What’s in a centennial?

It appears that organizers of a movement to celebrate the 5th Centennial of the Christianization of the Philippines in 2021 instead of 2065 are hell-bent on doing just that. This early they are already talking of inviting both the Pope and the King of Spain. Wielding positions of power and influence, there is little, if at all, that those who remain faithful to history can do to stop this blatant rewriting of true events as they happened.

Nevertheless, it is worth asking some of those identified with the movement, like Cebu Governor Hilario Davide, Cebu Vice Governor Agnes Magpale, and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, since they are all old enough to have been around in 1965, what exactly was that very significant event celebrated in Cebu that year. And while we are at it, and even if he is not a Cebuano, maybe Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma should be asked as well. For he must have been up and about in 1965 too.

If Davide, Magpale, Osmeña, and Palma can at least be honest with their own selves, I am sure they will admit knowing that what was celebrated in Cebu in 1965 was the 4th Centennial of the Christianization of the Philippines. The King of Spain may not have come for the celebration and neither did the Pope. But he did send the papal nuncio to preside over the main Mass, held at a specially-built templete at the brand new north reclamation area built by Osmeña’s own father Serging.

If Davide, Magpale, Osmeña, and Palma cannot remember, or pretend not to, I myself definitely can. And so do a lot of others, even if they prefer to just keep quiet about this travesty. I was already in Grade 5 at the Colegio del Santo Niño, a school run by the Augustinians, custodians of the original Santo Niño image around which this whole Christianization thing revolves. As a Boy Scout, I was involved in many of the activities associated with that great event.

And that great event, the 4th Centennial of the Christianization of the Philippines, was a commemoration of the 400th year of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi’s arrival in Cebu in 1565. Legazpi’s mission was to colonize the islands. But to be able to do that, he had to Christianize the natives first. That is the reason why Legazpi had close to a dozen Augustinian friars with him.

It is true Ferdinand Magellan had come 44 years earlier. But his was a voyage of discovery, not Christianization, which is why he only had one priest with him to act as chronicler. And while he did baptize the king and queen of Cebu and some supporters, even gifting them with an image of the Santo Niño, he was killed shortly thereafter and his men all returned to Spain, in the process becoming the first to circumnavigate the world.

Without meaning any disrespect, while the king and queen of Cebu were indeed baptized, they were nothing more than half-baked Christians. They had no one left with the authority and the qualification to take care of the faith. The newly-baptized natives could not have nurtured, strengthened, and much less spread the faith on their own, not knowing anything about it other than that they have been baptized in its name. In all likelihood, they forgot about it as soon as the Spaniards left.

That Legazpi found the Santo Niño not in some holy place but in the burnt ruins of a native’s hut suggests the fate of a faith that has not been sustained. To be baptized does not make one a Christian if everything about being a Christian stops immediately after baptism. It was the coming of Legazpi in 1565 that truly began the Christianization of the Philippines. But then 2065 is too far into the future for those who want a grand Church event now. I just wonder what is in it for them.