Bishop Patricio Buzon is appealing to Mayor Evelio Leonardia to shorten the city’s curfew hours by an hour to enable the holding of the traditional Aguinaldo masses this Christmas.
The Aguinaldo Masses are held at dawn for nine consecutive days up to Christmas.
Buzon, in a letter dated November 12 addressed to the mayor proposed “to the city government a review of its existing curfew hours in order to accommodate the traditional observance of Aguinaldo masses, which is a revered and established custom among our people.”
The Bishop suggested that the existing curfew hours of 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. be shortened to 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. “so that the Diocese can offer more early morning Masses to reasonably accommodate churchgoers and thereby, prevent the overcrowding of our churches”.
“At least in this setup, we can have a schedule of two Aguinaldo Masses daily, one, as early as 3:30 a.m. and another at 5 a.m.,” he said
“The Diocese believes that in this difficult time our people need more than ever, the Christmas spirit and the Yuletide cheer,” the Bishop added.*