The Vatican has granted a pontifical coronation of the venerated image of the Our Lady of the Abandoned that is enshrined in Muntinlupa City.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines news website reported on Friday that the shrine received the decree dated July 8, 2022, indicating the grant of canonical coronation for its Marian patroness from the Dicastery on Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.
Fr. Jonathan Cadiz, rector of the Our Lady of the Abandoned Shrine, said the people of Muntinlupa, especially the devotees of the Our Lady of the Abandoned, welcomed the good news.
“I am looking forward to the further deepening of the people’s devotion to Our Lady and growth in charity for the least, the last, and the lost in our society,” Cadiz said.
The Our Lady of the Abandoned is the patroness of the mother parish of the city, founded in 1863, and was one of the first parishes in the Archdiocese of Manila to be erected particularly for the Filipino diocesan clergy.
The 40-inch wooden image, with the heads and hands made of ivory, has been venerated in the church with the local title “Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados de Muntinlupa”.
The parish church itself was declared an archdiocesan shrine in 1997, the first local shrine of the Manila archdiocese in its former Pasay-Parañaque-Las Piñas-Muntinlupa ecclesiastical district.
It was formally adopted as a diocesan shrine in 2003 when the Diocese of Parañaque was canonically established.
During the 150th anniversary of the parish in 2013, the title Our Lady of the Abandoned was declared as the “Principal Patroness of Muntinlupa City”.
The coronation rites have yet to be scheduled.
On the other hand, the Diocese of Parañaque now has three pontifically crowned images.
The other two are the Nuestra Señora del Buen Suceso and the Mary Help of Christians, both located in the city.
