Friday, September 10, 2010
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Monday - Saturday
5:30 AM   5:30 PM
6:15 AM
Sunday
4:30 AM 10:00 AM
6:30 AM   5:00 PM
8:00 AM   6:30 PM
History
1901 - 1950
1925 Although the diocesan seminary was at Calbayog, there was a small preparatory seminary at the convent in Palo in 1925. Father Consorcio Poblete, then an assistant parish priest in Palo, was appointed Rector. Father (later Monsignor) Antonio Mate is said to be the product of that seminary.
1926 Leyte Central Academy, the parochial school of Palo was founded, thanks to the efforts of Bishop Sofronio Hacbang, Bishop of Calbayog, to which the whole island of Leyte still belonged, and Mr. Alfredo Palencia, Sr. Father Juan Pacoli, the parish of priest of Palo, was designated as the school head. Other members of the school corporation were Juan Palencia, Municipal Treasurer, Pedro D. Sevilla, Marcial Acebedo, Ricardo Mendiola, Municipal President and Rev. Fr. Ignacio Mora.

Leyte Central AcademyLeyte Central Academy
March 25, 1938 Bishop Manuel Mascariñas, a priest from Antequera, Bohol, and appointed Bishop of Palo December 16, 1937, was installed as the first Bishop of Palo. The mass of installation was graced by the presence of some higher dignitaries among the Philippine Hierarchy: Archbishop Gabriel Reyes of Manila, Bishop James Thomas Gibbons Hayes, SJ, of Cagayan de Oro, Bishop Santiago Sancho of Vigan, Bishop Miguel Acebedo of Calbayog and Bishop Luis del Rosario, SJ, of Zamboanga. Bishop Mascariñas’s residence was behind the church and would be his and his successor’s home until the latter moved his quarters to a place atop a hill in Brgy. Arado north of Palo.

Bishop Manuel MascariñasBishop Manuel MascariñasFree Philippines 1945
1941 - 1944 These were war-torn years. The cathedral was converted into an evacuation hospital for wounded American and Filipino soldiers as well as a place of refuge for civilians.

The Cathedral as Evacuation HospitalPalo Cathedral 1944The Cathedral as Emergency Hospital
March 17, 1945 The first post-war sacerdotal ordination in the Diocese of Palo was held at the Palo Cathedral on this date. The ordinands were Father Cipriano Urgel of Hindang, Leyte and Father Enrique Ubaldo of Dagami, Leyte. Ordaining prelate was Bishop Manuel Mascariñas, Bishop of Palo.
July 1, 1946 The parochial, now cathedral, school, Leyte Central Academy, obtained government recognition. The first Director was Father Marcial Dira. The pioneer volunteer teachers were: Mr. Alfredo Palencia, Dr. Alejandro Montejo, Atty. Gregorio D. Montejo, Ms. Placida Barbosa, Mr. Custodio Saboren, Ms. Paz Montejo and Mr. Ceferino Montejo.
September 21, 1946 Father Julio Rosales, erstwhile parish priest of Sto. Niño Church, was consecrated bishop in the Palo Cathedral. The principal consecrator was Archbishop Guglielmo Piani, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, and the co-consecrating bishops were Bishop Manuel Mascariñas, Bishop of Palo and Bishop Miguel Acebedo, Bishop of Calbayog. It was the very first Episcopal ordination to be celebrated in the Palo Cathedral. Bishop Rosales was the first bishop of Tagbilaran.
1949 Bishop Manuel Mascariñas turned over the administration of the Leyte Central Academy, which from 1926 until then was run by the clergy of the Diocese of Palo and was operating within the cathedral grounds, to the Religious of the Virgin Mary, an all-Filipina congregation, and whose superior general was a native of Palo, Rev. Mother M. Andrea Montejo, RVM. Five years later in 1954, the already bishop Lino Gonzaga legally turned over the school with all the facilities to the RVM Congregation, including a two-hectare lot outside the cathedral premises through a Deed of Donation. The school would heretofore be called, "St. Mary of Palo".