(Fr. Louie Coronel, O.P., the new pastor of the Santisimo Rosario Parish in the University of Santo Tomas. Photo by Basilio H. Sepe)
January 11, 2016, 11:34p.m. – THE NEW pastor of the Santisimo Rosario Parish in UST wants his parishioners and the Thomasian community to develop closer relationships with God, as the Catholic Church observes the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.
“We need to intensify the basic ecclesial community, and as well as the liturgy in our University, and of course, to encourage the parishioners to be closer to God,” Fr. Louie Coronel, O.P. told the Varsitarian.
Fr. Coronel was installed as parish priest last Jan. 12, replacing Fr. Franklin Beltran, O.P.
Fr. Gerard Francisco Timoner, O.P., prior provincial of the Dominican Province of the Philippines, led the Solemn Rite of Installation, administering the profession of faith and entrusting the key to the church tabernacle to the new pastor.
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle led the Holy Mass and said that having a new parish priest was a sign of God’s grace and unending care for the Church.
“A parish priest is a living testament of gifts elevated to forms of service and ministry,” Cardinal Tagle said.
‘Special parish’
The parish aims to reach out to more UST students and staff by extending its pastoral services to the entire Thomasian community, Fr. Coronel said.
“This is a special parish. [You are our] parishioners,” he said.
The young Dominican, who had served as parochial vicar, was informed last December of his appointment as the next parish priest of Santisimo Rosario.
“I was supposed to be the parochial administrator, [or] the one preparing for the new parish priest. [I didn’t know] that I would be the one who would be installed,” he said.
Fr. Coronel is also the director of the UST Social Media Bureau and editor of Boletin Ecclesiastico de Filipinas, the inter-diocesan bulletin. Krystel Nicole A. Sevilla and Lea Mat P. Vicencio
