PHILIPPINE

CHURCH HISTORY
Course
Description:
The study of this course will encourage the students to a
deeper knowledge of the birth of Christianity in the Philippines
through the discovery of the country. Prior to embracing
Christianity our animistic ancestor’s beliefs were anchored on
nature. Through the efforts of missionaries, gradual
conversion succeeded, which contributed to the growth of
Christianity. For some centuries of Philippine Church was
assailed of different challenges which resulted to the
organization of being new Church an offshoot of the Second
Vatican Council’s call for Church renewal. Re-enkindle of the
BEC or Basic Ecclesial Community as the fruit of the PCP-II.
 What does
Christianization mean?
What does
Colonization
mean?
The coming of Spaniards,
Christianization or
Colonization?
 Las islas Filipinas
 Named by Ruy López de
Villalobos in 1543 to Samar
and Leyte

 In honor of King Philip II,

King of Spain
 Sources of History
• Artifacts

• Manuscript (Written document-

Published or unpublished)

• Oral Tradition (1st person

testimonize or the second person,
it is considered as verifiable)
The Filipinos before Spaniards:
1. Can we talk a nation before Spaniards came?

2. Do we have a nation before the Spaniards?

3. Do we have our own custom/culture?

What are the Filipino culture before
Spaniards came?
 Culture of Circumcision
 Bolo/ Sundang
 Clothe/Bahag
 Tattoo (Pentados)
 Piercing
 Sabong
Cultural Context (Before Spaniards)
1. Religion
- Anito/Anita
or Anitos/Diwatas
(Believed in spirits)

-Bathala
(Worshipped a supreme god or superior of all, creator)
- Babaylan
(Pagan Priest)

2. Education
-Alibata
(Ancient Language of Filipino-
The Old Alphabet of the Philippines)
The Coming of
the Spaniards
Outline:
 Nine Year Journey towards 500th Years of
Christianity in the Philippines
 Scenario of the Filipino Faith Prior to Spanish
Regime
 Religious Development in Different parts of
the Country
 The Filipino Clergy
 The Journey of Church of the Philippines (PCP
II)
 B.E.C or (Basic Ecclesial Community)
 -We remember with thanksgiving the 1st Mass
celebrated in Limasawa Island on Easter Sunday March
31.
-We remember the baptism of Rajah Humabon who
was given his Christian name Carlos and his wife Hara
Amihan who was baptized Juana in 1521.
FAITH AND EVANGELIZATION
What is evangelization?
Evangelization is the proclamation, witness and
transmission of the Gospel given to humanity by our Lord
Jesus Christ.
 What will this Era of new
evangelization for the Phil.
consist of?
The Philippine Church initiates concrete activities in pursuit of the
New Evangelization at this time in four areas or dimensions of
concern:
 First: the intensification of promoting mission ad gentes in all our communities,
among our lay people, our priests and seminarians, and men and women in
consecrated life.

Second: Evangelization must keep in mind the imperative of “ bringing Good

News to the Poor”.

Thirdly,we must reach out to the many Catholics whose faith-knowledge and faith-
practice have been largely eroded and even lost.

Lastly, we must renew our attention and zeal toward the reawakening, fuller formation and
animation of young people and youth groups, in both urban and rural settings.
 Nine-Year Era of New Evangelization

LIVE CHRIST, SHARE CHRIST

Looking Forward to Our Five Hundredth

Go and make disciples… (Mt. 28:19)

for
evangelizing
efforts to be
1. The centrality of the Eucharist
fruitful…...

2. The necessity of Prayer

3. The necessity of Conversion

Nine Year Journey towards
500th Years of Christianity
in the Philippines
The Journey towards the New Evangelization
We respond to the call of the Spirit for a New
Evangelization by focusing on the Nine Pastoral
Priorities of the Church in the Philippines as the
key themes over a nine-year period.
9 Pastoral Priorities of the
Church in the Philippines as the
key themes over a nine-year
period:
 Year 2013-Year
of Integral
FAith Formation
Year 2014- Year
of the Laity
Year 2015-Year
of the Poor
Year 2016- Year
of the Eucharist
and the Family
Year 2017- Year
of the Parish as
Communion of
Communities
Year 2018- Year
of the Clergy and
COnsecrated
Persons
Year 2019- Year of
the Youth
Year 2020-
Ecumenism and
Interreligious
Dialogue
Year 2021- Missio
ad Gentes
 Nine Pastoral Priorities of the Church in the Philippines

2013 2017
Year of Faith Year of the Parish as
a Communion of
communities
2020
2014
Year of the
Year of the
2018 Ecumenism and
Laity
Year of the Inter-Religious
Clergy and Dialogue
2015
Year of the Religious
Poor 2021
Year of the
Missio Ad Gentes
2016 2019
Year of the Eucharist and of Year of the
the Family Youth
GIFTED TO GIVE
Christianity was brought to the Philippines in
1521 when the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand
Magellan, landed there, heading a Spanish
expedition in his bid to reach the East Indies,
sailing west.
“As you go, proclaim this message:
‘The kingdom of heaven has come
near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse those who have leprosy,[a]
drive out demons. Freely you have
received; freely give.” (Mat. 10:7-8)
The cross planted by Portuguese
explorer Ferdinand Magellan on
the island of Cebu signifies
Christianity and serves as the
mast of a ship
The ship represents the
navigators of the
expedition that brought
the faith to the island. It
also signifies the Church
and its sacraments.
 Year 2013: Integral Faith Formation.
What a blessing it is that this first pastoral
priority coincides with this Year of Faith as
declared by the Holy Father! Our pastoral
concern goes out to the great many whose
faith hardly plays a significant role in daily
private and public life. We reach out during
this year to those who have drifted away
from the Christian faith. We note with
sadness the erosion of the faith and our need
for true conversion. The Sacred Scriptures
and Tradition, Vatican II and the Catechism
of the Catholic Church and the Catechism
for Filipino Catholics will be fundamental
references of the New Evangelization.
 This is the year of San Pedro Calungsod,
who with San Lorenzo Ruiz, provides an
exemplary model for the mission of the
Church in the Philippines. Integral Faith
Formation will focus on the “12 articles of
Faith” found in the Apostles Creed. Faith
Formation has one objective: a more
intimate relationship between Jesus and his
followers. Blessed John Paul uses the three
phrases: evangelization with “new
methods, new expressions, and new
fervor.” In the end, the Church follows the
way of holiness through conversion and
discipleship.
Year 2014: Laity. This year especially
celebrates both the sacrament of Baptism by
which all the faithful become God’s sons and
daughters and the sacrament of Confirmation
by which they become witnesses of Christ to
others. Yet the gifts of the Holy Spirit through
these sacraments often remain dormant. This
year is to be devoted to the renewal of the laity,
to their “empowerment” or more accurately to
activating their charisms from the Spirit, so
that they may indeed take up their role as
coresponsible agents of evangelization and
lead in the task of social transformation. In this
regard, of paramount global importance is the
ecological challenge of climate change.
Year 2015: The Poor. This year is dedicated to
committing ourselves more firmly to our vision of
becoming truly a Church of the Poor. The new
evangelization is also a powerful call from the Lord to
follow in His footsteps to be evangelically poor. How
far have we journeyed to our vision of Church? How
shall we assist the materially poor to face the
challenges of hunger and poverty, of globalization and
climate change? And together with them eradicate the
evil of corruption and the economic and political
imbalances of our society? At the same time we realize
that the materially poor in our midst have the God-
given power to tell the story of the poor Christ who by
His poverty liberates and enriches us. The whole
Church, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, have to
be in solidarity in the work of restoring integrity and
truth, justice and peace – love – in our benighted land.
Year 2016: The Eucharist and of the Family. This is
a year of great blessing for us. The Holy Father has
chosen Cebu as the host of the Fifty-first International
Eucharistic Congress. We will focus our pastoral
action on making the Eucharist better appreciated and
its missionary implication better lived by the Catholic
faithful. We shall especially emphasize on forming the
Filipino Family as a Eucharistic community of parents
and children, true to its name as a domestic church,
rooted in the Eucharist. An evangelized family is an
evangelizing family. Even as it is increasingly
besieged by secularist values, the Family, as PCP-II
has said, is “the focal point of evangelization.” We
shall intensify our efforts to strengthen marriage and
the family and to protect them from ideas and values
that destroy them.
Year 2017: The Parish as a Communion of
Communities. This is a year when we more deeply
discern not only the structures of governance of our
dioceses and parishes but also of the quality of faith
life in the parish, the fellowship, belongingness, and
participation experienced by its members. In a special
way we shall probe into our efforts of making the
parish a communion of communities, a communion of
Basic Ecclesial Communities and of covenanted faith-
communities and ecclesial movements. We shall
discern and implement measures on how communities
of consecrated life may be more integrated into the
life and mission of the parish. In brief, our focus will
be the building of a parish that is truly a faith
community immersed in the lives of its people.
Year 2018: Clergy and Religious. In our culture,
clergy and religious are the key to the New
Evangelization. Yet they are not immune to the
twin errors of a dichotomy of faith and inadequate
discipleship of Christ. This is a year dedicated to
the integral renewal of the values, mind-sets,
behavior, and life-styles of the clergy and
religious. The aim is to become servant-leaders in
the manner of the Good Shepherd, live the spirit of
the evangelical counsels and be authentic prophets
of the Good News of Jesus and of the Kingdom. It
will be a year, too, of revisiting ways of seminary
and religious formation, of on-going formation,
and of the collaboration of the laity in these crucial
approaches to integral growth and development in
view of mission and ministry.
Year 2019: Youth. It is often said that the youth are
the future of the Church. The youth are in fact the
present of the Church. They are its most numerous
members. They inspire us by their active
participation in society and in the Church. The
involvement of hundreds of thousands of young
people in the various activities of evangelization
and social transformation is a call to greater
participation in the Church. “New methods, new
expressions and new fervor” of evangelization are
imperative. We shall invite the youth to discern
deeply their vocation in the world and in the
Church, especially the Lord’s invitation to them to
the priestly and religious life. How we, as Church,
respond to the aspirations of the youth will shape
the third millennium.
Year 2020: Ecumenism and Inter-Religious
Dialogue. Different faiths and religions are a
formidable challenge to a nation that strives to
be a community, a human family, a unity in
diversity. This year will be devoted to
exploring new ways of being community
through ecumenical and inter-religious
relationships and action. Caritas in veritate,
open, honest, respectful – loving – dialogue of
life, prayer and action is the only way towards
community. At stake are the great values of
peace and harmony,particularly in areas of
armed conflict, solidarity in the struggle for
social change, unity in healing social ills,
integrity and social justice in our land.
[

Year 2021: Missio ad gentes. We are indeed proud that so many of the
Filipino faithful (laity, priests, and religious) are missionaries in all the
continents of the world. It is the duty of faith in Christ to tell his story to
others, especially to those who have not sufficiently heard of him. Even
as we are deeply inspired by the stories of Overseas Filipino Workers
(OFWs) witnessing to their faith in “ad gentes” regions as well as in
highly secularized countries, we need to explore new ways of assisting
them as evangelizers. We have been challenged by Blessed John Paul to
become the “foremost missionaries” in Asia. This year will be devoted
to how we are fulfilling that vocation, how a mission-consciousness in
all the faithful can be formed, how each one can be animated into
becoming a missionary even at home, and more concretely how parishes
and dioceses are supporting our own Philippine-Mission Society.
 In the face of pervasive secularism and materialism, in the
midst of billions who have not truly encountered Jesus Christ
nor heard of His Gospel, how challenged we must be to
embark on the New Evangelization! How can we not want to
share Jesus the Way, the Truth and the Life with those who are
yet to know and love Him who is the answer to the restlessness
of every human heart?
 THAT’S the theme of the celebration of the 5th
Centenary of Christianity in our country. It’s
taken from the gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 10 verse
8 where we hear Christ telling his apostles:
“Freely you have received. Freely give.” It’s actually
Christ’s order for his apostles to do all, to give
all they have got in their work and mission of
apostolate.
We have to be reminded that Christ’s work of
human redemption continues till the end of
time, and this time he involves us even if he
does not need help. That’s because being
God’s image and likeness in Christ, the
mission of Christ is also ours. Just as Christ
went all the way to identify himself with us in
all our possible situations without committing
sin, we are also meant to share what Christ
has and does.
 "G I F T E D T O G I V E" (Matthew 10:8)
WHO IS THE GIFT?
Jesus is the Gift! But do we
recognize the Gift? What Happened on
the Road to Emmaus? (Luke 24:13-35)
In the final chapter of the Gospel of
Luke, there appears a beautiful story
about two men, distraught over the
death of Jesus, who found themselves
in deep conversation with the Teacher
Himself, only they don’t realize it is
Him.
Discover the Gift
Embrace the Gift
Having the mind of Christ. Learning to think like Jesus... But how?
1.) I know who I am. (Identity)
2.) I know my purpose in life. (Mission)
3.) I am aware that God is always with me. (Awareness)
4.) I don't worry about pleasing everyone. (God Alone)
5.) I depend on God's power instead of my own. (Trust)
6.) I am willing to sacrifice for others. (Sacrifice)
Share the Gift
Some simple ways for you to share Jesus to others:
- Love the unlovely. It’s easy to love someone who loves you in return. It’s also
easy to love the beautiful, kind, and lovely people. But it’s a whole different story
to love someone who doesn’t deserve your love or don't treat you well. Yet that’s
what Jesus did and He instructed His followers to do the same.
- Freely forgive. Forgiveness is difficult, especially when you’ve been hurt in a
way that you never thought possible. I know it is not within us to be able to
forgive freely and without condition. But that’s why your forgiveness of another is
such a powerful testimony of Christ’s presence in your life. You know how badly
offense hurts. And you know how freely Christ forgave you in spite of your own
offenses.
- Display joy. Yes, life is difficult. But joy is not about our circumstances which can
change from day to day. Joy is about our condition– of being forgiven and love in
Christ – which will never change. Be a person who is joyful, not continually down,
and others will see Christ in you.