MANILA, July 20, 2014—Fiesta fanatics, read on. At the risk of being tagged KJ (kill joy), the country’s top church executive on Sunday, July 6—the feast of St. Maria Goretti—reminded Catholics that faith should always be at the core of every fiesta celebration.
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle. (Photo: CBCP News)
“Fiestas are about faith. They are hardly about the lavish food served and the fireworks display. Neither are they about the beer drinking,” said Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle, who presided over the mass at the parish church in Paco dedicated to the “kid saint”.
In his homily, the prelate regretted that the idea many Filipinos have about fiestas do not go beyond the banquet and the booze, unaware of these occasions’ religious dimension.
According to Tagle, a feast day like St. Maria Goretti’s is an event of faith.
“If it is an event of faith, it is also an event that confirms us to the Gospel of Christ and forms us as a community over and over again,” the prelate stressed. (Raymond A. Sebastián)
