THE Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, more popularly known as Quiapo Church, has started gearing up for the feast of the Black Nazarene on January 9, 2024, as church officials invited the faithful, especially devotees of Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, to participate in the preparations for the upcoming feast.
Meanwhile, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Valenzuela City has laid down the ceremonies for the coronation of the image on Feb. 25, 2024.
Quiapo Church parochial vicar Fr. Hans Magdurulang said preparations for Nazareno 2024 are in full swing, and devotees must actively get involved to ensure a smooth and successful celebration.
“The Quiapo Church wholeheartedly invites all our devotees of the Lord Jesus Nazarene to closely follow and participate in the preparations to understand what needs to be done for Nazareno 2024 and, together, celebrate it in an orderly, safe, and sacred manner,” the prelate told Radio Veritas.
Church officials said they are considering the return of traditional practices during the Nazareno feast, the traslacion or the procession that commemorates the transfer of the Black Nazarene statue from the Quirino Grandstand to its home in Quiapo church.
Meanwhile, the Quiapo Church will be officially declared as a “national shrine” on Jan. 29 next year, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said.
Msgr. Bernardo Patin, CBCP secretary general, handed over to Fr. Jun Sescon, rector of Quiapo Church, the decree on the church’s status as a national shrine.
The priest said they are in continuous communication with the local government of Manila and various government agencies to lay out plans for the January celebration.
A canonical coronation is a formal ceremony whereby a Marian icon is crowned in the name of the Pope.
Pope Francis granted canonical coronation to the country’s national pilgrim image, the same icon used during the 1986 EDSA revolution.
“We are confident that this canonical coronation will contribute to an ever-deepening devotion to the Mother of God on the part of God’s holy, faithful people which will, in turn, assist them in their spiritual growth,” Archbishop Vittorio Viola, Secretary of the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines website Friday.
Our Lady of Fatima holds a special place in the nation’s political history as her image was at the forefront of the peaceful uprising at the EDSA Shrine.
In 1999, the image was entrusted to the care of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima and has been kept there ever since.
The pilgrim image received an episcopal coronation on May 13, 2017, marking the centenary of the Fatima apparitions.