Makes me wonder what takes the Intramuros Administration so long to revive the San Ignacio Church. Funds? A go signal from the government? from the Church? What?!
Before...
After...
This neo-classical Jesuit church has been in ruins since 1945. In the 1950s, what remained of the church was slightly renovated for office use but was later abandoned. The ruins of the church and its adjoining lot is still government property, but up to now virtually nothing has been done to revive this house of God.
According to the Intramuros Administration website, there are already plans for “the restoration of the church and its use as an ecclesiastical museum for the IA collection“. I am not sure when this webpage was last updated. But somebody has to keep watch over these declarations.
What is deplorable is that (according to one of the guards we talked with when my wife and I visited the place last week) the National Museum has done a couple of archaeological excavations inside and outside the ruins (so that explained why we saw a couple of “tunnels” on the ground which we mistook as World War II Japanese diggings). Not that I’m against archaeological activities. But if the government is able to allow and pursue excavations, why not renovations?
It took more or less P3,000,000.00 pesos to revive the Manila Cathedral after the last world war. Back then, it was already a huge amount. If that generation was able to do it, why can’t ours?
The shell and, most especially, the foundations of San Ignacio is still in existence! It can still be revived! It can still be saved!
With just enough effort, dedication, prayers, and yes, political will, it is possible for our generation to hear mass once more within the blessed and historic ground of San Ignacio. Hopefully within a decade.
FILIPINO eSCRIBBLES 