A friendly spirit is a constant in a congress of contradictions, writes Fr Bernard Healy
On arrival at Mactan-Cebu Airport, the Irish Pilgrimage to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress was greeted with a warm Filipino welcome as Congress volunteers placed decorative necklaces around the necks of the pilgrims and shepherded us through customs.
That welcome was to prove characteristic of our experience as we got to know this city and these people over the first few days of the congress experience. I would imagine that until relatively recently most Irish people’s perception of the Philippines was simply as one other place that Irish missionaries went to. More recently, the arrival of Filipinos to Ireland and their presence in our parishes has given us a better sense of the place, but it is quite another thing to visit this distant land.
That Friday evening arrival and our journey to our hotel were to provide us with our first impressions of the country.
After the stifling heat and humidity, the most immediately obvious thing to hit us was the way in which scenes of apparent deprivation and wealth sit side by side. During the bus journey we could see ramshackle corrugated iron shacks and primitive-looking markets side-by-side with opulent shopping malls comparable to, or even superior to, what might be found anywhere in Ireland.
The big-name chains of Britain and America are here cheek-by-jowl with roadside fruit stalls and street-markets.
A 30-second walk from our hotel brings one onto an alley lined with huts and enclosed plots where locals keep chickens in the middle of the city. The omni-present security guards at the door of each and every hotel and upscale shop hint at something similar – that the wealth and progress shown by new buildings is not necessarily open to all.
Culture
However, a closer look at the sights driving into Cebu pointed to another feature of this nations’s culture. Looking out the window of our coach I spotted a lorry with the inscription: “Nativity of Our Lady”. Religious images and invocations are seemingly ubiquitous. Shop fronts, residences and vehicles carry slogans invoking God and the saints, and in particular the Child Jesus under the guise of the Santo Nico de Cebu.
This image of the Christ Child, not unlike the Child of Prague, explains the particular significance of Cebu in the history of the Philippines. With a population of almost one million, Cebu is one of the largest cities in the country and it is located on an island in the middle of the archipelago, but it is its history that affords it a place of great importance for the Philippines.
In 1521, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, acting on behalf of Spain’s King Charles I, landed here. The local King Rajah Humabon and his wife were converted to Christianity and on April 14 of that year Magellan erected a cross at Cebu and about 700 locals were baptised.
As a baptism present, Magellan gave the native queen an image of the Child Jesus or Santo Niño. Magellan’s cross and the Santo Niño are venerated to this day in remembrance of the fact that Cebu is the cradle of Christianity in the Philippines. However, all did not go smoothly for Magellan. Some time afterwards another native king, Lapu Lapu, resisted the activities of Magellan and put him to death during a battle between Lapu Lapu’s warriors and the combined forces of Humabon and Magellan.
Lapu Lapu is venerated as a Filipino hero, whereas Magellan is held in more mixed regard – honoured as the bringer of Christianity and reviled as a foreign invader. Despite the ambiguity at its planting and the sometimes unedifying conduct of European Christians who colonised the islands, the seed planted by Magellan took firm root in the Filipino culture as is evident in the refreshingly unembarassed piety of the Filipino people. One manifestation of that is the Feast of the Santo Niño each January in Cebu when crowds gather for processions and a novena of Masses culminating in the exuberant Sinulog celebration noted for its distinctive processional dance.
Following check-in at the Minor Seminary on Saturday morning, the Irish group made its way to the seminary gym for one of the most important pre-congress events: the Table of Hope celebration. Anxious that the poor be included in the congress, the organisers organised this special celebration in conjunction with the Canadian Archdiocese of Vancouver.
Hundreds of poorer children and street children from around Cebu were brought to the Congress Village by parish representatives where they joined in the celebration of Mass celebrated by Vancouver’s Archbishop Michael Miller. After that they were treated to a sit-down meal of chicken, pork and rice along with many of the international delegates to the congress. This shared meal and the entertainments which followed were a time of great fun for all concerned.
The children had their place as guests of honour at the congress, the parish volunteers were able to explain the work being done in their parishes and the international delegates had the bittersweet joy of enjoying the company and friendship of these children whose circumstances are so difficult. Above all it was a moment of communion where the sharing of the Eucharist and sitting together at table united all present as equals and fellow children of God.
Scorching sun
To conclude, Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin led the grace with a prayer based on St Francis’s Canticle of the Creatures.
Sunday afternoon brought the opening Mass of the Eucharistic Congress celebrated under the scorching sun in Plaza Independencia.
With crowds gathering in the square for hours beforehand, the police estimated a total attendance of 350,000.
Before the Mass the crowds were welcomed and entertained by songs and dance about the spirit of the Cebuano people and the history of the arrival of Christianity to the Philippines. This was followed by the ceremonial entry of the statue of the Santo Niño, accompanied by representations of Our Lady and local martyr St Pedro Calungsod.
All three images were welcomed with the religious dances traditional to the Cebu region.
Celebrant at the Mass was Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon in Burma (Myanmar). He is present at the congress as Pope Francis’ personal representative and carried with him the greeting of the Pope, along with the Holy Father’s gift of a Gospel Book to the Archdiocese of Cebu. Cardinal Bo’s homily was well-received and challenging.
Having praised the Philippines as a great nation of Christians and evangelisers, who offered succour to the Church in Burma during its time of need, he moved to the theme of Christianity being not only a religion of devotion, but a religion of discipleship.
Whilst the Mass of the devotee comes to an end after an hour, he explained, the Mass of the disciple lasts a lifetime and has its effects far outside the walls of the Church. Provocatively he challenged the Church to wage a ‘Third World War’ – not a war in the military sense, but a war against the injustice and poverty in the world that contradicts the presence and mission of Christ in the Eucharist. “The Eucharist,” he said, “calls for a Third World War. A Third World War against poverty. A Third World War against cruelty.”
After the celebration of Mass, there was a spectacular fireworks display, and amidst the chaos of hundreds of thousands attendees returning to their homes, friendly Filipino stewards shepherded the international delegations back to the busses that would take them back to their accommodations.
This friendly spirit is the one constant amidst all the historical and present contradictions that are so evident as this Eucharistic Congress begins.