CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Circular No. 21-24

23 March 2021

TO ALL THE BISHOPS AND THE DIOCESAN ADMINISTRATORS

Re: Clarification on the Liturgy for the Opening of Jubilee Doors and Entrance Rite

Your Eminences, Excellencies, and Reverend Administrators

Greetings of peace in this Holy Season of Lent!

We have sent you already the Liturgical Guide for the Opening of the Jubilee Doors in
The Jubilee Year of the 500 Years of Christianity in our country.

The Episcopal Commission on Liturgy (ECLIT) would like to clarify some elements in
the rites with the following notes:

1. You will read in the introduction and rubrical instructions of the rite:

· Paragraph 1: “at which one of the prayers is recited at the MAIN DOOR.”
· Paragraph 11: “The procession should proceed through the MAIN DOOR.”
· Page 12: “the procession stops at the MAIN DOOR…”
· And all the references to MAIN DOOR

Note that the MAIN DOOR referred to here is the same Jubilee Door designated
at the Cathedral or the Pilgrim Churches. It is understood that the Jubilee Door is not
necessarily the main door but the door designated to be the Jubilee Door of the Cathedral
Church or of the Pilgrim Church.

2. It is an option during the procession from the stational church or venue where the
procession will begin that the image of the Santo Niño be carried in procession. This
accompanies the procession also of the Book of the Gospels and the Easter Candle. This
is a reminder of the beginning of the gift of faith in our country represented in the image
of the Santo Niño. We therefore enjoin all our faithful to actively participate in our
simultaneous commemoration of the First Mass celebrated in our country on Easter
Sunday, April 4, 2021. Let it also be the occasion for the opening of a Jubilee Door in
every cathedral in the whole country, as well as in selected Churches during the rest of
Easter. As regards the commemoration of the First Baptism, aside from the national
celebration on April 14, 2021 in Cebu, we enjoin all the dioceses and archdioceses of the
Philippines to also have their own commemorations by celebrating the Sacrament of
Baptism, either on April 14 or on the Third Sunday of Easter, April 18, 2021.

3. We also provide you here with the correct text to be read on the Opening of the
Jubilee Door from the Pastoral Letter “Celebrating the 500th Year of Christianity in the
Philippines”. The one that was printed in the liturgy sent to you should be corrected. This
is the correct text that should be read during the rite of Opening of the Jubilee Door:
 “Let this year be a year of looking back in history so that we can understand better
who we are in the present as communities of disciples, and an opportunity also to
look forward in the next 500 years with the same missionary zeal that made it
possible for us to receive the Christian faith. What we received without cost is also
what we give without cost. Cardinal Tagle expressed this so well when he
said “The gift must continue being a gift. If it is kept for oneself, it ceases to be a
gift. By God’s mysterious design, the gift of faith we have received is now being
shared by the millions of Christian Filipino migrants in the different parts of the
world.” It is their zeal that must move us who have stayed in the homeland, to ask
ourselves how we are sharing this gift—to repeat the words of the Holy Father,
how we are caring “for those who are hurting and living on the fringes of life.”

4. We strongly recommend that we push through with the opening of the Jubilee Door on
April 4, as we have decided. Those dioceses which are under the General Community
Quarantine (GCQ) will also meaningfully open the Jubilee Doors of their Cathedral on
April 4, 2021 even with very few faithful in attendance. We are reminded of the
extraordinary Urbi et Orbi of Pope Francis last 2020. The piazza San Pietro was empty
and the Holy Father was the only one in the piazza. But all of us were together with the
Holy Father, in deep prayer through social media. It is a true experience of deep and
powerful unity of the Church. The dioceses on General Community Quarantine will also
open the Jubilee Door of their Cathedrals and pilgrim Churches in deep spiritual unity
with the whole Philippine Church.

5. To those dioceses under GCQ we are sending you also the Liturgies and Guidelines for
the Holy Week and Easter Triduum in the time of General Community Quarantine.

For the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines:

+ ROMULO G. VALLES, D.D.

Archbishop of Davao
President, CBCP