The Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan in Pangasinan is currently searching for the image of a revered saint in the province which has been missing for seven years.
San Jacinto de Polonia (Photo courtesy of Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan)
According to the CBCP, the archdiocese discovered that the image of San Jacinto de Polonia has been replaced with a replica about seven years ago.
“I have mandated the parish priest to explore all means to recover the missing image of San Jacinto de Polonia in the parish church,” Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a circular.
“Let me also appeal to those who have lent cooperation to the switching of the images to listen to the voice of conscience and restore the image to its rightful owner, the Catholic Church,” the archbishop said.
The Church leader issued the circular after an archdiocesan investigation confirmed that the current image on the side retablo of the church in the town of San Jacinto has been replaced. Archbishop Villegas said, the switching of images could have occurred between Aug. 17 and Sept. 23, 2016, when the church underwent repainting and minor renovations.
“Time and events will tell if we will succeed in recovering the image of San Jacinto de Polonia. It is indeed a demand of Catholic morality that the image be returned, All stolen things must be returned to the rightful moral owner otherwise, the keeper of the stolen object lives in sin,” the prelate stressed.
“We also sin against this commandment by willfully cooperating in the act of taking or keeping stolen objects,” he said as he stressed that images of saints are works of art and have no supernatural powers. The religious icons, Archbishop Villegas said, are there to inspire us to live moral and religious lives.
“We pray not to the icons but to the saints,” he said.