Bells will peal at high noon and thanksgiving masses will be celebrated all day today,at the San Sebastian Cathedral in Bacolod City to mark the 31st anniversary of the historic visit of Pope John Paul II to the city.

At 5:15 p.m., the Pope John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family will sponsor a concelebrated thanksgiving mass at the cathedral to close the Totus Tuus! Week celebrations that began February 13.

The JP II Tower at the reclaimed area will open a prayer room dedicated to the former pope, now considered “Blessed” by the Catholic world, which is a step away from sainthood.

The JP II institute in Bacolod is part of an international network of schools established by the Pope himself. It is headed by Msgr. Victorino Rivas, who was in Rome when the Pope visited Bacolod. Rivas had translated to Visayan portions of the speech JP II read during his visit.

        The tower is considered one of the new icons of Bacolod. It stands a few meters away from the stage where the Pope had spoken 31 years ago.

        It now houses a memorabilia of the visit, including his famous “Message to Landowners and Workers” which he delivered at what was then the reclaimed area of the city.

Also in the tower was the chair he had sat on when he was on stage, and alb which was sent over by the archdioceses of Krakow, Poland, according to Fr. Felix Pasquin.

Pasquin recalled that about a million people, some from as far away as Mindanao, had welcomed the Pope when he visited the city. It was high noon when he came, and he went to the Cathedral where he was given a liturgical reception. He had also blessed the memorial for the victims of the Don Juan tragedy inside the church.

Pasquin also recalled that the Pope had rested in the room of the late Msgr. Antonio Y. Fortich at the Bishop’s Palace. He had rested on a bed provided by the late Gloria Esteban, whose family last week turned over their ancestral home for the use of the JP II Institute.

Pasquin noted that when the Bishop’s Palace had burned down years later, the portion where the Pope had slept was spared.

Meanwhile, Totus Tuus! Week was highlighted by the national conference on the late Pope’s Nuptial Theology organized by the Institute.

It opened with the visit of the Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto.

The Bacolod Sangguniang Panglunsod had declared February 13 to 20 as Blessed John Paul II Week in Bacolod to celebrate the anniversary of his visit.

It noted that the city hosts many landmarks and institutions honoring JP II. Aside from the Institute which is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia and the JP II Tower at the reclaimed area, there is also the JP II Cultural Center at the Sacred Seminary at Lacson Street, the Centro Giovanni Paolo II which serves as retreat and resort facility in Punta Taytay and the Centro Giovanni Paolo II for Research in Lacson Street which is now using the Esteban ancestral house.*

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