Cebu archdiocese prepares for Jubilee Year with breakup in mind

CEBU CITY, Philippines – When the Archdiocese of Cebu opens the Jubilee Year on December 29, it will do so in the three new territories that will be in place if the Vatican approves “Sugbuswak,” the proposal to break up the archdiocese.

Father Glenn Theresse Guanzon said the opening of the Holy Year in the Archdiocese of Cebu will be held at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral of San Vitalis in Cebu City, the Parish of Santo Tomas de Villanueva in Danao City in the north, the Archdiocesan Shrine of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Carcar City in the south, and Parish of Saint Peter in Bantayan Island.

The cities of Carcar, Danao, and Cebu are the seats of the proposed new territories under Sugbuswak, the Archdiocese of Metro Cebu, and Dioceses of Cebu North and Cebu South.

“In the diocese of Cebu, our good archbishop has asked us to have opening in four churches. Why? For the reason the archdiocese is too big for the faithful to gather in one church. We are too big. Wala pa ta na Sugbuswak (Sugbuswak has not been implemented yet),” Guanzon said during the press conference on the Jubilee Year last Tuesday, December 10.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who recently returned from Rome, said Bishop Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost, OSA, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, is awaiting the final endorsement of the Sugbuswak proposal by papal nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Charles Brown.

But Palma said that Prevost had previously told him, “the way you explained to me, I can sense that you are prepared, no? I said, Yes, we are, and in case you have other issues, concerns, just write to us, we will come up with responses.”

When Prevost asked him when he wanted the division done, Palma replied, “Next year is the Jubilee Year. It would be a good gift to the Church of Cebu if the approval could be done next year.”

Palma said Bishop Ruben Labajo asked him why the division of the Diocese of Butuan was approved ahead when Cebu and Butuan both got approval of their respective proposals in the same Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) assembly in Aklan in July 2023. Palma explained that the application of Butuan started much earlier, in the early 2000s yet.

The Archdiocese of Jaro, where Palma was ordained priest in 1976, is also waiting for Vatican approval of its breakup plan. It submitted its proposal on April 4, 2021. Last February 19, 2024, the Vatican asked Jaro to reconsider its plan and propose only three new territories instead of four.

The Archdiocese of Cebu, on the other hand, announced it was moving to break up the archdiocese on January 1, 2023. After a whirlwind year of consultations and meetings in 2023, it submitted its proposal to Rome early this year.

Palma said the experience of Labajo after he was named bishop of Prosperidad, the new diocese carved out of Butuan, was instructive for Cebu. He said all his priests were in place because they were reassigned with the division of the diocese in mind.

The Archdiocese of Cebu is scheduled to reassign priests next year and their potential assignments in relation to the new territories will be considered, Palma said.

Palma called on the faithful to actively participate in the Jubilee Year. 

“We call it the year of renewal because we know as we journey through life, we may have committed certain shortcomings, imperfections. We are called to be renewed,” he said.

The Archdiocese of Cebu has identified 32 pilgrim churches through the province that the faithful can visit and pray in. They can also earn plenary indulgences, which is the removal of punishment due to one’s sins, in these pilgrim churches.

Guanzon, who also heads the archdiocese’s Commission on Worship, said that to earn indulgences, the faithful who visits the pilgrim churches should go to confession, hear Mass, take communion, and then pray one “Our Father,” one “Hail Mary,” and one “Glory Be,” for the intentions of the Pope.

The Archdiocese will also be producing a pilgrim’s passport to serve as pilgrimage souvenir. The passport has space for reflection and a unique stamp in a pilgrim church. – Rappler.com

Max Limpag, a freelance journalist from Cebu, is a 2024 Aries Rufo Journalism fellow.