NEWSFLASH

Manila, Aug. 16, 2000 - In celebration of the Great Jubilee Year, the Catholic Church and the laity will lead a nationwide pilgrimage for peace to 35 shrines and churches in the country starting Sept. 8 until Dec. 8.

Entitled "Jubilee Pilgrimage for Peace 2000," the pilgrimage aims to celebrate the Jubilee year with as many parishioners as possible all over the country echoing the World Youth Day celebration in Rome.

Bishop Angel Lagdameo, head of the Jubilee committee of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), has endorsed the Prayer-Song Church tour organized by the Blue Mantles Project International Foundation, Inc.

The campaign is led by project director Marilou Cayton, adviser Msgr. Sabino Vengco Jr. and Senate President Pro Tempore Blas Ople.

In an inspirational message, Ople said those living today are "peculiarly privileged to have them allowed to stand at the threshold of the third millennium and in the fullness of God's time in the year of the Great Jubilee."

Ople noted the apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II which called on the faithful to undertake pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem if they can but especially to the basilicas minore, shrines, and churches designated by the local bishops as objects of Great Jubilee pilgrimages.

The visitation and pilgrimages will formally be launched on Sept. 8 at the Mary, Queen of Peace in EDSA and will run until Dec. 8, or from the birth anniversary of the Virgin Mary to the feast day of the Immaculate Conception.

It targets 35 churches and shrines spread out in the 14 regions of the country to generate awareness regarding the meaning of the Great Jubilee and its numerous blessings like plenary indulgences and how to gain them.

The designated beneficiaries of any proceeds from the Philippine pilgrimages are the Working Hands Foundation and the Diwang Kaparian, a welfare program for retiring priests.

Some of the country's top performing artists have volunteered to sing at the pilgrimage destinations in conjunction with the local parish choral groups.

Three churches in Bulacan have been designated as pilgrimage sites: the Basilica Minore of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Malolos, the Barasoain Church also in Malolos, and the National Shrine to St. Anne in Hagonoy.