MANILA, Feb. 12 -- A prelate on Monday called on the faithful to have a "meaningful date with God", as Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday both fall on Feb. 14 this year.

"It is a nice day to celebrate Valentine's Day. Why? Because it is a day of prayer, it is a day of penance, that we are trying to mix, (with) it is a day of love," Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) assistant secretary general Fr. Bryand Restituto said in an interview.

Restituto said the faithful must remember God's love, who offered his only son Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of the world.

"It's a day of penance, charity, abstinence (as we) start to remember, in preparation for the passion and death and resurrection of Christ, that the whole Lente...