Quiapo Church to show Pope John Paul II's relic to public

Starting Sunday, Quiapo Church will allow devotees to kiss a relic of soon-to-be-beatified Pope John Paul II. Church rector Msgr. Jose Clemente Ignacio said this will be after the end of their masses in honor of the late pontiff. "Immediately after the last Mass on Sunday in honor of Pope John Paul II, we will have one of his relics venerated and kissed by the devotees," Ignacio said in the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site. The relic is a piece of cloth taken from Pope John Paul II's cassock, which he used before he died on April 2, 2005. Ignacio said he obtained the cloth when he visited a friend at the Vatican during one of the international gatherings there. His friend from the desk of the Secretariat of State gave him an envelope with a portion of one of Pope John Paul II's cassocks, according to Ignacio. He said he saw some "red markings" on the piece of cloth that he thought was either the pope's blood or some residue of tomato paste. The former head of the Catholic Church used to love regular servings of pasta. Upon arrival in Manila, Ignacio just took a small piece of the cloth and turned over the bigger portion to Fr. Benny De Guzman, a Jesuit chaplain at the Philippine General Hospital. He recalled that De Guzman would often take Pope John Paul II's picture around the wards of the government-run medical facility and many patients were reportedly cured. "He included the relic in the late pontiff's picture and many more were reported to have been cured," he said. — JE, GMA News