I.

Introduction

I believe that this paper has its beginnings from a challenging experience lately during

my Pastoral Year program back in 2016. It was a hot afternoon and a scheduled talk was being

conducted by our student organization on the seminary gym of which I was obliged to attend.

Upon going towards the venue, a fellow classmate of mine happened to pass by and was unaware

of what was going on at the gym. He asked me and I said that the topic was on the Church of the

Poor. Of which, he replied, “But, there’s no such thing as Church of the Poor…” and he said it

repeatedly with conviction in his tone as he went the other way. I, on the other hand, had a

feeling of resentment and was offended by his answer as I was listening to the duration of the

talk. But in the long run, I’ve realized the paradox, that the more I remember him saying those

words; the more I was convinced of the opposite, that the Church I am with, is a truly a “Church

of the Poor”. For the benefit of myself and for others who might read this, I write this paper to

prove that such kind of church exists.

Upon writing this paper, I have used as my primary sources, the some books written by

the late Fr. Niall O’Brien and Fr. Romeo Empestan, of which contains accounts of their

missionary and pastoral work in the Diocese of Bacolod during the 1960s-1980s. They have

wrote about the significant events on the Martial Law years, of which contains the numerous

experiences of not only their personal accounts but about the lives of both priests and lay faithful

who have lived through the oppressive regime of the Marcos dictatorship. Fr. O’Brien’s books

are namely “The Revolution from the Heart” and “Island of Tears, Island of Hope.” Special

emphasis is given to the accounts regarding Fr. O’Brien’s contribution to the concept of “Active

Non-violence” and to his gradual developmental work of creating the Basic Christian
Communities or Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) in his own missionary ministry. He was an

Irish priest assigned in Negros by the Columban Missionary Society. On the other hand, Fr.

Empestan wrote a memoir called “The Struggles of the People and the Church of the Poor in

Negros in the 70s to 90s: A Memoir.” He was a local priest of the Diocese of Bacolod who

helped the growth of the BEC and was an active promoter of Social Justice during his time as

Social Actions Director.

Their personal accounts will serve as narratives of analysis in Social Theory. In the

attempt, the paper uses Bourdieu’s Methodology as tools for Social Critique. We find in

Bourdieu’s theory and method that people are beings that exhibit Habitus, are situated in a

specific field and acquire specific forms of Capital, of which are governed by certain rules or

Doxa. These concepts are seen as manifestations of social phenomena, a way of explaining

society. We come to mind, Bourdieu’s concept of individuals as “Theory-generating agents” and

look at the accounts of these two interesting persons as a way of understanding social reality.

This paper then is a product of both reflective and analytical thinking of power relations in the

context of the Diocese of Bacolod, and is limited to a social critique, through the lens of

Bourdieu, of a specific part of the history of the Diocese.

And so, this paper delves into a “Bourdieusian” perspective in the development of the

BEC in the History of the Church in Negros and its sociological implications of Active Non-

violence through a brief reading of Fr. O’Brien’s and Fr. Empestan’s testimonial literature and

build on an identity of the social institution, the Church in Negros as a Church of the Poor.
 II. The Application of the Concepts of Habitus, Field, Capital and Doxa in the

Context of the Church in

Fr. Niall O’Brien was an Irish Columban missionary assigned to the Island of Negros,

where he has spent most of his life serving the poor most especially in the parishes of the

hinterlands of Southern Negros. He arrived in an opportune time of 1964, since the Second

Vatican Council was in full swing and thus, he was tasked to usher the people of Negros of

where he was assigned, into a new paradigm of being Church. Truly it was a great time, when

the main theme of theology was tasked of turning towards the people in contrast to the old way

of the Tridentine mass of the priest facing the altar.

As a young and energetic new pastor, Fr. O’Brien tried to inculcate the new trends of the

2nd Vatican Council. As one document, Populorum Progressio, states and was rumoured to be

Pope Paul VI favorite phrase, “Towards an Integral Human Development.” For Fr. O’Brien, this

new way of theology meant giving back to the people the power to be able to govern themselves

as members of the Church, and thus being able to live the Gospel while not being solely

dependent on the priest every time. In concrete terms, he meant that, people should be able to

organize themselves into support groups and be co-workers of the priest in the work of the

parish. His vision was that every member of the parish could, by themselves conduct prayer

meetings, visits to the sick, organize charity programs and the like, without the priest supervising

them all the time. He wanted a parish that he can collaborate on it’s own when his missionary

duty demands him to be replaced or so. This was the vision he accounted to be, during this first
assignment in the parish of the town of Sipalay. Later, did he knew that what he was envisioning

were precursors to the ideas of the BEC.

As a Columban Missionary, he was tasked to the ministry of evangelization rather than

only to administer the parishes. One of his first projects came into fruition in the light of the Sa-

maria seminars. These were seminars about Basic Catechism and its main aim was to establish a

chapter of the lay group called “Barangay sang Virgen”. To his own knowledge, he used the Sa-

maria seminars to organize the far-flung towns and hamlets of his parish into core groups

together with lay leaders. It created a ripple effect to the different places and made the people

close to the church again. Many who were going through the said seminars were by themselves

too, were educated to facilitate seminars to others in their community. For Fr. O’Brien, this was

the solution to what he saw as people who were “first sacramentalized but not yet catechized” in

his own parish. But this was just the beginning of Fr. O’Brien’s plan, since he saw something

lacking in the Sa-maria seminars, when people were still not self-reliant on themselves in dealing

with problems in the community. Even though people were praying together, but they weren’t

taking care of each other’s sick. He felt that he was not off the ground yet since the seminars

only provided the catechetical aspect of community life.

Another problem was realized when he saw that the same seminars where used by the

hacienderos, themselves who were the ones sponsoring these said seminars, as a way of

controlling their own people. He saw poor people without decent clothes attending well-funded

seminars, complete with delicious snacks while back in their kubos they couldn’t eat a complete

meal. That picture gave him the paradox that the rich were merely utilizing the poor for their

own gain. Gone were the days the famous saying of the island boasts: “Ang kwarta gina-piko,

gina-pala” (Money was shoveled and hoed) when the opposite was happening, “Pati and pala kg
piko, gina-kwarta” (When now, shovels and hoes are sold). After that experience, Fr. O’Brien

knew he must do something with the crooked mentality of the Negrense Elite. One time he

visited the house of a prominent haciendera to petition a raise in the obreros’ minute wage. To

his frustration, he only ended up listening to the old woman’s worry of not being able to receive

communion recently since she was not able to say confessions the last time, rather than having a

chance for her hearing out the farmers’ plea to alleviate them from poverty. Sadly he wasn’t able

to insert the important matter for the old woman declined to converse further. Because of this, Fr.

O’Brien, although there were many experiences that were more grim than the last one, never

resorted to armed struggle because of the deafness of the rich; his methods were always towards

Active Nonviolence. It is worthy to note that some priests of the diocese had already defected

towards the mountains, joining the NPA, not for the sake of communism but for the liberation

from oppressive regime. To name a few are Frs. Luis Jalandoni and Frank Fernandez, who now

serves as spokespersons of the rebels.

However, not all the elite were like the old woman previously, some were sympathetic to

the poor peasants like the “Barefoot Doctors” which he helped organize, in order for the poor

peasants to avail of medical care, while being able not to spend much. Indeed, Fr. O’Brien was

pastorally zealous when it comes to the plight of the poor.

There are more stories about the things Fr. O’Brien contributed, however what was

considered a real success for him was when he was able atlast to organize the becs throughout

his parish of Tabugon. With the help of his neighboring priests and fellow missionaries, he was

able to push through the implementation of the fully structured becs, which did not only provided

the spiritual but also the temporal needs of the community. It was also at this time when Marcos

began his reign as dictator when he suspended the writ of habeus corpus, declaring Martial Law
all over the country. One of the most interesting stories of how the lay faithful have joined

together to face the insurmountable corrupt system was when the during the unjust incarceration

of Fr. O’Brien together with two priests and seven lay leaders dubbed the “Negros Nine”, who

were accused of perpetuating the murder of the Mayor of Kabankalan, created international

pressure through rallies and Church mobilization, not to release them as guilty in bail, but to

prove them as innocent of the crime and be released from prison.

On January 1981, the now saint, Pope John Paul II was on his papal visit to the

Philippines. It was made possible by the insistence of the late bishop, Msgr. Antonio Y. Fortich.

Seeing it was opportune for the pope to see the reality of the country that will eventually be

covered up by the corrupt government regime, he convinced his fellow episcopates to have the

pope visit the Diocese of Bacolod, where he gave a speech addressing both sugarbarons and

sugarworkers, that until now resounds on the present pastoral thrust of the diocese as the Church

of the Poor. During his visit, the pope personally said to Msgr. Fortich, “You need to defend the

poor, otherwise we will lose them to godless ideology.” Even the pope already knew, what was

truly happening in the diocese at that time for he was the one who assigned Msgr. Fortich to be

bishop in his own diocese. As the words of Msgr. Fortich would describe the social environment

of the people of Bacolod, it was a “Social Volcano” that is waiting to erupt from the injustices

done by rich hacienderos to their lowly duma-ans, sacadas & obreros, an notorious part of

history for the Negrenses that has been associated to the Martial Law years of the country.

It was in this situation that a new way of being church was discovered in the Diocese of

Bacolod. It was truly an opportune time for new developments since the 2nd Vatican Council

that begun from 1964, had just pursued to apply “Aggiornamento vis-a-vis Resourcement” and

when Social Encyclicals like Populorum Progressio, emphasized social justice as a forefront to
the maladies of oppression. Development, that is, in social and economic spheres was the new

name for peace, as the church documents implies. On other parts of the world, priests and lay

faithful alike had opted to a new kind of paradigm for social justice, names like Oscar Romero

and Mahatma Gandhi were associated with the so-called method of “Active Nonviolence.” For

the Church, Active Nonviolence, was a development to the Just War Theory, of which from St.

Augustine, towards St. Aquinas and onwards to this specific part of time gradually became the

answer of the Church to the rising need to stop violence done by oppressive regimes of the Cold

War era throughout the world.

In the Diocese of Bacolod, “Active Nonviolence” took on a new form, of which took the

process into a higher plane of understanding, to living the gospel in a revolutionary situation and

to living through the injustices as a Christian Community. The Basic Christian Communities vis-

a-vis Ecclesial Communities (BEC) or locally called “Magagmay nga Kristyanong Katilingban”

became a refuge for the lay faithful especially of those living in the hinterlands. It became a

sanctuary from the oppressive regimes of both sides of the conflict, either coming from the

military or the revolutionaries. A story was told in one part of Fr. O’Brien’s parish, the

townspeople had enough of the trouble caused by a bandit and his gang whom were associated

with the NPA. Their BEC organized a celebration of the mass in front of the bandit’s house and

afterwards persuaded him to surrender his armaments peacefully, of which by the intervention of

the priest together with the lay leaders, eventually resolved to surrender himself and later on

became a member of that Christian community. It created a ripple effect and most people like

him, either side of the military or the revolutionaries consented peacefully through Fr. O’Brien’s

Active Nonviolence. It was at this time that the BEC no longer remained as venues for prayer but

has become an integral unit of the Local Church, a kind of mini-parish. It delved into other
aspects of Christian living other that being liturgical in nature. The usual prayer activity called

“Panimbahon”, which is a sort of a Celebration of the Word, developed in time into venues for

problem-solving in the community and a place of sharing each one’s presence and property. The

lay faithful realized that prayer come into fruition with work, thus the answers to their prayers

lies not on prayer alone but coupled with effort. The BEC organization consists of the Kapilyan,

of which under his or her leadership are those in charge of various aspects of the community, e.g.

Catechism, social action, family life, health, the youth and the like. The other members of the

BEC serve not as servants of the Kapilya but are themselves the foundation of the community. It

was where the Christian virtue of sharing, that was practiced by the early Christian communities

is rediscovered anew.

III. Conclusion

Today, the Diocese of Bacolod still has as its pastoral thrust to becoming the Church of

the Poor by the establishment to the BEC. The role of the Church in the political sphere adjusts

with the signs of the times. Once the Church has stood its ground against the oppressive Marcos

regime, so now the Church still stands on the cause of the poor, yet still respecting the autonomy

between State and Church. Through the Social Action Center of the Diocese various pastoral

programs are still actively functioning ranging from poverty alleviation to legal assistance to

human rights victims. Protests such as against environmental destructions, anti-life legislations

with "Team Patay-Team Buhay" as the peak, and engaging in many other issues with the

abolition of PDAF as the latest, all prove to the fact that this is a "politically-involved Church."

However, it would have not been possible without the lay faithful who side by side join with the

priests on the fight against social-evils.