Archbishop Gathers Candidates to Sign a Covenant

(February 7, 2010) –  Who can charm the very charming movie-actress-turn politician Vilma Santos Recto?  Who is afraid of Armand Sanchez, one of the alleged jueteng lords in the list submitted to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee at the height of Erap’s impeachment?  Who has the courage and guts to gather the multi-colored clad of candidates in this macho-province of Batangas?

Collection of “Pro Populo” Masses for Haiti

(January 23, 20110) – Lipa Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles have called on the parish priests and faithful in the Archdiocese of Lipa to earmark all Pro Populo Masses tomorrow for the local church’s financial help to Haiti, devastated by a 7+ intensity earthquake recently.  The directive was given mid-week through the office of the Vicar General and Moderator Curiae, Msgr. Ruben Dimaculangan.  Presently,  all the second collection during Sunday Masses are set aside for the St. Joseph Seniorate,  whch houses the retired, elderly and sickly priests of the Archdiocese.

Pondong Batangan hits P2M+ for 2009

(January 15,2010) – Pondong Batangan collected a record P2,212,491.63 the past year 2009.  This was revealed by the office of Fr. Manny Guazon, Executive Director of Pondong Batangan Community Foundation, Inc., in the weekly radio program aired over DWAL-FM 95.9 Radyo Totoo,  the “Evangelization Radio” of the Archdiocese of Lipa. The Parish of St. John Evangelist at Tanauan City topped the “top ten” list of parishes contributing to Pondong Batangan, with a total contribution of P256,151.50 for the year 2009.  

Archbishop to lead pastoral workers in the pilgrimage

(January 12,2010) –  Lipa Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles is resolved to fulfill his promise made to the pastoral workers of the Archdiocese of Lipa during their Christmas gathering in his residence.  It would be remembered that in his desire the church workers would be the first to know what the centennial jubilee was all about,  he announced that his “centennial gift” to them is to lead them personally to a pilgrimage to the twenty-one declared “indulgence churches/monasteries/shrines” during the centennial year, slated to formally begin on April 10, 2010.  Only the workers who attended the Christmas gathering, which started with a recollection,  would be beneficiaries of this free-of-charge (food and transportation), courtesy of the Archbishop.

Archbishop Leads Prayer Rally vs. Lodges

(December 10,2009) –  With hundreds of students coming from the various schools in Lipa City, and the lay faithful mostly from the Parish of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage attending,  reinforced by close to a hundred seminarians and priests,  Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles amassed his troops in front of the Lipa City Hall and prayed the Rosary and later on led the concelebrated Mass to pray for “a clean and healthy Lipa City, as well as the province of Batangas”.

“Please,  do not think that we are doing this to condemn the local government or even the owners and operators of the lodges,” cautioned the Archbishop during his homily.  ”We are here to also acknowledge our failure.  If we allow these places of sin to exist,  it is because we have not been faithful to our families, to our spouses and even to our children.”

Noting the presence of students,  he said, “Even our schools are part of this.  The owners of these places are products of our Catholic schools.  We have failed to instill in them Catholic moral values.  If our leaders, educated as they are in Catholic schools, failed to live up to the moral standards,  then we as educators are also a failure,” he continued.

Archbishop to lead mass action vs. lodges

(December 3, 2009) – After personally visiting the Parish of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, a barangay parish in the Marian city of Lipa, and saw that the construction of a lodge which was formerly in another barangay has been continuing despite an order of stoppage from the City’s Engineering Office,  Lipa Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles decided to lead anew another prayer rally at the Lipa City Hall grounds this December 10, 2009.

Paring Batangas doing well in Pari-lympics

(November 30, 2009) –  In what was their last game for the time being in the long-running Pari-lympics, also known as the Cardinal Sin’s Cup, Paring Batangas continued to pile up win after win, notching its eighth win against two losses as they thumped the Cubao priest-cagers in a twinbill game held at the Holy Apostles Senior Seminary gym in Makati City this afternoon. Earlier before the Cubao-Lipa match-up, the Novaliches thwarted Malolos,  who just came from a morale-boosting win over Lucena last week.   Organizers informed the teams that the games would resume February next year as the Manila clergy would be busy preparing for the National Clergy retreat in January next year. The long-delayed basketball tournament involving the cagers from the Archdioceses of Manila and Lipa, Dioceses of Malolos, Lucena, Antipolo, Paranaque, Cubao, and Novaliches had a grand opening last August at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay.

Archbishop bares pilgrimage churches for Jubilee year 2010

(November 28,2009) –  Lipa Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles formally bares the pilgrimage churches where the faithful can come and enjoy the spiritual benefits that accrue to them during the “year of grace”.  During the Saturday evening,eve of the First Sunday of Advent, in a Mass broadcast live in the two radio stations of the Archdiocese of Lipa and shown in local cable television,  he enumerated the twenty one churches, shrines and monasteries that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, endowed the privilege of granting plenary indulgence to pilgrims visiting these during the Centennial Year (April 10, 2010 to April 10, 2011).  He enumerated the following churches as “jubilee churches”:  Vicariate I – Parish Church of St. John the Baptist (Lian, Batangas), parish Church of the Immaculate Concepcion (Balayan, Batangas), Parish Church of St. Francis Xavier (Nasugbu, Batangas), Parish Church of St. Raphael (Calaca, Batangas);  Vicariate 2 – Minor Basilica of St. Martin of Tours (Taal, Batangas), Shrine of Our Lady of Caysasay (Labac, Taal, Batangas), Archdiocesan Shrine of St. Therese of the Child jesus (Sta. Teresita, Batangas); Vicariate 3 – Parish Church of the Most Holy Trinity and Archdiocesan Shrine of the Glorious Cross (Pallocan West, Batangas City), Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Concepcion (Batangas City); Vicariate 4 – Parish Church of St. John Nepomucene (San Juan, Batangas), Archdiocesan Shrine of St. Joseph the Patriarch (San Jose, Batangas); Vicariate 5 – Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Sebastian (Lipa City), Archdiocesan Shrine of St. Vincent Ferrer (Banaybanay, Lipa City), Divino Amor Chapel (Redemptorist, Lipa City), Mnastery of Mt. Carmel of Our Lady of Mediatrix of all Grace (Antipolo del Norte, Lipa City), Monastery of Clarisas Capuchinas Sacramentarias (Lipa City), Monastery of St. Benedict (Pinagtungulan, Lipa City), Monastery of Minims Nuns of St. Francis de Paola (Lumbang, Lipa City); Vicariate 6 – Parish Church of St. Padre Pio (San Pedro, Sto. Tomas, Batangas), Parish Church of St. John Evangelist (Tanauan City).  He also announced the late inclusion of the Parish Church of Nuestra Senora de la Soledad (Darasa, Tanauan City), Monastery of the Missionary Catechists of the sacred Heart (Sabang, Lipa City), Chapel of Binukalan (Alitagtag, Batangas) and the Parish Church of the Holy Family (Bolo, Bauan, Batangas).

Monte Maria Board, nagpulong

Nagkaroon ng meeting ang Board of Trustees ng Mary Mother of the Poor Foundation ng Pilipinas noong September 14, 2009 sa Saint Paul retreat house sa Alfonso, Cavite upang pag-usapan ang mga updates sa paggawa ng Montemaria Shrine. Ang mga dumalo ay sina Father Fernando Suarez, Father Jeff Shannon, Father Ronilo Javines, Father Ernesto Mandanas at Bishop Salvador Quizon, Ms. Ching Cruz, Mr. Arthur Cabrera, Ms Teresas Chan, Ms Paz Monteclaro, Architect Susan Castillo, Architect Reggie Ragojos at Brother Andrew Gamilla. Ang mga sumusunod ang mga pinag-usapan:

PressCon for November 28

Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, through Fr. Nonie Dolor, chair of the Commission on Social Communications and Mass Media, is calling for a press conference to brief media on the pilgrimage churches for the Centennial Year 2010.  The date is set for November 28, Saturday, 9:00 am at his residence in Lipa City.  There are more than twenty churches/shrines and chapels to be declared pilfrimage sites for the whole centennial celebrations.  The Archbishop is set to formally announce this to the faithful of the Archdiocese during the evening mass of the same day, marking the First Sunday of Advent.