Big, New Venue

Cebu will have a new landmark for the 2016 international Catholic congress that organizers hope Pope Francis will attend.

A “Eucharistic Pavilion” to be used for plenary sessions will rise in an open field inside the archdiocesan seminary in barangay Mabolo in Cebu City.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma yesterday said the structure will have to seat 15,000 persons, the number of delegates expected from all over the world who will converge in Cebu for the 51st International Eucharistic Congress from Jan. 24 to 31, 2016.

“We are finalizing the design for the Pavilion. Its total cost is still being determined by the contractor,” he told reporters.

Palma gave a ballpark estimate of P300 million.

Expenses for construction of the Pavilion as well as preparations will be shouldered by the Archdiocese of Cebu with help from the Roman Catholic Church in the country, through the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

To defray expenses, Palma said a ‘piso-piso’ donation campaign will be launched soon.

“It will be called ‘Piso para sa Misa ng Mundo.’ We encourage people to give one peso for the IEC and know that you’re making a beautiful thing happen,” he said.

The Eucharistic Pavilion will be built on an open space of more than one hectare where three archdiocesan seminaries stand: the Blessed John XXIII Minor Seminary, San Carlos Seminary College, and the Seminario Mayor de San Carlos.

Palma said some structures inside the seminary compound which are declared “heritage sites” won’t be affected.

There was a change of plan after the archdiocese considered building the pavilion out of the unfinished shell of a private commercial structure behind Park Mall in Mandaue City, close to the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).

The archdiocese later decided to build inside the church-owned lot in Mabolo.

Palma said the CICC may be used for “small conferences during the IEC”.

There’s no confirmation yet from the Vatican whether Pope Francis will attend the IEC although he expressed interest fitting it in his schedule.

“Please pray because we believe he (Pope Francis) has the intention to come. Others were joking that he may come for the Congress or he may come earlier,” Palma said.

Archbishop Piero Marini, IEC president, visited Cebu last September 2013 to inspect the venues for the big event.

Marini, who has been the papal liturgist of Blessed John Paul II for over two decades, said he hopes Pope Francis will officiate the concluding Mass during the IEC.

The proposed venue for this is the 27-hectare lot at the South Road Properties where the national thanksgiving Mass for the canonization of St. Pedro Calungsod was held on Nov. 30, 2012.

The concluding Mass has been called ‘statio orbis,’ which means a “worldwide meeting or celebration under the presence of the Holy Father and/or his delegates.”

Marini earlier explained that the IEC is aimed at calling back those whose devotion to the Mass has gone cold.

Marini said it will be a good opportunity for all Filipinos to profess their faith in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The international congress was launched last Nov. 24 in Cebu with a Mass at Fuente Osmeña rotunda which was followed by a procession towards Magellan’s Cross in downtown Cebu City.

Palma said hosting the IEC is “an event of a lifetime for Cebu”.

The next opportunity for Asia to host the congress would be 20 years later.

The last time the Philippines hosted the IEC was in 1937 in Manila.

By mid-January, the Archdiocese will announce winners for the IEC theme song and logo contest which carries the theme “Christ in You: Our Hope of Glory.”

Palma said he will go to Rome in March for a meeting with officials of the IEC.

Updates about the IEC can be found on the website at www.iec2016.ph.

In his message on the IEC website, Palma said the calamities that hit the Philippines, particularly the Visayas, last year will not stop Filipinos from practicing their faith.

“Although we have suffered from two calamities that have affected the region where Cebu is located, the October 15 earthquake in the island of Bohol and the supertyphoon which lashed the islands of Samar and Leyte in November 8, our hope remains in the providence of God, whose generosity is clearly manifested in the tons of aid and support the international community has extended our country,” he wrote.

“This early, and even as we strive to bring back our country to normalcy, I invite all of you to come and share our experiences of faith, hope and charity. Our country is not so rich in material resources, but what we have is abundant faith, faith that has kept our spirits alive through these trying times. It is this faith that allows me to say in all humility, that “Christ in us, is our hope of glory,” he added.