Don Bosco arrives in Manila!

I'm working on the articles on the visit of Don Bosco's relics in our Province.

Nope, I haven't encountered him yet. I was really looking forward to meeting him once I could. That opportunity was supposed to be when he was transported in Villamor Airbase last December 23. Br. Jomar gleefully told me that the two of us will be serving. But we had something else that day, it's Br. Jomar's birthday; we'd not be able to find other opportunities to celebrate it as a community. And so, instead of going directly to the airbase, the plan was just to head to St. John Bosco Parish in Makati where Don Bosco's relics would be brought.

Suddenly, I felt that the big crowd in Makati would weaken my system. And so, I chose not to join the confreres who would go there.

Such a long intro for this story...

Don Bosco's Relic arrives in Manila
by Fr. Favie Faldas, SDB

The pilgrim relic of St. John Bosco touched down at the Villamor Air Base yesterday at 3:35 in the afternoon. This marks the beginning of the 25-day journey of the relic in the Salesian Northern Province of the Philippines (FIN) after a successful pilgrimage in the Southern Province (FIS) of the country.

In simple paraliturgical rites, Fr. Eli Cruz, Provincial of the FIN, received from Fr. Fidel Orendain of the FIS the papers of the relic. The Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, Edward Joseph Adams, capped it off with his apostolic blessing.

The ceremony was witnessed by the members of the Salesian Family with military honors and brass band where the, Ms. Ballsy Aquino-Cruz, who represented her brother, Philippine President Noynoy Aquino and the Commanding General of the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Oscar Rabena.

The enlisted men who were also present were given the privilege to touch and pray to the replica of Don Bosco bearing his relic.