Pope’s Santo Niño message sets Sinulog’s tone
UNWAVERING faith Devotees raise their treasured Santo Niños during the Sinulog celebration in Cebu on Sunday, echoing the original icon (inset) — a living tide of faith, thanksgiving and prayer.
Photograph courtesy of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cebu/FB
Cebu City, Manila and many other places like Marinduque did what they always do every January: Make room for faith, space for the crowd, and allow the streets to belong to the Santo Niño.
On Sunday, as Cebu City marked the 461st Fiesta Señor — the Feast of the Infant Jesus — Pope Leo XIV sent a message, a pointed reminder.
In a nutshell, the Pontiff said grace is not meant to be kept because it must be lived, and it must be shared, especially with those who have the least.
SANTO Niño
Photograph courtesy of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cebu/FB
In a letter coursed through Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope said he hoped the annual devotion would renew the faithful’s commitment to Christian life and service.
“His hope that you will be inspired by a greater desire to embrace the baptismal call to live a grace-filled life in Christ and in service to your brothers and sisters, especially those on the margins of society, so that you will bear greater witness to Christ’s call to unity and reflect the life of charity of the Most Holy Trinity,” Parolin said.
The message was directed to the Augustinians of the Minor Basilica of Santo Niño de Cebu, where the image of the Holy Child continues to draw devotion, surviving centuries, politics, calamities and modernization.
Over water
On Saturday, more than 400 vessels joined the Sinulog 2026 fluvial procession, the tradition that carries the image of Señor Santo Niño from Mactan Island back to Cebu City — a symbolic homecoming repeated every year, as if the faithful need to witness, again and again, the return of the child they have learned to trust with everything.
Then came Sunday’s expected crescendo: the Sinulog 2026 Grand Parade, a day when prayer turned into movement, and the city became a living choreography of drums, color and gratitude.
Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak said in a radio interview Sunday that there were 40 participating tribes and 36 competing contingents. He said Sinulog organizers were aiming to finish the parade by 7 p.m.
Cebu may be the devotion’s loudest stage, but the Santo Niño is not a Cebu-only story.
Across the country, January becomes a shared calendar of Holy Child feasts — each town and city with its own version of prayer and celebration.