Activities lined up for Manila Cathedral's 50th restoration anniversary

MANILA, Philippines - Officials of the Manila Metropolitan Cathedral have lined up activities for December 8, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary the Church’s present structure. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Monday night that one of the highlights will be the second Manila Cathedral Pipe Organ Festival on Dec. 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10. The present Neo-Romanesque-Byzantine building rose from the ruins at Intramuros during the Battle of Liberation from Japanese occupation in 1945. The reconstructed church, designed by Architect Fernando Ocampo, was consecrated on Dec. 7, 1958 in honor of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. A papal bull issued by Pope John Paul II, three months after his first papal visit to the Philippines, raised the Cathedral to the status of a basilica on April 27, 1981. Cathedral rector Msgr. Nestor Cerbo said the building has undergone major repairs and renovations. The Cathedral traces its origin to a nipa church built in 1571 by Fray Juan de Vivero. In September 1581, the church was remodeled into a better structure made of wood, bamboo, and nipa and on Dec. 21, 1521, it became a cathedral. The first cathedral was destroyed in a fire in 1583 and a new structure, made of stone and mortar, was erected in 1591. An earthquake in 1599 and 1600 destroyed the second structure and from its rubbles followed further cycles or restorations and ravages. - GMANews.TV