Minority Religions, Social Change, and Freedom of Conscience
Salt Lake City and Provo (Utah), June 20-23, 2002
Filipinos are known to be believers of the divine and are inn
Minority Religions, Social Change, and Freedom of Conscience
Salt Lake City and Provo (Utah), June 20-23, 2002
Filipinos are known to be believers of the divine and are innately religious. Deep accounts of this trait can be traced even before the coming of the Westerners in the Philippines. Pre-Hispanic ancestors are reputed as profoundly religious people and fanatics about anything spiritual. For them, God is everything. So that above anything, they had already committed their past, present, and future lives solely to God, a seemingly-fatalistic belief evidently common characteristic among the old folks who bore the expression bahala na, which signified "leaving ones fate to the gods (bathala in Filipino)."
The fanaticism of ancient Filipinos, though predominantly born out of idolatry, was considered sacred and practiced in both mind and body. This was a custom in a time when the concept of private possession did not exist. The inhabitants dependence on the bounty of nature rested on the strong faith that God, whether anito, bathala, or any celestial body, had purposely laid to them all they need. As such, they freely hunt, fish and gather sufficient food for the day without greed. Jealousy and thievery were nonexistent since nothing worth grudging and stealing to anyone disturbed the rule of peace they enjoy. Not a single trace of anxiety about the future is present among them. Until the conquest, when the Spaniards came, everything has drastically changed.
Although cloaked with the mission to spread Christianity, the abomination of foreign dominion carried with it the acquisition of large estates for themselves, which introduced various Western principles, such as private ownership, land registration and titling. This virtual reality saddened the native population and the onset of agonies deprived our forefathers who once enjoyed the abundance of nature. Eventually, those who refused to embrace the new order were driven to the hinterlands, utterly dispossessed of primitive domain, deposed of any refuge of the sea, the plains and even the hills and mountains.
Far from over, their misery would endure and place them in long conflict with the new faith, deprive of cultural heritage and their lives in constant touch with danger. Catholicism triumphed, transformed Filipinos from being heathens into a God-fearing race, albeit such affinity to the Divine had been hampered by institutional structures brought about by repressive regime. Through deception, the Church had been utilized to spread a biblical catchword "Blessed are the poor and the oppressed "
Indeed, the Filipinos desire to live on with the Christian faith was bolstered by their primitive belief on the Supreme Being. Hence, the healthy assimilation of Catholicism dragged on toward the Second World War. Yet, people still question the significance of religion in their lives. After the war, a global warning in religious teaching spread like an epidemic, serious affecting America, Japan, Western Europe and the ret of the Third World countries.
The Philippines also succumbed to the brunt of this phenomenon that brought religion to its knees. During the 1960s, the religious community roused in slumber with the advent of the different ecclesiastical groups that stormed into the country. Educational institutions in Manila were utilized as launching grounds. Laden with a peculiar design of attraction, Filipinos warmly accepted the novel western orthodoxy, which virtually replaced the language used in preaching and style in holding religious rites. Priests caught empty-handed crammed for answers to quench the peoples thirst for the Gospel. This problem compounded with the growing alienation separating Church leaders from their faithfuls. Twenty years later, there evolved a fresh wind in charismatic movements that saw a massive exodus to a new foldthe El Shaddai-DWXI-PPFIa new revulsion in devotion to the Cross still maintaining fidelity in Catholicism. Yet, its revolutionary approach gravely alarmed the Church owing to its captivating persuasion that moved in hordes people from various denominations to the lively assembly, more than attending the regular parochial mass.
History of El Shaddai
On the testimony in February 1978 of Brother Mike Velarde, El Shaddais chief minister, an angel of God roused him in his room at the Philippine Heart Center while awaiting a major heart operation. On his account, the angel delivered to him the Word of God, which reinvigorated his failing heart and soul, and immediately restored the health that downed him for long.
The following day, Bro. Mikes doctors were surprised to see him walking enthusiastically along the hospital alley. For many days, this patient was thoroughly diagnosed, but a miracle occurred. Not a single trace of heart deficiency was present, and the scheduled heart operation was finally suspended.
Since then, Bro. Mike became a Born Again Catholic. It was to be the turning point of a once wasteful life for he considered the miracle of the Lord in him as a grace filled with a supreme mission. The ensuing days found him busy in establishing the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Secretariat of Quezon City with Msgr. Fidelis Lim of Fairview, Quezon City, together with Jeanne Young, Sister Angela Lim, OFM of Stella Maris College, Bro. P.B. Dionisio, Bro. Cesar Roxas, Bro. Bingbong Crisologo, (the late) Bro. Ronald Remy and many other ardent followers of the congregation.
Wasting no time, the movement poised the "Good News of the Lord" under the Catholic Charismatic Renewal to form a vigorous assembly in a monthly Charismatic Mass and Healing Rally at Araneta Coliseum every fourth week o