Cardinal Jose Advincula of Manila vowed to “walk with the poor” as he leads the country’s largest archdiocese, reported CBCP News.

In a Mass to celebrate the 800th death anniversary of St. Dominic in the Manila Cathedral on Friday, August 6, 2021, the cardinal said he will take those steps especially for those in the peripheries.

“As your new shepherd in the Archdiocese of Manila, allow me to listen to you, to walk with you, to love you especially those in the periphery, the poor, the young people, the oppressed and marginalized,” Advincula said in his homily.

He celebrated Mass with some priests of the Dominican community of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran.

An alumnus of the Dominican-run UST Central Seminary himself, the cardinal encouraged the community to follow their founder’s way of synodality and fellowship.

“I pray that as a member of the Dominican family, I too may learn from St Dominic’s synodal process of preaching not to glorify the self but to share the light of truth to others,” Advincula said.

As the country celebrates the 500 years of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines, he also acknowledged the contributions of the Dominicans in the church.

“We can’t ignore the great contributions of the Dominicans in our country,” the cardinal said, adding that the first bishop of Manila was a Dominican, Domingo de Salazar, who was known for his love for the poor.

Salazar convened the first synod of Manila in 1582 to address the abuses that Filipino suffered at the hands of Spanish soldiers.

“The glory of St. Dominic was first seen in our country not in pomp and ceremony but in mission and synodality in fighting for the rights of the lowly and the oppressed,” Advincula said.

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