Sto. Niño Chapel at Senior Citizens’ Park now open to public

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu City has opened a new landmark, the Santo Niño Chapel at the Senior Citizens’ Park.

The chapel, which has a 30-foot Santo Niño image on top of it, is located near the Cebu City Hall’s Executive Building and Carbon Market.

The chapel itself covers an area of 300 square meters, inspired by both the shape of Santo Nino’s crown and the fluid motion of the Sinulog dance.

It can accommodate around 150 people through the space leading to the park which also serves as an extension of the chapel's main seating area.

The surrounding Senior Citizens’ Park, on the other hand, has a 3,704 square meter serene landscape for devotees and guests to stroll or meditate.

Chapel and park-goers also have a good view of the waterfront and the majestic Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway while enjoying some food from different food outlets around it.

Cebu2World chairman Louie Ferrer said that there is no symbol of faith more evocative in Cebu than the Santo Niño, similar to how Carbon has represented Cebu like no other, adding that Cebuanos’ devotion to the Child Jesus has grounded the aspirations of the Carbon community itself, and it is an honor to have built a new place to worship him and bring this faith to the world.

“The Sto. Nino, 500 years since its arrival to Cebu, has become the core of Catholic Cebuano identity. Our relationship with the Señor is very personal for us Cebuanos. You can see a likeness in almost every home. Even in Carbon, you will see the Sto. Nino in many stalls,” said Ferrer.

The chapel, which was blessed yesterday together with the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between the Archdiocese of Cebu, the Cebu City government, and the Cebu2World, a subsidiary of Filipino engineering and infrastructure developer Megawide Corporation, is part of the Carbon Modernization Project.

With the signing of the MOA with the Archdiocese of Cebu through Archbishop Jose Palma, the holding of regular masses and weddings at the Sto. Niño Chapel is now being permitted.

Amidst some opposition, the said chapel is also being hoped to bring unity in Carbon and the rest of Cebu.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama assured that as long as he remains the mayor of the city, the modernization project of the Carbon Market will continue, all for the Cebuanos' sake. — GMR (FREEMAN)