Marco Carvalho
The new coronavirus pandemic forced hundreds of Filipino migrants to leave Macau and those who remain live in permanent anguish, not knowing when they will see their families again. The pandemic didn’t hinder, nevertheless, the intensity with which they live their faith, says Ian Alabanza. A specialist in the religiosity of Filipino emigrants and a professor at the University of Saint Joseph, Mr Alabanza explains why he thinks the presence of Filipinos in Macau contributes to the dynamism of the local Church.
Five hundred years after the arrival of Magellan and the introduction of the Catholic faith to the Philippines, what would you say are the main challenges for the Filipino Church?
The main challenges for the Filipino Church? In terms of faith, the Filipino people is really, really a faithful people, but one of the thrusts of the Church in the Philippines concerns issues like social justice. Right now, we have a Government that has cracked down on the drug problem, but it has done this in a very violent way, without due process. This is one of the issues. I think another problem is still the problem of poverty. It is still a huge problem in the Philippines. The Catholic Church has programs and tries to make a change through its work. Depending on which part of the Philippines you are in, but especially in the poorer regions of the Philippines, you have a Church that is really committed to improving the social standing of the people and addressing problems like poverty. But, of course, it is a very big problem, way bigger than the efforts the Church can do.
The Church has been very critical of the Duterte administration. Does this make the Church a sort of target by the Government?
Certainly. The current administration and the current president do not have the same kind of respect that previous presidents would give to the Catholic Church and to the leadership of the Catholic Church. Also, one of the things in the Philippines is that we are still very much a country of patronage. We have a lot of very good bishops – bishops that are outspoken, bishops that really care for the welfare of the poor and the powerless – but, of course, we also have some other bishops or some leaders who are quite comfortable just maintaining the status quo, not rocking the boat and not speaking out against this regime. Nevertheless, at the same time, we could say that the Philippines is, in a certain sense, kind of a special case, because the people support the leadership of the Catholic Church. The leadership of the Catholic Church has broad support amongst the common people. When I say broad support, what I mean is that they do listen to the leaders of the Church, they are active in programs initiated by the Church and there is still a lot of respect for religious leaders. If you get Church leaders that really care about the welfare of the poor or the masses, then they will also get the broad support of ordinary people. But the same happens all over the world.
The Philippines are, by far, the largest Catholic nation in Asia and the signs that we have been seeing from the Vatican is that, in a certain sense, the Holy See expects the Philippines and the Filipino church to be more than just a national Church, to grow and to spread its faith all over Asia. Do you think the Philippines and the Filipino Church can do just that? Can it be a focus of evangelization and mission?
On one hand, we must recognize that we have a very huge Filipino diaspora: ten percent of the entire population of the Philippines are outside the country. This fact has been emphasized even by previous Popes. The best way by which Filipinos can evangelize, you could say, is by being witnesses to their faith. Take the case of Macau. When Filipinos interact with their co-workers, in the process of having this interaction, they reveal their faith, their faith comes out. It can come out in words, it can come out in body language, it can come out even just saying simple things, like “Oh, Sunday I went to the Church.” When people see the kind of people that Filipinos are, if they make the connection between this and their faith, then, that’s a very powerful way of evangelizing. We could even say that this kind of evangelization is simply like spreading the Good News. Because of our faith, we are able to live through life with happiness, we are able to take on the challenges that life brings upon us, we are able to relate with different kinds of people in a very respectful and peaceful manner. This way of relating with people is already a kind of evangelization. It is showing us that, because of our faith, this is the kind of people that we become. And the positive side to it is that, even though we are a poor country, our faith – which is very much a central part of our culture, our way of life and our view of the world – actually makes us a very resilient people.
We see the Filipino Catholic communities outside the Philippines reviving Santo Niño, Simbang Gabi. But how important is it to balance tradition and faith the way the Philipino community has been doing here in Macau?
I think that the reason why all of these practices, you could say, have been imported to Macau, is because the Filipinos here feel the need to practice what they have been practicing previously in the Philippines. I think that, for the Church of Macau, it is very good, because I think it has given a lot of energy to the church in Macau. Going back to your point about witnessing, when you see that the Church is alive, when you see people singing inside a Church, you witness an overflow of people outside the church doors and then, people from Mainland China, the tourists they come to Macau, they see this and they become curious. This even happens with the local Macau people. They see this, they hear this, they witness it. It makes them think and it makes them see that there is a Catholic Church in Macau and that the Catholic Church in Macau is very much alive. Although, having said that, I would have probably liked to see an old aspiration come true: it would be good if we could have a more blended interaction between local Catholics and immigrant Catholics. I know that it is not that easy to do, mainly due to the language barrier. Things like the Santo Niño celebration and Simbang Gabi show us that the Church is alive, that the faith of the people is something that is active. And I think that it is a really good thing that the presence of Filipinos here contributes to, you could say, the dynamism of the Catholic Church in Macau.
How was this dynamism harmed by this pandemic? The Filipino community was one of those that suffered the most with the economic downturn here in Macau. Many were forced to leave and, we tend to believe that, when people are confronted with moments of crisis, their faith also tends to grow. Is that the case, with the Filipino community here in Macau?
In my research, in the context of my PhD dissertation, I found that even under normal circumstances, you could say that the intensity of the faith is already quite strong. And, yes, it is true that when people experience some sort of crisis, you could say that the intensity of their faith, their dependence on God also becomes stronger. But, for me, I think that Filipinos are consistent, in the sense that, whether there is a crisis or not, whether there are difficulties or not, their faith is quite consistent. It is really like a part of them, not only culturally, but also something that is quite natural for the Filipinos. Faith is in the DNA of the Filipino people. Even in ordinary conversations, you could hear this expression of faith. Anyway, going back to your question about how the pandemic has affected the Filipino community in Macau, I think that the faith is still the same, it is constant, but then, at the same time, you could say it was a situation where the expression of that faith became even more pronounced. When Filipinos talk about their difficulties and their problems, they always mention God, they always mention their faith, they always mention their trust in God, their trust in Mary, their trust in Jesus, the help of the Holy Spirit and things like this. In these times, you could say that the expression can be seen verbally or even in the body language. When they go to celebrate the Eucharist, it becomes more pronounced, but it is always there.
Five centuries on, five hundred years after Magellan arrived in the Philippines, is there still space for evangelization in the archipelago?
Yes. I think that, culturally, there are still a lot of cultural practices or traditions in the Philippines that could be transformed by the Gospel. The idea of patronage I mentioned early… Culturally, when you have a Baptism and then you choose the godparents for the child, normally people would choose powerful people, rich people to be godparents of the infant that is going to be baptized. This has not yet been transformed by the Gospel. The spirit should be for the godparents to be somebody who can help raise the child to become a true Christian or a true Catholic. That’s just one aspect, but there are many facets in the culture that still have to be touched and transformed by the Good News and the Gospel. The world is changing and it is not that easy to evangelize in the same way that we were evangelizing and the Church was evangelizing five hundred years ago. I think that, even though five hundred years have passed since Catholicism and Christianity came to the shores of the Philippines, there is still room for planting the seed, not only socially, but also geographically, in different parts of the Philippines. For example, in the south there is a very big Muslim population. But there’s room for evangelization also culturally and in terms of attitude, in the way people live their life and relate with each other. There’s always space for the Holy Spirit to do its work, of touching the hearts and the lives of people.
Follow
