Cebu Archdiocese To Construct 100-foot Padre Pio Statue

September 20, 2022214 views0

Cebu Archdiocese To Construct 100-foot Padre Pio Statue

2022-09-20T08:50:45+01:00

By Church News

Cebu Archdiocese in the Philippines has started the construction of a 100-foot-tall statue of Padre Pio in a sanctuary dedicated to the popular Italian saint.Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu led the groundbreaking ceremony for the sanctuary with the contemplative community of Padre Pio, a lay Catholic consecrated group in Cebu on Saturday.Titled the Santuario di Padre Pio in Pulangbato village, the sanctuary is being built on a hill overlooking the entire city of Cebu, says a report on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website.The contemplative group, which promotes devotion to the saint in the country, said that the location choice was symbolic.“It is symbolic that the sanctuary is the highest church located on the island that welcomed the early missionaries 500 years ago,” Joey Cagasero, a Padre Pio devotee from Cebu, told the media.Christianity in the Philippines arrived in 1521 when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his companions landed on the island in the Central Visayas region.The natives of Cebu are believed to be the first group of Filipinos baptized.Magellan planted a cross and gave an image of the Child Jesus (more popularly known as the Santo Nino) to Hara Amihan, the wife of the chieftain of the island.Both the cross and the image of the Child Jesus were preserved on the island attracting more than a million devotees per year.The archdiocese said construction of the sanctuary would end next year with the aim to make it a centre for healing not just in the region but in the whole country.“There would be healing Masses and confessions here. That’s our goal. We hope that millions if not thousands of devotees of Padre Pio would visit this place,” Cagasero added.Francesco Forgione, better known as Padre Pio or Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (1887-1968) was a Franciscan Capuchin priest and mystic known for his piety and charity.ALSO READ Hollywood’s Shia LaBeouf Converts To Catholicism