Short history of the Church in the Philippines
The Philippines is
a country in South-East Asia about 5° North of the Equator. It is
an archipelago composed of 7,114 islands with a total land area of about
300,000 km². Not all of these islands are inhabited, however; they
are divided into three parts. The biggest in the north is Luzon, the next
is Mindanao, the island in the south, and finally the group of islands
in the middle is called Visayas. If we look at its boundaries, the Philippines
is surrounded by the South China Sea on the North and the West, in the
East is the vast Pacific Ocean while in the South is the Celebes Sea.
The countries that surround the Philippines are Japan in the North, Indonesia
in the South; Guam and the Marianas Islands are on its East side, while
Malaysia is in the West.
The new church at Iloilo in the Philippines
The people of the Philippines are a mixture of many races. The first to inhabit the islands were the Negritos coming from mainland Asia. The Indonesians came after them followed by the Malaysians. However, trade relations brought the Chinese, Indians and Japanese long before the Spaniards arrived. Even the Arabs found their way to Mindanao th via Borneo thus bringing Islam to some parts of that island in the 13 century. Presently, the population of the country is about 78 million; of these about 85% are Catholics but only around 3 thousand are in Tradition.
The contact with the Western world came about when the Portuguese explorer serving the Spanish crown, Ferdinand Magellan, crossed the Pacific Ocean and saw the mountains of Samar and Leyte on 16th March, 1521. He first called these islands the Archipelago of St. Lazarus. On Easter Sunday, 31st March that year, he landed with his crew on Limasawa Island and on that day Fr. Pedro de Valderama, their Chaplain, offered the first Mass on Philippine soil.
Magellan then proceeded to the bigger island of Cebu. Here he planted the Cross and befriended the Rajah Humabon and his wife. Both received the Faith and on 7th April, 1521 they were baptized together with 800 of their subjects. As a baptismal gift to Queen Juana, Magellan gave her a small statue of the Child Jesus. Unfortunately, the king of the neighbouring island of Mactan, Lapu-lapu, did not like the Spaniards who became friends with his rival. He and his men fought with their poisoned arrows and cutlasses and defeated the Spaniards, killing Magellan on the shores of Mactan on 27th April, 1521. Thus ended the life of the first man to circumnavigate the globe. Rajah Humabon himself betrayed the surviving Spaniards poisoning them at a banquet. Thus, of the four ships that sailed with Magellan only one, under Sebastian del Cano, was able to return to Spain.
Phillip II of Spain however did not give up on the Philippines. He sent other expeditions: De Goiti, Loaysa, Villalobos and Saavedra, though these were unsuccessful. But in 1564, he ordered a pious widower of Mexico, head of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of Acapulco, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, to undertake still another expedition together with a converted sailor, who was once with the Loaysa expedition, now an Augustinian friar Fr. Andres de Urdaneta. Together they were able to Christianize and colonized the country.
It was Villalobos who changed the name of the Visayas area to “Filipinas”, the Philippines in honour of his royal patron. But early in April 1565 Legazpi arrived and extended the name to the whole group of islands. He stopped first in Bohol and made a blood compact with its ruler, Rajah Sikatuna. He then proceeded to Cebu. The natives, however, thought that they had come to avenge the death of Magellan and raised arms against the foreigners. The Spaniards tried to defend themselves from the poisoned arrows with their muskets and cannons, which of course burned the natives’ settlement. That afternoon of 14th April, 1565, Juan Camus, a Spanish soldier, was reconnoitring an unburned hut at the middle of the village. Inside the house, he found a box made of pine wood with a broken wax-seal. He opened it and beheld a small, beautiful statue of the Infant Jesus, Magellan's gift to the queen. He reported the incident to Legazpi who saw it as Heaven's confirmation of their efforts.
The next day, Fray de Urdaneta and the other Augustinians together with all the sailors and soldiers celebrated Mass and made a solemn procession in honour to the Infant Jesus whom they called the “Santo Niño de Cebu”. Legazpi fulfilled his vow and named the first Spanish settlement after the Holy Name. He therefore renamed Cebu as “Ciudad del Santissimo Nombre de Jesus,” City of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. They also created the Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of Jesus like in Acapulco and started to build the first Church on the very spot where they found the Santo Niño.
The natives on the other hand, seeing that the new-comers worshipped the same God that they did, at last realized that they were not enemies but rather friends who had brought the Faith back. Indeed, they kept the Faith through the Santo Niño, whom they called “Bathala,” the Supreme God. They came to know Him as the true God because of the help He gave them. When there was drought, they gave Him a bath on the seashore and He gave them rain in return. In times of pestilence and calamities, they made a procession for Him around their village and these misfortunes ceased.
Legazpi nevertheless proceeded North. In 1569 he transferred his seat of government to the island of Panay and settled in what is now Iloilo City. A few Previous colouring competition winners (February): Group A Cecilia Morris (Roodepoort); Group B Daniel Smith (Roodepoort); Group C Eustace Chikobza (Harare). years latter on 9th May, 1571 he settled in Manila and died there in 1574. The conquest of the Philippines was more by the cross of the missionaries than by the sword of the hidalgos so that in 1579 Pope Gregory XIII made Manila a diocese suffragan to Mexico.
The development of the Church in the Philippines was due much to the efforts of various religious orders that ministered to the country. In fact, the development th of a local clergy occurred quite late in the early part of the 20 century only. The first missionaries were the Augustinians who arrived with Legazpi. The Franciscans came in 1577. The first Bishop named for the country was Fray Domingo Salazar OP, who came with some Jesuits in 1581. The Dominicans established themselves in 1587; finally the Augustinian Recollects came in 1600. The efforts of Bishop Salazar were such that he personally returned to Spain and pleaded for the people as well as organizing the local hierarchy. He was truly the “Las Casas” for the country. In 1595, the Philippines became an Ecclesiastical province with Manila as the metropolitan See while the suffragan dioceses of Cebu, Nueva Segovia and Nueva Caceres were erected. Unfortunately, Bishop Salazar died in Madrid before receiving the Bull from Pope Clement VIII with his appointment as the first archbishop of Manila.
The Spanish colonizers, including some clergy, were not exempt from prejudices and abuses of the natives, yet what is often overlooked is the fact that many holy missionaries came to serve the country. To mention some of them, St. Pedro Bautista, protomartyr of Japan was once the Provincial of the Franciscans, while St. Ezechiel Moreno was an Augustinian Recollect who was ordained in Cebu and founded the Apostolic Vicariate of Palawan before being consecrated Bishop of Pasto, Colombia.
th Sanctity is not wanting among the natives especially in the 17 century. So far, a Filipino has already been raised to the honours of the altar, St. Lorenzo Ruiz. He was a Dominican Tertiary and a secretary of the Dominican Fathers in their convent of Binondo, Manila. Unfortunately, he was falsely implicated in a murder. In order to escape, the Dominican Fathers offered him to go to their convent in Macao. The winds, however, blew their sails to Japan. He was martyred together with some Dominican Fathers and some other laymen in Nagasaki on 29th September, 1637.
The next one waiting for canonization was a lad of 16 years old, who hailed from the Visayas area. He was a sacristan and catechist of the Jesuit missionaries in Guam. His name is Blessed Pedro Calungsod. Blessed Fr. Diego Luis de San Vitores SJ brought him to help in the missions of the Marianas Islands and Guam.
However, in trying to defend the priest, he received a blow from a machete and died after receiving the absolution from the same Father. They died in Tumhon, Guam on 2nd April, 1672 and their bodies were cast into the sea.
Even women excelled in holiness! The cause of the servant of God, Mother Ignatia del Spirito Santo, is well in progress. Under the direction of the Jesuit Fathers she founded a convent for native women called the “Beaterio de la Santissima Virgin Maria” in 1694. This developed and became the first Religious Congregation for women in Asia, the Religious of the Virgin Mary (R.V.M.) which still exists even today.
It is interesting to note that by this time the Philippines not only received missionaries, but also trained and sent them abroad. The first University in Asia was the University of San Ignatio de Loyola founded by the Jesuits and begun in 1595; this, however, did not survive when the Order was expelled from the Spanish colonies in 1768. They also founded the first seminary college, the San Jose Seminary, which still exists today. The Dominicans, with Bishop Miguel de Benavides, founded the University of Santo Tomas in 1611 and it still exist as a Royal and Pontifical University today. St. Pedro Liem of Vietnam was an alumnus of the University of Santo Tomas as well as the Filipino-Chinese Bishop Gregorio Lopez, Ordinary of Nangking until his death in 1670.
th The Philippines remained a Spanish colony for 300 years. But late in the 19 century due the machinations of the Freemasons, the Spanish missionaries were driven out by the Spanish-Filipino Revolution of 1898. The leaders of this Revolution even persuaded a Catholic priest, Fr. Gregorio Aglipay, to head the Church in the Philippines by appointing him as Military Vicar General on 20th October, 1898. Moreover, in January 1902, together with a Filipino priest of Nueva Segovia and Isabelo de los Reyes, who led the First Congress of Labourers of the Philippines, they proclaimed the establishment of the Philippine Independent Church. Fr. Aglipay was chosen and “consecrated” by 12 priests to be their Supreme Bishop.
On the other hand, when the Americans took over the country, they brought with them their Protestant ministers who would educate and “re-christianize” the country. Moreover, this led to the creation of a Filipino Protestant fundamentalist sect by Felix Manalo in 1913 called “Iglesia ni Kristo”, the Church of Christ. Providentially, the American Catholic hierarchy saved the structure and the goods of the Church. The Redemptorist missionaries from Australia, the Irish Columban Fathers, and the German Fathers of the Society of the Divine Word, as well as some Vincentians, Passionists and Oblates of Mary Immaculate took over some of the parishes and missions in various parts of the country.
From this time on, the development of the native secular clergy was growing steadily. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the first Filipino as Auxiliary Bishop of Cebu, Mgr. Juan Garces Gorordo . Other bishoprics were founded during this time. To mention some of the important events of this period, the First Plenary Council of the Philippines was held in 1928 and in 1938 was the First National Eucharistic Congress.
The Second World War only strengthened the bond between the missionaries and the people. The Fathers remained in the country and even went to the mountains hiding together with their flock. It is sad to note that many historical buildings and beautiful Churches were destroyed by the Americans during this war pretending that Japanese soldiers were occupying them; the same reason for the bombardment of Monte Casino.
After the war, Pope John XXIII raised the first Filipino to the Sacred College in 1960, Rufino Cardinal Santos, Archbishop of Manila and Primate of the Philippines. During the sessions of the Second Vatican Council, we can see that the Filipino hierarchy was at that time orthodox in faith and doctrine from their oral as well as written interventions. Cardinal Santos for some time was with Mgr. Lefebvre in the Coetus Internationalis Patrum; together they handed to the Secretary of the Council the signatures of 450 Fathers asking for the condemnation of Communism. Alas, this envelope was forgotten in the Secretary's drawer!
The aftermath of the Council was the same everywhere, although less drastic and a bit milder in the Philippines, the clergy being still quite conservative. The changes in the Liturgy were gradually introduced. In 1965, the 4 centenary of the Christianization of the Philippines was celebrated. Pope Paul VI raised the Church of the Sto.Niño to the dignity of a Minor Basilica and in 1969 gave the Cardinalate to Archbishop Julio Rosales of Cebu.
Things however, did not stay this way for long. Paul VI was the first Pope to come to Manila in 1970. But in this visit, he nearly died in an assassination attempt by the Communist Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza y Amor Flores. Later in 1974, he appointed Archbishop Jaime Sin of Jaro to Manila and made him a Cardinal in 1976. Liberation Theology was not just a theory in the seminaries; it was already a rampant and common practice. Many priests and nuns went to the mountains to join the Communist party or quite simply abandoned their vocation.
Pope John Paul II was the second Pope to visit Manila in 1981. He performed there the first beatification ceremony outside the Vatican for Lorenzo Ruiz and his companions.
The directives of Vatican II were given a new impetus by the 2 Plenary Council of the Philippines in 1992. Pope John Paul II, however, returned to the country in 1995 for the World Youth Day. Finally, on 5th March, 2000 as part of the Jubilee celebrations, he beatified Pedro Calungsod in the Vatican.
