75 Years on Pilgrimage with Ina

Homily of Most Rev. Charles John Brown, D.D., Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines

Solemn Thanksgiving Mass on the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of Cáceres as a Metropolitan Archdiocese and Province

September 17, 2026 | The Naga Metropolitan Cathedral

Your Grace, the Most Rev. Rex Andrew C. Alarcon, Metropolitan Archbishop of Caceres, Your Excellencies, the Bishops of Bicol, concelebrating priests from the Bicol Region, men and women religious, devotees of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, faithful people of the Archdiocese of Caceres, as one and all:

For me, as your Apostolic Nuncio, that is, as the representative of Pope Leo XIV here in the Philippines, it makes me very happy to be back here once again.

So here we are in the piazza, in the plaza, in front of Naga Metropolitan Cathedral, dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist. There's Saint John, who loved Mary very much, who took care of Mary after the resurrection of the Lord. Here in Naga, it is always a joy to be with you.

Today is the 75th anniversary. It's also the Inter-Diocesan Diamond Jubilee Celebration of the Archdiocese and it's the Closing Mass of the Union of Bicol Clergy, many of whom are assembled here in the plaza in front of the cathedral. And finally, it's the Seventh Day of the Novena to Our Lady of Peñafrancia, our beloved Ina.

The fiesta theme this year is “Ina, Nurturing a Growing Church” and that coincides with the archdiocesan thrust for the year 2026, which is “Everyone Belongs, Everyone has a vital Role” emphasizing the second pillar of a synodal Church, which is “participation”.

When we think about participation, we think about this idea of the synodal process, the Synodal Church. “Synodal” comes from the Greek word σύνοδος (synodos), which basically means a “caravan”. It means people traveling together as one from one point to another. It's the fundamental image at the basis of the idea of the synodal church. That we are a people walking together.

It's so appropriate, isn't it? That tonight at 7:00 p.m., you will have the wonderful procession of the various Marian images from the different dioceses of Bicol, Las Patronas Diocesanas del Bicol, and you will be processing through the streets of Naga with these beautiful images of Our Lady.

So, as you're walking in this procession, you are a visual image of the Church as a synodos, as a caravan. That idea is replicated every time we do a procession, whether it's September 11th for the Traslacion, whether it's this coming Sunday for the fluvial procession, the idea of a procession gives us a visual image of what the Church is in her nature: people walking together, in which everyone has a vital role.

The beautiful thing about the Church is that we, like any procession, like any caravan, we're a mixed group of all kinds of different people. We're papal nuncios, we're bishops, we're religious sisters, we are diocesan priests, religious priests, we're mothers and fathers of families, we're children, we're young people, we're students, we're workers. All of us walking together. That's what the Church is; and that's what the synodal process is trying to get us to recognize. 

Think about it for a moment. For passing the faith on to the next generation, who is the most important person? It's not the nuncio, believe me. It's the mother and father of the children. They are the most important people in passing the faith on. They are valued. They have an incredibly important vocation in the Church. They have a vital role of passing the faith on to their children. A role that cannot be replicated or cannot be replaced, cannot be substituted. The role of parents.

The Essence of the Priesthood

Today, in a special way, we think for a moment about the role of priests. Because today is the final day of the Union of Bicol Clergy. I know you've been involved in all kinds of sports events, and I understand that the Archdiocese of Caceres was victorious in basketball, but there are other events as well. I congratulate the victors in the basketball competition.

When we have this Union of Bicol Clergy, we think about the importance of the priesthood. We see our wonderful, dedicated, hardworking priests here in the plaza in front of the cathedral this evening. In the name of Pope Leo XIV, I thank you, men, for your faithful service to the church in Bicol.

When we think about the priesthood, we think about the essence of the priesthood.

Everything else flows from that. Everything else is connected to that. To bring the Eucharist, the Body, the Blood, the Soul, the Divinity of Jesus to people; and to bring people to the Eucharist. We can say that a priest in his sacramental ministry is always bringing the Eucharist to people; but in his preaching and in his apostolate, and apostolic work, he's bringing people to the Eucharist. The Eucharist is Jesus.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1324) teaches us formally that “the Eucharist is the source and the summit (in Latin, the fons et culmen) of the Christian life, it's a source of the Christian life.” It's a summit of the Christian life. It's what we are doing this evening in front of your beautiful cathedral, celebrating the Eucharist. The Catechism says that all the “other sacraments (even the priesthood, and baptism) and all the ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate are bound up with—that means connected with—the Eucharist. They're oriented towards the Eucharist.” For the Catechism says, “in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself.”

So, these priests, many of whom celebrate many Masses on Sunday, I know, are bringing Jesus to His people. And that is so beautiful.

All of us are on a caravan. All of us are walking. But if we're going to walk, we need energy. We need the power to walk. We get the power to walk physically by eating food. We get the power to walk spiritually by the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus, which comes to us through the hands of the priests.

The Eucharist is our food for the journey, our viaticum, that means “food for the via” for the journey. So we thank the priests for their service on this day of the Union of Bicol Clergy. As I said already, in the name of Pope Leo XIV, I congratulate and thank them.

75 Years of Journey

We are also celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Elevation of the Diocese of Nueva Caceres to the status of an archdiocese 75 years ago, in 1951. That is a glorious thing to remember. Let's also recall that 75 years is only a small portion of the history of the Church here in Naga because your diocese was founded back in 1595, 431 years ago. Tonight we thank God for all the archbishops, priests, and consecrated persons of the Archdiocese of Caceres, the people of God. We remember the first archbishop, †Pedro Paulo Santos Songco, the first Archbishop of Caceres.

When we think about the history of the Church, we can also use the image of a caravan. We've been talking about a procession walking through the streets of Naga like a caravan as an image of the Church, with different roles, different functions. Here's another image. I want you to think about it for a moment. Imagine a caravan going through time. Not the caravan right now in 2026, all of us; but imagine a caravan stretching through time. Imagine a procession going through time, and imagine that as the Church.

So at the front of the procession, at the beginning, we see Mary and Joseph. We see the apostles. We see behind them the early Christian martyrs of the Church: Saint Sebastian, Saint Agnes, the early martyrs. Then, right behind them—we would see walking behind them—we see the fathers of the Church: Augustine, Jerome, Saint Chrysostom. Maybe behind them we see the medieval saints, all walking in this caravan, stretching through time: Saint Dominic, Saint Francis, Saint Anthony of Padua. Then behind them we see San Lorenzo Ruiz, San Pedro Calungsod. Then closer to us, we see the saints who have gone just before us: Maximilian Kolbe, Mother Teresa, John Paul II. Then, even super close to us, we see Saint Carlo Acutis and others. We are walking in their footsteps as a Synodal Church.

Because they are the signposts that lead us in the right direction. Mistaken forms—erroneous forms of reform—means to go in an opposite direction. They say, “I'm not going to follow the saints. I'm going to go over here. I'm going to go my way because I think that's the best way.” No! For us as Catholics, we are walking in the footsteps of the saints: this long procession in which we are walking, following the people who went before us, following the people who went before us here in the Archdiocese of Caceres since 1595 (and) since 1951 as an archdiocese.

Think about your grandparents, the way they lived the faith. Your great grandparents, if you knew them. Imitate their faith and then you will really be a synodal church. Because those people are the signposts that mark the way that leads us to the kingdom of God.

So we have those two ideas this evening of the Synodal Church. The Synodal Church in 2026 is this wonderful, amazingly various and diverse body of Christians, the Mystical Body of Christ now but also stretching through time, which we call the communion of saints, the ones who have gone before us. Because in some ways, brothers and sisters, the past is not behind us; the past is in front of us. We talk about those who went before us; we are coming after them.

So, on this day, 75 years since the elevation of the archdiocese, we give thanks to God for all the blessings that have been showered upon the people of Bicol, because of the Church of Caceres, 75 years as an archdiocese.

We do all of these things at the foot of the Cross, with Saint John, your patron of the cathedral, and with our beloved, all holy, all beautiful, all glorious Mother of God, your beloved Ina, Our Lady of Peñafrancia. May Our Lady of Peñafrancia pray for us.

Viva la Virgen de Peñafrancia! Viva!

Transcribed by Joel Vasquez Ocampo

Photos Trixie Odiamar and Naga Metropolitan Cathedral Facebook page