PACKED with devotees and parishioners during the Feast of the Black Nazarene in January, the Quiapo Church will give the people more chance to pray to the Black Nazarene on Good Friday.
Msgr. Hernando Coronel, Quiapo Church rector, said this Holy Week the church wants to draw more people to Jesus Christ.
“We want to be, like any other church, draw people to the Crucified and Risen [Jesus] Christ,” Coronel said in an interview with the BusinessMirror.
He said a “huge” crowd is expected to see the Black Nazarene, a dark-skinned statue of Jesus Christ, which many claim to be miraculous, on Good Friday.
“We will continue the good tradition—the procession—of the Black Nazarene on Good Friday,” which will start early in the morning, he said. Once the Black Nazarene returned to the church around noon, the discussion on the Siete Palabras (Seven Last Words) will be observed, and followed by a procession of Santo Entierro with the Mater Dolorosa, and the start of the Pahalik sa Krus (Kissing of the Cross).
On Black Saturday, the Quiapo Church will celebrate the Easter Vigil. “I am also happy to tell you that our Salubong [meeting of the Risen Christ and the Virgin Mary] will involve the whole community, the barangays [that] come from poor communities in Metro Manila,” he said.
Coronel, who was installed as rector and parish priest of Quiapo Church in August last year, admitted that he has faced challenges in his new assignment but the faith of the people who were frequenting the church keeps him going.
“One of the challenges is that I have to respond to the spiritual needs of the people constantly, because the quantity of work here is overwhelming. My night is very long,” he said. “Many people approach the [Black] Nazarene while walking on their knees, asking for mercy, raising their hands and crying. They are those who have hit rock-bottom, the end of the rope, in dire situation, critical or in emergency,” Coronel said, explaining why people who walk on their knees are a common sight in the church. He said people are allowed to walk on their knees “only after Masses, the time for prayer, break after the noon Mass, before the Mass begins at 3 p.m. and after the last Mass.” The church is open 24 hours daily.
“We cannot blame them if they want to kneel, because sometimes they ask for healing of their illnesses or their loved ones. Sometimes, if God [answers their prayers] that is their way of thanking Him,” he explained.
Such faith is evident on Rolando Diasanta, 63, who has a son with convulsive seizure. “I knew my son would still recover. And the Nazarene will give me strength to take care of him,” Rolando, who is pushing his son, Richard, on a wheelchair in front of the church, told the BusinessMirror in Filipino.
Rolando, a part-time driver, finds time to bring his 26-year-old son to the Quiapo Church not only every Friday, but also on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On the other hand, Divincia Amonte, 51, a sampaguita vendor, said she clinged to the Black Nazarene when she came to Manila and became a single mother in 2003. Her friend convinced her to sell sampaguita beside the Quiapo Church to provide for her daughter.
“That’s when I started to hear Mass at Quiapo Church. My daughter and I are able to survive. I was able to send her to school. She is now 18 and already in college. After her classes, she helps me sell sampaguita,” Amonte said in Filipino. Beyond Holy Week, Coronel also noted that the Quiapo Church is also active in relief, rehabilitation and recovery to enable marginalized communities to face various disasters by themselves.
In 2012 the church’s Disaster Management Ministry started aiming to become a resource center of information, not only within the Quiapo community but also to cover the vicariate and other dioceses nationwide.
The ministry also aims to be a training ground for volunteers with expertise in search, rescue and emergency response. It has established partnerships with different non-governmental groups and government agencies, such as the National Disaster Risk Reduction the Management Council, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Manila-Disaster and Risk Reduction Management, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace, Caritas Manila and the Archdiocese of Manila-Ecology.
Spared from World War II’s destruction, the Quiapo Church is officially known as the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene and canonically known as the Saint John the Baptist Parish. Its architecture is of Baroque style, with a façade made distinct through twisted columns on both levels. Its exteriors were painted cream, after the original Mexican Baroque edifice was burned down in 1928. The nearby San Sebastian Church was also miraculously spared from the destruction of Manila during World War II. Renovations and expansions on the Quiapo Church’s current form were done in 1984.
Image credits: Alysa Salen, Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco