The president of the International
Eucharistic Congress (IEC) had a positive impression of proposed venues
for the global event scheduled in Cebu City on Jan. 25 to 31, 2016. “It’s good,” Archbishop Piero Marini told reporters but no final decision has been reached yet.
Hotels and assembly sites are being inspected for their suitability to accomodate 12,000 to 15,000 delegates for the conference.
Marini visited a 27-hectare field of the South Road Properties where the National Thanksgiving Mass for the canonization of St. Pedro Calungsod was held last Nov. 30, 2012.
Marini walked up the small bamboo-inpired temple of St. Pedro Calungsod and glimpsed the vast area which faces the sea.
Marini earlier went to the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City, another possible venue for the week-long IEC.
He was accompanied by Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma; Ann Griffin, the general manager of the organizing committee during the 2011 IEC in Dublin; and Fr. Vittore Buchardi, a member of the IEC pontifical committee.
Also with the group were Msgr. Dennis Villarojo, the secretary-general for all the preparations of the IEC in Cebu; Msgr. Roberto Alesna, Msgr. Ildebrando Leyson, the rector of the Archdiocesan Shrine of St. Pedro Calungsod; Fr. Mhar Balili, who used to be Marini’s student in Rome; and retired Auxiliary Bishop Antonio Rañola.
Marini said he’s happy that the IEC will be held in Cebu.
“I am sure it will be a good opportunity for all the people of the Philippines to profess their faith in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist,” he told reporters.
Marini will travel to Manila this Friday to meet with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ committee and Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle.
Palma urged the people to pray for the success of the IEC in 2016.
“This will be an opportunity for us to commit ourselves to the Lord and become better Christians,” he said.
Msgr. Villarojo said they have yet to finalize the venues for the Mass and other conferences.
“It’s under consideration. We haven’t decided on anything yet. We have the CICC, and then Waterfront (Hotel), and Radisson Blu (Hotel). But nothing is final,” he said. The last time the country hosted the IEC was in 1937 in Manila.