By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
With the relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus set to arrive in Negros Occidental next week, Diocese of Bacolod co-coordinator, Fr. Ritchel Tabanyag, noted the vestiges will be making visits to local jails in an effort to convert inmates.
The relics will help convince inmates to convert and return to God, he explained during a press conference yesterday.
Tabanyag added, St. Therese, herself, was responsible for the conversion of French murderer Henri Pranzini prior to his 1887 execution.
The relics are expected to arrive in Kabankalan City on April 9 from Bohol, where they will stay overnight at the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral and transferred to the Little Way College Seminary the following day. On April 11, the relics will be received by the Diocese of San Carlos in La Castellana after passing through Himamaylan City, Binalbagan, and Isabela.
They will spend the night in San Carlos City before traveling through Calatrava, Toboso, and Escalante City, where the relics will stay overnight at the St. Joseph Church in Sagay City.
By April 13, the relics will travel through Cadiz City, where a mass will be held at the Sto. Niño Parish Church, then to Victorias City, where the Diocese of San Carlos will formally turn over the vestiges to the Diocese of Bacolod at the Vicariate of our Lady of Victory. The relics will then visit the San Diego Pro-Cathedral in Silay City before heading to the Talisay City Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), where inmates will conduct a program offering a welcome to the saint. Afterwards, the reliquary will be transferred to Bacolod City.
While in Bacolod City, the relics will be interred at the San Sebastian Cathedral, where a mass will be celebrated by Bishop Emeritus Vicente Navarra.
After an overnight stay at the cathedral, the relics will be brought to the Metro Bacolod District Jail in Barangay Handumanan, where nearly a thousand inmates will have their time with the relics.
The reliquary will also be brought to the Our Lady of Candles Parish in San Enrique on April 14, before being transported to the Carmelite Monastery in Barangay Mandalagan on April 15.
The relics will then be transported to the Archdiocese of Jaro in Iloilo City on April 16.
According to lead organizer Serge Tan, the relics have visited the country every five years since 2008.
This will be the fourth time the vestiges have visited the Philippines./DGB, WDJ
