The Philippines1 is one of the mass populated countries in South-East Asia. It is surrounded by the South China Sea on the North and the West, in the East is the vast Pacific Ocean while in the South is the Celebes Sea. The countries that surround the Philippines are Japan in the North, Indonesia in the South; Guam and the Marianas Islands are on its East side, while Malaysia is in the West. It is known as the country of the islands, where they count more than seven thousands islands. Not all of these islands are inhabited, some island are still yet to cultivate. The country is mostly divided into three parts: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The biggest in the north is Luzon, the next is Mindanao, the island in the south, and finally the group of islands in the middle is called Visayas. Total land area of this country is about 300,000 km². People in the Philippines are mixture of many races, originally from mainland Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and China. They are deeply rooted in the religious traditions, which Roman Catholic Church has been accommodating. They comprise almost 85% out of 178 million population.
According to recorded history, Philippines came into contact with the Western world because of the Spanish empire. The Portuguese explored it while serving for the Spanish Crown Ferdinand Magellan on 16th March, 1521, and on the 31st March of the same year they first conducted a Catholic Mass in the Philippine soil. The ambition grew beyond trade and political, which he did by befriending with ruler of the Cebu island, and baptized about a thousand people at once. Though it took several attempts for Spaniards to conquer the land, they succeed in 1564.
The Church in the Philippines gradually developed with the mixing faith and traditions that came along from the West. The church adopt various local animistic religious rites and orders, but the local leadership of the was not given until 20th century. The urge of mission, somehow, was not motivated by the urgency of the Agape love of God rather with power of the sword and modern weapons. The missionary task itself became the weapon, which badly attempted to convert the native by force. Though, the Word of God came! At first, missionary effort came with the Augustinian missionaries followed by the Jesuits. Later the Dominicans established themselves in 1587 as missionaries of the Western Church. It is counted to of Bishop Salazar as the “Las Casas” of the 16th century.He personally returned to Spain and pleaded to the emperor for the Philippine people and tried organizing the local hierarchy in the Church and the state as well.
But he died before receiving the title as the first archbishop of Manila. But the gospel was still slower to reach the entire people in these islands. Rather the Catholicism attained overwhelming flow of the people by adopting their own worship costumes, rites and traditions and remained blurred for the Biblical insights of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Worship of the Mother Mary is an example of how this country is known as the Religion of the Virgin Mary in Asia.
Republished in new layout 6/11/2013
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