The working committee for the National Retreat for Priests 2023 presented updates on their preparation on Tuesday, October 17, for the NRP 2023. | CDN Photo/Niña Mae Oliverio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Archdiocese of Cebu is gearing up for the upcoming National Retreat for Priests (NRP) this coming November 7 -9, 2023.
On Tuesday, NRP 2023’s chairman of the working committee, Sister Fe Barino, said in a press conference at the Archbishop’s Palace in Cebu City that organizing the event was an opportunity to “serve and show love” to the priests.
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National Retreat for Priests
“The National Retreat for Priests is not just an event but a sacred journey. It is going to be a transformative spiritual experience for both our priests and for us, the lay volunteers, who play a crucial role in ensuring the success of NRP 2023,” Barino said in a statement.
The event is organized by the Episcopal Commission on Clergy of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and hosted by the Archdiocese of Cebu.
It will take place at the IEC Convention Center in Cebu City.
A total of 350 volunteers underwent spiritual formation and orientation for the event in November.
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Importance of priests
Moreover, Barino said that they realized it was also important to make the public involved with the activity.
She said they thought at first that since the activity was sacred, it should not be publicized.
“But, along the way, we realized that the people should know the importance of the priests,” she said.
As of Tuesday, October 17, the committee has recorded a total of 2,076 registrants, but they would have to close the registration once it would reach 2,200 because it is the maximum number of capacity that the venue could accommodate.
Of the number, there are 352 Cebu clergy registrants, and there are 58 participating dioceses out of 86.
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Archdiocese of Cebu: P15M budget
Meanwhile, there are 30 attending archbishops and bishops.
The registrants would be given souvenir kits where each kit would have a stole, notebook, ID, program, and certificate.
The allotted budget for the activity is P15 million, and as of press time, the committee said they attained P12.4 which was 80-percent of the target budget.
During the committee’s updates on the NRP 2023 preparation on Tuesday, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma expressed his gratitude to the efforts of the team.
He said that he knows that preparing for such a big event is “not an easy responsibility” and a “challenging task.”
“I am pleasantly surprised [with the] coverage of preparation kay ako mag tuyok-tuyok man sa diocese ug sa lain-laing appointments but I have so much trust and to me the collaboration [is] very obvious because side by side with the laity na’y adviser priest,” Palma said.
(I am pleasantly surprised [with] the coverage of preparation because I will go around the diocese and other appointments, but I have so much trust and to me the collaboration [is] very obvious because side by side with the laity there is an adviser priest.)
The Archdiocese earlier said the priests can register for the event online or through inquiries at 0917-321-6717 and 0995-766-2168.
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