A Brief History of the Mission Society of the Philippines

• On February 15, 1945, while World War II was still raging, the Apostolic Delegate to the Philippines Archbishop Gugliemo Piani, SDB, D.D., established the Catholic Welfare Organization (CWO) in order to meet the emergencies caused by the war. In charge of relief work was Father John F. Hurley, S.J., the Superior of the Jesuit Mission in the Philippines.
• In July of that year, the Philippine Bishop met in Manila for the first time after the war. Upon their request, the CWO became, on July 19, the official organization of the Philippine hierarchy. Among the six commissions created were the Episcopal Commissions on Social Action and Mission. (In 1968, the CWO was changed to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.)
• Fourteen years later, the Philippine Bishops made a historic decision of great missionary import. They declared 1959 as Mission Year. A pastoral letter to that effect was issued on May 17 of that year. Said the Bishops: “We are ready – indeed we have been ready for some time – to undertake mission work of our own; to send out our own Filipino missionaries; to perform for others that same service that we ourselves have received in such generous measure from the Universal Church. It is to call attention to this fact that we dedicate 1959 as Mission Year.” In celebration of said Mission Year, various activities were held, such as: regional mission conventions and exhibits; seminars on missionary activity where formal papers were presented; special vocation promotion for both home and foreign missions; missions rallies on the parochial, deanery, and diocesan levels; and a National Mission Congress in Manila on December 3-6, 1959. In seminaries, in particular, mission study groups were organized, a result of which was that Manila seminarians petitioned the Bishops to establish a national mission society.
• It, however, took for years before steps were taken toward establishing a national mission society. On November 20, 1963, the Philippine Bishops who were in Rome at this time met at the Pontificio Collegio Filippino. In this meeting, bishop Surban presented; “The Possibility of a Philippine Mission Center.”
• During the Eleventh Bishops’ Annual Meeting on January 27 – 31, 1964 at the San Carlos Major Seminary in Cebu City, Bishop Surban “read an inspired talk concerning the God-given mission of Catholic Philippines in the evangelization of the Far East.” After tracing the history of the evangelization of the country and the vision of early missionaries as well as of several papers in their letters to the Philippine hierarchy and the faithful regarding the evangelization of the mainland Asia, the he proposed the establishment of the Foreign Mission Society of the Philippines. The Bishops enthusiastically and unanimously approved the project. They likewise unanimously endorsed Bishop Surban to be the National Director of the enterprise and tasked him to prepare a detailed plan of its organization (Blueprint for Mission Activity). And in their joint pastoral letter “On the Fourth Centenary of the Evangelization of the Philippines” (February 2, 1964), they expressed their intention to establish the Society which they henceforth considered as a monument to the forthcoming Fourth Centennial Celebration.
• Rome was, of course, regularly kept informed of the project. As a token of his appreciation of the initiative, Pope Paul VI donated a chalice, a paten, a ciborium, and a communion plate which, according to His Holiness, should remain in the seminary as a personal pledge of his paternal interest.
• With his Blueprint for the Mission Activity in hand, Bishop Surban requested his colleagues to issue a pastoral statement officially proclaiming their intention to establish the Society. This was on October 1, 1964 when the Philippine Bishops, who were again in Rome at this time, held a special meeting at the Pontificio Collegio Filippino. Finally pastoral statement to that effect was finally issued on January 29, 1965. Said the Bishops: “We, therefore, proclaim officially our intention to undertake a national effort to orient our people to the Mission. To achieve this and to express in the concrete our gratitude to God for the gift of Faith, we will organize the Foreign Mission Society of the Philippines.”
• The Fourth Centennial Celebration took place in Cebu City on April 27 – May 2, 1965. As a fitting celebration of the occasion, the Fourth National Mission Congress was held. On the last day, the Papal Legate Ildebrando Cardinal Antoniutti blessed the cornerstone of Fil-Mission Seminary in Tayud, Consolacion, Cebu.  It was also on the last day that the Papal Legate blessed the cornerstone of the first (wooden) parish church of the Blessed Sacrament Parish, Reclamation Area, Cebu City.
• Not long after his arrival in Cebu City in June 1965, the first priest – volunteer, Father Lito Bongay of the Diocese of Tagbilaran, engaged in promotion work. In the following year, at Bishop Surban’s request, the Maryknoll Fathers in Davao City generously loaned to the Society one of their men to the promotion works on its behalf. To shorten the Society’s name, which he thought was rather long, and makes it catchy and easy to remember, Father John Walsh, MM, coined the word “Fil-Mission” which eventually became the Society’s popular name. Seeing the need for the Society to have one because, as a symbol of the Society it could help in making its nature easily understood and the promotion campaign more catchy, he, with due permission from Bishop Surban, commissioned the making of the Society’s official coat-of-arms which is composed of a sun with rays radiating over Asia and a motto which says, “Levabit Signum in Nationes ” (“A Sign Will Rise among Nations”).
• From the beginning until August 7, 1984, the Mission Society of the Philppines was headed by CBCP – appointed National Directors, namely, a) Bishop Epifanio Surban, D.D., of Dumaguete, b) Bishop Guadencio Rosales, D.D. (1977-1982), then an Auxiliary Bishop of Manila in charge of the Ecclesiastical District of Antipolo and the National Director of the Pontifical Missionary Societies in the Philippines, c) Bishop Leoncio Lat (a.i, August 1982 – April 1983), at that time Auxuliary Bishop of Malolos and full-time CBCP Secretary General, and d) Father Gregorio Pizarro, SVD (1983 – 1984), who was then the National Director of the Pontifical Missionary Societies in the Philippines and during whose term, the Society definitively, with his support, moved toward self-governance from August 7, 1984 to December 4, 1984, the Society was headed by an elected Interim Superior (Father Edwin de la Peña, now Bishop of Marawi) whose task, with the help of an Ad Hoc Committee, was to prepare the Society’s First General Assembly. With the holding of the first MSP General Assembly (December 4 – 8, 1984) which ratified a constitution and elected a Supreme Moderator (later changed to Father Moderator) and the members of the first General Council, the Society has been, since then, on its own.
• By the decree of March 26, 1978, the Archbishop of Cebu Julio Cardinal Rosales erected the Mission Society of the Philippines as a Society of Apostolic Life for the mission ad gentes. Since 1989, its principal seat has been in the Archbishop of Manila. And by the decree issued on January 6, 2009 by Ivan Cardinal Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of People declared that henceforth the Mission Society of the Philippines is a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right for mission ad gentes.
• As earlier said, the first priest-volunteer came to Cebu City in June 1965, Five years later, the historic day for the Society came when the purpose for which it was founded was realized when on January 13, 1970, the first Fil-Missioners on foreign assignment (Father Eliseo Echavia of the Diocese of Tagbilaran and Father Pedro Pacuribot of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro) left for Buddhist Thailand, i.e., Nakhon Ratchasima or Korat which became a diocese on March 22, 1965. Presently, Fil-Missions are working in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Tokelau, The Cook Islands, United States of America, Guyana (in South America) and The Netherlands. Fil-Mission formerly worked in Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, American Samoa, and the United Kingdom.
• In 2015, the Mission Society of the Philippines will celebrate its Golden Jubilee. A triennial preparation which includes the third year (2015) was launched at the Fil-Mission Seminary in Tagaytay City last January 26, 2013on the occasion of its celebration of the feast day of its patron – the Sto. Niño de Cebu. In response to the declaration of October 2012 – October 2013 as Year of Faith by then reigning Pope, now Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, the theme chosen for the first year of preparation (2013) and this year’s Fil-Mission Sunday celebration is “Faith and Mission.”
• It is said that “Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” This is true for us, Fil-Missioners. We are Filipinos (Utang Kabubut-on). More than that, our Society was born out of gratitude to God for the gift of Faith. Mission is Gratitude! And so, on the occasion of Fil-Mission Sunday 2013, to all those in one way or another have helped and/or will continue to help us in our endeavors. Indeed, as we say… (MSP- Maraming Salamat Po!)