- CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Parish of San Isidro Labrador in Binalbagan town, Negros Occidental, is inviting the faithful to the reopening of the church with a prayer of consecration and reparation this Friday, April 12.
The Diocese of Kabankalan posted tonight, April 10, that a penitential procession will be held 8 a.m. on Friday, to be followed by the reopening mass an hour after.
The parish has been closed since April 3, after a man desecrated the images of St. Joseph, the parish’s patron San Isidro Labrador, the Immaculate Conception, two angels and the Crucifix, at around 6:30 a.m. that day while a mass was ongoing. The tabernacle was also disfigured, the parish said in a statement.
Binalbagan town deputy police chief, P/Lt. Glenn Portunes, earlier said that the suspect, Rolly Semira, 39, of Brgy. San Teodoro in the town, drove his tricycle inside the church, and crashed into the images.
Semira, reportedly an Islam convert, was arrested and later charged for malicious mischief and destroying church properties, before the Negros Occidental Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
Kabankalan Bishop Louie Galbines said the suspect will be made to answer to the crime and damages he created, adding the “untoward incident created a very painful impact on the faith and emotions of all Catholics in Binalbagan.”
He said in a statement that while the physical and external damages may cause so much burden to the parish, “it is the internal injury to the minds and hearts of the faithful that concern more to us (as) witnessing desecration of the sanctuary and utter disrespect to the revered images generated so much pain and suffering to the people of the parish.”
“While the restoration of the broken images is urgent, the reparation of the internal injury and pain is even paramount.
“The church will remain closed for a period of time to allow the repair of the images to take place and for all of us to do penitential act, in order to effect complete healing to our very hearts and minds, to our faith itself wounded by this unwarranted act,” the bishop stressed./CGC
