500 years of Christianity in the Philippines?

Professor Danilo Madrid Gerona writes in his book ‘Ferdinand Magellan’:

“The chieftain of Cebu, Rajah Humabon, whom Argensola described as one who accepted baptism, purposely out of fear for the Spanish arms and not because of zeal nor understanding of the faith he received, …” page 368

“For the Spaniards, the Mass was the most appropriate sacramental expression of gratitude to God for miraculously surviving their ordeals. But for the chieftain and ‘the great number of Indians, who seemed in every way delighted by this worship of the gods’ according to Transylvanus, it was a spectacular event punctuated by cannon explosions and colorful ceremonies where they participated only by mimicry: …the two kings went to kiss the cross like us, but they offered nothing, and at the elevation of the body of our lord they were kneeling like us and adored our Lord with joined hands.” Page 255

“After the Mass, Magellan presented before the assembly a cross with the nails and the crown to which the chieftains manifested their reverence, in imitation of the Spaniards. No amount of linguistic gymnastics could have made possible for Enrique, the translator, to effectively convey the cultural symbolism of these religious icons of Castilian Christianity. The chieftains could not have understood how the cross was used for execution of criminals since no such penal strategy existed in their culture. More incomprehensible for them to understand that the most Supreme Being for Christianity died on the cross.” Page 255

“Appealing to the credulity of the natives, Magellan boasted that if the cross was to be found on the highest mountain in their locality, ‘neither thunder, lightning, nor the tempest could do them hurt.’” Page 255-256

“Aside from the subtle feature of Spanish ritual of possession, the planting of the cross, a distinctively pious ceremony, was actually a symbolic representation of taking possession.” page 301

“In fact these natives who, few weeks after Magellan’s landing, had accepted the seed of Christianity, suddenly made a violent act of apostasy ventilating their outrage on the persons and objects held sacred to Christians such as the chapel earlier built and used.” Page 368

(apostasy: renunciation of a believe or faith, the person who apostatizes is an apostate, Oxford dictionary)

“The account of Fray Aganduru Moriz recorded that … the angry throng which passed by the makeshift chapel whose altar they violently destroyed snatched the frontal and the altar mantles, threw the crosses and the image of the child Jesus, the Santo Niño. The cross that Magellan raised was also pulled down by the unruly crowd amid great noise as expression of their mockery.” Page 368-369

A fleet manifest bearing the name of Pedro Artiga reports about the same scene: “From their ships, the men were shocked as they witnessed the desecrations committed by the natives who hurled to the ground the cross hoisted on a tree kicking and breaking it to pieces with great fury, indicating the enormous anger of this people toward anything Hispanic.” page 341

The other chiefs who accepted baptism most likely also had apostatized, the Friars Buzeta y Bravo believed that the chieftain of Limasawa was among them.” Page 370

“Tupas must have assumed the place of Humabon, when the old chief had passed away. It was undeniable that this chief had developed deep hatred towards the Spaniards and refused to accept baptism, even during the arrival of Legaspi more than 44 years after.” Page 370

Magellan’s attempts to found Christianity in the Visayas lasted from March 31, 1521 (first Mass at Limasawa to May 1, 1521 (expulsion of the surviving Spaniards after the massacre in the forest and their departure). After these four weeks the indigenous Cebuanos gladly returned to worship idols made of wood and religious rituals to adore their god whom they called Anitos.

Permanent Christianization began in 1556 with the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi at Cebu. Consequently the quincentennial of the victory in Mactan is justified but the 500 years of Christianity celebration is questionable.

Erich Wannemacher

Lapu-Lapu City

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Fighting the wrong enemy

The homily my mom heard today was basically about the world falling into the pits of chaos not because of war or political rifts, but because of a tiny organism.

It’s crazy to think about, really. We are all so desperate to destroy and conquer each other with nukes and bombs when something so much smaller than ourselves will devour us without bias.

Humanity was never meant to go up against humanity. It should have never been a war of people, but a war for them.

I know it’s a shout into the dark, but I hope that when this virus finally waddles back into nonexistence, may we remember how weak all of us are in the hands of the universe – how brittle we were amidst the outbreak. I pray we finally start fighting the enemy instead of each other.

Nina Fatima C. Tundag

Cebu City