HAVE CHURCHES SUCCUMBED to the malls? By the looks of it, it seems they have.

There are now chapels in malls where Catholic Masses are held and where shoppers and mall personnel could go. They no longer need to take a trip to regular churches to worship. Even a place for prayer for Muslims has been constructed in a popular shopping place.

Shop-till-they drop shopaholics groaning under the weight of their purchases could assuage their guilt and fulfill their religious duties by dropping by the chapels in the malls.

Convenient? To paraphrase a saying, if you can’t take mall rats to the church, take the church to the mall. But something doesn’t seem right, if you ask those who consider church attendance on Sundays a sacred duty, and not an afterthought or obligation to be hurriedly fulfilled.

In Batangas City, where an SM Mall has become a landmark, a new church has risen beside it. Big, beautiful and separate from the mall complex, the church has become a landmark itself, a place to go to not necessarily for shoppers but for the wider public and even those from outside the city. A stream of people from all walks of life comes to pray all through the day.

Thanks to the Pastors, a landed philanthropic family in Batangas, the Simbahan ng Santissima Trinidad (Church of the Holy Trinity) has come to be.

Grand endeavor

Antonio Acosta Pastor of the Pastor clan was behind this endeavor. Tonying, as he is fondly called by kith and kin (“Some jeepney drivers call me Tonyo”), is also executive director of the Batangas Cultural and Historical Commission. He is a lawyer and musician (UP Law and UP Conservatory of Music) and studied economics in the US.

Being the unmarried one and the lawyer in the brood of 10 of Dr. Juan Pastor and Concha Acosta, Tonying became the caretaker of the family estate. He runs the Pastor-Quinio Family Memorial Foundation and the estate of his deceased aunt Manuela Quinio Pastor which, he says, is for him to dispose of according to her wishes.

“The Sys bought from our family the land where SM Mall now stands,” says Pastor. “Years later, SM wanted to buy an adjacent lot for parking. Because SM was there, the land value had increased.”

SM’s Hans Sy and Pastor agreed on the price and made a deal. SM was going to buy the lot for parking at the current value but the money must be used to build a church on the 6,000-sq m church property beside SM. This church lot was part of the Manuela Pastor estate donated to the archdiocese in 1996 when Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales was the archbishop.

“Our family had always wanted to build this church,” Pastor says. “The amount SM paid went straight to the church’s construction. It did not pass through my hand.”

The amount should eventually go back to the Pastors as the parishioners pay little by little for the church to become literally theirs. It’s as if the Pastors merely advanced the money.

“We want the people to own the church, every stone of it,” Pastor adds. “Even the simple folk make pledges, like P20 a week for three years. Eighty percent of the parishioners here are farmers. It’s easy for them to donate because they see the church already.”

The money that returns goes straight to the foundation, which is involved in cultural, education and health projects to benefit the community.

Neoclassic architecture

Pastor describes the church’s architecture as Neoclassic. Architect Noli M. Bernardo designed it free of charge. Fr. Bautista, of the Tarlac diocese, designed the altar. DDT Konstruct built the church in one year.

On Nov. 12, 2007, the church was consecrated by Lipa archbishop Ramon Arguelles.

“When the church was inaugurated,” Pastor recalls, “the place was filled to overflowing. The people chanted with me, ‘Atin ito, atin ito!’ [This is ours, this is ours!]”

Columns (two on each side) adorn the façade. Between them are statues of Saints Peter and Paul. On the sides are more life-size statues of saints.

The stained-glass panels in front cannot be found anywhere else. One shows Jesus as potter, and another as the Sto. Niño on top of a log. Why those?

Pastor explains the church is in Brgy. Pallocan (palayokan means “potter’s place”), and there’s a legend that the Sto. Niño statue now in the cathedral had been found on top of floating logs (batangan, where the “Batangas” came from). Big stained-glass windows on the sides lend color to the church’s interiors.

One important item on the side altar is the Glorious Cross, which has the Crucified Christ on one side and the Risen Christ on the other. The cross was used for processions during the 2000 Jubilee Year. This church is also called the Shrine of the Glorious Cross.

Above the altar is a stained-glass rendition of the Sacred Heart, while behind is a reproduction of a painting of the Holy Trinity by Spanish painter Murillo. Underneath is the columbarium integrated into the Chapel of the Resurrection.

Filled with joy

A recent addition is a belfry with musical bells from Holland. Beneath it is the Kapilya ng Liwanag (Chapel of Light).

And why not a café? Café Campanaryo serves native Batangas coffee and light merienda. It is one way for the church to earn income, Pastor says.

While studying in New York, Pastor recalls, he would sing under the aliases Tony Pastorelli (when he sang Neapolitan songs) and Tony Chen (for Broadway pieces). At the 9 AM mass every Sunday, one can listen to him sing solo.

“When I sing ‘Panis Angelicus,’ I am filled with joy,” says the lawyer-musician, hardy and healthy at 80, whose circa-1883 ancestral house on Calle Tirona is a venue for musical events. (He has two ongoing huge culture projects.)

A true son of Batangas, Pastor wears his loyalty on his sleeve. He is at home in this church he helped build, the church the people own.

Those who intend to make Simbahan ng Santissima Trinidad a part of their Holy Week Visita Iglesia would easily find the church. It is the church by the mall.