MCPO: Bring ‘patience’ as you venerate Santo Niño, Our Lady of Guadalupe

Policemen from the Mandaue City Police Office stand guard amid a large crowd of Santo Niño and Marian devotees at the National Shrine of St. Joseph on Jan. 17, 2020. |CDND Photo/Rosalie O. Abatayo

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — Sinulog dances and confetti of flower petals welcomed the images of the Señor Santo Niño de Cebu and Our Lady of Guadalupe as they arrive at the National Shrine of St. Joseph in this city around 8:45 a.m. on Friday, January 17, 2020.

The images came from the close to two-hour traslacion from the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño via Barangay Banilad to the Shrine of St. Joseph, an annual motorcade that precedes Saturday’s dawn fluvial procession that will bring back the images to the Basilica. The event forms part of the Fiesta Señor or Feast of the Child Jesus celebration.

Devotees to the Señor Santo Niño and Our Lady of Guadalupe form long queues outside the National Shrine of Saint Joseph in Mandaue City for a chance to venerate the images after their arrival at the church following the two-hour traslacion on Jan. 17, 2020. |CDND Photo/Rosalie O. Abatayo

As the images settle at the right of the church, devotees form long queues as they wait for their chance to venerate the images of the Holy Child and the Virgin Mary.

At 11 a.m. today, Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Midyphil Billones will officiate the Welcome Mass for the images.

Police Major Mercy Villaro, information officer of the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO), urged devotees to bring their “patience” along with them as they wait for their chance to come close to the images.

Villaro said K-9 units of the police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have cleared the premises of the church prior to the arrival of the images.

“Cleared na ang sa sulod maong ang atoa na lang is kini gyud nga mga gikan sa gawas. Ato lang gyud nga awhag nila nga they will submit themselves to all the inspection and mopatuo sila sa guidance sa atong mga police kung asa sila molinya aron magpadayon nga hapsay ang atong linya,” Villaro told CDN Digital.

(The inside of the church has been cleared so we will make sure that the grounds will also be cleared of any kind of security threat. We are urging the people to submit themselves to all the inspections and follow the guidance of the police so that the lines will remain orderly.)

This year, the queue for those who want to venerate the images are placed at the right wing of the church.

“We made this new policy to ensure that the queues will continue even if Masses will be heard,” said Villaro.

Villaro added that they decided to keep the line of devotees moving during the Masses is compensate the shorter time allocated for the images to stay in Mandaue City.

Unlike in the previous years that the images stay until dawn of the next day, the images will have to be sent off to Lapu-Lapu City after the Mass at 11 p.m. today, Friday.

Villaro said that they will continue to admit devotees inside the church until midnight when the images will be moved to the National Shrine of the Nuestra Señora Virgen de la Regla in Lapu-Lapu City, in time for the fluvial parade along the Mactan Channel at dawn of Saturday, January 18./elb