Bacolod to Celebrate 31st Year of Blessed John Paul II’s Visit
Bacolod City will celebrate the 31st anniversary of the visit here of Blessed John Paul II, who came on February 20, 1981 with a “message of hope” for its people.
“This year marks the 31st anniversary of the visit of then Pope John Paul II to Bacolod on February 20, 1981, a historic event that rekindled the faith and renewed hope in this part of the Catholic world,” Monsignor Victorino Rivas, vicar general of the Diocese of Bacolod, said in a press conference at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Shrine (Redemptorist) yesterday.
Rivas noted that the Pope’s visit was significant because he came at a time when Bacolod was experiencing social, economic and political problems.
He said the Pope’s words to Bacolodnons were: “You are a people in search of a better life.”
“Our people were suffering from poverty and hunger but their spirit was revived with the Pope’s message of hope for a better life... He came at a time when we needed hope. We have all the reasons to celebrate,” Rivas said.
‘TOTUS TUUS’
To celebrate this historic Papal visit, Bacolod will hold ‘Totus Tuus!’ Week on February 13-20, 2012, a week-long event that will highlight, among others, the institutions that have risen in Bacolod in honor of Blessed John Paul II, Rivas said.
‘Totus Tuus’, a Latin phrase for “All Yours!” or “Completely Yours!,” and means “a total commitment to God” is the motto of Blessed John Paul II during his Papacy, and was the people’s cry that rang out in the major streets of Bacolod as the Pope’s motorcade passed through in 1981, Rivas said.
The ‘Totus Tuus’ Week is being organized by the Pope John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family (or simply JP II Institute), of which Rivas is the director.
So far, Bacolod is home to three JP II Institutions - the Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family located at the University of Saint La Salle Campus, the JP II Cultural Center located at the Sacred Heart Seminary along Lacson St., and the JP II Tower at the Reclamation Area, Rivas said.
On ‘Totus Tuus’ Week, two more will be added - the Centro Giovanni Paolo II which will serve as “retreat and resort facility” in Brgy. Punta Taytay, and will be officially launched with a ‘Totus Tuus’ Night on February 14, and the Centro Giovanni Paolo II Research Center on Lacson St. which will be opened on February 15, he said.
With five JP II Institutions, Bacolod becomes one of the cities in the country with the most number of JP II Institutions, Rivas added.
“The JP II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family is not just a school named after the Pope, but is his living legacy.
The Pope himself put up this school to promote the plan of God to give sanctity and dignity to marriage,” Fr. Nitodel Soriano, director of the Diocesan Lay Formation Center of the Diocese of Bacolod and professor of JP II Institute, who joined Rivas in the press conference, said.
National Conference
Another highlight of the ‘Totus Tuus’ Week is a national conference on Nuptial Theology from February 13 to 17, 2012 at the Planta Centro Bacolod Hotel and Residences in this city.
The conference, titled “Blessed John Paul II’s Nuptial Theology:
Call to Family Ministry, Agenda for Humanity” will be hosted by the Pope John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family and the Diocese of Bacolod.
This is a project of the Pontifico Instituto Giovanni Paolo II in Rome, in partnership with the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
About 200 participants are expected to attend, such as the diocesan directors and executive officers of the Commission on Family and Life, heads of Family Life Movements, heads of Catholic schools, Family Life ministers and clergy, Rivas said.
Among the prominent guests are Archbishop Giu-seppe Pinto, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, and Msgr. Jose Granados, vice president of Pontifico Institu-to Giovanni Paolo II in Rome, Rivas said.
Among the topics in the conference are “Nuptial Mystery in the light of Blessed John Paul II’s Cathechesis on Human Love in the Original Divine Plan,” “Nuptial Theology: Philosophical - Anthropological Foundation,” “Reflections on Veritatis Splendor of Blessed John Paul II: A Call to Authentic Christian Moral Action,” “Pastoral Challenge and Implications of the Nuptial Theology in the Light of Familiaris Consortio,” “Pope John Paul II Institute at the Service of New Evangelization, Research and Family Ministry,” and “Identity, Vision, Mission of John Paul II Institute in the Philippine Context.”
Meanwhile, Rivas said Blessed John Paul II considered family and marriage as the most beautiful things to happen to a person.
“Marriage is the only event in our lives when we can promise our partner that everything we own is also theirs. Marriage also provides stability to love,” he said.
Rivas, however, noted that the Catholic Church is alarmed of “de-facto unions (non-marriages) worldwide, as well as the breakup of many marriages in the Philippines, hence they want to help in this problem through the JP II Institute.*
