Manaoag Church during the pandemic

Manaoag Church is possibly one of the busiest churches in the country. With the Philippines being predominantly Catholic, at least in the north, the church is known to be an important pilgrimage site for Filipinos at home and around the world. Though I didn’t grow up in the Philippines, I knew about it from small Manaoag statues given to my mom as pasalubong by aunties on pilgrimage.

When I finally did visit sometime before the pandemic, I was amazed at how many people would fill the church. Holding at least a dozen masses everyday, I had a difficult time guessing the exact number of visitors the church welcomed. It turns out that Manaoag church has a capacity of 1,000 seats but can seat as many as 5,000 parishioners at a time. Before the church was declared a Minor Basilica in 2015, the estimate was 3.2 million visitors in 2014. After that I could only imagine how many more people visited the church every year.

Manaoag today during the pandemic

When we visited just a few days before New Years, we aimed for the 6am mass in an attempt to avoid the crowds later in the morning. It was then that I saw a big difference in turn out, and saw all the protocols put in place to allow people to visit and gather as safely as possible.

When we arrived at the front of the church, a tent with touch-less sanitizer dispensers, self-checking temperature meters, and more than a dozen stations to fill up contact tracing forms were waiting and ready for the day’s visitors.

In the plaza in front of the church were monobloc chairs equidistant from each other. With the morning sun still rising it was still cool and even picturesque to attend mass outside with the huge facade of the church slowly revealing itself as the shadows of the previous evening began to dissipate.

Mass had already started but I couldn’t help but take photos. The church has a fair amount of tourists too, many of them Catholics from different provinces and even overseas Filipinos and balikbayans visiting from abroad. I did not feel out of place taking photos again at Manaoag.

My fiancée signaled that we go inside, and that was when it really occurred to me; how the pandemic affected this once bustling Minor Basilica, one of 13 churches in the Philippines with the designation.

In visits prior to the pandemic, it was always difficult, sometimes impossible to find a seat inside the church. It is evident that this was the case, as the surrounding church grounds had seating areas and benches for overflow. TVs and loud speakers brought the word of God to those seated outside.

That morning however, ushers signaled to us to wait as they looked for available seats. But each pew had at most 3 people seated! They were looking for two open seats next to each other. Though the church was now only a fraction as full than in was in pre-pandemic days, available and physically-distanced seats still seemed hard to come by. Luckily we were able to get seated.

Reflections

I am a different “kind” of Catholic nowadays. My mom’s sister is a nun, and even my mom herself had considered the lifelong devotion. Though she eventually married and I was born, her devotion maintained. I still remember the rosary and parts of the novena due to our almost-daily prayers all throughout my middle school and high school years. To make a long story short, college exposed me to ideas beyond the church, and malpractice by the church itself. My mom’s stroke was the final blow to my once unshakable faith: how can God take her ability to walk and pray normally when she devoted her entire life to Him? As I bathed her and saw her deteriorate and die, as my mom would scream “I hate you” and “kill me”, I felt we were already in hell. There was nothing worse than this.

So these are the things I reflect upon whenever I find myself in church again. And these were the thoughts I had as I sat inside what is considered to be one of the holiest places of my Mother’s land. This, mixed with the awe and discomfort knowing that even in this holiest of places, government protocols had to be followed to protect its parishioners from COVID infection. “Trust in God, but lock the door,” as they say.

Exit

After mass, as my fiancée got in line to buy some candles, I took more photos. Large “exit” signs drew people in one direction toward the back of the church to prevent outgoing perishoners from bumping into the incoming ones. On our way we saw large beautiful parols or Filipino Christmas lanterns that were part of the church’s parol-making contest.

The CR or restroom noted only 10 “pilgrims” were allowed at a time. Inside every other urinal was indeed sealed under plastic and tape for physical distancing and heavy fans blew constant air in and out of the room.

The garden area is still large and beautiful. It was once bustling, but on this morning it was a quiet and solemn holy place. One of the reasons why I’m thankful for churches is that many of them maintain gardens and trees, especially in predominantly urban areas. I also got to explore the candle gallery, where visitors light candles and offer prayers.

As we were walking back to the front of the church we saw a large tank labeled holy water. This was the largest collection of holy water I had ever seen. Located in a driveway where cars await blessing after every mass, I guessed it was used exactly for that purpose; as a holy water station for cars.

As the end of the year approaches, and even after 9 entire months of “pandemia”, I still feel like I am a tourist in this world of COVID-19 restrictions. It always feels new to me, and I always keep waiting for this “trip” to end. With all this talk of new and more contagious variations of the coronavirus, I can only hope, and even pray, that one day it will end. Or, we finally feel we’re in a “new” normal, adjusted and living in a world despite the threat of a disease hitting us at any time. Like anyone else in the world, I just want to live.

But the most practical way to live, is to also work to make this life as comfortable for others as well. To spread awareness not disease. To follow protocols and not false promises. These in my opinion are some of the most powerful prayers.