This post is part of the Visita Iglesia Cebu series. A Cuaresma 2012 feature.

The upper half of the church’s main altar retablo.

The main altar retablo of the Santa Catalina de Alejandria Church in Carcar will soon be restored, a source mentioned after yesterday’s historical Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at the 152-year old stone church.

The TLM, also known as the Tridentine Mass, was celebrated in connection with the “Day with Mary” activity which was organized by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, a Roman Catholic Institute of Religious Life with Pontifical Right established by Pope John Paul II in 1998. Click here for more photos and text »

Just a few days after Archbishop Jose Palma’s Pontifical Solemn High Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite last Monday, another Tridentine mass will be celebrated again tomorrow and this time it will be in the 152-year old church of Santa Catalina de Alejandria in Carcar, a charming small city in the southern part of Cebu.

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The Most Reverend Jose S. Palma, archbishop of Cebu and president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), celebrated a Pontifical Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form last March 26 on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Annunciation at the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate’s Church of Mary Coredemptrix in Barangay San Jose, Cebu City.

As a lost intangible heritage of the church, there is renewed interest in it after Pope Benedict XVI’s new Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

The Extraordinary Form of the Mass is also known as the Tridentine Mass or the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), a Mass celebrated exclusively in Latin with the priest facing an altar attached to the wall of the church apse, as opposed to the contemporary altar that we see today, effectively turning his back on the congregation. The Tridentine Mass was celebrated in Roman Catholic churches for more than 400 years until changes made to the liturgy during Vatican II took effect in 1969. As a lost intangible heritage of the church, there is renewed interest in it after Pope Benedict XVI’s new Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

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This post is part of the Visita Iglesia Cebu series. A Cuaresma 2012 feature.

Satellite view of the Cebu Cathedral. (Photo from Google Maps)

If we are to rely on Google’s satellite image of the Cebu Cathedral then we can very much surmise that the plan of Domingo de Escondrillas, a 19th-century Spanish architect, to expand the cathedral was really implemented but not finished.

According to the Cathedral Museum of Cebu’s A Colorful History of the Cebu Cathedral penned by Jose Eleazar Bersales:

“Escondrillas proposes tearing down of the walls of the cruceros and the main altar in order to follow the Greek cross style. The arches are also extended so that it can accommodate 1,400 people more than the 4,300 residents that can be accommodated inside the church. The altar mayor is moved so that it can be seen from any point inside the church.”

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There are more than a hundred reasons to visit a particular place. For this season of Lent, however, there are only seven reasons to visit seven magnificent churches in Bohol to complete the traditional Visita Iglesia. Bohol used to be a part of the diocese of Cebu and it basically shares the same language and culture with the Cebuanos. Although now a separate province southeast of Cebu, Bohol is very much accessible through a two-hour boat trip.

A typical church trip to Bohol starts in Tubigon going all the way to Jagna. Along the way one will pass by several beautiful stone churches that have withstood the ravages of time and man. Accommodations can be easily found in Tagbilaran, the capital of the province. Several houses in certain towns have also been converted into little hotels that offer cozy rooms at affordable prices.

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