The Torch Bearers

In 2014, during The Year of Consecrated Life, Pope Francis conveyed in Rejoice an encouraging message directed to consecrated men and women, by saying: ‘I want to say one word to you and this word is joy. Wherever consecrated people are, there is always joy!’

At work with the motivation of the Vatican and the papacy, these consecrated people, sworn to the vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, work within the episcopal mission of their religious orders, becoming torch bearers of the Faith, inspiration of the oppressed, and the backbone of small ecclesial communities defined by their missionary involvements.

Over four centuries since 1621 when the first Recollects from the parish of Bislig, Surigao del Sur, set up visitas (outstations) in the towns of Caraga, Baganga, and Cateel, Christianity’s journey was a difficult one despite the persistence, conviction, and resolve of missionaries. The travails were much too costly. Dozens of these brave souls had to lay their lives while preaching in unfamiliar lands fraught with danger, sickness, and hunger.

The Jesuits replaced in 1868 the Recollects as the beacons in the spread of the Gospel. Their turn, wracked by the same stubborn ordeals their predecessors bravely faced, would last seventy-one years before the PME Fathers took over. Between 1848, the year Davao became a colonial land, and the Commonwealth epoch, Davao, as an ecclesial territory, was consecutively placed under the care of the Diocese of Cebu, the Diocese of Jaro, and the Diocese of Zamboanga.

More religious orders for men and women, brought about by the favorable reviews about the region’s robust Christian landscape, later followed after the war, irrevocably transforming the Catholic milieu of a wild frontier into a bustling Christian jurisdiction.

Outside conversion, the congregations were the pillars that influenced the socio-economic setting of what is now Archdiocese of Davao. From opening missions to creating Christian communities, the proselytizers also introduced town planning, established weather stations, opened schools, promoted good values and practices, strengthened inter-tribal rapport, and dabbled as nursing aides, mentors, advisers, scientists, and administrators.

During the Spanish rule, on account of being imbued with the tasks to open settlements, they exercised the power to appoint local officials, conveyed royal decrees directly to civilian authorities, collected tributes, intervened in knotty political matters, taught Catechism, and handled the fiscal concerns affecting parishes and small towns.

Against the changing times and the expanding challenges, the narratives that have defined and shaped the Archdiocese of Davao have also transformed. Although the foundations of the issues that confront her follow a common thread, the adjustments needed to fit the need of the times are far too compound and dynamic.

But these religious orders, as beacons and torch bearers, will continue to light the way of generations to come in a prayerful mission to save more souls, whether through academic institutions, hospitals, seminaries, schools, orphanages, and monasteries, to honor the glory of God. (Tony Figueroa)