The history of Christianity in Mindanao may be roughly divided into five periods:

I. Beginnings (1538-1768)
II. Added Growth (1768-1900)
III. Crisis (1900-1933)
IV. Slow Recovery (1900-1945)
V. Continued Growth (1945- to the present)

I. Beginnings: 1538-1768

In 1538 a Portuguese ship sailed from Ternate bound for Macassar. Strong winds drove it further north to the southeast coast of Mindanao, probably at Sarangani. The captain, Francisco de Castro, made friends with the native leaders and baptized them. The same was done in some other villages along the coast. These first baptisms, however, with no preparation and no follow-up, did not result in the formation of a permanent Christian community.

The first systematic effort to evangelize Mindanao started on the northern coast. In November 1596 a Spanish
Jesuit missionary. Father Valerio de Ledesma, sailed from Cebu and arrived at Butuan in the delta of the Agusan River. He was joined a few weeks later by another Spanish Jesuit, Father Manuel Martinez. Using an innovative approach (an important part of which was the use of songs as vehicles for instruction) they made a large number of converts, including some of the more influential and most dreaded chieftains.

The missionaries were careful not to confer baptism too quickly, but to wait until the neophytes were well instructed and eager for baptism. Caution was particularly necessary in the case of the chieftains who had several wives and who had to dismiss all but one spouse before they could be baptized. The missionaries were even more strict in delaying First Communion.

On 8 September 1597, ten months after the missionaries’ arrival, the first Christian church in Mindanao was inaugurated with great pomp and ceremony, with the participation of the entire population. This year of 1997 marks the four hundredth anniversary of that event.

Thus, a flourishing Christian community had been established. But the small number of Jesuit missionaries and the vast territories entrusted to them (including Samar, Leyte, Bohol, Marinduque, parts of Negros and Panay and Cebu, and northwestern and southwestem Mindanao) made it necessary to recall the Jesuits from Butuan. They were replaced first by Portuguese secular clergy, later by a newly arrived order of Spanish friars, the Augustinian Recollects or Recoletos.

Progress of the Missions

The presence of two missionary orders on the Island of Mindanao prompted the Spanish government in Manila to establish in 1634 an imaginary line of demarcation across the Island, from Punta Sulauan in the north to Cape San Agustinin the southeast. All missionary activity east of that Visayans must have been the beginning of the Chabacano language, which is a mixture of Spanish and Visayan. line was entrusted to the Recoletos; to the west, to the Jesuits.

The Recoletos established their first mission at Tandag on the Pacific coast (1622). Then, taking over the existing  mission at Butuan, they established mission stations at Cagayan on the northern coast and at Catarman in Camiguin Island. From those four centers these zealous missionaries branched out to other places. By the second half of the 18th century (1768) a substantial start had been made in the  evangelization of what were to become the provinces of Surigao, Agusan and the eastern part of Misamis Oriental.

In the northwest, the first Jesuit mission was at Dapitan (1631), followed by Iligan (1639). Later (1754) another was established in Misamis (now Ozamiz City). By 1768 there were resident Jesuit priests in several places of what were to be called Zamboanga del Norte, Misamis Occidental, and Lanao del Norte. The Iligan mission extended up to Initao in what is today Misamis Oriental.

In April 1635 an expedition landed in what is now Zamboanga, consisting of 300 Spaniards and 1,000 Visayans. With them were two Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Pedro Gutierrez and Melchor de Vera. In June, the first stone of the fort was laid. That fort stands today, with a much venerated statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the outer wall.

That was the beginning of the evangelization of the southern tip of the Zamboanga Peninsula, and later also of
Basilan. But the presence of 300 Spaniards and 1,000 Visayans must have been the beginning of the Chabacano
language, which is a mixture of Spanish and Visayan.

Piratical Raids

Which brings us to that terrible and recurring scourge, the Muslim raids. Every year, with the coming of the
monsoon, the raiders would come in their swift ships and attack the coastal villages of Mindanao, the Visayas, and southern Luzon. They came in large numbers, sometimes as many as two thousand fighting men. They would burn the houses and the crops, and carry away as slaves as many of the inhabitants as they could catch.

These piratical raids have been pictured by propagandistsas ” patriotic” acts of self-defense against the conquering Spaniards. But the raiders did not attack the Spaniards. It was the native population whose houses and crops were burned and who were carried away into slavery. The real reason for the raids was economic: there was a lucrative market for slaves in the southern islands of Mindanao, Sulu, Borneo, and what are now Indonesia and Malaysia. (In Borneo the word “Bisaya” is synonymous with “slave”.)

In the Visayas and in Luzon, stone churches were built to serve as fortresses where the people could take refuge during the Muslim raids. Epic struggles have been recorded like that at Palompon, Leyte, in 1745. In Mindanao, there were no stone churches. The missionary had to become not only a religious minister but also a military leader. One Recoleto priest (Fray Agustin de San Pedro) was so outstanding in this regard that he was called “el Padre Capitan.” The Jesuit missionary in Iligan, Father Joseph Ducos, was appointed by the government Captain General of an armed flotilla intended to clear the Mindanao Sea of pirates.

There were heroic and sucessful fights in which the villagers defeated the raiders, like those at Iligan under
Father Ducos, and at Lubungan in what is now Zamboanga del Norte, under another Jesuit. But there were also tragic episodes, the most tragic being that of Tandag. The raiders came, some two thousand in number. The people fled to the triangular fort for refuge. The Muslims surrounded the fort and instituted a siege that lasted four months. Conditions in that little fort must have been terrible. The fort was overcrowded with the Pampango garrison and the native refugees. And how does one feed all those people during four months? On December 1st 1754 the Muslims began their final assault. The Spanish commander ordered his wife to put on her best clothes and wear all her jewels. As the main gate was battered and the raiders poured in, the commander slew his wife with a sword and then killed himself. Death was preferable to rape and slavery.

Tandag was a ghost town after that. But it has revived. It is now the seat of a bishopric.

Martyred Missionaries

To tame the fierceness of the Maguindanao Muslims the Spanish government alternated two approaches, one warlike, the other peaceful. The bellicose approach included the military expeditions to the Rio Grande de Mindanao, some of which failed while others succeeded, but only temporarily. These warlike approaches were replaced occasionally by peaceful overtures in the form of embassies.

In 1645 Governor Fajardo sent as his ambassador to Sultan Kudarat Father Alejandro Lopez who had charge of the Zamboanga mission. This resulted in two treaties of peace. Ten years later Governor Manrique de Lara sent Father Lopez once more on an embassy, accompanied by Father Juan Montiel. Both were killed by the Muslims. They were not the first missionaries to give up their lives in Mindanao. Nor were they the last.

II. Added Growth: 1768-1900

In 1767 King Carlos III ordered the expulsion of all Jesuits from Spain and all territories under Spanish rule. (He
was the third monarch of the Bourbon dynasty to do so. The Bourbon kings of Portugal and of France had previously expelled the Jesuits from their territories.) The royal order of expulsion arrived in the Philippines in 1768 and was implemented with utmost rigor. The Jesuits were arrested in  their various stations, brought prisoners to Manila and put on board vessels bound for Europe.

The departure of the Jesuits created a vacuum in the missions. The friar orders, who already had their hands full,  had to fill the vacuum. The missions in Samar and Leyte and other neighboring islands were taken over by the Franciscans, those in Bohol and in Western Mindanao, by the Recoletos.

It was during this period that additional mission stations were established by the Recoletos in what are now Misamis Occidental and part of Misamis Oriental. They also put a resident priest in the Spanish naval station at Pollok, on the Cotabato coast.

Ninety-one years after they were expelled by one Spanish monarch, the Jesuits were invited back to the Philippines by another, Queen Isabel II. The initiative came from the Bishop of Cebu, under whose jurisdiction much of Mindanao was included. He asked for Jesuits to intensify the evangelization of the many non-Christian groups in Mindanao.

The first group of ten Jesuits arrived in Manila in 1859. Five of them were detained in Manila to start the Ateneo (and later also the Escuela Normal Superior de Maestros). The remaining five were sent to Mindanao, and were reinforced during the next four decades by other arrivals of Jesuits from Spain. By 1900, there were a total of 106 Jesuits in Mindanao: 62 priests and 44 lay-brothers. They were deployed in 9 mission centers (called “residences”) and 39 outlying mission stations or a total of 48 stations with resident priests.

This was the era of intensive missionary activity in several regions, especially on the Bukidnon plateau, and the
upper valley of the Agusan River (what is now the province of Agusan del Sur).

In 1768, a church was established in Jolo, where Jesuits remained until the Oblates (OMI) took over from them after 1939.

This was also the period of evangelization of the coastal areas of the Davao region.

Davao

Oyanguren came to Davao in 1848 with the idea of establishing a province and developing its natural resources. He called the province Nueva Gupuzcoa after his homeland. A Recoleto friar established a mission in Davao town. In 1868, the Jesuits took over Davao and began to extend their missionary reach along the coast. Their first outlying mission was on Samal Island (1870), then on the opposite coast at Sigaboy (1870).
(Sigaboy has now been renamed “Governor Generoso Town.”) Then Mati (1886). Then Manay, Baganga, Cateel, Caraga — all on the Pacific coast. Then Penaplata.

Incidentally, this was the period in which the first two expeditions were undertaken to climb Mount Apo. These were government expeditions, but involved in them were several Jesuits, chief among them, Father Mateo Gisbert.

But the first mission established by the Jesuits since their return was at Tamontaca, at the delta of the Rio Grande de Mindanao. This was also the most interesting mission because it was experimental and innovative. The mission was established where there were no inhabitants, but near two non-Christian groups: the Tiruray in the hills and the Maguindanao Muslims on the river banks. What made it experimental was an accident of history. There was a long and severe drought and the crops had failed. The Muslims began to sell off the children of their slaves whom they could no longer support. Money was collected in Manila, part of which was sent to the Jesuits of Tamontaca. The Jesuits purchased one hundred children of various ages and raised them on the mission. Two dormitories and schools were set up: one for boys, run by the Jesuits; one for girls, run, at first by Tiruray women and later by volunteers from Manila belonging to the Beaterio de la Compafia de Jesus, now called the religious of the Virgin Mary. The RVM Sisters are the pioneer group of religious women to come to Mindanao. The schools were vocational, teaching various skills and crafts. When the children grew up and intermarried, each newly married couple was given a piece of land and a work-animal and enough sustenance until the next harvest. Thus a Christian community developed, composed of small land owners. An innovative approach to mission work.

III. Crisis: 1900-1933

The 20th century in the Philippines began in chaos. It was chaotic in three dimensions: political, cultural, religious. Politically it was very complex; there was a change of sovereignty. We had been under Spain for three centuries: now we were under the Americans. In the Revolution of 1896 the people had fought for freedom. Instead of freedom, they had merely exchanged one master for another. One of our poets, Cecilio Apostol, described our people as: pueblo nuevamente ilota: a people once again enslaved.

The change of masters was not accepted tamely. The people that had fought against Spain now fought against the Americans. The Revolution of 1896 against Spain had involved only a few provinces of Central Luzon. The Philippine-American War engulfed the entire country: Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao. In some places, like Samar, the result was devastation; the American general had expressed his intention to convert the entire island of Samar into a “howling wilderness.” It took time before peace could be restored and a new government system could function smoothly.

The change of masters was not accepted tamely. The people that had fought against Spain now fought against the Americans. The Revolution of 1896 against Spain had involved only a few provinces of Central Luzon. The Philippine-American War engulfed the entire country: Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao. In some places, like Samar, the result was devastation; the American general had expressed his intention to convert the entire island of Samar into a “howling wilderness.” It took time before peace could be restored and a new government system could function smoothly. Meantime, it was political chaos.

The chaos was also cultural. Another of our poets, Fernando Guerrero, expressed it sharply: porque quieren nuevos Sanchos que parlemos en sajon (Because new Sancho Panzas want us to speak the Saxon tongue). He compared the American conquerors not to Don Quixote, the crazy but noble idealist whose hungers were of the mind, but to the crass-minded materialistic Sancho Panza whose hungers were those of the belly.

The imposition of a new language on a people was devastating. It created a cleavage between children and parents, between the younger generation and the old. The parents could no longer understand the children or the children the parents. Moreover, the children rejected the ideals and values of the older generation. The new ideal was how to become like the Americans, for to the young Filipino, the Americans represented everything modem and therefore desirable: progress, prosperity, science, technology, modernity, freedom. The old values of moderation, of restraint, of politeness, of respect for elders and respect for sacred things, all that was obsolete. Total emancipation was the new ideal. It was only later in the century that the pendulum swung back, and the nationalists aimed at everything native, and wanted to do away with everything foreign, including religion. That was the cultural chaos.

These upheavals in the political and cultural life of the people, inevitably had repercussions in the Church.

Political Repercussions

The political upheaval affected the Church in many ways. First, it put an end to the Patronato Real. During the Spanish regime the Church was under royal protection. The living expenses of priests and bishops; the construction and maintenance of churches, schools, seminaries, convents, missions; etc. were all subsidized from the public treasury. Of course, there were strings attached to this subsidy. The king nominated the bishops; the governor nominated the parish priests; expenses incurred had to be with permission from and with accountability to public officials, etc. The end of Spanish sovereignty put an end to the royal patronage. In one sense this was good. It released the Church from the apron strings of the Spanish government. Contact was now possible directly with Rome, through an apostolic delegate in Manila instead of through Nuncio in Madrid. On the other hand, it put the Church in a serious economic situation. Support had now to come directly from the people, not from the government, and the people had not been trained to support the Church. Some jurisdictions, like the Archdiocese of Manila, had ample resources. Others had little. Mindanao had nothing.

Secondly, under American sovereignty, the principle of separation of Church and state was now in place. That principle is . in itself good; indeed the only practical one in a pluralistic society. But as applied to the Philippines it was not separation but hostility. Many government officials, both American and Filipino, and government agencies in many cases treated the Church as if it were an enemy to be crushed instead of an institution to be respected and protected.

This hostility spread to the other institutions not directly governmental, in particular to the press. The church was attacked, ridiculed and eventually ignored.

Thirdly, government hostility was compounded by the fact that many of the officials were Masons. There had been Filipino masonic lodges in the second half of the 19th century, affiliated with the Spanish Grand Orient. The Americans brought what seemed milder but in fact was a more insidious and more dangerous form of Masonry, the Scottish Rite. There were branches of government so dominated by Masons that it was difficult for good Catholics to advance or even survive in them. One of the strongest bastions of Masonry was the Department of Education and the public school system. This situation lasted until the 1950s. One of the
reasons why Magsaysay won such a landslide victory was that he had made a public promise that, if elected, he would appoint a Catholic Secretary of Education.

Fourthly: In the wake of the American soldiers and officials came an inundation of American Protestant missionaries. Some missionaries were openly known as such. They attacked the Church. They made converts. They established Protestant schools and hospitals. One of the most active proselytizing centers was Silliman Institute in Dumaguete. But besides the missionaries who were openly known as such, there were others who, though not known as missionaries, were in fact anti-Catholic propagandists. Chief among them were many of the American public school teachers, principals, supervisors, superintendents and higher education officials. Many of them came from the Bible Belt or other parts of the United States where the Catholic Church was known as the Whore of Babylon. Their intent was, not to convert pagans into Christians but Catholics into Protestants.

The situation was so serious that the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila, an American, asked the government to forbid the teaching of religion in the public schools. Ironically, Catholics later would attack the public schools as “godless”. They were; or at least they were non-religious. But it was the Catholics who had asked for that, as a lesser evil than the use of the public schools as Protestant or anti-Catholic propaganda centers.

Religious Repercussions

The cultural upheaval brought about by the Revolution and the American Occupation had likewise great repercussions in the religious life of the people. The ideal was modernity; and the Catholic Church and its teachings and practices belonged to the outmoded past. The myth was widespread that all Americans were Protestants, and that therefore young Filipinos, to be smart, had to be either Protestants or free thinkers. It was of course not true that all Americans were Protestants, but it would take a long time before young Filipinos could be convinced of that.

Problems within the Church

To those repercussions of the political and cultural changes must be added the problems endemic in the Church itself which, in this chaotic time, now came to the surface. We will merely mention them briefly for lack of time.

First: The Church at the turn of the century was still dominated by the Spanish friars, and there was an intense anti- friar feeling. The anti-friar agitation brought about the execution of three secular priests in 1872: Burgos, Gomez and Zamora. The anti-friar feeling was one of the main causes of the Revolution of 1896. Rome finally took note of this anti-friar feeling, and the Holy See took a step unprecedented in the history of the Church: all the bishops, (all of them Spanish friars) were asked to resign and were replaced by non-friars.

Second: The Aglipayan movement of 1898 became a formal schism in 1902, and rising on a wave of intense nationalism, the Iglesia Filipina Independent spread to many parts of the country, including parts of Northern Mindanao. A result of this movement was the controversy concerning ownership of churches, conventos, plazas and cemeteries.

Third: The lack of priests. In Mindanao it was acute.

Fourth: The poor image of the secular clergy, and the poor state of the seminaries.

A Dying Church

The result of all this was that the Church seemed for a time irrelevant to the political and cultural life of the nation. A few pious old women would attend Mass and novenas. If and when men attended, they would go out and smoke during the long florid sermons. The young, for the most part, despised the Church. Few of the young went to Church. And there were  few vocations. The Church, when not attacked, was ridiculed in the newspapers and magazines. The movies and radio were to come later, and they propagated values that were not always Christian. The result was a dying Church.

The conduct of the politicians is often an indication of how things stand. Today politicians like to be photographed praying or receiving Holy Communion. There was a time when it was the opposite. Politicians made it a point to show that they had no use for religion. And many of them- certainly many government officials- were Masons.

IV. Slow Recovery: 1900-1945

While this situation would become worse in the second decade of the 20th century, the Church had actually begun its slow recovery. Let us outline some of the steps taken.

The first step was the establishment by the Holy See of an Apostolic Delegation in Manila. This not only facilitated direct communication between the Philippines and Rome; more important, it enabled Rome to see things for itself, as it were, and not just through the prism of Madrid.

The second step was the promulgation of a papal Constitution, Quae mari sinico, creating a new structure for the Church in the Philippines to replace the Patronato Real and proposing to create new bishoprics. The new bishoprics were actually not erected until 1910, including the Diocese of Zamboanga, with jurisdiction over all Mindanao and Sulu.

A third step was the replacement of the Spanish friar bishops by non-friars. For the archdiocese of Manila and the three dioceses of Cebu, Jaro and Vigan, American bishops were appointed. For the diocese of Naga, the first Filipino bishop was appointed. Father Jorge Barlin of the Bicol secular clergy.

A fourth step was the Supreme Court decision of 1906, confirming the ownership by the Catholic Church of its churches, conventos, plazas and cemeteries. Although the implementation of that decision would take decades, the legal question was settled once for all. (Incidentally, it was this case that brought Father Barlin to prominence, for it was he who had brought the case to court which the Supreme Court used as the exemplar for all other cases.)

A fifth step was the holding of the First Provincial Council of Manila in 1908 which was the first canonically valid council of the Church in the Philippines.

A sixth step was a very important one of enormous consequences: it was the bringing to the Philippines of new missionary groups, both men and women. The Belgian CICM Fathers in the Mountain Province; the SVD Fathers in the Ilocos and Mindoro; the MSC Dutch Fathers in Surigao; the Redemptorists; the Mary knoll; and later the PME, the Oblates (OMI), the Claretians and others.

Perhaps the most visible immediate results were obtained by the coming of the American Jesuits to the Ateneo de Manila and to the Vigan Seminary in 1921, and to Northem Mindanao in 1926. A seventh step, connected with the coming of the new missionaries, was the establishment or revitalizing of Catholic schools. Mission schools and parochial schools in many places; high schools and colleges in the centers. The first Catholic high schools in Mindanao were established by Bishop Hayes of Cagayan in 1933: the Ateneo de Cagayan for boys, Lourdes Academy for girls. For several years, these were the only Catholic high schools in Mindanao. Ateneo de Cagayan became the first university in Mindanao.

An eighth step was the promotion ot social justice, starting with Father Mulry’s group at the Ateneo de Manila. Coupled with this was the establishment of a Catholic newspaper. The Commonweal in English and Ang Commonweal in Visayan; and a Catholic radio program also directed from the Ateneo.

A ninth step was something that the Catholics of the Philippines did not do, but which helped the Catholic cause very much. It was the appoinment in the middle 1930s of an American Catholic governor general, Frank Murphy.

The tenth step was the climax of all the rest: the International Eucharistic Congress of 1937.

Turn of the Tide

The closing ceremonies of the International Eucharistic Congress in Manila in February 1937 were a revelation. They revealed that the Church, which had been fighting for its existence for three decades, and which had been ignored as irrelevant, had already won the fight.

There had been a procession of the Blessed Sacrament along Dewey Boulevard, ending at the Luneta. Night had fallen, but the place was ablazed with electric lights and with the lighted candles in each one’s hands. The solemn Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was over, and we were waiting for the blessing of Pope Pius XI broadcast from Rome by Vatican Radio. I was standing on the steps of the platform on which was the altar, and I turned around to look at the crowd. It was an unforgettable sight: a sea of lighted candles held by a million people in the Luneta!

There have been larger crowds since then. Two million people at Ninoy’s funeral. Two million when Cory called for a national boycott. Five million when the Pope came. But these were in the 1980s and 1990s. The Eucharistic Congress was half a century earlier, in 1937. A million people: the biggest crowd ever to gather until that time, one million people to profess their Faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The tide had turned.

And then the war came. It is said that there are no atheists in the trenches. During the war the people realized that they needed the priests. The priests and the nuns realized that they needed the people.

After the war, despite the material destruction, despite the corruption, this country was Catholic.

V. Continued Growth: 1945—

The period since the war has been an era of remarkable growth in the Mindanao church. Besides the factors that were already at work ~ in particular the work of the missionaries and the influence of the Catholic schools ~ two new factors came into play to bring about that development.

First, a phenomenal growth in the Christian population  of Mindanao, due in large part to large-scale migration of settlers from the Visayas and Luzon.

Second, the coming of new missionary groups that helped to intensify and extend the missionary effort. The Dutch Fathers of the Sacred Heart (MSC) had come in 1908 and had taken over the missions of Surigao and later also of Agusan. In the years immediately before the outbreak of war (1938-1941) three new missionary groups had come: the Columbans in northern Mindanao, the Foreign Mission Society of Quebec (PME) in the Davao region, and the Oblates (OMI) in Cotabato and Sulu.

After the war, more missionary groups of priests came: the Maryknolls, the Passionists, the Italian Foreign Missionaries (PIME), the Claretians, and others. And there was also a proliferation of religious groups of women,both active and contemplative.

Four Signs

The greatly invigorated life of the Church in Mindanao is indicated by at least four signs:

First: the rapid multiplication of bishoprics. There were no bishpos in Mindanao before 1912, and there were only three in 1945. Today there are 21 bishoprics of which 5 are metropolitan archbishoprics.

Second: the development of the native diocesan clergy. There are dioceses in Mindanao today where the greater part of the clergy are diocesan priests. There are three theological seminaries in Mindanao, and several seminaries at the college level.

Third: the proliferation of Catholic schools. There are now four Catholic universities in Mindanao, including the Ateneo de Davao, and many schools at the collegiate level. Especially noteworthy in this regard are the networks of schools in the Davao, Cotabato and Sulu regions.

Fourth and perhaps the most remarkable: the extent of lay participation in the life of the Church. This is a direct result of the great religious event of the 20th century, the Second Vatican Council.

Before the War, most politicians were anxious to show their disdain for religious things. Today politicians get themselves photographed receiving Holy Communion. Religion has become the “in-thing”.

When I joined the novitiate, many of our acquaintances were amazed that my parents had no objection to my becoming a priest. Many parents at that time were opposed, in some cases violently opposed, to their children becoming priests or nuns. Today, one gets asked, “How can we encourage our son to become a priest?”

In the 1980s I asked Bishop Morelos, at that time Bishop of Butuan, what he thought was the most notable development in the Mindanao church. He said: “In the 1960s, at the Mindanao bishops’ meeting, the Rector of the Davao seminary asked, ‘What shall we do with those white elephants, the seminary buildings, which today are half empty, and which soon will be totally empty?’ In the 1970s, the new Rector of the seminary asked, “Shall we build more buildings for the seminary in Davao, or shall we build more seminaries, as we are overcrowded.”

I asked the same question of Bishop Rosales, at that time Bishop of Malaybalay. He said, “The most remarkable thing in Mindanao is the extent of the involvement  of the laity in the work of the Church.

But perhaps the most telling comment of all was made by a French bishop, the Bishop of Rockelle, who visited Malaybalay. After his visit he wrote to the President of the Bishops’ Conference of France: “I have never seen,” he said, “a Church more alive than here in Mindanao.”

For which we must thank God.