A postscript to the Sinulog festival

With the Sinulog Festival over and done with, finally we Cebuanos can say that Christmas is finally over. However don’t expect traffic to ease because this week is the start of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress, which kicks off on Jan. 22 to Jan. 27th. What a great blessing for us in Cebu to start the New Year 2016 not only with our usual Sinulog Festival but with an International Eucharistic Congress that would put Cebu on the world map of Catholicism.

“Straight from the Sky” celebrates Cebu’s hosting of the IEC by bringing you his Excellency Auxiliary Bishop Dennis Villarojo who is the Secretary General of the IEC to tell us his story on how Cebu first got the news that it would be hosting the 51st IEC and how he and his team of bishops, priests, and lay people were able to prepare the venues for the events during the IEC. 

So expect traffic to be just as bad but we Cebuanos just stay proud that the eyes of the Catholic World is focused on Cebu this week. So watch this very interesting talk with Msgr. Dennis Villarojo on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00 tonight with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9:00 tonight and at 7:00AM and 9:00PM respectively on Wednesday and Friday.

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I just stayed home for this Sinulog Festival nursing a bad cold after touring parts of Japan outdoors like the Tobu World’s Square, which had remarkable miniatures of the Eiffel Tower, Tokyo’s Sky Tree or the old Tokyo tower, the Roman coliseum, St. Peter’s Square, the Forbidden City, Buckingham Palace, the White House and many more, which we were touring under the sun but it was three below zero temperature. So as we came home, I went into reentry mode having a bad cold forcing me to stay home.

There is no doubt that through the years the Sinulog Festival has changed or perhaps I too may have changed. But then the horde of the millions of people that swooped down on Cebu can truly be felt during the solemn procession last Saturday afternoon, all the way to nighttime.

I drove around last Saturday night and Mango Ave. was impassable not because there were so many vehicles on the road but there were just too many people walking along the sidewalks spilling into the streets and crossing them without any respect for the pedestrian crosswalks.

When we celebrate the Sinulog Festival, there are many laws that are suspended for practical reasons. Illegal parking is the norm and motorcycles violating traffic laws left and right. You can very well say that, good or bad, Sinulog brings chaos to our city. There is no doubt that the Cebu City Traffic Office was overwhelmed, not that they lack people, it is just impossible to handle traffic with millions of people on the loose in our streets.

I can’t give you the usual details that I would write as my postscript to the Sinulog Festival as I’m only focused on what I see on TV. But for sure, the usual drunkards would pose trouble to the innocent visitors who are here to see Asia’s biggest festival. I know that the Sinulog Foundation has tried to curtail those areas where people go on a drinking spree. But then this is the fiesta of Cebu and we can only understand that at least for one day in a year, people can bring their hair down and have fun their way.

But we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the Sinulog Festival is a very Catholic festival, celebrating the Feast of the Child Jesus that was given to us nearly 500 years ago by European conquistadors. But with Cebu’s hosting of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress, I hope that we Cebuanos would show to our international visitors that when our Lord Jesus Christ returns for his second coming, He would find faith here in Cebu.

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While watching the Sinulog Parade on ABS-CBN’s live feed, more often than not, it put in those very long pesky advertisements, forcing me to change channels. Well, just my luck that I switched on to EWTN’s report on the 2nd Annual Bringing America Back to Life Symposium in Cleveland, Ohio with Ms. Star Parker giving a long talk entitled “Genocide in America in your backyard!” It was a great speech against abortion not just in the US!

Her message to her audience in Cleveland last year was “It may be legal but it is unlawful in God’s eyes.”  Ms. Star Parker is the founder of the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education (CURE) and her fiery speech is a condemnation to America’s loss of faith and the funding by the US government of Planned Parenthood, which declares is an industry that kills America’s children. She clearly states that “Abortion has hurt our society” and there is a huge economic cost to Abortion…how many weddings could not happen…how many baby carriages were not sold, how many baby food left unsold because America embraced pro-choice and killed those babies!”

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