Sangkusing

3.  TAGALOG AND THE VISAYAN MISSIONS

Yet, although raiding Moros remained an ever-present peril, the Visayan missions made considerable progress during the 17^th century.  The massive mission churches of Bohol, Leyte and Samar, many of which still stand, though they only now are beginning to be appreciated as particularly splendid examples of Philippine colonial architecture, prove that in the latter part of the 17^th century when they were built, the Jesuit missionaries had largely succeeded in transforming the semi-nomadic tribes they had found upon arrival into a settled Christian population.  Among the Tagalogs, they added to their original mission of Taytay-Antipolo the towns of Silang, Indang and Maragondong, in the present province of Cavite, besides accepting the chaplaincy of the troops and shipyard workers in the great naval base of Cavite proper.  They also took charge of the island of Marinduque, off the southern coast of Luzon, and mission stations along the east coast of Mindoro.

NON-SPANISH JESUITS

This, in spite of the fact that the supply of men from the Spanish provinces of the Society was thinning down to a trickle.  The noble Spanish nation, exhausted by its magnificent effort to provide missionaries for half of the world, could do no more.  Fr. General Oliva sent out a call for volunteers for the Philippines to the rest of the Society, and the provinces of northern and central Europe rose to the challenge.  It is not generally known that the Philippine Province of the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries, though still largely Spanish in composition, had a generous admixture of Jesuits of other nationalities.  The reason is chiefly because these Belgian, Italian, German and Czech Jesuits sank their individuality in the common cause to the extent of adopting not only the Spanish language and Spanish ways, but even Spanish names.  Who, without access to the catalogues preserved in Jesuit archives, would suspect that Father Pable Clain, for instance, was really Paul Klein of Bohemia, or Father Ignacio de Monte was really Walther Sonnenberg of Switzerland, or Juan de Pedrosa was really Adolf Steinhauser of Austria?

2.  PHILIPPINE NOVITIATE & THE MORO WARS

Garcia had the vision to foresee that the Philippine vice-province could not adequately supplied with men from Europe and America; it should as soon as practicable draw at least a part of its membership from the Philippines itself.  To do this, Garcia conceived the plan of establishing a separate novitiate in Antipolo, but he ran into financial difficulties and had to postpone his plan until 1606.  Two years later, Captain Pedro de Britto and his wife offered their huge estate in San Pedro Makati, a district near Manila, for a novitiate.  The offer was accepted but the construction took so long that the novices were unable to occupy it until 1622.  Less than a decade later the novices had to go back to the College of Manila because it was more economical to support them in the College of Manila than in the separate community.  The estate however remained obra pia under the auspices of the Jesuits.

THE PHILIPPINE JESUIT PROVINCE

In 1605, the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus was erected with Fr. Gregorio Lopez as first provincial.  It had a membership of 67, distributed among 11 residences, namely, a college of secondary and higher studies (the College of Manila), a residential college attached to it (the College of San Jose), seven mission residences and two mission stations.  Ten candidates, six for the priesthood and four for the brotherhood, were undergoing their novitiate.

FROM MISSION TO PROVINCE (1581-1768)

In 1581, the first Jesuits from the Province of Mexico arrived in the Philippines. The mission was headed by Fr. Antonio Sedeño, the Superior. His companions were Fr. Alonso Sanchez and Brother Nicolas Gallardo. A fourth member, Scholastic Gaspar Suarez de Toledo, had died during the voyage from Acapulco. In 1585, the first novice was accepted, Juan Garcia Pacheco, a Spaniard. In 1591, mission stations were established in Balayan, Batangas, in Taytay, and in Antipolo, Rizal. In 1593, the first Jesuit mission stations were established in the Visayas in Tibauan, Panay. There, Fr. Pedro Chirino opened the first school of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. It was a catechetical school for natives. Later the school was expanded with an elementary school both for Spanish and Filipino boys. The first Filipino in the Society of Jesus was a certain Martin Sancho or Sanchez. He was received into the Society in Rome. In 1601, he returned to the Philippines but died shortly thereafter of tuberculosis.

In June of 1595, Fr. General Claudio Acquaviva made the Philippine Mission into a Vice Province dependent on the Province of Mexico. Fr. Sedeño was its first Vice-Provincial. In September of the same year, the College of Manila was opened in the Jesuit compound in Intramuros on Calle Real (later Calle General Luna). The College offered courses in grammar, philosophy, theology, and canon law.

1.  FIRST MISSIONS (1581 - 1596)

In September 17, 1581, three Jesuits from Mexico arrived in Manila.  They were Fr. Antonio Sedeño, the superior of the group, Fr. Alonso Sanchez and Brother Nicolas Gallardo and were sent at the request of Don Guido de Lavezares, the second governor of the Philippines, and Fray Domingo de Salazar, O.P., its first bishop.  Father General Mercurian’s instructions were that they should familiaries themselves with conditions in the colony and report on the advisability of establishing a permanent Jesuit mission.

While carrying out these instructions, they made themselves useful in many ways.  They had been given a house outside the walled city in a fishing village called Lagyo, between the present districts of Ermita and Malate; but they went daily into the city to perform their priestly ministry among the Spanish settlers, their Filipino domestics, and the Chinese and Japanese immigrants who were beginning to flock to the Philippines, attracted by the trade.

Father Sedeño is credited with having introduced the arts of stone-cutting and brick-making to the Philippines, and with having supervised the construction of the first stone buildings in Manila.  Father Sanchez was entrusted with highly important tasks by both the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. When Bishop Salazar convoked a synod in 1582, he appointed Sanchez its secretary.  Later that year, Governor Ronquillo sent him on a delicate mission to Macao.  Philip II of Spain had just won the disputed succession to the crown of Portugal, and it was important that the Portuguese of Macao should be persuaded as quickly as possible to give him their allegiance.  Sanchez accomplished this mission successfully.   Upon his return, the Spaniards in the Philippines met in an assembly to deliberate on their necessities, and sent him back to Europe as their accredited agent with the king and the pope.

(*As national director of mass media of the Philippine hierarchy, Fr. James Reuter’s mandate was expanded to include the entire Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, thus, making him the Church’s all-around media expert.)

This communication is the result of a breakdown to communications.  Owing to the disabilities to which the Roman postal service has for some time been subject, Father Reuter* and I were unable to exchange the necessary information regarding my attendance at this Assembly in time for me to attend it.  All I can do, therefore, is to send in this submission through the courtesy of Father Tucci, along with my best wishes for the success of the Assembly.  It is a very sketchy submission, hastily written to raise a few questions on the relationship between the mass media and the process of development.  Since they are question born of ignorance and hence more likely to confuse than to clarify issues, more likely to infuriate than to inform, it may be just as well that I am compelled to raise them from a distance. 

As Catholic broadcasters, you are of course aware that this is the centenary year of the birth of that remarkable Catholic journalist, Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1974).  It will thus be appropriate, and may even be entertaining to recall a piece “On Broadcasting” which he wrote in the 1920’s for the Illustrated London News. 

The tenor of G.K.’s remarks is that this new-fangled instrument called the radio may possibly be useful to the aged and infirm, but bids fair to be a menace to those who are neither.  He recommends that the radio receivers be distributed as an act of charity to the immobilized – the sick in hospitals, crippled old ladies crouched by the fireside – but strictly forbidden to anyone who can walk.