Church Local

A. Preparatory Stage 1. Baptismal Certificate of both the bride and the groom. They must be new (no less than six months old) and properly marked with 'FOR MARRIAGE PURPOSES" by the issuing parish and duly signed by the parish priest or his parochial vicar and not by the parish secretary.

MANILA--Pope Benedict XVI has created Wednesday a new diocese in the country and named its first bishop. Benedict XVI elevated the Prelature of Libmanan into a full diocese, in the province of Camarines Sur, and appointed as its bishop, Jose Rojas, 52, until now Bishop-Prelate of said ecclesiastical territory.

MANILA--The Gospel may be 2,000 years old, but the Catholic Church is grateful to new Internet-driven technologies for aiding their work of spreading the Scripture. The Archdiocese of Caceres has recently launched a new weekly “podcast” of Sunday homilies aimed at reaching Catholic Filipinos working abroad. Podcasts are like an audio broadcast but aimed at—or subscribed to by—specific audiences. The audio can be accessed live or downloaded for listening at a more convenient time.

LEGAZPI CITY--Masbate Bishop Joel Baylon has expressed concern over the outpouring sentiments of farmers and fisher folk staging a series of mass rally against the operations of Filminera Mining Corporation (FMC), an Australian-Canadian based mining firm that scheduled a full blast open pit mining in Aroroy town on March 20, 2009.

Lenten is upon us once again. It is a time to be with the Lord in a special way, a time to pray, to fast, and thus to follow Him on the way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the final victory over death.