5th centennial

There is a plan by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, apparently hatched by certain influential members within the association, to hold the 5th centennial of the Christianization of the Philippines in 2021, decades earlier than when it should really be, in 2065. Before the nation gets committed to this erroneous plan, it should prod the CBCP to come out in the open instead of being so shadowy about it.

Since the CBCP is not very transparent about the plan, let me surmise that it is rooted on the wrong notion that Christianization of the Philippines started when Ferdinand Magellan baptized a few Cebuanos in 1521. But the voyage of Magellan was a voyage of exploration, not evangelization. The baptisms that occurred came as a matter of course, not of purpose.

In fact, when Magellan was killed in Cebu, the rest of his expedition promptly sailed back to Spain and did not do any further baptisms in the Philippines. With nobody left to nurture the new-found faith of the few Cebuanos he baptized, it is to be presumed that they all reverted to what they were before Magellan came. So the best that can be said about the baptisms done by Magellan is that they were merely symbolic of the Christianization of the Philippines.

It was not until more than 40 years later when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi came in 1565 that real and earnest Christianization of the Philippines took place. This is probably the reason why, for four centuries, the centennials celebrating the Christianization of the Philippines have always been counted from 1565 and not 1521. I was a personal witness to the 4th centennial celebration, which was in 1965. I was in Grade 5 then, at the Colegio del Santo Niño.

And I am pretty sure many Cebuanos are still around today who were themselves witnesses, if not active participants, in that 4th centennial celebration. There was a huge templete built at the reclamation area where most of the religious activities were held. Ildebrando Cardinal Antoniutti, was papal legate or representative of Pope Paul VI, who could not make it to the Philippines for the activities.

If the CBCP wants to all of a sudden change a centuries-old tradition, it better have a really good and plausible reason for doing so, instead of being so mysterious about it. In the course of a few months, I have already heard at least two bishops announcing the 5th centennial to be in 2021 but without going into the details.

Changing a tradition that is already more than four hundred years old is not easy. At the very least, it deserves a very convincing explanation. Instead, what the CBCP is doing is to be very coy about it. It is trying to condition the minds of Filipino Catholics that the 5th centennial will really be in 1521 but is not dignifying them with an explanation.

For the CBCP not to be forthright on the issue only opens the matter up to speculation, and the CBCP itself into suspicion. Celebrations like this one normally involve a lot of money, tons of it, in fact. It is still a very long way to 2065. Many in the CBCP may no longer be around by that time. But changing the celebration to 2021 makes it just four short years away. So, to hell with four centuries of tradition?

‘If the CBCP wants to all of a sudden change a centuries-old tradition, it better have a really good and plausible reason for doing so.’