Człowiek w Kulturze 23
Alfredo P. Co
Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
and Lessons of the Evangelization
in China and the Philippines
No empire in the world has risen with the same spectre as that
of the most feared Mongol warriors in the twelve hundred A.D. In
less than eighty years, a remote small Mongol tribe of Temujin was
able to establish the biggest empire the world has ever seen – one
that encompasses the lands from the easternmost tip of Asia in the
Pacific all the way to Europe’s Danube River.1 It was a gigantic dominion of overwhelming military and political force that brought
the most expansive contiguous territories under the control of one
Great Khan. On its good side, however, the Silk Road that started
many years earlier, was given a great new life – trade and commerce, cultural and religious exchange flourished. A great deal of knowledge reached Europe that included science, technology, arts, and
even gunpowder. All these made enormous contributions in bringing
Western Europe out of dark ages. China too, was conquered by the
Mongols, but the Mongols settled in China, founded the new Yuan
Dynasty, established its Capital, and eventually embraced Chinese
culture and civilization.
It covered a huge part of modern day Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China,
Georgia, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
1
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Alfredo P. Co
The Evangelization of China
The initial assessment of the Christian world of the invading Mongols was that the Mongols were demonical enemies at their doorsteps.
But as it turns out, the Mongols were just driven by political and military hegemony, but they emerged to be known for their religious tolerance. Merchants and traders along the expansive Silk Road brought
with them their respective cultures and religions. Judaism, Muslims,
Buddhism and Nestorians2 interacted with each other and flourished
throughout the Central Asia all the way to the Mongolian Court.
The Mongol religious tolerance, enticed the Roman Catholic
Church, and the Pope, thinking the Mongols can be harnessed as possible ally initiates official move of rapprochement with the Mongolian Empire.
The First3 Official Legate: Giovanni da Pian del Carpine
(1182 – 1252)
The Pope at that time was residing in Lyon, France. And so on 16
April 1245 the Roman Pontiff Innocent IV dispatched an aging Ita La leggenda del Prete Gianni e l’Oriente favoloso. “Johannes quidam, qui ultra Persidem et Armeniam in extremo oriente habitans, rex et sacerdos, cum gente sua
Christianus est, sed Nestorianus.”
3
It is hard to determine the precise date of the arrival of the first European to China, but we do know that as early as the first century A.D. Roman merchants frequently
visited the ancient states of Jih-nan and Chiao-chih (present-day North Vietnam) and
Cambodia. The first Roman envoy arrived at the Han court in A.D. 166, and a Roman
merchant, referred to by the Chinese as Ch’in Lun, traveled by sea to South China in
226. The destruction of the West Roman Empire brought an end to contacts between
Europe and China for over a thousand years. A lively maritime trade developed between
Persia, Arabia, and China beginning in the 600’s, but trade between China and Europe,
if indeed there was any, cannot be established as a fact until the 1200’s, when China was
unified with its northern borderlands by Kublai Khan. The new empire, extending from
the Ukraine in the West to China in the East, made contacts between Western Europe
and Eastern Asia possible.
2
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
243
lian Franciscan friar Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (or John of Plano
Carpini or John of Pian de Carpine or Joannes de Plano) to visit the
Emperor of China. Crossing the biting cold of the Siberian winter, not
very different from the Polish winter to be sure, Carpine and his companions traveled about 3,000 miles along the Silk Road. After over
a year long journey the old man finally arrived at the Yuan Dynasty
court and had an audience with the Great Khan on the feast of Mary
Magdalene on 22 July a year after.4
As a papal legate, he carried with him a letter of Pope Innocent IV
addressed to the Emperor Güyük Khan (1246–1248) expressing the
Pope’s intention. The Khan was not receptive to the offer of the Pope
to become Christian, and instead demanded that the Pope and the European rulers swear allegiance with the Khan.
Carpine spent only for about three months in the Kingdom and
journeyed back home empty handed. Ignorant of the culture and the
language of the vast country of China, the aging Carpine wrote the
first “trustworthy, albeit first hand encounter” by a European Catholic
religious mission with Kaytay (or Cathay as it was then called in Europe) that bears the title A History of the Tartars. It tells us that:5
The men of Kaytay are pagans, having a special kind of writing by
themselves, and the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. They
have also recorded in histories the lives of their forefathers; and they
have hermits, and certain houses made after the manner of our churches... They say that they have diverse saints also, and they worship
one God. They adore and reverence Christ Jesus our Lord, and believe the article of eternal life, but are not baptized. They do also
honorably esteem and revere our scriptures. They love Christians,
and bestow much alms, and are very courteous and gentle people…
Cf. Ystoria Mongalorum is the report compiled by Carpine, of his trip to the
Mongol Empire. Written in the 1240s, it is the oldest European account of the Mongols.
Carpine was the first European to try to chronicle Mongol history. Two versions of the
Ystoria Mongalorum are known to exist: Carpine’s own and another, usually referred
to as the Tartar Relation.
5
Cf. Raymond Beazley. The Text and Versions of John de Plano Carpini and
William de Rubruquis. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1903), 8.
4
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Alfredo P. Co
this country is exceedingly rich, in corn, wine, gold, silk, and other
commodities.6
The report, it must be said, was certainly devoid of fact. They did not
have the Old and New Testaments, and being not baptized, there could
have been no canonized saint. Being non-Christian, they could not be worshiping Christ and could not have revered a scripture that was non-existent.
Marco Polo (1254-1324)
The second important Western contact with China was that of
a Venetian traveler Marco Polo. The man sailed off when he was seventeen years of age, together with his father and uncle via the maritime Silk Road from Venice to Cathay. They crossed the Mediterranean,
through Central Asia then to Inner Mongolia, before reaching in 1275
Kublai’s summer capital north of present-day Beijing. Marco is said to
have learned many languages including Chinese, and was often sent
as his father’s ambassador to cities throughout the Chinese Empire.
On his return after twenty-four years of adventure in the vast territory, Marco Polo published a work that mystified the Western world.
His account and narration of what he saw was published in the work,
The Description of the World,7 in which he describes China of the
Yuan Dynasty at the height of its greatness, when it was unrivaled in
its cultural attainments, splendor, sophistication, and power. Marco
Polo describes the Chinese city of Quinsai.8 The account goes:
Quinsay is so large that in circuit it is in the common belief a hundred
of mile round or thereabout …and the streets and canals are wide and
great so that boats are able to travel there conveniently and carts to
6
David L. Weitzman. East Meets West. (USA: Field Educational Publication Inc.,
1938), 9.
7
A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, trans. Marco Polo: The Description of the World
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1938).
8
Contemporary Hangzhou.
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
245
carry the things necessary for the inhabitants. There is a story that it
has 12,000 bridges9 ...the inhabitants are peaceful people… They do
not handle arms nor keep them at home. They do their merchandise
and arts with great sincerity and truth. They love one another so that
a district may be reckoned as one family on account of friendliness,
which exists between the men...10 Quinsay …(has) three thousand artificial baths… I tell you that they are the most beautiful baths and
the best and the largest that are in the world… in this city of Quinsay
again is the royal palace of the king which is the most beautiful and
the most noble palace that is to be found in the world... Great trade in
pearls and in other precious stones and spices is done there.11
The story of Marco greatly fascinated but perplexed many Venetian and the book fueled the imagination of the Europeans of a fabulous world they have not yet seen. Many Europeans could not believe his
description of Cathay that even on his deathbed, Marco was pursued
and asked to recant his story only to be rebuffed by Marco with an
even more startling remark “I have not told half of what I saw.”12
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716)
In 1697, G. W von Leibniz, the German philosopher-mathematician wrote the Novissima Sinica.13 In that work we encounter a most
9
David L. Weitzman. East Meets West. (USA: Field Educational Publication Inc.,
1969), 11.
10
Ibid., 12.
11
Ibid., 12-13.
12
Cf. The Book of Marco Polo – is famous account of Marco Polo’s travel. In
his day the work was translated to many languages and copied many times. About two
hundred years hence, the great western explorer Columbus read Marco’s travelogue,
which he made some marginal markings while exploring the New World. The noted
work survived to these days. The work has been called by many titles, The Book of
Travels, The Travels of Marco Polo, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, A Description of
the World, and even, Il Milione. This last was a nickname given to Marco by critics of
his million stories.
13
Cf. Donald F. Lach. The Preface to Leibniz’s Novissima Sinica. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1957).
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Alfredo P. Co
critical assessment of a Western scholar on the state of cultural accomplishment of Europe par rapport China. Leibniz is quoted saying:
I consider it a singular plan of the fates that human cultivation and
refinement should today be concentrated, as it were, in the two extremes of our continent, in Europe and in Tschina which adorn the
Orient as Europe does the opposite edge of the earth. Now the Chinese Empire, which challenges Europe in cultivated area, and certainly surpasses her in population, vies with us in many other ways
in almost equal combat.14
He noted that:
In the useful arts and in practical experience with natural object we
are, all things considered, about equal to them, and each people has
knowledge which it could find with profit communicate to other. In
profundity of knowledge and in the theoretical disciplines we are superiors. For besides logic and metaphysics, and the knowledge of
things incorporeal, which we justly claims a peculiarly our province,
we excel by far in the understanding of concepts which are abstracted by the mind from the material, i.e., in things mathematical, as in
truth demonstrated when Chinese astronomy comes into competition
with our own. They (Chinese) also yield to us in military science,
not so much out of ignorance as by deliberation. For they despise
everything, which creates or nourishes ferocity in men, and almost
in emulation of the higher teachings of Christ, they are averse to war.
They would be wise indeed if they were alone in the world. But as
things are, it comes back to this, that even the good must cultivate the
arts of war, that evil may not gain power over everything.15
By this measure, Leibniz said, the Europeans are thus considered
superior to the Chinese. But the Philosopher went on with his critical
observation that if the West excelled in the rational and analytic fields,
that was all they seem to offer. Leibniz exclaimed:
David L. Weitzman. East Meets West. (USA: Field Educational Publication
Inc., 1969), 27
15
Ibid., 27-28.
14
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
247
But who would have believed that there is on earth a people who,
though we are in our view so very advance in every branch of behavior, still surpass us in comprehending the precepts of civil life? Yet
now we find this to be among the Chinese, as we learn to know them
better. And so if we are their equals in their industrial arts, and ahead
of them in comprehensive sciences, certainly they surpass us (though
it is almost shameful to confess this) in practical philosophy, that is,
in the precepts of ethics and politics adapted to the present life and
use of mortals.16
This close and indeed intimate observation by the Great German
philosopher signaled the first sensitive and objective evaluation of the
eastern civilization and culture, rising above the pure admiration and
exotic description of Marco Polo and his predecessors. Leibniz continues:
It is difficult to describe how beautifully all laws of the Chinese, in
contrast to those of other people, are directed to the achievement of
public tranquility and the establishment of social order, so that men
shall not be disrupted in their relations as little as possible.17
And Leibniz must have disturbed many European missionaries
when he noted that:
In a vast multitude of men, they have virtually accomplished more
than the founders of religious orders among us have achieved within
their narrow ranks. So great is obedience toward superiors and reverence toward elders, so religious, almost, is the relation of children
to continue anything violent against their parents, even by word, is
almost unheard of, and the perpetrator seems to atone for his actions
even as we make a parricide pay for his deeds…. moreover, there
is among equals, or those having little obligation to one another,
a marvelous respect, and an established order of duties. To us, not
enough accustomed to act by reason and rule, these smack of servi Ibid.
Ibid. Also cf. Donald F. Lach. The Preface to Leibniz’ Novissima Sinica. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1957.) 29.
16
17
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Alfredo P. Co
tude; yet, among them, where these duties are made natural by use,
they are observed gladly.18
G.W. Leibniz noted that:
“…if this process (evangelization, education) should be continued
I fear that we may soon become inferior to the Chinese in all branches of knowledge.”19
He said further, however that:
I do not say this because I grudge them new light, rather I rejoice. But
it is desirable that they in turn teach us those things which are especially in our interest; the greatest use of practical philosophy and a more
perfect manner of living, to say nothing now of their other arts.20
And he thus concluded that:
We (Europe) need missionaries from the Chinese who might teach
us the use and practice of natural religion, just as we have sent them
teachers of revealed theology. And so I believe that if someone expert,
not in the beauty of goodness but in the excellence of people, were
selected as judge, the golden apple would be awarded to the Chinese,
unless we should win by virtue of one great but super human thing,
namely, the divine gift of the Christian religion.21
Leibniz did not earn listeners. The West, eager to move East in its
colonization brought with them, not only their merchandise, but also
their technological inventions and their religion.
Matteo Ricci (1552 – 1610)
In 1577 an Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci joined the Indian Missions to Goa but was summoned and tasked of opening
Ibid.
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
21
Ibid.
18
19
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
249
China for evangelization after some fruitless attempts of Francis
Xavier.
Aware of the Imperial Rule in China, Ricci who celebrated 400
years in 2010,22 was cautious by initially taking the more passive way
of working from the grassroots exciting the interest of the local scholars, and influential men. At hand, they brought with them the latest
Western inventions, clock, globes and maps, books of European engravings and the mathematical, dialing and the projection of maps that
excited the locals. Finally on the 24th of January 1601 they entered the
capital. The mission obtained a settlement in Beijing. Ricci’s civilize disposition to adopt and respect indigenous and dominant Chinese
culture and civilization earned him real appreciation from the locals.
He blended with the locals, adopted their ways, learned their language; made maps for the emperor, introduced Western culture and new
inventions, interacted with the privileged class.
Ricci’s disarming disposition to adopt indigenous customs of learning the classics, adopting to wear the mandarin gown (instead of
the Jesuit religious habit), accommodating ancestor worship into the
Catholic liturgy, and adopting to use Tianzhu “Lord of Heaven” as
translation of God to Chinese all contributed to his smooth rise that
brought him close to the imperial circle.23
So in 1720, Emperor Kangxi issued an edict of toleration toward
Christianity, and the edict reads:
…I say: since Fr. Matteo Ricci, SJ arrived in [came to] China to
practice [the Way] over 200 years ago, you have not displayed any
greed or heterodoxy. In all things you have practiced the Way, in
peace and have caused no trouble nor did you ever offend the legal
norms of China. [You] from the West [have come] 90,000 li by ship
22
Cf. Christopher Shelke and Marielle Demichele (eds.) MATTEO RICCI IN
CHINA: Inculturation Through Friendship and Faith. (Roma: Gregorian and Biblical Press, 2010).
23
Christopher Shelke “Creative Fidelity in Inculturation” MATTEO RICCI IN
CHINA: Incluturation Through Friendship and Faith. (Roma: Gregorian and Biblical Press, 2010), 123-168.
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Alfredo P. Co
over the ocean from afar off you came, voluntarily [and not because
others forced you] to exert your efforts on my behalf. I, because I feel
compassion for distant people who have come to bow down before my
clemency, wish to show that the Chinese Imperial Monarch does not
differentiate between citizens and foreigners [China is so great there
are none whom it does not accept] but allows you to offer your special talents and to come and go within the Forbidden City as a sign
of consideration and openness [and also that Chinese and foreigners
form one family]. 24
The Jesuits mission was to spread Catholicism, but in the process,
they realized that the Chinese elite were attached to Confucianism and
many indigenous ritual practices such as ancestor worship, veneration of Confucius and the Emperor. Ricci’s accommodationist work
provided the foundation of the subsequent inroad of evangelization
by the Roman Catholic Church in China. Ricci was so successful
in his effort to bridge the two cultures that even today, no European
missionary name of past centuries is more well known in China as that
of Li-ma-ku.25
But the Jesuits were not the only ones to have reached Asia. Besides the Jesuits, other religious orders such as the Augustinian, Dominican, and Franciscan also started missionary work in China during
the 17th century, which often came from the Spanish colony of the
Philippines. Contrary to the Jesuit Evangelization of China, these religious orders refused to adapt local customs in the scattered islands
in the South China Sea and preferred to impose Catholic culture in its
entirety like they did in the Evangelization of the Philippines. The
new missions, criticised the Jesuit mission in China. The Franciscans
and Dominicans argued that the Jesuits were not teaching the Catholic
faith properly and appealed to the Pope. The other missionary orders
wanted to present a Catholic faith and practice, which would be exactly the same as it was in the countries of Europe.
Ibid., 195-196.
Matteo Ricci’s Chinese name.
24
25
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
251
This triggered great conflicts of various congregations, particularly with the Dominican Dominigo Fernandez Navarrete on his response to the question, Was Confucius saved? They were of the discussion
saying that if the Greek sages, who were evidently even culturally closer to the Europeans, were all dammed by the Church how much more
Confucius, who was not worthy to kiss their feet? A Jesuit Portuguese
António de Gouveia insisted that the Chinese sage Confucius was certainly saved which infuriated the Spanish monarch King Philip IV.26
The interreligous scuffles reached the attention of Pope Clement
XI, and the Pope sided with the Dominicans and declared that the
Confucian rites were indeed in conflict with Christian teaching. He
sent a Papal Legate led by Charles-Thomas Maillard De Tournon to
Emperor Kangxi 康熙 prohibiting Chinese rites in 1707. As a result,
the Legate was banished in Macao.27 On 19 March 1715 Pope Clement
XI issued a Papal Bull – Ex illa die28 which officially condemned Chinese Rites.29
In retaliation, Emperor Kangxi banned the Christian missions in
China 1721. The Imperial Decree reads,
Reading this proclamation, I have concluded that the Westerners
are petty indeed. It is impossible to reason with them because they do
Cf. Robert Samuel Maclay. Life among the Chinese: with characteristic
sketches and incidents of missionary operations and prospects in China. (New York:
Carlton & Porter, 1861), 336. Retrieved 2011-07-06.; Chiyo Ishikawa. Spain in the
Age of Exploration, 1492-1819. (Seattle: University of Nebraska Press, 2004); see also
Graham Darby. Spain in the Seventeenth Century. (Longman, 1994).
27
Frédéric Mantienne. Monseigneur Pigneau de Béhaine. (128 Rue du Bac, Paris: Editions Eglises d’Asie, 1999), 180. Papal policy led to a marked decline in conversions in China and indeed the Chinese Emperor would tell a visiting papal delegate,
“You destroyed your religion. You put in misery to all Europeans living here in China.
You desecrated the honor of all those, who died long ago.” The Emperor would also ban
all Catholic missionary activity.
28
Ibid.
29
Ex quo singulari is a reiteration of the Ex illa die by Pope Clement XI which
officially condemned the inclusion of Chinese rites in Catholic practices. As a consequence, conversions in China sharply decline and many Chinese who converted to
Christianity reverted back to their indigenous “religion.”
26
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Alfredo P. Co
not understand larger issues as we understand them in China. There
is not a single Westerner versed in Chinese works, and their remarks
are often incredible and ridiculous. To judge from this proclamation, their religion is no different from other small, bigoted sects of
Buddhism or Taoism. I have never seen a document which contains
so much nonsense. From now on, Westerners should not be allowed
to preach in China, to avoid further trouble.30
Pope Benedict XIV in 1741 took active initiative to reform the
education of priests more pointedly on the laws about Church missions. He issued two Papal Bulls; Omnium solicitudinum and Ex
quo singulari.31 Censuring, mainly the Jesuit practice of accommodating approach in the evangelization of India and China – they tend to
incorporate indigenous cultures. Incorporating the Chinese Ancestor
rites into the Catholic rites heated into the fammous Rites Controversy. Benedict XIV reiterated his predecessors’s Papal Bull in the new
documents. As a consequence, many Chinese converts abandoned
Catholicism.
The successor Pope Pius XII ordered the Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples to relax certain aspects of the two previous Pope’s decrees. 32 On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in
1939, the Holy See released a new decree, the Plane compertum,33
affirming that the Chinese customs were no longer considered superstitious, but were an honourable way of esteeming one’s relatives and
therefore permitted by Catholic Christians. Confucianism was integral
part of Chinese culture rather than as a heathen religion in conflict
30
Dan J. Li., trans. and ed. China in Transition, 1517-1911. (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1969), 22.
31
Ibid. Pope Benedict XIV issued a Papal Bull Ex Quo Singulari on 11 July 1742,
which addressed the issues of Catholic missionary activity in China and the Chinese
Rites Controversy.
32
Missions étrangères de Paris. 350 ans au service du Christ 2008. (Paris: Editeurs Malesherbes Publications, 2008), 4.
33
Cf. Joseph Metzler. La Congregazione ‘de Propaganda Fide’ e lo sviluppo
delle missioni cattoliche (secc. XVIII al XX), in Anuario de la Historia de la Iglesia,
Año/Vol IX, Pamplona, 2000, 145–54.
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
253
with Catholicism. So in 1943, the Government of China established
diplomatic relations with the Vatican.34 The Papal decree changed the
ecclesiastical situation in China in an almost revolutionary way. As the
Church began to flourish, Pope Pius XII established a local ecclesiastical hierarchy, and, in 1946, named Archbishop Thomas Tien Ken Sin
田耕莘, SVD,35 as the first Chinese national, to the Sacred College of
Cardinals, and later appointed him to the See of Beijing.
A new twist took over with the establishment of the Communist
regime in 1949 People’s Republic of China. All religious missions, including the Catholics were driven out of China. The new reality created the present relations between the Vatican and China, one of a great
new Challenge in the Evangelizaiton of China.
Evangelization of the ‘Philippines’
Meanwhile, somewhere in the South China Sea, another historical
event; a different cultural experience in the Evangelization was taking
place.
Treaty of Tordesillas and Inter Caetera
On 7 June 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas divided the world for
exploration and Christianization between two maritime powers of those days, Spain and Portugal. Pope Alexander VI issued a Papal Bull
Inter Caetera on 4 May 1493 that granted the Crowns of combined
Castile and Aragon all the lands to the west and the south to Spain,
while the opposite direction to the east would be for Portugal. The
Bull itself was vague, but the Conquestadores were wild, they thou Jan Olav Smit. Pope Pius XII. (London: Burns Oates and Washburne, 1951),
34
188.
Ibid.
35
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Alfredo P. Co
ght that they were given the signal to conquer the world. And history
destined that the two countries be represented in a historical voyage.
A Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan sailed under the Spanish
flag, Magellan left the Spanish port of San Lucar de Barrameda on 20
September 1519, there were 5 ships consisting of Trinidad, Concepcion, Santiago, San Antonio, and Victoria, and with about 250 men.36
Ferdinand Magellan sailed with Fr. Pedro de Valderama (fleet chaplain), Antonio Pigafetta (chronicler of the expedition), Duarte Barbosa
(Magellan’s brother in law), and Enrique of Malacca (Malay slave of
Magellan, interpreter).37 After two years and a half of maritime voyage,
on 16 March 1521 the explorer-colonizers accidentally rediscovered
the scattered islands in the South China Sea ruled by local chieftains.
Islands in the South China Sea
What the Spanish explorers rediscovered were various tribes that
populate a group of islands in the South China Sea and a number of
sultanates headed by tribal chieftains. There was no single sovereign
that ruled the entire archipelago that is now collectively known to be.
There were Agtas, Ifugaos, Ivatans, Tibolis, Lumads, and countless
communities ruled by tribal chiefs, each having its own animistic religion, tribal customs, religious rites, individual myths and legends, but
that was all, for the islands were never unified nor existed as a state or
a country like China, India, Japan, or Khmer. China, as you have seen
above, was already a well established culture and civilization when
the Western colonizers, Evangelizers came to the East. While it was
Maria Christine N. Halili. Philippine History Second Edition. (Manila: Rex
Bookstore, 2010).
37
Route of Magellan’s voyage: Westcoast of Africa -> Canaries (Sept 26) ->
crossed Atlantic -> South American Coast, now Pernambuco, Brazil (Nov 29) -> Rio
de Janeiro (Dec 13) -> Rio de Plata -> Port of San Juan (Mar 1520) -> Southern Sea
(Pacific Ocean) -> Strait of Magellan (August) -> Islas Ladrones -> Some Islands in
South China Sea (now called the) Philippines.
36
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
255
easy to identify a Chinese culture, Indian culture, or a Japanese culture, there was no such visible culture that we can call Filipino when the
Spaniards came to these scattered islands.38
What I am saying is that when the European colonizers came to
China and India, they discovered these countries to posses an enormous wealth of knowledge and culture. They were flourishing great civilizations, with their fully developed written language, a whole body
of literary and philosophical writings, a well-defined architecture, painting, music, food culture – just about everything that would define great cultural accomplishment. China had already three thousand
years of recorded history, cultural development – with philosophers,
litterateurs, corpus of writings, and refined culture, which was absent
in the islands in the South China Seas.
The Philippines experience, however, was different. While the natives had the rudiments of life, say, tools for food production and tribal
weapons for battle, they did not have a written language that could
unify them nor did they have a collective psyche or consciousness.
Possibly because they did not have a developed language, so they also
lacked a developed worldview – something that is basic for a developed culture. There was no corpus of philosophical writings, scriptural-literary texts, etc. As a consequence, the colonizers, armed with cross
and sword, Spain established dominion over these islands, after an
initial resistance from a valiant local chieftain, Lapulapu.39
Hispanization and Evangelization
The Spanish colonizers introduced Iberian culture and Catholicism. Churches were constructed in every parts of the different islands
unified by Spain, the colonizers called them Las Islas Filipinas, after
Alfredo P. Co. DOING PHILOSOPHY IN THE PHILIPPINES: Fifty Years
Ago and Fifty Years from Now in Across the Philosophical Silk Road: A Festschrift
in Honor of Alfredo P Co: Volume VI. (Manila: UST Publishing House, 2009), 51-52.
39
Ibid.
38
256
Alfredo P. Co
King Felipe II of Spain. It was later to be called the Philippines during
the American period.40 The locals were hispanized,41 they adopted
spoons and forks as eating utensils; absorbed the story of creation
from the Judeo-Christian religions. The locals were baptized Catholics adopting Catholic Christian names such as Jose, Jesus, Miguel,
Juan, Maria, Ana, Magdalena, and even Spanish surnames such as de
Jesus, de Lara, del Rosario, Romero, Rodriguez, Gutierrez, etc. It was
literally a triumphalist march of a dominant Western Catholic culture
inward. For, the Spaniards discovered them at a time when the natives
were just emerging as a group of people, beginning to form a distinct
culture and political organization without yet a developed worldview.
The development of the indigenous culture of these island people was
sadly nipped in the bud.42
It is therefore not accidental that the country continues to be called
after the name of King Felipe II of mother España. When Mexico
gained independence, it did not take its name from Spain, neither did
Malaysia or Brunei take from Britain, nor Indonesia from the Dutch.
Other names for this group of islands, if taken from one of the tribes,
may not be a unifying one, for that would mean one tribe conquering
the rest of the islands and could be destabilizing. Moreover, the credit
for the unification of these islands truly goes to Spain.43
There were, to be sure, many heroic attempts on the part of the
legendary local heroes after the local chieftain Lapulapu resisted and
killed Ferdinand Magellan, subsequent rebellions turned to revolution all the way to independence after 400 years. But the colonized
Philippines adopted most of the Western culture and most of all the
indigenous people were evangelized with little resistance unlike the
experience in China.
40
Alfredo P. Co. ACTA: Thomism and Asian Cultures: Celebrating 400 Years
of Dialogue Across Civilizations: Introduction. (Manila: UST Publishing House,
2012), 13-14.
41
Ibid.
42
Ibid.
43
Ibid.
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
257
Catholicism in the Philippines
On the religious front, various religious congregations went to the
Philippines one after the other – the Augustinians came with Miguel
Lopez de Legazpi in 1565, then the Franciscans in 1577, the Jesuits in
1581, the Dominicans in 1605, followed by the Recolletos in 1606.44
Each of these congregations marches on different fronts valiantly
spreading the religious message of Catholicism. Diocesan Seminaries
were formed, and subsequently, the country became the bastion of
Catholic religion in Asia and Southeast Asia.
Today, the Philippines became the only Catholic country in East
and Southeast Asia.45 Philippine’s University of Santo Tomas has become the biggest Catholic University in the world judged by population in a single campus. The university was visited three times by the
Roman Pontiff; Pope John-Paul II visited the University twice and
said mass there.
Iberian Catholicism was introduced to the locals and today, Spanish festivals called fiestas, which are celebrated almost every month
in Spain, usually in honor of saints that mark Spanish cultural and religious life have become very much part of Grand Catholic fiestas in various regions in the country and have also defined the Filipino Catholic
religious life. It is a way they immerse themselves into their religious
culture. But while fiestas in Spain, have now evolved into a more secular expression in celebration of zest for life. All their former colonies
retained the old religious rooting. It is true that many indigenous folk
practices are placed side by side with the original colonial Spanish
religious origins, but the main activity still rest in the devotion to the
religious patron. The most defined of which are the various Catholic
fiestas in honor of Catholic religious icons. But while most of the Eu Kathleen Nadeau. The History of the Philippines. (London: Greenwood Press,
2008), 36.
45
Even the first and only for a long time until recently, the independence of East
Timor.
44
258
Alfredo P. Co
ropean religious celebrations are usually focused on their saints – St.
Catherine, St. Agnes, St. Anne, St. Stephen, St. Joseph, St. Peter St.
Paul, St. Nicholas, St. Therese, St. John of the Cross that are usually
indigenous to their respective countries, the Philippines religious fiestas have been focused mainly on Jesus and Mary, perhaps because
they never had any Filipino saint until quite recently. I would like to
mention four of its most celebrated religious fiestas. There are two towering religious fests devoted to Christ, one is the Child Jesus, known
to the locals as Santo Nino46 (Bambino in Italian, or Infant Jesus), and
the other is Black Nazarene.47 Two other great religious fiestas are
dedicated to the Mother of Jesus; Nuestra Senora de Penafrancia48
The image of the Santo Niño is considered the oldest religious relic, brought
to the Philippines by Magellan in 1521, offered as a baptismal gift to Queen Juana
of Cebu. In celebration of the event, the Santo Niño Festival is held on the month
of January. “In Cebu City, where it was first brought, the Sinulog, the oldest festival in the archipelago” of the Philippines; “in Kalibo, Aklan Ati-Atihan Festival; in
Romblon, Biniray Festival; in Cagayan de Oro City, Pachada Senor; in Butuan City,
Kahimunan Festival; in Antique, Binirayan and Handugan Festivals; in Iloilo City,
Dinagyang Festival; in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur, Zambulawan Festival; in
Tondo Manila Lakbayaw; and in Pandacan Manila Buling-Buling. Similar festivities
are celebrated in Malolos, Bulacan; Laoag City, Ilocos Norte; Binalonan, Pangasinan;
and in several other cities and provinces. Cf. Christian I. Hermoso and Leslie Ann G.
Aquino. “Viva Sto. Niño” in Manila Bulletin (January 14, 2012). http://mb.com.ph/
node/348082/viva-.
47
Another grand religious feast is one devoted to the Black Nazarene. The image
was brought to the Philippines by a Spanish priest and was enthroned by the Recoletos
on 10 May 1606. Its title “Black Nazarene” is reminiscent of the event when the ship
where it is boarded caught fire, which also burned the image in the process. The feast
of the Black Nazarene enshrined in Saint John the Baptist Church in Quiapo Church,
Manila, is celebrated every 9th of January, and is marked by thousands of devotees. The
celebration starts with a Novena and ends with a grand procession. Cf. Ane Aubrey
Nepumuceno. “Who is the Black Nazarene” in Manila Bulletin. (8 January 2010).
http://mb.com.ph/node/237467/who-black-nazarene.
48
Nuestra Señora de Peña de Francia venerated since the 15th century in Salamanca, Spain, is a wooden sculpture of Mary, Queen of the Rosary. Simon Vela unearthed the image in the slopes of Peña de Francia between Salamanca and Caceres in
Spain, on May 19, 1434. In the Philippines, the feast of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia
is celebrated every third Saturday of September in Naga, Bicol City. On the first day,
the image of the Virgin, a copy of the Madonna in Peñafrancia, Spain, is brought from
46
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
259
and Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary49 (La Naval de Manila). Then
there is the Holy Week Senakulo50 that defines the distinctively unique
Filipino folk Catholic religious fest of spiritual “atonement” of sort in
the form of an imitation of Christ suffering on the cross.
its shrine to the Naga Cathedral where the novena is held. In the afternoon of the 9th
day of the Novena, the image of the Virgin would be carried in a solemn procession,
locally called traslacion, from the Shrine to the Cathedral. The image would then be
returned to the Shrine by way of a grand fluvial procession at the end of the novenario
along the Naga River. Ina and the Bikol People ed. Most Rev. Leonardo Z. Legaspi,
O.P., D.D. et al. (Bikol, Philippines: Archdiocese of Caceres, 2002) 48-50. Cf. Jose A.
Zaide. “Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia” in Manila Bulletin. (16 September 2010).
http://www.mb.com.ph/node/277382/nue.
49
St. Pius V dedicated the 7th of October to the feast day of the Lady of the
Rosary as an act of thanksgiving for having saved Europe from the invading Moors
at the Battle of Lepanto, near the Corinthian Gulf, in October, 1571. But in the Philippines, the celebration has acquired an added color with the victory of the combined
Filipino-Spanish forces against the Dutch in 1646, known in the pages of history as
the Battles of La Naval. That year, five bloody naval battles were fought between the
greatly outnumbered Spanish - Catholic - Philippine forces and the Dutch marauders.
Only fifteen of the defenders of Manila were lost in all of the battles. The Dutch, then
political enemies of the Spanish, retreated, and never again threatened to destroy
the integrity of the islands by annexing them to the Dutch East Indies. On April 9,
1662 the five naval victories of 1646 was declared as miraculous, and as a tribute
to this miraculous victory, every second Sunday of October, the Filipinos celebrate
the feast of La Naval through a Novena for nine days, highlighted by a procession
of the image on the last day of the celebration. Leslie Anne G. Aquino. “Celebrate
Feast of La Naval” in Manila Bulletin. (9 October 2010). http://www.mb.com.ph/
node/281350/catholic.
50
The Senakulo is a traditional Filipino dramatization of the life and times of
Jesus Christ. Done by singing and reciting of the passion of Christ performed publicly
during the season of Lent. During the Senakulo one can see rituals that are derived from
Christ’s suffering, passion and death. During this time one can see the locals reenacting
the Sorrowful Mysteries consisting of self-flagellation as act of repentance for their
sins, culminating with the reenactment of Christ crucifixion on the cross. Many people
perform this ritual of self- flagellation and have themselves crucified in different parts
of the country and as a consequence, it has attracted many tourists from all over the
globe during the Lenten Season.
260
Alfredo P. Co
Impacts and Lessons
But after all these centuries of Catholic Evangelization in Asia,
what impacts and lessons can we claim to China and the Philippines?
The chart below is disturbing.
Catholics Profile
Archdioceses
Philippines51 (90 M pop.)
16
Dioceses
58
Prelatures
Apostolic Vicariates
Military Ordinariate
4
7
1
1,059
(foreign - priests, brothers
and sisters)
Missionaries
China52 (1.4 B pop.)
0
120
(inclusive of underground
– estimate)
0
0
0
(only clandestine foreign
missionaries)
3,000 +
(almost all the priests
belong to local diocese)
Priests
8,149
Religious
Congregations
(Men)
113
0
Institute of Consecrated Life,
Societies of Apostolic Life,
Secular Institutes, Pious
Unions and Lay Association
51
Directory of University of Santo Tomas Alumni Priest Association. (Manila:
UST Publishing House).
52
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2010/148863.htm. U.S Department of State,
International Religious Freedom Report 2010: China, 17 Nov 2010. According to State
Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), there are more than 5.3 million Catholics
worshipping in sites registered by the Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA). The Holy
Spirit Study Center in Hong Kong estimated that there are 12 million Catholics in the
country. Official sources reported that the CPA has more than 70 bishops, nearly 3,000
priests and nuns, 6,000 churches and meeting places, and 12 seminaries. Of the 97
dioceses in the country, 40 reportedly did not have an officiating bishop in 2007, and
more than 30 bishops were over 80 years of age. http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/
country/sccn1.html. Copyright David M. Cheney, 1996-2005; code: v2.3.4, 17 Nov 05;
data: 20 Nov 05.
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
Religious
Congregations
(Women)
Catholic Population
328
Institute of Consecrated Life,
Societies of Apostolic Life,
Secular Institutes, Pious
Unions and Lay Associations
70,958,796 (estimated
incomplete)
261
328
(some congregations
clandestinely work with
the Underground Church)
8 M -Official; 10
M-clandestine
Today, Catholic Evangelization in China is undergoing a most difficult time. For after all the many centuries of Catholic attempts for
Evangelization, the number of Catholics remain to be insignificant.
Since the expulsion of all missionaries in China after the Communist
took over in 1949, the Sino-Vatican relations has been highly contentious and often difficult for both sides. The People’s Republic of
China created the “official” Catholic Church which essentially divided the Church into two groups: those who followed the Chinese official Catholic Patriotic Church and those who followed the Vatican
who had to go underground to practice their beliefs. When Pope John
Paul II offered to recognize the country’s official church in return for
acknowledgment by the Chinese government of Papal authority over
China’s Catholics in 1994, China refused. Donald Tsang, the former
Chief Executive of Hong Kong was himself a Catholic, but when Pope
John Paul II expressed his intention to visit Hong Kong and Macau, he
was also denied the visit, a decision many believed was made under
pressure from the Chinese Central Government.
Again in 2000, Pope John Paul II planned to conduct mass at the
Temple of Heaven in Beijing but those plans fell through over a dispute regarding Beijing’s approval of bishops. Beijing’s distrust of John-Paul II is rooted in his anti-Communist activities in Poland, but most
of all, China just wants to make sure Catholics remain loyal to Beijing
and not to a foreign power, somewhat similar to Great Britain’s Anglican Church whose allegiance is to the throne of England.
But there are some signs of warming relations between the Vatican
and Beijing. When Pope John Paul II died, both China’s government
sanctioned Patriotic Catholics and underground Catholics united in
262
Alfredo P. Co
mourning with much toleration from the Chinese government. In October 2005, Pope Benedict XVI took an overture that it was time for
the two Catholic churches in China to unite hinting that the Vatican
was open to recognize China and move its embassy from Taiwan to
Beijing in exchange for religious freedom and fair treatment of Vatican. Two years later, in January 2007, the Vatican also issued a statement that it wanted a “respectful and constructive dialogue” to rebuild diplomatic ties with Beijing. In May 2008, the Vatican also hosted
a concert by the Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra, indicating a further
warming of relations with Beijing.
As we come to the conclusion of this discourse, we saw in great spectre, the journey of the Catholic Culture in its Evangelization
in the two countries of East Asia and Southeast Asia, we witnessed
evident clash of civilizations that marked the encounter between two
dominant cultures. The Evangelization of China has shown that the
clash of two dominant cultures can stunt the impact of one culture
trying to penetrate into another dominant culture. The Evangelizers
encountered enormous cultural wealth and they ended up translating
and learning also the rich cultural heritage of China. The encounter
brought to the birthing of the new idea of “inculturation” that became
the most radical content in the Vatican II. The Catholic Church realized that the Evangelization in Asia, China in particular, strongly urged
the inculturation in the liturgy and worship, and this also proved to be
the case in countries and cultures permeated by Confucianism such
as China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore
where Ancestor Worship has long been part of their culture.
That was not the case with the Evangelization in the islands found
in the South China Sea by the Spanish colonizer-evangelists. When
a dominant Catholic Culture enters a less dominant – emerging culture, the impact is great; and the less dominant culture’s appetite for
acceptance is greater. The dominant Catholic culture overwhelmed the
natives, they were not only militarily weaker compared to the swords
of Spain, they were also weaker culturally compared to the Catholic
culture. The Philippines is not just a Spanish creation, but it is also,
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
263
a Catholic Creation. Filipinos traveling in Catholic Europe could not
believe what they see there; for instance, when they visit great churches and Catholic monuments in Europe, they sneer at the sight of the
growing secularism of the European Catholics. Filipinos are proudly
perplexed by the fact that Europe has become more and more secular,
compared with the one at home in the Philippines. The absence or
lack of Churchgoers makes them think that Filipinos are more religious than where their religion originated. There is much discerning for
them to do, they will never understand, unless they seriously take effort too, that the Catholicism they continue to practice now, is the very
kind of Catholicism brought to them by the colonizers some 500 years
ago, meanwhile Europe has moved on and the culture has evolved.
The Philippine Evangelization is one great success story very difficult
if not impossible to duplicate in our new age. The Filipino Catholic
experience happened to all Hispanic colonies, and Filipino Catholics
will always be able to relate to Mexicans and to other Latin American
countries for they too were colonized and evangelized by Spain (or
Portugal) at the same period.
From the outside looking in, a Western Catholic can begin to see
some ‘shortcomings’ in the Philippine evangelization as one begins to
wonder what has gone ‘wrong’ with the Filipino Catholics for in spite
of their wide embrace of the magisterial teachings of the Church, the
locals could not go beyond the clutches of their indigenous-folk religiosity and superstition so distinctive in their way of worship of God
as in the case of Senakulo and Black Nazarene events.
But that discerning has to be left in the hands of the future missionaries. From hereon, Catholic Evangelization in Asia and Southeast
Asia will have to face a greater challenge - one that will also need
some updating beyond the Vatican II. The fast pace of science and
technology and the growing secular age will make future Evangelization a far greater challenge - far greater than the experience of China
and the Philippines combined.
The lessons and impacts are indeed enormous, and the challenge
now falls into the hands of the future Catholic Evangelizers in Asia,
264
Alfredo P. Co
as there will be no more scattered and undiscovered islands of undeveloped cultures and tribes to colonize and Evangelize. Meanwhile,
the Church will need more martyrs for the conversion of the 1.4 billion Chinese, a population bigger than all Catholics around the globe.
Evangelizing China is equal to the Church’s two thousand years of
evangelization efforts. The future Catholic martyr is there to be made,
is there any taker?
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts and Lessons of the
Evangelization in China and the Philippines
Summary
Today, Catholic Evangelization in China is undergoing a most difficult time. For after all the many centuries of Catholic attempts for Evangelization, the number of Catholics remain to be insignificant. Since the
expulsion of all missionaries in China after the Communist took over in
1949, the Sino-Vatican relations has been highly contentious and often difficult for both sides. The People’s Republic of China created the “official”
Catholic Church which essentially divided the Church into two groups:
those who followed the Chinese official Catholic Patriotic Church and those who followed the Vatican who had to go underground to practice their
beliefs. When Pope John Paul II offered to recognize the country’s official
church in return for acknowledgment by the Chinese government of Papal
authority over China’s Catholics in 1994, China refused.
We saw in great spectre the journey of the Catholic Culture in its Evangelization in the two countries of East Asia and Southeast Asia, we witnessed evident clash of civilizations that marked the encounter between
two dominant cultures. The Evangelization of China has shown that the
clash of two dominant cultures can stunt the impact of one culture trying
to penetrate into another dominant culture. The Evangelizers encountered
enormous cultural wealth and they ended up translating and learning also
the rich cultural heritage of China. The encounter brought to the birthing
of the new idea of “inculturation” that became the most radical content
in the Vatican II. The Catholic Church realized that the Evangelization in
Catholicism in Asia: Discoursing the Impacts
265
Asia, China in particular, strongly urged the inculturation in the liturgy and
worship, and this also proved to be the case in countries and cultures permeated by Confucianism such as China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan,
Hong Kong and Singapore where Ancestor Worship has long been part of
their culture. The lessons and impacts are indeed enormous, and the challenge now falls into the hands of the future Catholic Evangelizers in Asia,
as there will be no more scattered and undiscovered islands of undeveloped
cultures and tribes to colonize and Evangelize. Evangelizing China is equal
to the Church’s two thousand years of evangelization efforts.
Keywords: China, Philippines, Catholicism, culture, evangelization, Catholic
Church, Confucianism, Mongols.