.
The spiritual grant was announced on November 21 during a mass to commemorate the 300th year of the apparition of the Madre Santissima del Lume in Palermo, Sicily.
Antipolo Auxiliary Bishop Nolly Buco presided over the concelebrated mass with shrine rector Fr. Aly Barcinal and members of the clergy.
The diocesan shrine said the decree was granted by the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary on September 28 and by the Papal Basilica on October 4. The shrine received the decree along with a letter from Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, the basilica’s archpriest.
The celebration coincided with the 295th anniversary of the introduction of the devotion to the Our Lady of Light by the Jesuits in Cainta in 1727 and the 10th anniversary of the Episcopal Coronation of Our Lady of Light in 2012.
The image of Our Lady of Light in Cainta was previously granted a Pontifical coronation on December 1, 2018 by then Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Gabrielle Caccia when Bishop Buco was its rector and parish priest.
According to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, the Cainta Church is the first Marian shrine in the Diocese of Antipolo to be granted a spiritual affinity. This grants pilgrims to the shrine the same privileges as if they have actually visited the Papa basilica.
The Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Light is the country’s 13th Marian church to receive this affiliation from the Roman basilica. The others are the Basilica of Our Lady of Manaoag (Pangasinan), Shrine of Our Lady of Caysasay (Batangas), Basilica of Our Lady of Orani (Bataan), Shrine of Our Lady of Turumba (Laguna), Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (Quezon City), Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Caridad (Ilocos Sur), Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Extremadura (Bohol), Shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Quezon City), Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Asunción (Bohol), Nuestra Señora de la Luz Parish (Bohol), the Shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Tarlac), and the Shrine of Our Lady of the Abandoned (Muntinlupa City).