Visita Iglesia website created for overseas Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines - The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has created a website to enable Filipino Catholics based overseas and those who are physically impaired to join the Holy Week celebrations.                                                           

The website http://visitaiglesia.net offers a multimedia presentation of 14 shrines and pilgrimage churches to correspond with the 14 Stations of the Cross, alongside of which are reflections of priests. Visitors to the site can view the architecture of centuries-old baroque churches in the country.

Also featured on the site is the pasyon and the Seven Last Words.                                                                                     

CBCP Media Office director Monsignor Pedro Quitorio III reminded the faithful that the site should not be used as a substitute to attendance in the liturgical celebrations in parishes.                                                                                      

“The liturgy is a community act and being so it is most meaningfully celebrated in the context of the community or the parish,” he said.                                                                        

The site also features resources for spiritual growth.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas has also urged the faithful in his diocese to explore alternative ways of celebrating the Holy Week while keeping traditional practices.                                                                                     

“Let us explore an alternative way of celebrating Holy Week. As we keep our pious practices like the stations of the cross, confessions, visita iglesia and penitensiya, let us also consider making acts of charity to the poor as the way to share in the spirit of the Lenten season,” Villegas said.

Beginning April 4, the diocese of Lingayen would conduct a charity and medical mission in impoverished areas of Central Pangasinan.                                                                                     

The so-called pilgrimage of charity would start on April 4 at the Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Canan, Malasiqui; on April 7 at the Saint Catherine of Siena Parish, Villanueva, Bautista; April 9 at the Cristo Divino Tesoro in Buenlag, Calasiao; April 11 at the Holy Family Parish, Tandoc, San Carlos City; April 16 at the Lay Formation Center, Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City; and May 2 at the San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish, Wawa, Bayambang.