ROXAS City – Manila Archbishop-elect Jose Cardinal Advincula Jr. formally received his red hat and ring of office as new cardinal here yesterday afternoon, six days before transferring to the Archdiocese of Manila which is deemed to be the seat of power of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
The bestowal ceremony was graced by His Excellency, Most Rev. Charles John Brown, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines. He also attended the thanksgiving mass of Advincula at the Immaculate Conception Metropolitan Cathedral.
For nine years, Advincula had been heading the Archdiocese of Roxas, a relatively small archdiocese compared to the Archdiocese of Manila. He was thus surprised that he was elevated to the rank of cardinal, he said last year.
Advincula said being a cardinal is being willing to serve God and people. “He is a servant of the Gospel and not any ideology.”
“As I take these personal challenges to serve, to listen, to renew, and to be ever renewed by the Lord, I would like to also invite you to take it even in the simple way in our church and our society today,” Advincula told the congregation after receiving his hat and ring.
In October 2020, Pope Francis named Advincula as among the 12 new cardinals in the Catholic Church.
Advincula was elevated at a consistory on Nov. 28, 2020 where he we was supposed to receive his red hat and ring from Pope Francis himself at the Vatican. However, due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic travel restrictions, Advincula failed to fly to Rome.
Originally set on May 28, the bestowal of the insignia was initially moved to June 8 because Archbishop Brown had to undergo 14-day quarantine after a US trip.
On June 5, the Capiz archdiocese postponed the event again due to the rising cases of COVID-19 infections in the city.
Yesterday was Cardinal Advincula’s last big event in the Archdiocese of Roxas which he served for the last nine years.
Cardinal Advincula will be installed as the 33rd Archbishop of Manila on June 24, 8:30 a.m. at the Manila Cathedral.
According to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the Manila’s Roman Catholic Church will hold a simple celebration for his installation.
“The celebrations will be very simple. We will follow the liturgical guidelines. No fanfare,” said Fr. Reginald Malicdem, the archdiocese’s chancellor.
“We will just be balancing between the celebration and being conscious of the situation because of the pandemic,” he said.
Due to the prevailing pandemic, he said that the attendance would be limited to only 400 people inside the cathedral, which has an actual seating capacity of 2,500.
“We beg the understanding of everyone so that we can ensure everyone’s safety and we can observe the health protocols,” said Malicdem, who is also the cathedral’s rector.
The Manila archdiocese has earlier set a series of events at the cathedral to “declog” the actual installation day.
Instead, Advincula will lead a Mass with the lay leaders on June 25, and with the consecrated men and women in the archdiocese on June 26.
The cardinal will then visit an urban poor community in the city of Pasay’s Maricaban district, and celebrate Mass at the Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted Church on June 27.
It has been a tradition in the archdiocese that after a new archbishop’s installation, he visits one area with “special concerns”.
Advincula’s predecessors, Cardinals Gaudencio Rosales and Luis Antonio Tagle, visited Smokey Mountain.
Malicdem said they already have coordinated with Manila’s authorities for the temporary closure of Intramuros to control the number of people in the area.
“The whole Intramuros will be closed on that day. Only the guests will be allowed to enter Intramuros and those who are part of the celebration,” the priest noted.
“We will just open Intramuros to traffic after about 3 hours, or around 9:00 a.m., of June 24,” he added.
The archdiocese encouraged the faithful to follow the event online.
“We wish to ask everyone to just join the celebration through the live streaming,” Malicdem said. (With CBCP News/PN)
