Before I return to Zamboanga next week, I thought it would be nice to post something about the city. In this case, I thought I would be writing about going to church there. My colleagues wanted to go to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Pillar at Fort Pilar. A quick map query showed, however, that the cathedral was just a couple of blocks away from our hotel. And so I chose to go there instead and was able to catch the last Sunday Mass. Here's a few photos of the church interior.
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| Main altar |
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| Stained glass windows at the right side of the cathedral |
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| Stained glass windows at the left side of the cathedral |
The Mass was in English so I didn't have any trouble understanding the homily. Other parts of the Mass I don't really need a translation since I know the words anyway. In fact, when I was living in Japan, I could go to the Mass celebrated in Japanese (Nihongo) and only struggled during the homily as I tried to get the essence of what the priest-presider was saying to the congregation.
I actually attended a Mass con-celebrated by the chaplains of the different branches of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). As such, there were a lot of uniformed personnel in the cathedral. Outside, a combined force of marines and police stood guard and managed traffic. Zamboanga and the rest of Mindanao is still under martial law, and there are a lot of servicemen posted there who are from other parts of the country.
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