CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—This year’s 64th anniversary celebration of the coronation of Pampanga’s patroness, the Virgen de los Remedios (VDLR), on September 8 will be observed “with simplicity and austerity.”
The celebration will be held without the thousands of devotees congregating in open public spaces in the Capitol grounds, in the Holy Mass and in the reenactment of the crowning of the image of the Virgen.
In his Circular Letter 50, Series of 2020, issued August 11, Archbishop Florentino Lavarias said that the most essential things considered for this year’s celebration are the “oneness in prayer and our collective expression of solidarity with the poorest among the poor” of the archdiocese.
This year’s reenactment of the canonical coronation will be totally different from the celebrations in the past 63 years.
It will be livestreamed on Facebook and broadcast on 91.9 Bright FM, Radio Veritas and Radyo Maria sans the thousands of Marian devotees.
On the eve of the coronation, on September 7, a mañanita will be hosted by the archdiocesan liturgical commission.
In the morning of September 8, Masses will be celebrated in all parishes in commemoration of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
No coronation reenactment will be held in any of the parishes.
The archdiocesan coronation reenactment will be held at 4 p.m. of the feast day at the main chapel of the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary in the City of San Fernando to be livestreamed on FB and broadcast on 91.9 Bright FM, Radio Veritas, and Radyo Maria.
“It is our fervent hope that this year’s celebration will make us realize that like our Blessed Mother, we are part of the solution to the different social problems being faced by our country, and we are God’s instruments in extending brotherly and sisterly care to the most vulnerable members of the Church and the larger society,” Lavarias said in his circular.
The celebration has the theme, “Virgen de los Remedios, Kayantabe king Pamanintun Lunas, Kasaup king Pamamiya Lingap [Our Friend in Looking for a Cure, Our Helper in Giving Care].”
The traditional “lamak” (offerings in kind) that are part of the VDLR parochial visits will be gathered during novena Masses in all parishes from August 30 to September 7 “to be distributed to their poorest members.”Novena Masses will be celebrated at the Repository Chapel of the VDLR and will be livestreamed via Facebook, the circular said.
The veneration of the Virgen de los Remedios, paired with the Santo Cristo del Perdon, was initiated by the first bishop of San Fernando, the Most Rev. Cesar Maria Guerrero as the Cruzada de Penitencia y Caridad (Crusade of Penance and Charity) in the 1950s amid the social unrest in Pampanga brought about by the Huk rebellion.
Through a papal bull dated July 15, 1956, Pope Pius XII bestowed the Virgen de lost Remedios a canonical coronation designating her as the patroness of Pampanga and setting her liturgical feast on September 8.