THERE were some activities for Pope Francis that had been pre-arranged but were kept from the public, former Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Archbishop Oscar Cruz said Thursday.
He told reporters that those activities were not included in the official itinerary, and one of those was the pope’s meeting with the officials and members of the CBCP Thursday night hours after he arrives in the Philippines.
But Cruz said there were no talks on the situation of the Philippine Catholic Church as well as other social issues since the ambassador of the Vatican to the Philippines directly reports to the pope regularly.
“There will be a courtesy call at the Apostolic Nunciature by the archbishops and bishops but the meeting will be more on breaking the ice and will not be serious in content,” Cruz said.
“You have the Papal Nuncio who is the ambassador of the Vatican to the Philippines. He directly reports to the Vatican, and that’s why the pope does not need to be updated anymore on the situation in the Philippines.”
The meeting has attended by Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, CBCP President Archbishop Socrates Villegas and other officials.
Pope Francis finally landed on Philippine soil Thursday afternoon after his Apostolic Visit to Sri Lanka.
The second day of his visit in the Philippines will begin with a courtesy call to President Benigno Aquino III in Malacañang at 9:15 am. He will also have a general audience with senior government officials and members of the diplomatic corps in Malacañang.
Before 11 am the pope will leave to celebrate mass the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, but on the way he is not expected to be in the popemobile but in a closed vehicle.
The open popemobile, though, will be included in the papal convoy in the event that Pope Francis decides to hold a motorcade from Malacañang instead.
The mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is scheduled at 11:15 am but it will not be open to the public. Those expected to be there are Asian bishops such as those from Myanmar, Kazakhstan and Korea, among others.
Also in the guest list for the mass is fellow Argentinean Fr. Luciano Felloni, a missionary priest based in the Novaliches Diocese’s Holy Trinity Parish.
Felloni, in a previous interview, said he knew the Pope when he was still Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio since they used to live in one neighborhood.
Ten priests and five religious sisters have been also been invited from each of the 85 archdioceses and dioceses in the country.
The mass is expected to be in Latin unlike the public masses at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila and at the Tacloban City International Airport, which will both be in English.
“The clergy and the bishops are familiar with Latin,” Villegas said in a previous interview.
Pope Francis is expected to go back to the Apostolic Nunciature on Taft Avenue after the mass.
At 5:30 pm he is scheduled to hold a meeting with families at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Each of the 85 archdiocese and dioceses have been requested to send no more than 100 representatives to the MOA Arena, including separated and broken families.
“Part of the pastoral perspective of Pope Francis is he wants the Church to open doors to all,” said Papal Committee on Information and Media Relations Chairman Bishop Mylo Vergara.
And according to the Central Committee on the Papal Visit, the Vatican had asked the event to be an actual “personal encounter” wherein the Pope could have “eye contact” with the people.
To do so, organizers dropped the plan to position the audience in a circular form and instead put everyone in front of the pontiff.