0 Pedrito dolls meant to inspire kids to sainthood

ROME, Italy, Oct 23, 2012 - Aside from aiming to trigger a social media maelstrom and drum up interest in the canonization, St. Pedro Calungsod’s mini version, Pedrito, is intended to inspire kids to sainthood.

Kids may soon be wanting to be the next St. Pedro because of his little version, Pedrito. (New Media Team)

According to Eilleen Esteban, head of the New Media team under the National Commission for the canonization of Pedro Calungsod, who thought up and brought Pedrito to life, she hoped that through the Pedrito dolls, “[kids would] rather someday dream of becoming a saint than a super hero.”

“Because there are no real super heroes, just like those comic books show, but everyone can be a saint,” she explained further.

Esteban explained, the official page of St. Pedro Calungsod has been receiving more requests for information and orders for the doll than the team members can actually respond to.

The high interest generated by the chub-faced Pedrito is also the reason for making more Pedritos available to the general public.

As Esteban explained, the original purpose for coming up with the Pedrito doll was to aid the online geo-tagging scheme that would track the itinerary of Calungsod’s official image around Rome, specifically during the Triduum masses, the canonization and eventually, when it flies back to the Philippines for the Duaw Nasudor to “visit different places”, when St. Pedro’s statue visits different dioceses in the country.

But she cautioned that the dolls are not to be mistaken for religious images that can be venerated on altars.

Pedrito is, for the most part, a new evangelization tool or a way of promoting St. Pedro “in a non-traditional way”.

Inquiries about Pedrito are available on his official page at www.facebook.com/FilipinoSaintPedroCalungsod.

[Nirva’ana Ella Delacruz/CBCPNews]

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