ALMOST 500 years after the Spaniards planted the seeds of Christianity in our shores, the tree has matured and we are finally reaping its fruits. The evangelized has become the evangelizer.
Last Dec. 8, 62-year-old Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, a top Vatican post making him the second Asian to receive the position.
Two months ago, Pope Francis appointed a Thomasian Filipino, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, as the papal envoy to Spain, returning the favor from where the Philippines received the faith and the University.
When I went to Rome in July, I was greeted with Filipino friends who were either studying or living colorful lives at the Vatican. During that time, I also learned that two of the Church’s religious orders, namely the Order of Preachers and the Clerics Regular Minor, are both headed by Filipinos.
During Gaudete Sunday, the Pope celebrated the Simbang Gabi together with roughly 7,500 Filipinos, urging them to be “smugglers of the faith.” Italy itself has some 167,000 Filipinos according to its labor ministry.
This historic event at St. Peter’s is a sign that the Filipinos’ infectious joy and resilience has much to offer to the Church, which is gradually losing its foothold in many parts of the West.
Today, we see many Filipinos serving as missionaries abroad in order to keep the faith alive in places where Christianity have become a struggling minority. The presence of Filipino Church leaders in Rome is a sign that the Church has finally noticed the great potential of the East.
However, to say that Asia is the future of the Church would be to deny her of her universal character. It remains true that “the ‘future’ of the Church is in any place where the Gospel needs to be heard, either because it is ignored in religiously indifferent societies or because the Gospel has not yet been adequately preached.”
As the fifth largest Christian nation in the world and the largest in Asia, Filipino Catholics serve as scattered seeds of the Gospel all over the world.
Though these promising developments are sources for celebration, there is still much work to do for the Church in the Philippines. For one, the prevailing corruption, the ruthless killings and the shameful culture of indifference is a glaring sign of failure in the Church’s evangelization.
The faith still remains compartmentalized and detached from the everyday lives of Filipinos. God is only for Sundays, and has become less and less so. In addition to this, the government’s lack of support is tragic but unsurprising. A tree that matured but has not deepened its roots is in danger of being swept even in the lightest storm.
Where do Filipinos stand amidst all these realities within the Church? At present, we have two saints who are neither clergy and are both martyrs. This is probably a sign that if the Church in the Philippines will continue to thrive, it is not solely up to the priests and religious.
Christianity will continue to draw its life from the common person from the bottom up, just as it now begins to learn from the Indio. It will come from the lay person who willingly continues to render the unbloody martyrdom in his or her daily sacrifice of building up the Church.
