Our Lady of La Paz Parish in Makati enjoyed the special blessing of Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales’ presence at the celebration of the parish’s 33rd foundation anniversary held last March 1.  The celebration began with the 6:30PM Eucharist at which Cardinal Rosales presided.  Six Camillian fathers and two Chinese diocesan priests (who are Camillian aspirants) concelebrated with him: Fr. Ivo Anselmi, Provincial Superior, Fr. Robert Chua, La Paz parish priest, Fr. Reji Chaka, Fr. Evan Villanueva, Fr. Boy Guinit, Fr. Gabby Garcia, Fr. John Bai and Fr. Paul Hou.

Right after the Mass, Cardinal Rosales blessed the new baptistery and the Chapel of the Saints.  A short simple program followed at the church plaza after the blessing.

The official functions of the Cardinal were sandwiched between moments spent with the parishioners.  Before the Mass he had time enough to see a bit of the parish grounds and to mingle with the parishioners.  After the blessing, as he emerged from the sacristy, parishioners eagerly approached him for the traditional mano po blessing and for picture-taking.  In his accommodating fatherly way, he obliged and posed with each one and each group that wanted a souvenir snapshot with him.

During the program at which he gave a short talk, he expressed his pleasure to be in La Paz (the only parish he had not yet visited up to that time) and encouraged the parishioners to continue in their effort to build their parish community.