‘Faith in the midst of ruins’

MADONNA STATUE AMID RUBBLE 

A statue of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus is set at a makeshift altar before a pile of stones that was the 180-year-old Our Lady of Light Church in Loon, Bohol province, a day after a 7.2-magnitude quake destroyed the church. 

MARIBOJOC, Bohol—Two statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary stand—without any blemish—amid the ruins of two churches in Maribojoc and Loon towns following Tuesday’s devastating earthquake. It was enough for residents to raise their hopes that life will get better.

“It was a miracle,” Carol Ann Balansag said after residents of Barangay (village) Poblacion were surprised to find the 18th-century statue standing askew but without any scratch on the rubble of what used to be the Santa Cruz Parish Church.

The same feeling of amazement was felt by at least 600 people staying in makeshift tents on the church grounds of the Our Lady of Light Parish Church in Barangay Napu in Loon town. They were teary-eyed when they saw the grotto of the Birhen sa Kasilag (Our Lady of Light).

“The earthquake destroyed the church, but it spared our patron,” said Fr. Tom Balatayo, one of the residents.

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‘Faith in the midst of ruins’