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FAREWELL A short funeral march of some 90 priests led by the Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, Socrates Villegas, brought the late Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz to his final resting place at the Sanctuary of San Juan Evangelista, after a 9 a.m. mass. in the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Dagupan. City on Friday. | WILLIE LOMIBAO
DAGUPAN CITY – When the earthquake-struck St. John’s Cathedral here was being restored in the mid-1990s, Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz had told reporters touring the church ruins that he wanted to be buried there one day. .
At 10 a.m. on Friday, the old cathedral, now called Sanctuary of St. John the Evangelist (Sanctuary of Saint John the Evangelist), became the final resting place of the former leader of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan.
About 90 bishops and priests were among the hundreds of mourners who paid their last respects to Cruz, who once served as president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of the Philippines (CBCP).
The Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, Socrates Villegas, who succeeded Cruz in 2009 and was also the president of CBCP, led the funeral mass and burial rites.
Cruz, 85, succumbed to multiple organ failure due to a critical new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) on August 26. Her body was immediately cremated, but the urn was placed inside a white coffin when it was brought to the archdiocese for the wake. and burial.
Paying homage to Cruz, Villegas described the prelate as “a saint, but a different kind of saint.”
BLESSING The Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, Socrates Villegas, blesses the hearse carrying the remains of Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz during his funeral on Friday in the city of Dagupan. —WILLIE LOMIBAO
Holy priest
“He was a saint who joined us in the plaza, on pickets, against illegal gambling and prostitution, defending social justice and women’s rights,” Villegas said, adding that “such acts will not go unrewarded in heaven”.
Cruz was instrumental in restoring the shrine when he was Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan. He was assigned to the archdiocese in July 1991 when the city of Dagupan was reeling from the 1990 Luzon earthquake, which left St. John’s Cathedral and the chancery (Archbishop’s Palace) in ruins. Cruz retired on September 9, 2009.
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