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THE PANELS RETURN HOME. Father Brian Brigoli gives instructions to a workman as they finish installing the panels on the pulpit of the Boljoon church.
Max LImpag/Rappler
The reinstallation of the panels elicits loud cheers inside the Archdiocesan Shrine of Patrocinio de Maria Santisima
CEBU, Philippines – When the carpenter and parish staff were visibly having a difficult time installing the pasamano or hand rail after the third panel was slotted in, a teacher watching the proceedings flinched, looked away, and stopped taking videos.
“Sus og mahulog?” (What if it falls?) she said. A group of students and teachers of the Patronage of Mary Development School in Boljoon joined parish staff and members of the National Museum of the Philippines as they watched the reinstallation of the panels today. PMDS held a mass at 10 am for the Feast of St. Joseph on Wednesday, March 19, and many of the teachers and students lingered to watch the reinstallation.
When the rail was finally put in place, loud cheers broke out inside the Archdiocesan Shrine of Patrocinio de Maria Santisima.
The teachers and students sang “Glory to God in the Highest.” When the song ended, members of the Parish Pastoral Council and other church volunteers sang, “Salve Regina.” Boljoon is a deeply religious town and that religiosity was on full display as they excitedly and nervously watched the reinstallation.
Among those present were PMDS Grade 12 students Athena Therese Romero, Janelle Celeste Salonoy, and Fionna Vasaylaje. They told Rappler about their excitement in seeing the panels installed and were proud of their heritage. Romero said they first knew of their town heritage during a tour of their museum as part of their Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics subject last year,
It took four hours for the workmen, supervised by Father Brian Brigoli, to finish installing the five panels. Brigoli is the chairperson of the Cebu Archdiocesan Commission on the Heritage of the Church. Four of the panels were recently repatriated to Cebu by the NMP. They were removed in the late 1980s and thought lost for decades until they resurfaced at the NMP on February 13, 2024, the eve of their public exhibit as “Gift to the Nation” donation by collector couple Edwin and Aileen Bautista. The fifth one had remained in the parish. One panel is still missing and its receptacle is left with a plain piece of wood.
Brigoli said the pulpit is designed to magnify the voice of the priest, who would give his homily there, at a time before there were electronic sound systems. Older residents of Boljoon interviewed by Rappler said they could recall the priest using the pulpit for homilies in the late 1960s.
But when Cebu Archbishop Jose S. Palma would use the pulpit to give his homily during the pontifical mass on Friday, the soft-spoken prelate would still use a microphone. The amplification of the pulpit is no match for the noise of modern life, with trucks rumbling on the highway just outside the church.
Brigoli said the return of the panels can be “a good example for the other dioceses for their fight for repatriation, that it’s possible.” – Rappler.com
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