Manila church is host to ‘love locks’

Manila has its own version of "padlocks of love" at the Redemptorist Church in Baclaran that couples visited on Valentine's Day.

In a report posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news website, after hearing mass, couples visited the grotto of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux to attach a pacdlock to a fence.

The lovelocks are popular in Paris, France where couples pledge their love by placing padlocks on the Pont des Arts, Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor and the Pont de l'Archevêché bridges. In May 2010, the local government expressed concern over the growing number of padlocks at the bridges and cited "preservation of our architectural heritage" in removing the locks.

Redemptorist Bro. Ciriaco Santiago III said the “love locks” trend started last year and has become popular.

He said it started when a church worker, while cleaning the church compound, found a padlock and fastened it to the fence around the statue.

“In just after a week, we noticed more padlocks attached to the fence and then that’s it, it started there,” he said.

After three months, there were more than 30,000 padlocks that Redemptorists missionaries decided to remove some of the locks for fear that the fence will collapse.

St. Therese is one of the patron saints of the missions, not of romantic relationships or marriage.

“So the love locks have no direct relationship with St. Therese, but we just kept them there,” Ciriaco said, adding that aside from couples, friends have also placed locks at the grotto.

“We removed around 50,000 locks from one side of the fence,” he added.

He also said the remaining ones will be removed within the month and will be relocated to another place within the church’s compound. — BAP, GMA News