500 years of Christianity celebration pushed back due to COVID-19

PARAÑAQUE CITY, Aug 8 (PIA) — The Celebration of the 500 years of Christianity will be moved by one year, according Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma.

Palma, during a Network Briefing News interview this morning, said they have decided to alter the calendar of activities for the quincentennial celebration with the supposed culminating activity on April 2021 would now be the launch of a year-long celebration.

“From the perspective of the Catholic Church, we commemorate two important events, one is the celebration of the first mass, that happened on March 31, 1521 which was done in Limasawa, and the first baptism in Cebu on April 14, 1521.” he said, adding that the Church is pushing back the activities for the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

He cited the theme “gifted to give” focuses on how people can share the gifts that they’ve received. The theme is also in line with one of the National Quincentennial Commemoration’s themes which is “Humanity.”

“We would be celebrating in the context of the theme gifted to give. We look back and we would like to be grateful for the gift and celebrate it joyfully and fruitfully and in the process ask ourselves how can we share the gifts we’ve received at the root of it is the gift of faith, how can we share the gift of faith,” he said.

Palma said the year-long celebration, will be composed of formation programs along with parish and jubilee celebrations. He added that the two key events for the celebration will be the mission congress and the 5th centenary of the first baptism.

“All along the year we would invite people to come and witness what we have prepared,” said Palma.

“It may be simpler this time because of COVID, but we’ll focus on what we can do more, especially for the less fortunate,” he added.

The 500 years of Christianity is one of the things being celebrated on the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Victory at Mactan, and the Philippine part in the first circumnavigation of the world. (Alehia Abuan / PIA-NCR)

A version of this article was first published on Philippine Information Agency.