Faith, fate and fortune

Title

Creator

Patanne, E.P.

Language

English

Source

Volume XV (Issue No.7) July 1963

Year

1963

Subject

Faith (Christianity)

Christianity

Christianity and other religions

Catholic Church -- Philippines

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

The average Filipino today believes in Faith, in Fate, in Fortune. All three can be rolled into one.

Fulltext

■ The average Filipino today believes in Faith, in Fate, in Fortune. All three can be rolled into one. FAITH, FATE AND FORTUNE E. P. Patanne The lowland population of the Philippines which in cludes the larger language groups in the islands usually finds distinction, in belong ing to “the only Christian nation in Asia.” Christianity in the Philip pines today has moved up in to the highland groups and deeper into the interior. Ca tholic and Protestant mis sionary effort in this country continues. The Christianity in the Philippines is largely defined by adherence to the Roman Catholic Church. And some 83 percent of Filipinos pro fess this faith. In high schools, Filipino students are constantly re minded that one of the eter nal contributions of Spain to Philippine history is the Catholic religion. A perusal of Philippine history does sustain this statement. It was this religion which the early Spanish-Mexican mis sionaries nurtured in this ar chipelago that was to pro vide a common faith for con glomerations of etho-linguistic groups. Some Filipino scholars have even asked the question: “What if Spain did not come to the Philippines?” Of course the answer, at best, would still remain a speculation. The fact is — Spain ruled the Philippines for over 300 years. Another fact is that the' first Filipino converts to Ca tholicism were those already settled in the coastal areas. Until the close of the nine teenth century, Catholic mis sionary work in the hinter lands was a painful effort. In the south, in the area of Mindanao, Palawan and Sulu, where Islam had ear lier established strongholds, July 49 Catholicism was to content itself with small outposts. And these had to be backed by' force. Checked in the-south, mis- • sionary work in the interior of the large islands and the mountainous region of north ern Luzon, was till the begin ning of the American occu pation, stymied by strong in digenous religions. Since the turn of the cen tury, however, Catholicism has made deeper penetra tions inland. Catholicism today, with roots extending back 300 years, has suffered change in practice and in belief. This was inevitable. For when Spain moved into the Phil ippines, the islands although politically disunited, more or less, enjoyed a common cuture bolstered by a system of ritual and beliefs differing only in the pantheon of gods. Upon this cultural matrix, Spain imposed a new reli gion. The result today as can be gleaned is a merger or blend of Christian doctrine and rites with pre-conquest beliefs and practices. The Christianity that has found meaning to the larger mass of Catholics is describ ed by scholars as a “rich folk Catholicism." For the new religion was only accepted along lines where the early Filipino with his own native metaphysics, could welcome change with out profound psychological discomforts. The process was dramatic. Although a Por tuguese navigator by the name of Fernao de Magalhaes stumbled upon these islands in 1521, and in the name of Spain saw fit to con sider these lands a Spanish discovery, it was not until about the middle of the se venteenth century that the Hispanization process began. This so-called period of colonization saw an echelon of zealous and sanguine Ca tholic missionaries from Me xico, the' New Spain, move into the Philippines. The redoubtable religious orders — Franciscans, Domi nicans, Recollects and Jesuits — tricking in from their spi ritual hearths in the New World, had accepted a new challenge. Conversion of the inhabi tants of these islands to Christianity was, however, only a stepping stone to con quest and exploitation. 50 Panorama But here were a people whose lives were already locked in their own concept of the universe. The task of the early missionaries was to win a people over to the side of a new faith, some thing which they knew the populace would have to un derstand and accept as some thing better. The initial task of conver sion was not as easy as is nicely told in Philippine his tory books. The early Spanish mission aries knew that they first faced with a terrific language problem. Next, they also knew that it would demand an understanding of the cul ture of the people. Only after having learned the lan guage and having lived with the people, could ideas of change be induced. Hence, it is to the early Spanish priest-historians that Filipino scholars today can be indebt ed for their narratives of the life-ways of the Filipinos at that time. If the Philippines today is a highly Christianized coun try it is because of the fact that the idea of a new reli gion was finally accepted by the larger groupings of Fili pinos. A new set of ideas was pushed across an entire ly strange cultural setting. Although we feel that some form of coercion was used, still we believe that religion could only be sold on its own merits. The early Spanish mission aries already knew the con cept of ‘motivational re search.’ We are rather in clined to disbelieve the view that Catholicism was ram med down the Filipino’s throat. We tend to believe thai Catholicism was pushed in a slow and painful effort in a kind of ‘soft sell’ approach. Cultural mechanisms had to be discovered and tapped and this the Spanish mission aries did. The social structure of the early Filipinos was analyzed. Only, to our thinking, a full understanding of lines of descent, inheritance, resident ial patterns, authority figures, generational respect, familial roles and kinship terminolo gy could have guided the early missionaries into win ning over a largely matriar chy-oriented population to accepting the symbol and July 51 the implications of the Holy Mother. The kind of Catholicism introduced into the Philip pines was not based on the reconquista tradition, which by its nature was a welldefined crusading faith that Spain had mounted a mili tary (and bloody) jehad against the “infidels.” The Christianity brought to or imposed upon the Phil ippines in the seventeenth century was already a human ized affair touched with the ideals of the Rennaisance. Then, the hierarchy of the church and the state was of the view that the "evan gelical enterpise should pro vide their compatriots with no licence to trample over the legitimate rights of the natives.” (Andrew Phelan in ‘Hispariization of the Philip pines.’) It was the great wish of the Spanish king at the.out set that the Filipinos be spar ed the Mexican and Peru vian holocust. Spanish impe rialism was to be gentle and forceful but not bloody. After all, the larger object ives of the Spanish advent ure into this part of the world were: (1) to push Por tugal out of the spice trade, (2) establish a base for fur ther missionary -work in Chi na and Japan, and (3) to Christianize the archipelago. The actual Hispanization process began in 1565 when Legaspi’s Mexico-based expe dition finally made a foot hold on the islands. Church and state in the Spanish view being one, the concept of conversion was to be directed toward getting the inhabitants ’under the bell.’ For the Spanish mission aries discovered that while some population clustered in small villages, there were others in the outlying areas. Conversion could be a very difficult thing. Ta get the population concentrated in accessible points was both a religious and political job. To accomplish this, the Mexican-Spanish missionaries not only borrowed from their experiences in Mexico and Peru but also had to intro duce some innovations. The big towns of the Phil ippines today have their hearts in the plaza dominat ed by the church on one side and the town hall on the other. But before making 52 Panorama new changes on the land scape, it was necessary to con vince the Filipino that the new religion was much bet ter. Since the old religions still thrived, it was again deemed necessary that all symbols of native belief be destroyed. Wooden idols and so-called sacred groves were declared idolatrous and destroyed. Al most anything that seemed to bear an indigenous thought was consigned to the flames. The early Filipinos watched these desecrations of the religion of their ancestors with, we believe,, no small amount of protest. But in the cultural setting then obtaining, it was the powerful god that must rule. And the power of the Christ ian God was made eloquent in the booming of the Casti lian cannon, the gleaming armour and weaponry of its new Far Eastern conquistadores. The Christian God was championed against all and any gods. The Spanish soldiery that backed up the conversion movement was, to our think ing, the one big factor that finally broke through native resistance, both in mind and in spirit. This was on the military plane. But the early Spanish missionaries, really accom plished much on the psycho logical plane. Soldiery was only brought in when the convincing had met a hostile resistance. Working their way into the very mind of the people, the Spanish missionaries used some gimmicks, knowledge of persuasion and ‘miracles.’ Every town almost in the Philippines has some kind of ‘miracle’ connected with the person of the patron saint. But is was in th? fiesta, an annual festivity in a town or barrio, celebrated in honor of a patron saint, that the new religion finally came to terms with the values of an old culture. Phelan in his book summa rizes the Hispanization of the Philippines thus: ‘‘From the viewpoint of the Church, the Catholicim of the Filipinos left much to be desired. The quality of indoctrination was not al ways adequate, nor did con verts always participate fully in the sacramental life of the July 53 Church. Outward religious formalism, rather than sound doctrinal knowledge, the tri ple dangers of idolatry, su perstition and magic, added to the infrequency in the ad ministration of the sacra ments, were all defects which could have been partially re medied by a well-trained Fili pino clergy.” Catholicism in the Philipines today, to its larger ad herents, seems to be defined by a compromise arrived at centuries back between the new and the old religions. The early Filipinos accept ed many features of the new religion, but they also retain ed certain features of their own. Hence, the view that Christianity in the Philip pines today, to a large extent, is a kind of ‘folk Catholic ism.’ It’s a new and foreign re ligion accepted and adapted by a people whose basic out look toward life had already been sunk in their ancient subconscious. The average Filipino today believes in Faith, in Fate, in Fortune. All three can be rolled into one. The Catholic Filipino wor ships God, believes in the Bible, goes to church on Sun days — but he also conceives of the Lord as a “giver of gifts,” performs certain ri tuals and reads omens in so many things. The sweepstake is an al most weekly affair in the Philippines. To win a major prize and a big purse, the typical Filipino today would invoke not only his Christian God but also a be lief-idea that could guaran tee a high probability score “to make it.” The ritual demanded to accomplish this end, again, is worked through the rituals of the Catholic religion, but ever strengthened by other formulas based on numero logy, astrology and supersti tion. But over the years, all these acts of propitiation and an intelligent reasoning on Faith have been so blended that form and substance in spiritual affairs have achiev ed a certain consistency. And the average Filipino does not feel ill at ease in moving through this channel of be havior and action. But he has begun to feel ill at ease because the reli gion he has finally imposed 54 Panorama upon himself suffers from inner inconsistencies. These inconsistencies form, as a Filipino historian has pointed out, one stumbling block to the Philippines mov ing forward. For the Filipino believes in technical progress. He can appreciate this. But he is not quite so willing to alter a tradition fortified by his pre sent system of worship and ritual. It is again a strange thing but the Catholic Church in the Philippines can see this ‘change’ clearly and, against an almost fixed matrix of tradition, Filipinos are mov ing forward. — The Asia Ma gazine. ECONOMIC CZARINA? The way thirigs are going now, says Ernesto del Rosario of the Manila Chronicle, Senator MariaKalaw Katigbak may soon be the ‘economic czarina of the Republic.” Dr. Jose Katigbak, notes del Ro sario, is already head of the ACCFA. Senator Ka tigbak ‘s son in law Armand Fabella is Program Im plementation Agency director and her nephew Sixto Roxas is chairman of the National Economic Council and the Rice and Corn Agency. ‘‘Some people say [Senator Katigbak] is also related to Executive Secretary Rufino Hechanova [Senator Katigbak], the first crowned beauty queen of the country, was Visayan like Fenny.” Some set up, indeed! July

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