Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon installed in Philadelphia

Last Saturday, Cardinal Justin Rigali blessed and installed a restored icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in a new side altar at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. The icon and the altar came from St. Boniface Parish in Philadelphia, and were gifted to the cathedral by the Redemptorists and St. Boniface parishioners, whose parish is now closed. “Our Mother of Perpetual Help draws our attention to the passion of Christ,” the cardinal said during his homily for the vigil Mass of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. “As His mother embraces the Christ Child, so she gazes at all of us, offering her own divine Son to be our hope. In the midst of all our pains and sorrows, Mary is with us to comfort us and offer her Son, especially in the Eucharist.”

The cardinal also thanked the Redemptorists for their almost 200 years of service to the archdiocese, including the ministry of Redemptorist St. John Neumann, the fourth bishop of Philadelphia.

In addition to the Marian side altar, the cardinal blessed three other new altars honoring St. Joseph (also a gift from St. Boniface), St. John Neumann, and St. Katharine Drexel.