St. Pedro Calungsod: A beacon of faith for the youth

MANILA, Philippines - My younger brother, Neil, was frantic. He had been taking video shots with his iPhone of the different segments of the two-hour canonization of San Pedro Calungsod last Oct. 21 when he noticed something amiss with his latest video. It looked strangely different from the others. He wanted to delete it.

Neil and his wife Lorna were two of the thousands of Filipinos who attended the canonization rites for “Dodong Pedro.” They flew all the way from Tampa, Florida, as did many others from different part of the Philippines, the US, Europe, other parts of Italy, and the world. By 5 a.m. these pilgrims had started to line up along the outline of the two semi-circular colonnades of the Piazza San Pietro to wait for the opening of well-guarded designated entrances.

But they were not alone. Believers from different countries also came as their nation’s son or daughter shared in the “blaze of glory” of being publicly proclaimed a new saint: a priest-martyr from France; an Italian priest-founder of two congregations; a Spanish religious sister-founder of a congregation; a German religious sister who worked among lepers in Hawaii; a native lay American Indian, a model of youthful piety and virginity; and a German layperson with a “mission of suffering.”

Together they symbolize the universal Church’s coming together to celebrate the lives of saints raised to the altars as models of the Year of Faith. One American Indian in native costume even held up a “Pedrito” as if to underscore that sanctity crosses national boundaries and no single nation has a monopoly of it.

Yet the air also undeniably had something very Filipino about it. By walking the stretch of about 150 meters, I met friends from Rome, Cebu, Batangas, Manila, Basilan, etc. and had greeted kababayans from Switzerland, Vienna, and other places. Many were carrying miniature Filipino flags while a few carried the real thing. Cebuano and Tagalog became, de facto, the lingua franca of the long queues.

Faithful from all over the world gather at St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican as seven new saints are named

Then, around 8 a.m., the lines started to move. Sadly, some sections of the tranquil lines of pilgrims were disrupted by pilgrims from a certain country – not from Asia – that may have thought lines were a thing of the past. “Patience leads to sacred indulgence,” I somehow managed to say with a smile – to myself and to some members of this group, even as I tried to mentally fend off discouraging thoughts about the saint they were venerating.

At around 9:45 a.m. I was seated, sharing space with about 80,000 pilgrims since nearly the entire piazza was filled. Easily a fourth to a third of these were Filipinos, what with the estimated 60,000 OFWs in Rome alone and judging from the reverberating applause for San Pedro. Soon the litany of the saints would begin and Cardinal Amato, head of the Papal office for the promotion of saints, would petition Benedict XVI three times to enroll the new saints. Above the crowds – standing on horizontal beams resting on the colonnades called the “trabeation” – are statues of 88 saints as if welcoming newcomers into their ranks.

It was by divine design that Ricardo Cardinal Vidal first got to know about Pedro Calungsod through the late Archbishop Flores of Guam sometime in 1985. “Attend the beatification of Padre Diego De San Vitores in Rome and I will share with you a book that mentions a lad-companion of the martyred priest who was himself martyred,” came the invitation. He attended and also got the book.

After some awkward beginnings in promoting the cause of Pedro Calungsod – it is not every day that a local church promotes someone for beatification – Cardinal Vidal finally made some headway in 1996. But the odds were stacked against Pedro with more than 3,000 other candidates for beatification. A hand-written note by John Paul II on the margins of a follow-up letter by Cardinal Vidal led to Pedro’s beatification in 2000.

Pedro’s recent canonization comes 12 years later. This time more than 400 causes were on the line, some already on the list for 25 years or more. This time a fellow Cardinal informed Cardinal Vidal that Benedict XVI was looking for a youth who is a catechist to be a model for the Year of Faith that began in Oct. 11, the 50th anniversary of the start of the very historic Vatican II.

“Magaling sa timing si San Pedro,” observes Cardinal Vidal.

Benhur Arcayan

In 1995, as students in Rome, Fr. Bill LaRousse, a Maryknoll priest from New York who has lived in Davao for more than 30 years, and I were led to form a group for Filipinos in Rome. Pundok ni Pedro Calungsod was organized as an “antidote for homesickness” – tambal sa kamingaw – for OFWs with Cebuano as mother tongue. Not a few from other regions joined.

From a handful of members, the group has expanded to serve as companions in Rome for the cause of Pedro Calungsod as well as provide mutual support for members. It introduced the Sinulog in Rome and, when Pedro was beatified on March 5, 2000, its members were actively involved in the preparations and actual celebrations.

While the Pundok has a regional dimension that contributes to the rich tapestry of the Filipino Christian faith, San Pedro also speaks to our dream of a better nation. Like him, our desire for development can be fast tracked only when we get our acts together to change ourselves and the Philippines one step at a time – starting with replacing the cycle of vice and egotism with that of virtue.

San Pedro teaches us simplicity. There are not many layers to venerating him, no long-standing legends ascribed to him. His statue is not even “dressed up” for the occasion. He is an ordinary teenager who makes life-changing choices for God and the Church.

But he is also a dear and loyal friend, a companion to a martyr-priest who remained with the latter during his bleakest moment. Bay (Cebuano “journey companion”) is an apt term for the new saint. As Cardinal-designate Antonio Tagle points out, there are “friendships” between individuals based on common interests, between politicians to increase votes, between businessmen to increase profits, etc. Padre Diego and Pedro were friends based on their solid commitment to Christ and to the Church. It was a friendship to bring souls to God.

Benedict XVI adds a third quality to the new saint: Pedro gives “witness to Christ by a life of purity and dedication to the Gospel…and this made him resolute in accepting martyrdom.”

It is not easy to be a young person nowadays. Youth experts tell us that the youth sub-culture changes once every three years. While my generation talked about the mid-life crisis, today’s generation has the first-quarter crises; people in their 20s searching for meaning in life. It is difficult to make lasting commitments in our virtual world and many young people today are confused about their identities.

San Pedro had a solid Christian identity and formation. He made a commitment that he kept by God’s grace. I would like to imagine him as olive skinned, a tad short, perhaps even a little chubby with a ready whistling tune to lighten up their heavy missionary load with Padre Diego. I imagine Pedro as masculine without being somber or macho.

After the gospel is proclaimed in both Latin and Greek, Benedict XVI begins his homily:

“‘The Son of Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).’ On this third Sunday of October, on which we celebrate World Mission Sunday, the Church listens to them with special attention and renews her conviction that she should always be fully dedicated to serve mankind and the Gospel, after the example of the One who gave himself up even to the sacrifice of his life…”
Mark 10:35-45 had been my ordination gospel 22 years ago. What I did not realize then is that this call to serve and to be modern-day missionaries is really addressed to the Filipino people as a whole.

Benedict XVI continues:

“Pedro Calungsod was born around the year 1654, in the Visayas region of the Philippines. His love for Christ inspired him to train as a catechist with the Jesuit missionaries there…Witnesses record that Pedro could have fled for safety but chose to stay at Father Diego’s side… May the example and courageous witness of Pedro Calungsod inspire the dear people of the Philippines to announce the Kingdom bravely and to win souls for God!”

The Pope gives a variation on a theme of his predecessor. In an April 19, 2004 meeting with John Paul II, Philippine ambassador to the Vatican Leonida Vera recalls the words of the Pope: “The Philippines is truly a ‘light’ for the evangelization of the Asian continent.”

It was when Benedict XVI was referring to San Pedro that Neil’s video clip became strangely different. It had a mysterious glow to it. I am glad he did not delete it.

The author is executive director of the Dilaab Foundation based in Cebu.