The Diocese of Dumaguete has lined up activities for the first year anniversary on Saturday of super-typhoon Yolanda that left thousands of people dead and immeasurable damage to properties.

Dumaguete Bishop Julito Cortes said all the parishes in the diocese, of the cities and towns of Negros Oriental will join in the nationwide tolling of bells 6 p.m. on November 8.

Cortes will preside over a concelebrated mass at the St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral in Dumaguete City, the seat of the diocese, at 10:30 a.m. to honor those who died after “Yolanda” (international code name Haiyan) battered several areas in the Visayas and other parts of the country.

The parishes of the Diocese will have their masses for the same intention, and Cortes will read a prayer for the November 8 commemoration “Yolanda”.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action is spearheading the national day of prayer for “Yolanda” victims.

Fr. Burton Villarmente, director of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Dumaguete, yesterday appealed to the public to participate in the activities and offer prayers for the thousands of dead and homeless affected by the super typhoon.

The CBCP has announced that bells will ring in at least 50,000 churches across the country on Saturday.

The Diocese, through the Social Action Center, was one of the first from Negros Oriental to send relief aid to Leyte after the typhoon. Villarmente and a medical team from the Holy Child Hospital went to Tacloban City five days after “Yolanda” with the first wave of relief operations and returned twice, bringing relief goods donated by groups and citizens locally and internationally.

Villarmente said the Diocese is grateful to those who sent relief aid, in cash and in kind, for the “Yolanda” victims, through the Social Action Center.*JFP

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