The Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto Shrine was first opened to the public on February 11, 1965, coinciding with the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The site was established by Horacio A. Guanzon and Anita Guidote-Guanzon, whose familial roots traces to wealthy families in Bulacan, Pampanga and Nueva Ecija. Guidote-Guanzon, after being cured of cancer following her family's pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, in 1961, decided to establish the grotto shrine as an act of thanksgiving, believing that the improvement of her condition was a miracle. The doctors who diagnosed her cancer projected that she only had six months to live but she went on to live for three more decades.[1][2]
The Guanzons started a project to build a replica of the Rosary Basilica in Lourdes, France. After the death of Anita Guidote-Guanzon in 1990, the management of the grotto shrine was entrusted to their children, who oversaw the completion of the replica.[2][3]
The eldest daughter of the Guanzons, Marietta Guanzon-Holmgren, asked the Diocese of Malolos in 2004 to send personnel to supervise religious rites at the grotto shrine. However, allegations arose that Guanzon-Holmgren was meddling too much on how clergymen sent by the diocese performed their duties. In a circular released on March 22, 2004, the shrine was said to be not compliant on Roman Catholic guidelines on liturgy and worship leading to Bishop Jose Oliveros, then Apostolic Administrator of Malolos, to stop recognizing the shrine as a Roman Catholic institution.[4]
On June 12, 2024, the Guanzon family and the Diocese of Malolos finally agreed to address the status of the Shrine. The Guanzons formally donated the Shrine to the Diocese of Malolos.[5] The Canonical Possession and Transfer of the Shrine to the diocese was finalized on July 20, 2024, in a ceremony officiated by bishop Dennis Villarojo.[6][7][8]
Status
The grotto in 2015
Because of the dispute, the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto Shrine was not officially recognized as a Catholic pilgrimage site by the Diocese of Malolos from 2004 to 2024. In 2019, the diocese reiterated its non-recognition of the shrine and said in a statement that priests holding rites at the site are suspended by the Catholic church.[9][3]
The shrine was ultimately recognized as a Catholic pilgrimage site after the Guanzon family had it donated and formally transferred to the diocese on July 20, 2024.[10]
^ abAntiporda, Rosalina (June 20, 2015). "Clarifications re article on Lourdes Grotto". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved June 28, 2021. We (Grotto Shrine Foundation Inc.; excluding Marietta Guanzon-Holmgren) would like to take strong exception to the article titled "The lady behind Bulacan's miraculous grotto" (Lifestyle, 5/12/15)
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