Pilipinong
Katoliko
is Tagalog, my native language, for Filipino Catholic. These two words have
come to define me, in the most intimate sense, and define every fiber of my
being. Simple and mundane as these two words are, they both carry with them
such tremendous weight, at least for me, that at times it seems difficult to
live up to their meaning. To me, being a Filipino Catholic goes beyond just
merely stating it, as if I were stating simple fact or checking a box on
survey. Being a pilipinong katoliko,
to me, also goes beyond outsider perception, even the seemingly insider
perception of a fellow Catholic. It goes beyond cultural heritage and faith,
more than stereotypes and expectation. Filipino Catholic is more than just two
separate words used as description and characterization; it is more of a
singular, unified idea that is essential, even necessary, to who I am. It is me
and I am it…a Pilipinong Katoliko.
It
is interesting, at least to me, to think that I have not always been this way.
I have not always been so fervent in associating with being Filipino or
Catholic, much less been so passionate in attempting to convey the two as an
idea of being. A miracle baby as my parents put it, I was born in Tripoli,
Libya, much to the surprise of my parents, who were working there as contracted
nurses. My parents, both from strong Catholic and rather poor, large Filipino
families, did not want to wait to leave the country to have me baptized. I was
baptized in small Catholic missionary church by a one Italian Father Silvestre.
It was only much later in life did I realize the significant act of being
baptized in Libya, instead of waiting to go back to the Philippines a year
later, since I learned that Libya, a predominantly Muslim country, was not the
most welcoming of Christians. Growing up, for a little while in the
Philippines, New York, and finally Texas, my parents did not shy away from my
Filipino culture and heritage, and raised me and my two younger brothers
thoroughly in it. Luckily for me, they were not afraid of speaking Tagalog in
the home, unlike many other Filipino parents, who for justifiable reasons,
wanted to avoid speaking in the mother tongue in order for their children to
more easily assimilate into the American culture. For Filipinos, much of the
culture of the Philippines, a syncretic culture that draws heavily on native,
Spanish, Chinese, and Malay influences, is deeply related to the language. But
what was more important to my parents, more than language and tradition, was
faith. The Philippines is the largest Catholic country in Asia, and even though
the percentage of Catholic in the country has decreased over the years, the
Church maintains great influence in the culture and the people. Growing up, we
would pray together as a family, every night. There is not one single night in
my memory where my brother (and much later brothers) and I did not pray an Our
Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be before bed. And as we drifted off to sleep,
my parents would pray a full rosary over us. The rosary became like a lullaby to
me, and when I grew older, I was able to pray it with my parents. Even now,
when I go home, we still pray the rosary together as a family. We went to Mass
every Sunday, attended most Holy Days of Obligation, refrained from meat on
Fridays during Lent, dressed up for Easter, went to Midnight Mass for
Christmas, and any other typical Catholic point of faith. With the exception of
a few Filipino traditions and the misa
(Mass) being in Tagalog, being Catholic in the States was not too different
from being Catholic in the Philippines, at least so I thought. As I matured, I
was able to appreciate my culture and my faith more, and it was only then that
I realized being a Filipino Catholic, a truly devout one, was much different
from an American Catholic. Coming into this realization, I thought there was a
significant amount of spirituality missing in the American Church. My friends
in Religious Education did not pray every night with their families, and many
did not always go to Mass. Even more thought it crazy to go to Mass at
midnight. My family would always hold hands during the Our Father and others
would not. My faith, both then and now, was always family-centered and
spiritual. This, I realized, stemmed largely from being Filipino, where the
family is the singular most crucial aspect of society. Everything revolves
around the family for a Filipino: the joys and struggles of one are the joys
and struggles of all. This extended into the faith. My experience of the
Catholic faith growing up was so much more different than my American peers
because I was/am Filipino. The influence of the first Catholic missionaries to
the archipelago all those years ago played such a great influence and ingrained
itself so deeply into the culture, that even nowadays, born-again and
converted-from-Catholicism Filipinos display aspects of the Catholic faith in
their daily routines and everyday words because it has been a part of what it
means to be Filipino. Over the years, my culture and my faith have played off
of each other, strengthening each other within me, becoming more and more
intertwined. There was a time, when I was much younger and much more naïve,
that I thought being Filipino and Catholic were two inseparable things: that
all Filipinos were Catholics and that all Catholics were deeply spiritual and
devout. Having grown up and more cognizant of the world, I know this to be
untrue. However, at least within me and within my family, that idea is very
true and very much alive. I am not a Filipino who happens to be Catholic, nor a
Catholic who just happens to be Filipino. I am a Pilipinong Katoliko, proud and devout. It is more than culture,
more than faith, more than characteristics. It is who I am, how I live my life,
how I interact with others, and how I hope others remember me. Ako ay isang Pilipinong Katoliko, salamat sa Diyos. (I am a Filipino
Catholic, thanks to God).
“Kahit saan nandoon
ang mga Pilipino, ang katapatan sa Diyos ay dala-dala ng Pinoy.”
(Wherever the Filipinos may be, they bring with
them their loyalty to God).
---Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, Archbishop of Manila
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