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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines -- The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) will conduct an online Lenten retreat on the first week of Lent.
CBCP media office director Msgr. Pedro Quitorio said the decision to duplicate the past year’s initiative was bolstered by the positive feedback and requests generated by the online Visita Iglesia in 2011, this time adding another feature, the online Lenten retreat.
This website aimed to reach Filipinos working abroad, migrants, seafarers and even people back home who are sick and unable to go out and mark Holy Week.
“This project is specially intended for Filipinos who have no way of going to churches, especially the seafarers and the homebound,” Quitorio said.
The online Lenten Retreat involves packets of video reflections to serve as alternative catechesis for people who will have no chance of attending Lenten retreats.
Besides the online retreat, new features of www.visitaiglesia.net are; Lenten Podcast, or audio Lenten reflections that may be handy for Filipinos who are bedridden; Lenten Blogs, or discussions taken from the blogs of bishops, priests and religious and lay faithful.
At its second launch during Holy Week of 2011, Quitorio said they received 150,000 unique visitors and over 1.5 million page loads.
“The positive feedback and requests especially coming from Filipinos abroad have inspired us to go on,” Quitorio said.
Other old features of the website are: 1) Featured Churches, these are mostly heritage churches viewed from the historical, architectural and pastoral perspectives; 2) Liturgical celebrations that will cover all rituals from Palm Sunday to Easter Vigil; 3) Pasyon, which is the traditional passion narrative rendered in chants; 4) the Seven Last Words that will be videostreamed live on Holy Thursday; 5) Stations of the Cross and other Lenten prayers.
The theme for this year’s Visita Iglesia is derived from the Message for Lent 2012 of the Holy Father: “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.”
“The socio-political ills in this country are grounded on greed and selfishness. We hope that this online catechesis will help not only to satisfy our need to worship but especially to manifest its fruit in being concerned for one another in love and good works,” Quitorio explained.
Ash Wednesday, February 22, started the 40-day Lenten season, when people usually express their faith through fasting, abstinence, prayers, and the pasyon while reflecting on the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.
