KAWIT, CAVITE — The different shrine ministries across the Diocese of Imus held their first assembly on Jan. 25 at the Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of Fatima in Binakayan, this municipality.

More than 200 members of shrine ministries from eight diocesan shrines and one national shrine within Cavite attended the assembly, which the Fatima Shrine hosted in cooperation with the Association of Catholic Shrines and Pilgrimages (ACSP), a pastoral desk under the Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Br. Kendrick Ivan Panganiban, ACSP lay secretary, gave a talk on the topic "From Devotion to New Evangelization," which deepened the goals and activities of shrine ministries based on the ACSP guidelines and his book, "The Roles of Shrines in the New Evangelization."

Following the talk, Fr. Noel Salanguit, ACSP vice president for Southern Luzon, gave his remarks and words of gratitude to the members of shrine ministries who attended the assembly.

Fr. Julius R. de Sagun, rector and parish priest of the Fatima Shrine, and Fr. Virgilio Saenz Mendoza, rector and parish priest of the Diocesan Shrine of San Agustin and parish of Sta. Cruz in Tanza, also gave their welcoming remarks and words of thanksgiving during the assembly.

Fr. Mendoza is also the priest-animator of the Ministry on the Cultural Heritage of the Church, which oversees initiatives to preserve the cultural heritage of churches across the diocese in the spirit of evangelization.

Shrines are beneficial in the mission of the new evangelization today, as they give hope to those who will visit shrines this Jubilee Year 2025 with the theme "Pilgrims of Hope." (Lake C. Ferrancullo, SOCCOM-Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of Fatima; photo credit to the shrine)