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September 4, 2018
There is a pious oral tradition in the Archdiocese of Lingayen Dagupan that the image of Mary Help of Christians kept in the minor seminary was a gift of the then Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Guglielmo Piani, SDB to the first Bishop of Lingayen, Cesar Maria Guerrero. The seminarian Cesar Maria grew in his fondness for Mary Help of Christians in those days when he was yet a student in Rome at the Gregorian University. Even before the Salesians of Don Bosco arrived in the Philippines in 1951, Bishop Guerrero had already put the minor seminary of the Diocese of Lingayen under her patronage when he founded it in 1929. The original plan was to name the minor seminary under Saint Alphonsus Liguori but it was instead named after Mary Help of Christians because of the gift of the Apostolic Delegate.
The Mary Help of Christians Minor Seminary gave birth to the Mary Help of Christians College Seminary in Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City in 1985. By the year 2013, the golden jubilee of the elevation of the See of Lingayen Dagupan to a metropolitan archdiocese, the seeds sown in Binmaley had reached its full maturity when the Mary Help of Christians Theology Seminary was opened in Palapad, San Fabian.
On January 1, 2018, in order to open the Decade of Communio to prepare for the centennial of the See of Lingayen Dagupan, a petition was sent to the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments seeking the favor of a canonical coronation for Mary Help of Christians. The alumni bishops of Mary Help of Christians Minor Seminary together with the Provincial Superior of the Salesians of Don Bosco in the Philippines individually endorsed the petition. The Holy See responded favorably in a letter dated March 17 that same year.
The rites for the canonical coronation were then set for August 22 coinciding with the Memorial of the Queenship of the Virgin Mary. The Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia accepted the invitation to preside at the rites representing the Holy Father. It would be his first visit to the archdiocese.
As part of the spiritual preparation of the clergy of Lingayen Dagupan for the momentous event, they made a spiritual retreat under Father Michael Gaitley, MIC. The retreat concluded on July 20 which also opened the 33-day preparation for Marian consecration in the tradition of Saint Louis Marie de Monfort.
As soon as the spiritual preparations for the Marian consecration started, the Church in Lingayen Dagupan went through jarring natural calamities and disasters. The political-business-religious center of Dagupan City was flooded for more than eight days beginning July 21. Monsoon rains coinciding with the rising sea levels caused the unprecedented and prolonged flooding in all the towns of the archdiocese. Flood waters entered the cathedral itself until the communion rails, something the old folks declared never happened before. Shall we proceed with our consecration and coronation? What about the Song of Songs declaring “Deep water cannot quench love nor rivers sweep it away” (8:7)
As the floods rose steadily and lingered for days, the archdiocese engaged in relief operations for the poor flood evacuees. By God’s leading, our prayer preparations for our Marian consecration and coronation were accompanied by a flood of charity for the flood victims. An important lesson was learned. The events taught us that true Marian devotion must be devotion to the poor. We cannot disconnect Mary from the poor. The poor are the living reminders of Marian presence.
A handful of bishops who committed to join the coronation Mass sent word that they could not keep their commitment in Dagupan for many valid reasons. On social media bashers sowed confusing innuendoes about the event, such that Church superiors requested from the Archbishop some clarifications. Shall we be discouraged and give up? “Are you going to leave me too?” (John 6:67)
After the floods subsided, the lay faithful right away began a massive clean-up of the Cathedral and its surroundings. Just as the buntings had been put up and the streamers raised, the second big flood came again putting the access roads under water again. The priests were considering contingency plans like moving the venue or moving the date. The Archbishop refused the offers for alternative plans. It was a test of faith. It was an occasion to say “We have nowhere to go but to your motherly patronage!”
On the day itself August 22 under cloudy skies, sea water rose again and entered the Cathedral parking area. The Cathedral was full and so was the Santuario de San Juan Evangelista where the overflow crowd could follow the liturgy. The sacristy was full of priests vested for concelebration. The Filipino Salesian priests came together with the lay devotees of Mary Help of Christians. There were almost three hundred priests and bishops. The processional began and the devotees from the nearby provinces waved their blue and white handkerchiefs as the choir sang majestically “Immaculate Mother”. The sun was shining! There were tears of joy!
It drizzled during the coronation rites and rain poured hard briefly as Holy Communion was distributed. When the Archbishop led the faithful in the Act of Consecration to Mary Help of Christians, the sun shone again with glory and splendor. “Never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection was left unaided!”
The rosary was prayed continuously after the coronation Mass, interrupted only by the early evening Mass of Thanksgiving and the grand procession of the Virgen Coronada. It rained briefly as the image left the Cathedral but the moon and twilight stars guided the procession until it returned to the Cathedral. After an all-night rosary vigil, the image was brought in a motorcade to her home at the Mary Help of Christians Theology Seminary in San Fabian. It was cloudy like the cloud that hovered over the chosen people as they journeyed to the Land of Promise. Our Lady, carried on the shoulders of her devoted seminarian sons, was regally leading her children to her chapel in the seminary compound on the street named after Cesar Maria Guerrero the bishop who received her to the Church of Lingayen in 1928.
There is an oratory behind the seminary chapel in Palapad where the children of Mary Help of Christians can visit her and kiss the mantle behind the image. The image faces the Gulf of Lingayen looking towards the west as if valiantly saying to her seminarians and priests “From the rising of the sun to its setting, may the name of the Lord be praised. Do not be afraid of the twilight unto midnight. My Son has overcome darkness.”
Bishop Guerrero laid the foundations of the seminary for the Church of Lingayen and named it after our Mother. He did not see with his eyes how his dream of 1929 unfolded and bloomed into the college seminary in 1985 and now fulfilled in hills of San Fabian as the theology seminary. The seminary atop the hill is the vision fulfilled laid out in 1929.
In the Church of Lingayen Dagupan, there is only one seminary—the Mary Help of Christians Seminary.
The mother who calls in Manaoag is the same Mother who helps in Palapad.
The Lord who calls men to follow Him is the same child in the arms of Mary “who makes all things new” in whose name we all receive help.
We have brought Mary to our homes as the beloved disciple did after the events at Calvary.
The seminary is her home. The seminary is the heart of the Church.
Her home is the heart of the Church.
In faith we know too that our seminary is inside our Mother’s pierced heart. She helps us in our sorrows. She is the Mother who turns our sorrows into joy.
She calls. She helps. She is here and will always be.
From the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist, Dagupan City, August 31, 2018
+SOCRATES B. VILLEGAS
Archbishop of Lingayen Dagupan