PHL to host World Apostolic Conference on Mercy this January

Church officials on Tuesday announced that the Philippines will host the fourth edition of the World Apostolic Conference on Mercy (WACOM), an international religious gathering of devotees and promoters of the Divine Mercy, this month.

WACOM will be held in several dioceses across the country, including Manila, Batangas, Bulacan, and Bataan, from January 16 to 20, 2017, the officials said.

"We know that every event, every experience has a learning lesson that we can reflect," Rev. Fr. Ruperto Santos, bishop of the Diocese of Balanga, Bataan, and WACOM Asia Episcopal Coordinator, said in a press conference at the Arzobispado de Manila in Intramuros.

NOW: Press conference for the World Apostolic Conference on Mercy at Arsobispado de Manila, Intramuros. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/eL8HnbiLSR

— Erwin Colcol (@erwincolcol) January 3, 2017

"We believe that this WACOM to be held here in the Philippines will be a healing process for us, an opening that there will still be hope for those we consider the least, the lost," he added.

More than 3,000 local and international delegates are expected to participate in the five-day event, according to Rev. Fr. Prospero Tenorio, WACOM Asia Secretary General and Chief Executive Director for the event.

Delagates will join eucharistic celebrations, talks and discussions focusing on divine mercy and renewal of faith.

On January 16, participants will gather at the Manila Metropolitan Cathedral for a Mass to be presided by Most. Rev. Giuseppe Pinto, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines.

On the second day, delegates will head to the University of Santo Tomas to hear a series of talks headed by priests and bishops from various dioceses across the country.

Participants will also go to the parishes in Batangas, Bulacan and Bataan in the succeeding days where they will visit places of mercy and various communities.

"Pupunta po ang mga delegates sa 15 tahanan ng awa sa aming diyosesis. Ito po ay pagdalaw sa iba't ibang pangangailangan ng awa mula sa mga bahay-ampunan, maging ang mga nawala po sa isip, pupuntahan din po ang mga nalulong sa masasamang bisyo, at ang mga katutubong mga mamamayan ng Dumagat," said Rev. Msgr. Bartolome Santos of Marilao, Bulacan, said.

For his part, Bishop Santos said the spiritual event will serve as a healing process for the nation amid the spate of killings due to the government's campaign against illegal drugs.

"This will give us also hope and help that there will be healing to what happened to those people," he said. "We believe that it will be a fruitful and it will be a blessing for all of us despite of what we have experienced and despite what we have seen."

The Catholic Church has been known for making a stand against extrajudicial killings in the country and the reinstatement of death penalty.

WACOM has been previously held in Rome in 2008, Poland in 2011, and Colombia in 2014.

The Philippines has also hosted international spiritual gatherings in the past, including the World Youth Day in 1995 and the World Meeting of Families in 2003.

In January 2015, Pope Francis visited the Philippines, the third pope to do so. The theme of his visit also focused on mercy and compassion. —KBK, GMA News