Transfer of cathedral seat completed
NOW it is official. The Catholic Church on Burgos Street in Dagupan City is now the cathedral seat of the Lingayen-Dagupan Archdiocese.
A cross on top of the church with two horizontal bars indicates it is now the cathedral seat of the archdiocese and no longer a parish church since it was inaugurated in 1974.
Before thousands of Catholic faithful who flocked the church, Monsignor Rafael Magno, vicar general and chancellor of the archdiocese, read the decree promulgated by Pope Benedict XVI formally transferring the Episcopal Seat of the Archdiocese to the new church on Burgos Street from the old Church on Zamora street.
The decree signed by the Pope was addressed to the Congregation of Bishops in Rome.
The act of the transfer was effected during a mass celebrated by the Papal Nuncio Papal Nuncio to the Philippines Edward Joseph Adams in the afternoon of December 27, assisted by Archbishop Socrates Villegas of the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese and 76 priests from different suffragan dioceses and parishes.
Among those who attended the mass were Foreign Affairs Secretary and Mrs. Alberto Romulo, Reps. Gina de Venecia of the fourth District and Rachel Arenas of the third district, both of Pangasinan; Mayor Benjamin Lim and Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez of Dagupan City, Fourth District Provincial Board Member Mojamito Libunao and his wife, Mayor Irene Libunao of San Fabian.
The decree annulled the title of the Cathedral of the Church dedicated to Saint John the Apostle on Zamora Street (old church) in Dagupan effective the first day of November 2010.
The church on Zamora St., built during the Spanish time and renovated many times over the ages, is now known as ”Sanctuario de San Juan Evangelista”, an archdiocesan shrine.
TIMELINE
The old Cathedral was the original seat of the diocese when it was transferred from Lingayen to Dagupan on May 11,1954, while still a part of the archdiocese of Nova Segovia whose cathedral seat was in Vigan.
It retained the Episcopal seat in the old cathedral even when the diocese was elevated into an archdiocese on a decree issued on February 16, 1963 by Pope Paul IV. Its first archbishop was Mariano Madriaga who was succeeded by Federico Limon.
It was Archbishop Limon who built the new cathedral on Burgos Street and had it consecrated by former Papal Nuncio Bruno Torpigliani in 1974 during its inauguration but unfortunately, this act was not communicated properly with the Vatican.
Thus, without any recognition from the Vatican, the new church remained as the Saint John the Evangelist Parish.
Saint John the Evangelist is the patron saint of Dagupan on whose natal day on Dec. 26 a month-long fiesta is held in the city.
The new church remained a parish church even during the full term of Archbishop Oscar Cruz who retired early this year.
When Archbishop Villegas assumed as the new archbishop in February this year, he renovated the church, decked it with bricks to bear some resemblance with some of the magnificent churches in Europe.
The transfer of the Episcopal Seat from the old to the new church was sought by Archbishop Villegas in his letter to Rome was among his first official acts as archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan.
The apostolic decree from the Holy See granted the new church on Burgos Street with all the prerogatives, rights and privileges which other Cathedral churches enjoy according to the Code of Law of the Lord.
