“Philippines for christ” (A Reprint of the Joint Pastoral Letter by the Catholic Hierarchy of the Philippines)

CEBU, Philippines -  In line with the three historical events that the Augustinians have organized for the year 2015, it is of paramount importance to remind the Filipino Catholics of today that on February 2, 1964, the Catholic Hierarchy of the Philippines issued a Joint Pastoral Letter in Manila entitled, “Philippines for Christ”. The pastoral letter, a copy of which can be found in the Basilica del Santo Niño Convent Archives, enjoined the Filipino Catholics to celebrate the year 1965 as the Fourth Centennial of the Christianization of the Philippines.

Just as it was important for the Catholic Church then to celebrate the Fourth Centenary of the conversion of the country to the Catholic Faith by declaring the “Philippines for Christ,” it is doubly important for the Church of today to unite and be grateful for the four hundred and fifty years of the Christianization of the country, amidst the challenges facing the Christian Faith and its believers.

What follows is a reprint of the said Joint Pastoral Letter.

As the duly constituted Pastors of the flock of the Lord in this part of Christendom, “the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God,” We, the Bishops of the Philippines, deem it opportune to address to you this Joint Letter on the approaching Fourth Centenary of the evangelization of our country.

All Christians who are aware of the true value of their Christian Faith have to agree that the greatest and most significant event in the history was the evangelization of our people, when we “turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God.” Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.

Before our country was Christianized, our forefathers had, no doubt, their natural virtues. But at the same time, they had pagan customs and practices. Their culture was steeped in idolatry and superstition. It was our conversion to Christianity that ushered us into the family of civilized nations.

It is true that many will deny the unique position of Christianity and will refuse to admit the paramount importance of this gift, the greatest that we as a people have received from the hands of God: the gift of our Christian Faith.

But to those of us who believe in these words of our Lord: “I am the door. If anyone enter by me he shall be safe, and shall go in and out and shall find pastures. The thief comes only to steal, and slay, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly. “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, even if he dies, shall live; and whoever lives and believes in me, even if he dies, shall live; and whoever lives and believes in me, shall never die.” “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.” “I am the light of the world. He who follows me does not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” “Now this is everlasting life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ.”; to us, We repeat, who know that these words mean, our Catholic Faith will always be our most precious heritage. We will always glory in our name of Christians, incorporated by baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ. We will always consider the fact that we are the only Christian nation in the Orient as our badge of distinction in the whole Christian world.

For this reason we cannot allow to pass unnoticed the Fourth Centenary of the Christianization of our country. As Catholics the year 1565 is sacred to us for that was the year when the preaching of the Gospel in these islands began in earnest. As Filipinos that year is also of great significance to us because that was the year when the Philippines as a nation came into being. As the Gospel was brought from one island to another, the Philippines as a country, as one nation, emerged. Before that, in these islands there were only small kingdoms and tribes, one independent from the other.

The discovery of these islands was made by Hernando de Magallanes in 1521. The first Mass in this country was celebrated in Limasawa, Leyte, on March 31 of that year. The expedition then proceeded to Cebu and there King Humabon, his wife and 800 of their subjects were baptized.

However, D. Pedro de Valderama, the priest who landed with the expedition dies four days after Magallanes; and the rest of the expedition sailed back to Spain. So the first attempt to Christianize our people did not have lasting results.

There were other expeditions that followed the discovery of our islands, that of Loaisa in 1525, that of Saavedra in 1527, and that of Villalobos, with four Augustinians, in 1542. No serious missionary efforts resulted from these expeditions.

But Philip II of Spain had a missionary heart. When advised to “give up such remote and apparently worthless possessions as the Philippines,” he replied: “If there were only one person there to keep the name of Jesus alive, I would send missionaries from Spain to spread His Gospel. Looking for mines of precious metals is not the only business of Kings.”

So he ordered his Vice-Roy of Mexico to organize a new expedition. The leader of the expedition was Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. The technical lead was Fray Andres de Urdaneta, a good cosmographer, in the words of the King himself. Four other Augustinian missionaries came with the expedition. Their purpose was to bring to these islands the Gospel of Christ. They arrived at Cebu on April 27, 1565.

The chronicler of the Augustinian Monastery of Santo Niño de Cebu says that when Legaspi fired the guns of his ships, the Cebuanos fled, leaving their village in flames. Legaspi sent ashore a company of soldiers. While they were putting out the fire, one of the soldiers, Juan de Camus, found in a house an image of the Holy Child, the gift of Hernando de Magallanes to the wife of Rajah Humabon at her baptism.

A chapel was improvised where the image could be venerated, and there Fray Urdaneta celebrated a Mass in Thanksgiving for the success of their voyage. Thus was inaugurated the formal evangelization of the Philippines under the patronage of the Holy Name of Jesus, our Santo Niño de Cebu.

The Augustinians first preached in Cebu. Then they went to Panay, Masbate, Ticaw, Burias and Albay. In 1571 Fray Diego de Herrera accompanied Legaspi to Manila.

But after sometime, the Augustinians could no longer cope with the ever-increasing demands of their missionary work. So other religious orders from Spain came to help: the Franciscans in 1577, the Jesuits in 1581, the Dominicans in 1587, and the Recollects in 1601. The Capuchins, the Vincentians and the Benedictines followed them much later.

The work realized by the Spanish missionaries in the evangelization of the Philippines was truly marvelous. Indeed, it is enough to note that almost the entire country was reached by the missionaries and the great majority of our people were converted to the Christian Faith in less than fifty years, an achievement which has no parallel in the history of missions.

Divine Providence has truly chosen our country to be the “lighthouse of Catholicism” in the Orient, as John XXIII said. We can apply to our people these words of the Lord to the Israelites: “I will set my Dwelling amount you, and will not disdain you. Ever present in your midst, I will be your God, and you will be my people.”

Since we “have been sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints with all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place – their Lord as well as our,” since by the grace of God we are what we are, God’s grace in us must not be fruitless, we must “not receive the grace of God in vain.”

In His infinite mercy, God “has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have our redemption, the remission of our sins.” In gratitude, it is our duty to “remain firmly founded in the faith and steadfast,” it is our duty to render “thanks to the Father, who has made us worthy to share the lot of the saints in light.” “For the hope of the ingrate melts like a wintry frost and runs off like useless water.”

It is for this reason that we cannot allow to pass unnoticed the Fourth Centenary of the conversion of our country to the Christian Faith. We have to celebrate the year 1965 with special acts of thanksgiving. And the best way of showing our gratitude to God is to live our Faith in accordance with what we say in our national hymn to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus:

Le Fe de Filipinas escomo el sol, ardiente;

Como la rocafirme; inmensacomo el mar.

In order to make our celebration of this Centenary as worthy as the occasion demands, We have decided to hold the following activities:

 1.We send a petition to the Holy Father that he may deign to:

 a)declare the year 1965 a Jubilee Year for the Philippines; thus, it will be a year of thanksgiving, of pardon and of grace;

 b)confer the title of Minor Basilica on the Santo Niño Shrine in Cebu City;

 c)grant the privilege of Canonical Coronation of the image of Santo Niño de Cebu, this image that was so closely connected with the first missionary endeavors of the Augustinians in these islands.

 2.We unanimously approved the idea of our late Apostolic Nuncio, the Most Reverend Salvatore Siino, to hold in Cebu City, the cradle of Christianity in the Philippines, the Third National Eucharistic Congress from April 28 to May 2, 1965. We cannot think of a more fitting centennial celebration than a Eucharistic Congress in which the whole Philippines will kneel before our Eucharistic Lord in humble adoration and in thanksgiving for the gift of Himself as our Bread of life: “I am the living bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eat of this bread shall life forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” In preparation for the National Eucharistic Congress we have approved the celebration of Eucharistic Congresses in our parishes and dioceses. In that way a national consciousness of the importance of the centenary will be awakened.

 3.We will bless the cornerstone of a seminary for the Philippine Foreign Mission Society, a Missionary Congregation which we have agreed to establish. This missionary society will be a living monument of our gratitude to God for the conversion of our country to Christianity. Pope Pius XI, the Pope of the Missions, in his letter to the Bishops of the Philippines, said that our country is destined “to become a center from which the light of truth will radiate, and to be, as it were, an advance guard of Catholicism in the Far East.” Pope Pius XII also said that our country has “a missionary vocation” in this part of Asia. The time has come to fulfill our missionary vocation as the only Christian nation in Southeast Asia. We owe our Faith to the missionary spirit of Spain. In order to pay the debt, we have to undertake the task of evangelizing our non-Christian neighbors. This is an apostolic responsibility that we cannot elude. Hence, the plan to establish a Foreign Mission Society under the auspices of the Philippine Hierarchy.

The theme of our centennial celebrations will be THE PHILIPPINES FOR CHRIST. Among the peoples of the Far East we have been privileged to be “the first-fruits unto salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” Christ has chosen us to be His people, a part of “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people,” so that we “may proclaim the perfections of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” In order to “proclaim the perfections of Christ,” we will make a public avowal of our faith in Him, we will declare ourselves for Christ: THE PHILIPPINES FOR CHRIST.

To all of you, Our beloved flock, We heartily impart our Pastoral Blessing. May the Patroness of the Philippines, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, continue to help us preserve the priceless heritage of our Faith and make it bear abundant fruits for all of us for the countries surrounding us.

Given in Manila, on the 2nd day of February, 1964, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.

Every Sunday, The Freeman will feature stories about the Augustinians and their contributions to Cebu

and the country in line with the 450th anniversary of Augustinian presence in the Philippines. (FREEMAN)