Fr. Roger Quirao, O.P. was installed on Wednesday as the new prior of the Santo Domingo Convent in Quezon City.
Quirao replaced Fr. Roland Mactal, O.P. as the prior of the convent and rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of La Naval in Santo Domingo Church, the mother church of Filipino Dominicans.
Quirao said he would work to intensify the devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary of La Naval by increasing the visits of the La Naval image to different schools and offices.
“Since 1998, we have been arranging visits of the image of the Blessed Mother. [W]e maintain that practice and we seek to increase it,” he told the Varsitarian.
Recalling his experience as parish priest, Quirao said administering sacraments is an effective way to evangelize the marginalized.
“Why are there many killings nowadays? Let us go back to the roots. There are no people catechizing them, [that’s why] they are no longer praying. We have to reach out to them while they are still starting [with their faith],” he said in Filipino.
In his homily, he urged La Naval devotees to be instruments of God’s blessings to others.
“We pray the nine-day novena and after that, what’s next? We cry inside the church but the moment you step out, do you strive to be kind to others? That’s the challenge. When you are having a hard time, the burden lightens when you have others,” he said in Filipino.
Quirao will serve as prior for three years. He signed his appointment last Sept. 12.
He was the parish priest of San Lorenzo Ruiz and Companion Martyrs Parish in Dagat-dagatan, Navotas from 2017 to 2018.
From 2011 to 2017, Quirao served as prior of St. Albert the Great Convent and vice rector for finance of Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Calamba, Laguna.
Quirao finished his degree in sacred theology in UST on March 1996. E. D. Aboy, O.P.
