I first met Fr Ted (Bonifacio Lopez) at a lunch meeting attended by members of Our Lady of Peñafrancia Devotees Association (OLPDA). He was there to accompany Fr Top (Christopher Panlilio), parish priest, St. Francis Assisi Church of Hoboken, New Jersey. Fr Top has served OLPDA as spiritual adviser since the passing of Fr Joe Saltarin. Also in attendance was Monsignor Jerry Rebanal, long-time spiritual adviser.
Both Fr Top and Fr Ted are from Albay, the former from Legazpi City and the latter from Ligao. Both went to the minor seminary in Tabaco City. In their youth, both were sent to Rome by their bishop to further their theological studies, Fr Top first who was older, then Fr Ted a few years later. After his stint in Rome, Fr Top accepted an assignment in Hoboken and has been with St. Francis Assisi for 15 years, 10 of which as pastor. Fluent in Italian, he celebrates the Sunday mass in Italian for the Italian American parishioners.
Parish Work in Rome
Fr Ted meanwhile stayed on in Italy, was engaged in parish work and eventually became the parish priest for Santi Elisabetta e Zaccaria Church in the suburb of Valle Muricana in Rome. Having lived in Rome since he was 16 as a seminarian, he is fluent in Italian. “To thrive in my ministry, I have to speak the language like a local,” he said. He still speaks Tagalog and Bikol with proficiency, but his competency in English has suffered. Because of the many similarities in their birthplace and vocation, Fr Ted and Fr Top have remained close and would exchange visits. This summer it was Fr Ted’s turn to visit Fr Top.
Conversing over lunch, I learned Fr Ted had eased back from parish work to focus on his new role from 2020 as Chaplain of Sports. In the church hierarchy, he said he reports directly to Pope Francis as his bishop in Rome. He added this apostolate was created to bring the youth of Rome closer to the faith through soccer. A competitive soccer player himself, Fr Ted plays as a goalkeeper in inter-parish games. Being familiar with the role of sports in academics and having grandsons who play soccer, this writer’s interest was piqued. Besides, the story about a Bicolano who is a Vatican insider would be a good read in this magazine. We agreed to meet again and continue our conversation.
Subsequently, Fr Ted filled in more details about his pastoral work among the youth. At the tournament this past June, there were 3800 participants, with ages from 6 to 21 years old, from 135 parishes all over Rome. With parishes fielding 4-5 soccer teams each, altogether 380 soccer teams competed in the yearly tournament. Prayers were said before each game and the team members gathered regularly to celebrate the holy mass. Soon after my meeting with Fr Ted in Hoboken, I read Pope Francis in the headlines proclaiming, “Priests must play soccer, not preach dogma.”
How Fr. Ted found his calling
Fr. Bonifacio “Ted” Sarte Lopez VI found his calling to the priesthood at a very early age. Pulling out a small religious object from his pocket to show to this writer, he said, “I carry this image of the Sto. Niño not as my ‘anting-anting’ but as a sign of my devotion since I was 5 years old.” He was born in Ligao, Albay, the youngest of 10. An altar boy at the St. Stephen Protomartyr Church, he wanted to enter the seminary after his elementary school years at Ligao West Central School. His father objected vehemently, threatening to disown him if he disobeyed. Upon advice of a lawyer however, his family relented, and the young Lopez entered St. Gregory The Great Minor Seminary in Tabaco City. The rector recalled the young seminarian was full of passion for his faith, even as his academic performance was not exemplary. His former classmates do remember him as excelling in music and having a very good singing voice.
With the help of his uncle, the late Bishop Concordio Sarte, the young Bonifacio Lopez was sent to Rome at the age of 15 to continue his studies. He was among the chosen few seminarians from Gregory the Great who were fortunate to have been sent by Bishop Sarte to Rome as part of his plan to staff the newly built Mater Salutis College Seminary in Legazpi City with the best theologians and formators (but which sadly would fall short). In Rome, he completed his degree in Theology and went on to complete his masters with cum laude. He was ordained to the priesthood in December 1994. The Parrochia Nostra Signora Di Lourdes was among his assignments. In January 2015, he was part of Pope Francis’ delegation as interpreter during his visit in the Philippines in spiritual support of the victims of Typhoon Yolanda. In September 2017, he was assigned as the parish priest of Santi Elisabetta e Zaccaria Church in the outskirts of Rome, the first parish visited by Pope Francis in 2013 when he ascended to the papacy. As Chaplain of Sports, freed from the day-to-day responsibilities of a parish priest, Fr Ted embraced a deeper calling. He revealed his great love is the spread of the devotion to the Holy Face of Manoppello. This is the sacred image of Jesus on a precious veil – the Veronica, meaning “Vero Eikon” or the true image, that is enshrined in the Basilica Volto Santo (Holy Face) in Manoppello, Italy.
About the Holy Face of Manoppello
Following briefly is an excerpt about the history of the Holy Face:
After the sack of Rome in 1527, a pilgrim brought the precious Relic to Manoppello to safeguard it from the hands of the ravaging invaders of Rome, entrusting it to a local doctor who guarded it in his care. Later it fell into the hands of a soldier who kept it for ten years. When he ended up in prison, his wife, to free him, sold the Holy Veil to a noble pharmacist who kept it lovingly for 20 years and wished to spread devotion to the Holy Face. Thinking that this would be difficult for him, he gave it to the Capuchin friars who constructed a friary in the hills above the town, so that they might make the holy Image known to everyone. The friars since that time have promoted the sacred image through their preaching and through reproductions in the early years first with drawings, then with prints and more recently with photography and through television. In 1999 a Jesuit priest, professor of art history at the Gregorian University, Fr. Henrich Pfeiffer, announced to the international press: “The Roman Veronica has been found in Manoppello.” This news caused thousands of people to flock to Manoppello: among them the faithful, journalists, scholars, the curious, bishops, cardinals and, in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI himself. Studies and research also began. The Holy Veil was compared with the Shroud of Turin and when photos of each were superimposed on each other they revealed the same person. 1500 years ago, this cloth was called an “acheropita”, meaning “not made by human hands.” (Reference: Face of Manoppello, blogspot)
Il Volto Santo, the shrine of the Holy Face is located above Manoppello, a small town in the Abruzzo region of Italy, which is situated on a wooded hill among the mountain massifs along the coastline of the Adriatic Sea. The shrine is about 1 kilometer away from the center of Manoppello. The town itself is about 3 hours from Rome, through the central mountains of Italy, and 1 hour from Pescara, the capital city of the region. Through many centuries the faithful in this region have venerated the holy image and celebrated their devotion every 3rd Sunday in May.
In 1978, a Eucharistic Congress for all of Italy was scheduled to be held in Pescara, the city located about 30 miles from Manoppello. Fr. Domenico da Cese, Capuchin Friar and friend of Padre Pio, Guardian of the Shrine of the Holy Face, decided he wanted the attendees to learn about the mysterious sacred image of Jesus. So, he had posterboards made to hold large photographs of the holy image on both sides of a gossamer thin transparent cloth. His decision set in motion a process which brought people from around the world, and ultimately Pope Benedict XVI himself, to Manoppello to contemplate the Holy Face of Jesus. (Learn more about the veil of the Holy Face that is made of byssus.)
The first person outside Italy who took the images to heart was a Trappistine Nun, Sr. Blandina Paschalis Schloemer of the cloistered convent in Dahlem, Germany. She found by patient study that this image of Jesus perfectly matched the image of his face on the Holy Shroud of Turin. She sent the results of her research to professors at the Jesuit Gregorian University in Rome. Subsequently, one of the professors, Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, SJ, a specialist in Christian art history, who had visited the Shrine in Manoppello, determined that the image was nothing less than the Veronica (the Vera Eikon, the true image) which for centuries had drawn great numbers of pilgrims to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
The Pontificate and the Holy Face
In 2003, 25 years after the Eucharistic Congress in Pescara, Paul Badde, a Rome and Vatican correspondent for Die Welt, a leading newspaper in Germany, decided to visit Manopello, having learned for several years from Fr. Pfeiffer about the Holy Face of Manoppello. On August 6, 2004, he wrote about his findings in a letter to Pope John Paul II. Following are excerpts from the letter which the pope read and graciously thanked Paul with a blessing:
“Holy Father, some research on the history of Our Lady of Guadalupe led me to an image of her son that does not resemble any portrait on Earth. It is in the care of the Capuchins of Manoppello in the Abruzzi, where it has been venerated for 400 years by the population as the ‘Holy Face.’ Throughout the centuries many sources have spoken of the same image as ‘Veronica.’ The measurements of this ‘Holy Face’ correspond exactly in its proportions to those of the face of the ‘Holy Shroud’ of Turin. Both cloths show the same person and go beyond the limits of human artistic abilities, without the slightest trace of color. Compared to the Turin linen shroud, however, the veil of Manoppello appears woven from byssus, the precious sea silk of antiquity. In backlighting it is transparent, in shadow it is slate-colored. In the light the veil is golden and honey-colored, as Saint Gertrude of Helfta described the face of the Lord already in the 13th century. It is a living image. It is the Lord. On March 24th I was able to be a witness in the Sala Clementina when you presented your vision of a ‘Europe of people on whom the face of God shines.’ And for the 2005 World Youth Day in Cologne, you chose as its guiding principle ‘We want to see Jesus!’ Please Holy Father, show the young people and adults the Veronica of Manoppello!’ In the Veronica they will see Jesus. Yours, Paul Badde”
On September 23, 2004, Paul Badde wrote the first long dispatch regarding the Veronica’s return for the German newspaper Die Welt. Pope John Paul II and his Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger read it carefully. The pope however was no longer able to Manopello. He no longer had the strength and could not even go to World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005. After the passing of John Paul II on April 2, 2005, the news of the true image of God among men circulated again in the world. Paul Badde’s book, The Face of God, the rediscovery of the true face of Jesus on the Holy Face of Manoppello, was conceived at this time. The book is about his fascination and love for this image as well as for the Capuchin friars and the people of Manoppello. For centuries they were the guardians of this holy image.
Then Cardinal Joseph A. Ratzinger was invited to Manoppello at the beginning of 2005. However, 2 days before the appointed date of April 18, 2005, he was elected successor to Pope John Paul II and thus the appointment could not be made. He eventually made the pilgrimage to Manopello as Pope Benedict XVI on September 1, 2006. It was considered a private visit, although accompanied by numerous journalists and commentators, but affirming nevertheless his desire to experience the Holy Face in person. The visit was significant as it also enabled the Pope to meet prominent scholars of the Holy Face which included Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer SJ, Paul Badde, Sr. Blandina Schlomoer as well as theologian Fr. Andreas Resch and journalist Saverio Gaeta, all supporters of the authenticity of the veil and its identification with the Veronica (Vera Eikon). Television images and photos of that visit showed the Pope in prayerful contemplation and deeply touched by his encounter with the Holy Face. Following this, he said of the shrine, “Where we can meditate on the mystery of divine love by contemplating the icon of the Holy Face.” He invited the religious present, “Dear priests, if the holiness of his Face remains impressed on you, pastors of Christ’s flock, do not be afraid. The faithful entrusted to your care will also be infected with it and transformed.” At the exit of the church, he enjoined the youth to seek the Face of Christ. Concluding his visit, the Pontiff exclaimed with joy, “It is good to be with the Lord.”
Enthronements of the Holy Face of Manoppello
In the years to come, thousands of pilgrims, people from many nations including the Philippines, followed Pope Benedict XVI to the Shrine of Manopello, as they heeded his proclamation from the Gospel of John, “Come and see!” The devotion to the Holy Face continued to flourish through the early years of Pope Francis. The growing numbers who visited the Shrine and contemplated the presence of the Holy Face in person came away as witnesses and believers. They took with them stories of their experience and religious mementos of their visit, such as stampitas, novena prayer books, replica veils and pictures. The faithful included nuns, priests, and lay workers from the Philippines, including Cardinal Chito Tagle who served Pope Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis.
September 2013 will be remembered as the time when Filipino Americans Lenlen Alzate (from Las Vegas, NV) and Daisy Neves (from Seattle, WA) met in a serendipitous way at the Carmel Mission Church in California. Lenlen was in search of a patron saint for a pilgrimage shrine envisioned in the Philippines and Daisy happened to be a devotee of the Holy Face having visited the shrine in Manoppello as a pilgrim. The circumstances which began with an earlier encounter by a member of the Nampicuan NE Dreamers of Las Vegas with Lenlen Alzate that led to her fateful meeting with Daisy Neves can only be described as miraculous. In September 2014, a replica of the Holy Face of Manopello was enthroned at the Immaculate Conception Church in Nampicuan, a far-flung town in Nueva Ejica. (Learn more… https://holyfaceofmanoppello.blogspot.com/2015/02/why-nampicuan-story-behind-scenes-of.html).
In 2014, Fr Carmine Cucinelli, Rector of the Basilica of the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello, conducted his international mission of presenting the replica veil of the Holy Face to devotees outside Italy. Beginning with stops in the West Coast USA (Seattle, San Francisco, and Las Vegas) September 2-7, and continuing in the Philippines, September 10 -17, Fr Carmine was accompanied by Fr. Danilo Flores, a Filipino priest from the diocese of Rome and author Paul Badde, among others. Masses were celebrated first in various churches in Makati, EDSA Shrine, Manila and Lipa. Then on September 16, the veil of the Holy Face was enthroned at the Immaculate Conception church in Nampicuan, Nueva Ecija as a gift from the Basilica of the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello. The accompanying party from Italy was welcomed by Bishop Roberto Mallari of Nueva Ecija, Archbishop Florentino Lavarias of Pampanga, Bishop Florentino Cinense of Tarlac, the Parish Priest Fr. Christian Magtalas and the faithful of Nampicuan. (Learn more… http://www.holyfacenampicuan.com/)
Fr Ted’s great devotion to the Holy Face began in September 2015 when he was invited to be the interpreter this time for yet another international mission to Canada, the USA and again the Philippines to spread the devotion to the Holy Face and to enthrone it in churches. His sister Doris Lopez was known to the Holy Face advocate Lenlen Alzate. With fellow advocate Daisy Neves, she and other Filipino American devotees were the benefactors supporting the new enthronements. He accepted the invitation, but with reluctance and trepidation. Having lived in Rome for more than 20 years and speaking only in Italian, he said he had lost his facility for the English language. He was afraid he would be a poor translator for Fr Carmine especially during the holy mass homilies. So, he went back to his English grammar book to re-learn the language and practice. He prayed for guidance throughout his nervous ordeal. As the time drew near, much to his relief, he began to feel expressions of assurance, such as the welcome note with the basket of fruits from the Filipino Canadian hosts and the inscription on the statue of John Paul II in the church, which said, “Do not be afraid!” The smiling Jesus appeared in his dream saying, “This is my mission, not yours. Do not be afraid.” Finally, as Fr Carmine spoke during the homily, Fr Ted said he could hear himself speak fluently in English and all he had to do was to vocalize his thoughts. Later he was told by the mass attendees that his translation was witty and right on point. To him, this is the ultimate message of the Holy Face, “Do not be afraid.”
In 2015, British Columbia, Canada, the image of the Holy Face was enthroned separately in Immaculate Conception Church, Delta (September 4) and St. Patrick Church, Vancouver (September 5) with Fr Carmine and Fr Ted concelebrating the masses. It must be recalled that immigrants from the Abruzzo region were the first to celebrate their devotion to the Holy Face in Richmond Hill, Toronto, back in the ‘70s. The image was subsequently brought to Los Angeles and San Francisco, September 8-9. The highlight of the international mission however was in the Philippines, September 12-20, where the image of the Holy Face was enthroned in separate ceremonies in San Martin de Porres Mission Church Orphanage, Bustos, Bulacan (September 12); Bethlehem House of Bread Mission Chapel, Baliuag, Bulacan (September 12); Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Buguias, Benguet; Sagrada Familia Parish, Taguig (September 14). The image was also venerated in Lipa, Quiapo, Baclaran, San Agustin, and Bagumbayan. More enthronements were completed in the Philippines in 2016-2017, in the Church of St. Bartholomew Apostle, Diocese of Calbayog (October 30); St Francis of Assisi Church, Meycauayan, Bulacan (November 13); Cathedral of Our Lady of the Atonement and The Pink Sisters Convent, Brent Road (November 30); Cathedral of St. Bartholomew Apostle, Samar (December 15), and Cathedral of Malolos (April 16, 2017).
Impressed by the enthusiasm of the faithful for the veneration of the Holy Face, Fr Ted expressed the desire, “If I become a pastor, I propose to enthrone the Holy Face in my parish church.” In September 2017, the moment arrived. He was named pastor and delivered on his promise. In Rome, the first enthronement of the Holy Face took place earlier on November 4, 2014, in the church of Sant’ Ignazio D’Antiochia, located in the Appio Claudio district, in via Appia Nuova, by the Filipino parish priest Fr. Jess Marano. This is the first ceremony of its kind in Rome in many centuries. The second was on October 14, 2018, in the church of Saints Elizabeth and Zechariah, in the Prima Porta area, Valle Muricana, by Fr Ted Lopez as new parish priest. He had the sacred image on the main window on the façade of the church and enthroned the sacred veil from Manoppello inside the Adoration Chapel. The third was on July 4, 2021, in the Oratory of St. Francis Xavier, in Via Caravita, also by Fr Ted. The replica of the Holy Face was blessed by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.
In 2022 British Columbia, the Holy Face was enthroned in St. Francis de Sales Church, Burnaby, and St. James Church, Abbotsford (August 6), thanks to The Canadian Apostolate of the Holy Face of Vancouver (led by Ethelyn David, Leila Gueco, Norma Reyes and Corgie Bernardo), following the example of Daisy Neves who passed on 2019. In the Philippines 2023, Fr. Ted celebrated the enthronement of the Holy Face, the first in Bicol, together with Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Stephen Protomartyr, at his hometown of Ligao, Albay (April 16). His co-presiders were Fr. Paulo Barandon, parish priest, and Msgr. Ramon Tronqued, Vicar General, Diocese of Legazpi. The latter was Fr. Ted’s rector when he entered the minor seminary in Tabaco City when he was 11 years old. The mass was also attended by Ambassador to the Vatican Grace Princesa, also from Ligao, the Alsua family, and his high school classmate Congressman Elizaldy Co with his wife. Later that month, he was at the enthronement in San Agustin Pastoral Station, Sitio Centro, Barangay. Sapang Maragul, Tarlac City (April 30), presided by Bishop Francisco Macaraeg. The parish priest, Fr. Oscar Roque, Jr., was a witness of the 2014 enthronement in Nampicuan, Nueva Ecija.
According to Fr. Ted more enthronements were completed in the Philippines, one in November 2023 by Bishop Ruperto Santos, at the Diocesan Shrine of the Holy Face of Jesus of Manopello in Sampalog, Tanay, Rizal. The other is at the Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in Molino, Bacoor, Cavite by Cardinal Chito Tagle last January 2024. He prays there will be more enthronements to come.
On December 22, 2024, the reliquary bearing the Holy Face of Jesus (Veil of Manoppello) was enthroned at the Archdiocese Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace, popularly known as EDSA Shrine, in a ceremony led by Fr. Jerome Secillano, Shrine Rector, during the 3pm mass celebrating the 30th sacerdotal anniversary of Fr. Ted. The EDSA Shrine is popular among Marian devotees, pilgrims, visitors, and church-goers from nearby Robinson’s Galleria Mall. Built in 1989 to commemorate the People Power Revolution, the shrine is the site of two peaceful demonstrations that toppled Presidents Ferdinand Marcos (the People Power Revolution or EDSA I in 1986), and Joseph Estrada (the EDSA II Revolution in 2001).
In his reflection spoken during the enthronement mass, Fr. Ted recalled that when he departed as a young seminarian for theological studies in Rome, the Philippines was in political turmoil which led to the People Power Revolution. Now he has returned at a momentous time when the country is struggling again. However, he assures the faithful, especially at this season of Advent, “It is by divine design that the Lord would want his Holy Face to be enthroned in this historical shrine to be venerated. The Lord reminds the Filipino people to have no fear as his infinite love protects us and gives us peace.”
(This post was written by Jojo De Jesus for Dateline Ibalon based on his interviews with Fr. Bonifacio “Ted” Lopez and supplementary references from VoltoSanto.it website; The Holy Face of Manoppello (Fr. Carmine Cucinelli’s blogspot); Manoppello.eu website; and Illumina Domine website. This post was updated on April 18, 2025 with images from the article “The Face of Christ,” published in PhilStar Life, April 12, 2025).