MSGR. RAMON B. AGUILOS, PC, SThD
Parish Priest
Welcome to our humble space in this worldwide web!
I am pleased to announce that we of the Cathedral Parish of Our Lord's Transfiguration of the Archdiocese
of Palo (Leyte, Philippines) have now a webpage of our own. This is our community's way of "putting ourselves
out into the sea" of internet, and by exercising our mission of evangelization via this post-modern medium of
communication.
On November 22, 2001 the late Pope John Paul II made cyberhistory when he published an official document on
Internet. After signing the document The Church in Oceania, the Holy Father went to a computer containing
the e-mail addresses of the dioceses of Oceania. At the click of a button, the document was sent to its
recipients. This unprecedented papal move signaled to all engaged in Church ministry that the internet may be
used in spreading the message about Christ.
On the occasion of the World Communications Day on May 12, 2002, the Holy Father exclaimed, "The most recent
advancements in communications and information have put the church in front of previously unheard-of
possibilities for evangelization." He further said, "We must enter into this modern and every more replete
communications network with realism and confidence convinced that, if it is used with competence and
conscientious responsibility, it can offer useful opportunities for spreading the Gospel message."
It is in the light of this papal encouragement that this webpage is born. We wish to reach out to all and
sundry, to our friends and acquaintances, most especially to our parishioners now scattered all over the
globe, to our benefactors, and to all the faithful of the Archdiocese of Palo. We wish to make effective use of
the internet for the purpose of evangelization. We also want to update the whole cyber-community of the
programs and projects of the parish, along in the hope that our friends and parishioners who have access to
this medium be informed of the goings-on in our Christian community, and be encouraged to offer their help
and assistance. We also wish to connect with the young people and the young adults, the elderly and home-bound,
persons who otherwise may be difficult to reach.
The year 2008-2009, too, has been declared by the Most Reverend Jose Palma, DD, Archbishop of Palo, as a
Special Jubilee Year to mark the 25th anniversary of the elevation of Palo into an archdiocese.
We thank God for this gift, even as we recall to mind our former pastoral leader -- the bishops and archbishops,
the parish priests and their vicars-- whose dedication, leadership and untiring energies made the archdiocese's
mother of all churches a dynamic community of faith. We thank the ever faithful parishioners for their cooperation
and commitment and for putting their gifts at the service of the Church all through these 25 fruitful years.
Still in its incipient stage, our webpage is experiencing birth pangs. Many of the sections are yet in their
construction phase. Nevertheless, we hope and pray that the site's instantaneous, immediate, worldwide, decentralized
and interactive features are enough to sound off our internet presence, to declare our message to the world, and
to reach the heart of men and women of the new millennium through the Good News itself.
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