A little Santo Niño story from 1965

In April 1965 the Philippines celebrated the 4th Centennial of the Christianization of the Philippines. Much of the celebration was centered, naturally enough, in Cebu City. I was already in Grade 5 then at the Colegio del Santo Niño, run by the Augustinian Fathers, the guardians of the Santo Niño around which revolves the Philippine Catholic faith as we know it today.

As a fitting tribute to the Holy Child, then Pope Paul VI elevated the status of the old San Agustin Church that housed the image to what it is today --the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño. The pope sent Cardinal Ildebrando Antoniutti as the papal legate, his representative in the various activities commemorating the momentous occasion in the country's religious history.

There was a story that went around at the time about the Santo Niño that gives me the goosebumps even to this day. Let me warn the reader that I cannot vouch for the veracity of the story. What I can assure the reader is that there was indeed such a story that regaled us very young boys as we immersed ourselves in what was going on.

Whether the story is true or not, I really do not know. But there was such a story. And as young boys growing up under Augustinian education and oversight, we believed in the story in our hearts, with all our beings. Now, as a very grown man in the midst of what I am told is the 5th Centennial in 2021 instead of 2065, I recall the story with sadness. For I have come to believe it to be true and I cannot believe they are doing this to Santo Niño.

Anyway, as the story went, the Augustinian Fathers reportedly wanted to bring the Santo Niño to Spain for a sort of sentimental visit or homecoming. But on the appointed day, and try as they might short of risking damage to the fragile centuries-old image, they just could not pry and lift it from its holy pedestal. It was as if the Santo Niño did not want to go.

The story went on to say that when it was decided to forego the plan and instead just bring the Santo Niño on local pilgrimages around the country, the image very easily and effortlessly got lifted by a single priest. That was in 1965 at the heart of the 4th Centennial Celebration. Today, the Santo Niño continues to work wonders in men's hearts, in tiny little stories every individual person will swear to be true in his own life.

What they say is the 5th Centennial this year, 2021, instead of in 2065, would have been a very grand and affluent affair. But then along came COVID. And I know deep in my heart, the same heart that once beat in a Grade 5 boy's chest, that there is only one power that can bring COVID as a message to where, when, who, and how it can be driven home loud and clear.

I could be wrong in all of this. And maybe I should have listened to the wife who said it was pointless to fight with one voice against many with bigger voices. But I am not fighting. I am just going back to a time when innocence was truth and truth still made a difference in a young boy's Christian beliefs. I want to be true to that boy, to recapture his heart. For it is to little boys that the Santo Niño reveals the majesty that is God's alone.