Persistent Mayor Rama to appeal to Palace, Vatican

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama won’t give up appealing to the Vatican to include Cebu in Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines on January next year.

He said he would send an official communication to Malacañang  as well.

He lamented that the official itinerary for a state and pastoral visit allots several days in Manila when Cebu is the “cradle of Christianity” in Asia, and suffered from the 2013 earthquake and supertyphoon Yolanda last year.

Rama encouraged the City Council to make its own official appeal.

Days earlier, Rama asked the public to “bombard” the Vatican with e-mail and  messages on social media asking Pope Francis to include Cebu in his first Philippine visit.

Sources in the Cebu Archdiocese pointed out, however, that their official invitation extended to the Pope was for him to attend the International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu City the year after in January 2016.

Several church workers are still hopeful Pope Francis will make another visit to the Philippines for  this international pastoral gathering.

Mayor Rama cited several milestones for Cebu next year – the 450th year of the discovery of the image of the Sto. Nino in Cebu celebrated as “Kaplag” and the 450th year since the Augustinian settled in the Philippines.

The Basilica Minore del Santo Nino will also be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year.

“That, put all together, is a compounding, overwhelming, huge and much compelling justification why the Pope should not ignore Cebu as part of his itinerary. We are not asking for days. We’re only asking for his visit,” Rama told reporters.

With less than two months to the Pope’s scheduled visit, Rama said he remains “positive and optimistic” the itinerary can still change.

“Only fools don’t change their minds and the Pope is not a fool,” he said.

The mayor said he will see Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma to discuss this appeal.

Last week, the Archdiocese of Manila announced the Pope’s itinerary from  January 15 to 19 next year. He will be visiting Metro Manila, then Tacloban city and Palo in Leyte province.

There will be a welcome ceremony at Malacañang Palace with President Aquino and a Mass at the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros.

On January 17, he will fly to Tacloban City where Mass will be clebrated at the Tacloban International Airport. He will then have lunch with survivors of super typhoon Yolanda at the Archbishop’s Residence in Palo, Leyte and bless the Pope Francis Center there before flying to Manila for a meting with religious leaders at the University of Santo Tomas on January 18. He will leave the country at 10 am on January 19.

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