Baclaran Church

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National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Baclaran Redemptorist Church
Pambansáng Dambana ng Ina ng Laging Saklolo
Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Neo-Romanesque façade of the Baclaran Church.
Location Roxas Boulevard, Baclaran, Parañaque 1700
Country Philippines
Denomination Roman Catholic
Website http://www.baclaranchurch.org/
History
Founded 1958[1]
Dedication Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Architecture
Status National Shrine
Functional status Active
Architect(s) Cesar Concio[2]
Architectural type Parish church
Style Modern Romanesque
Groundbreaking 1953[1]
Completed 1958[1]
Specifications
Capacity 2,000 sitting;
9,000 standing[3]
Length 350 feet (110 m)[3]
Width 118 feet (36 m)[3]
Height < 71 feet (22 m)[3]
Floor area 54,564 square feet (5,069.2 m2)[3]
Materials adobe stones, steel, cement
Administration
Archdiocese Manila
Diocese Parañaque
Clergy
Bishop(s) Most Rev. Jesse Eugenio Mercado, DD, STL
Priest(s) Reverend Father Joseph Echano, C.Ss.R.

The National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help (Filipino: Pambansáng Dambana ng Ina ng Laging Saklolo) also known as Redemptorist Church and colloquially the Baclaran Church, is a prominent Catholic National shrine along Roxas Boulevard in Baclaran, Parañaque, a city within the southern part of Metro Manila, the capital of the Philippines.[3]

The shrine is one of the largest Marian churches in the Philippines and features the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is popular amongst Filipino Catholics, and gave rise to the throngs of devotees who flood the church every Wednesday to attend Mass and pray the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help.[2] In Manila, Wednesdays are popularly called "Baclaran Day" due to congested roads brought on by pilgrims to the shrine.

The original icon enshrined above the main altar came from Germany, and passed through Ireland and Australia before priests of the Redemptorist Order brought it to what was then the United States territory of the Philippine Islands in 1906. It bears the Papal arms in the back paneling.

Since the Feast of the Immaculate Conception 1958, the shrine has been authorised by the Holy See to remain open 24 hours a day throughout the entire year. The shrine itself was blessed by Pope John Paul II during his first Apostolic Visit to Metro Manila in 1981. The shrine complex serves as the headquarters of the Manila Vice Province of Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, while the Cebu Province of the Redemptorists is headquartered in Cebu. The shrine's current rector is the Reverend Father Joseph Echano, C.Ss.R. The shrine celebrates its annual feast day on 27 June, the liturgical feast day of the icon.

File:NationalShrineofOurMotherofPerpetualHelpjf9999 04.JPG
The icon enshrined at the high altar, covered by a ciborium.
File:NationalShrineofOurMotherofPerpetualHelpjfN9953 09.JPG
Interior

History

According to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the Shrine and its attached convent were initially dedicated to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux; a grotto statue of the saint on the shrine grounds memorialises her patronage.[citation needed]

The first Redemptorists came to the Philippines in 1906 and set up a community at Opon, Cebu.[4] Irish and Australian Redemptorists came to Manila in the 1900s.[citation needed] The Redemptorists community went first to a Malate parish in 1913 where they had a small, popular shrine to Our Mother of Perpetual Help.[2]

In 1932, the community transferred to Baclaran.[2] Father Denis Grogan, the builder, was dedicated to St. Thérèse and made her the patroness of the church and parish house.[2] However, the Ynchausti family, long-time supporters and friends, donated a high altar on condition that it enshrine Our Mother of Perpetual Help.[2] When the church opened the shrine became very popular.[2]

The Redemptorist priests replaced the Mother of Perpetual Help icon with a larger version to accommodate the growing number of devotees.

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the Second World War, the invading Japanese troops overran the church, and the congregation was dispersed.[2] Australian and New Zealander priests were interred in the concentration camp at University of the Philippines – Los Baños.[2] The icon was removed from the church and given to a family for safekeeping; their home was later burnt and ransacked towards the end of the Occupation.[2] The icon was initially thought lost until a De La Salle brother found it amongst other valuable artifacts that the Japanese had seized and left at the Old Bilibid prison.[2]

Contrary to popular belief, the Perpetual Help Novena did not originate in Baclaran but at the Redemptorist Church of St. Clement in La Paz, Iloilo City in May 1946.[1][5] After witnessing the devotion of the Ilonggos to the icon, the Irish Redemptorist Rev Gerard O'Donnell introduced the novena to Baclaran. Linguist Rev Leo J. English C.Ss.R. conducted the first Baclaran Novena with 70 participants on Wednesday, June 23, 1948,[1] giving rise to Wednesday's local moniker of "Baclaran Day".

The present Modern Romanesque church is the third to be built on the same site. It was designed by architect César Concio.[1] It took six years to build because most of the money came from small donations—the suggestion from the pulpit was 10 Philippine centavos per week—that often ran out requiring construction to stop.[1] The foundation stone was laid on January 11, 1953 and on December 1, 1958 the new church was consecrated.[1] The church opened with a mass on December 5, 1958 and has been open 24 hours ever since, never closing.[1]

The Shrine was notably the refuge of several computer engineers from the Commission on Elections during the controversial 1986 Snap Elections. Thirty five technicians who were operating the COMELEC's electronic quick count staged a walkout from their headquarters at the Philippine International Convention Center to protest the alleged electoral fraud by supporters of dictator President Ferdinand Marcos.[6] Ironically, Marcos's First Lady, Imelda, was a benefactress of the Shrine, having often brought her children there on Holy Week in the course of the Visita Iglesia.

Early in the 1970s Karol Wojtyła, Cardinal-Archbishop of Kraków, Poland, said Mass in the Shrine during a brief, unofficial stopover in Manila. In 1981, Wojtyła, as Pope John Paul II, returned to the Shrine as part of his Apostolic Visit to the Philippines.


In 2015, a Carillon belfry is built as part of the Shrine's redevelopment plan and on September 8 of the same year, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle blessed the newly-built belfry. This is the first time the Shrine has a bell tower after 60 years.[7]

Architecture

The modern, Romanesque Revival building has a full seating capacity of 2,000, but as many as 11,000 people (including standing) can fit inside during Masses.[1] An estimated 120,000 devotees are currently affiliated with the Shrine. A bell tower is is added in 2015 which consists of 24 bells at the top and a coffee shop at the base. The bells are automatically programmed to ring 15 minutes before every Novena or Mass.

Organization

The shrine is under the territory of the Parish of Santa Rita de Cascia, located a few blocks away from the Redemptorist Church. Both are part of the Vicariate of Santa Rita de Cascia in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Parañaque. The shrine is situated along Roxas Boulevard in Baclaran, Pasay City, Metro Manila. It is primarily financed by donations and mass intentions from Filipinos in and outside the country, and in turn funds charitable social programs for the poor.[citation needed]

Rectors

  • Fr. Patrick Deane, -1985
  • Fr. Teofilo Vinteres, 1985–2000
  • Fr. Pedro Katigbak, 2000–2004
  • Fr. Joseph Echano, 2004-2007
  • Fr. Victorino Cueto, 2007–2015
  • Fr. Joseph Echano, 2015-present
  • Deacon: Bro. Lorenzo Ichie,C.Ss.R

Services are simulcast on Radyo Veritas 846 every first Wednesday of every month.

In popular culture

  • The church appears in the opening scene for the 1979 dramatic film Ina Ka ng Anak Mo starring Nora Aunor.
  • The church also appears in the 1995 film Alfredo Lim: Batas ng Maynila starring Eddie Garcia
  • The church makes an appearance in the 2015 film You're Still The One starring Maja Salvador, Dennis Trillo, Ellen Adarna and Richard Yap. Notably in the candle chapel.

References

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External links

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