Just over three and a half hours south of our parish, the peak of a once-active volcano rises majestically, over 575 feet out of Morro Bay. The towering rock has sat dormant for 23 million years, served as a sacred site to the Chumash and Salinan tribes for millennia, has offered a navigational marker for countless mariners (including California’s first European explorers)—and is where the first documented landing of Filipinos in what would later become the continental United States happened, on October 18, 1587. This is why, since 2009, US Congress has recognized October as Pilipino American History Month (PAHM).
I am a proud Pinay (pronounced “piˌnī,” and a term used to describe women of Filipino descent), and a cradle Catholic—who was baptized at Pearl Harbor, to parents and godparents who were also cradle Catholics. Catholicism was introduced to the Philippines in 1521, with the arrival of Portuguese explorer Ferdinão de Magalhães, and the Spanish missionaries who accompanied his expedition. Subsequently, Spain seized what had been a collection of independently governed island-kingdoms, named the archipelago after King Philip II, and declared it an outpost of the Spanish Empire. Spain then occupied the Philippines for over 300 years, converting nearly its entire indio population to Catholicism, before handing the Philippines over to the United States, after its defeat in the Philippine Revolution (which subsequently became part of the US’ Spanish-American War). This is why the Philippines remains such a stronghold for the Church in the world (over 76 million Filipinos identify as Catholic, making the Philippines home to the third largest global Catholic population, after Brazil and Mexico), and why approximately 65% of the US’ Filipino population today—like my parents, godparents, and I—still call ourselves Catholic.
In a way, Filipinos’ ongoing identification with the Church defies reason. Spain’s conquest of the Philippines was barbarous, and inflicted profound material, cultural, and internal/ psychological damage that endures today. And because of what my ancestors survived, I can’t un-see the harm that the Church has done to others, like those in Latin America, and our indigenous populations in California. How can an institution that espouses to be one of love and kindness justify and participate in such aggression and cruelty? And why would people who survived that stay deeply connected to such an institution?
I can’t speak for the millions of Catholics in the Filipino diaspora, but I will say that, ultimately, I stay because Scripture, and my experience in and with our Church. These have shown me that, just as God’s Word teaches us that Church is not just a building (Matthew 18:20), it also teaches us that our Church is not just an ordinary human organization. Ephesians 1:23 tells us that, “The church is Christ's body, the completion of him who himself completes all things everywhere;” and 1 Peter 2:5 tells us that we are “living stones… being built up as a spiritual house”. This reminds us that the Church is us: a living, breathing organism, made up of diverse and co-dependent parts, that are all needed to grow and mature. And this assures me that it is neither accident or complacency that has kept me in the Church, but, rather, a sense of community, an abiding faith that we are all called to advance not subjugation and inequality, but to, “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8); and an awareness that Filipinos can share our histories, struggles, and choices to help all of us build a better Church. We can be a Church that courageously acknowledges dark chapters in our history, seeks forgiveness with humility, and actively works to repair damages inflicted—whether with formerly colonized populations, or with women, divorced people, LGBTQ people, etc.
So, this month—and every month—let us celebrate the faith and valor of our sisters and brothers who have stayed, by responding to and supporting the restorative work Filipinos and other colonized and/ or marginalized populations in our church seek to do.