DE NAVIGATIONE: The Voyage of Faith Begins (Part 2 of 2)

(This “History of Evangelization in the Archdiocese of Davao” is an ongoing project of the Archdiocesan Commission on the Cultural Heritage of the Church (ACCHC) under the supervision of Fr. Russell A. Bantiles, PhD, its current director.)

(Second of two parts)

Rolling their sleeves, the PME fathers picked up where the Jesuits had left off.

In November 1938, the second batch of seven PME Fathers arrived in Davao: Fr. Joseph Geoffroy, Fr. Maurice Michaud, Fr. Lionell Labelle, Fr. Joseph Dupuis, Fr. Yvon Guerin, Fr. Paul-Emile Lahaye, and Fr. Leo Poirier. A year after, they started their pastoral work in the East Coast of Davao and helped the Jesuit Fathers in this mission area. Fr. Guerin was sent to Caraga, Fr. Dupuis to Baganga, and Fr. Leblanc to Cateel. Fr. Lahaye was sent to Mati to help another Jesuit, Fr. Lamy, who was already there.

In November 1939, Fr. Clovis Thibault, PME, became the parish priest of San Pedro Parish, and Fr. Leo Poirier, PME, was named his assistant. During that time, San Pedro Parish was considered one of the largest parishes in the world! Soon after Fr. Thibault became the parish priest, in the time of the Second World War, he escaped to the East Coast and for a while, eluded the Japanese soldiers until he was captured and imprisoned. When the war ended, he immediately returned to Davao to continue his shepherding mission at San Pedro Parish.

When the Jesuits returned to Zamboanga in December 1939, after 75 years of mission in Davao, the PME fathers subsequently took the various mission stations in the Eastern part of the province and started opening up new parishes. The parish in Mati, which was opened in 1937 by the Jesuits, was closed upon the departure of the Jesuits for Zamboanga but was reopened when the PME Fathers arrived. Kingking, which is now Pantukan, was founded by Fr. Cote in 1939. In the south, Fr. Poirier founded St. Joseph Parish of Sta. Cruz in 1941, with Fr. Leblanc as his assistant.

In January 1940, the third group of PME Fathers arrived in Davao: Fr. Robert Lemay, Fr. Roland Hebert, and Fr. Andre Pigeon. A few weeks later, they left for their respective mission assignments in Caraga, Cateel and Baganga. The last group of PME Fathers that came to the Philippines in November 1941, before the war, was composed of Fr. Alfred Tremblay, Fr. Octave Rheaume and Fr. Julien Vezina.

However, as the World War II broke out in December 1941, it halted the momentum of the evangelization in Davao. Parochial work literally stopped. Of the 23 PME Fathers at that time, seven escaped and took refuge among the pagan tribes of the East Coast of Davao, while the rest were taken as prisoners and were sent to the Japanese camps at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna. We lost four PME Fathers during this period: Fr. Lamy died of malaria in San Pedro; Fr. Desjardins mysteriously disappeared on his way from Manay to Caraga; Fr. Poirier and Fr. Leblanc who were working in Sta. Cruz were killed by the Japanese soldiers, who took them to Pikit, Cotabato province as prisoners.

Immediately after the war, the Mindanao region (or the Southern Philippines) became famous as the “Land of Promise” and the target destination for settlers who wanted to begin a new life in peace. Needless to say, this marked the dynamic growth of the local Church of Davao. With the arrival of 16 new missionaries in 1946, the PME Fathers resumed their evangelizing efforts with vigor, as they established more parishes from the East coast to the South. In Tagum, Fr. Lionel Labelle founded the Christ, the King Parish in 1948.

In the South, Fr. Alfred Tremblay established the Sto. Rosario Parish in Malita (1947) while Fr. Marcel Turcotte founded the Mary Mediatrix of All Graces Parish in Digos (1948). In Davao City, Fr. Jean Bernard Bazinet founded the Sto. Rosario Parish of Toril (1948), while Fr. Conrad Cote became the first parish priest of Sta. Ana Parish (1949).

As the work of evangelization grew, the need for more missionaries was evident. Various religious congregations came to Davao to address the various needs of the people in Catholic education, health care and other apostolates. Already in 1902, the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (or the RVM Sisters) started their mission in Davao when the Superior General, Mother Ma. Efigenia Alvarez sent three sisters to Davao City, and started to give catechesis to some children while residing at the Palma Gil family residence. The Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception (MIC) Sisters arrived in 1946 to administer a school in Mati. In February 1947, Bishop Del Rosario, SJ, brought from the Carmelite Monastery of Jaro, Ilo-ilo, three nuns to establish a monastery in Davao City, with the mission of dedicating themselves to prayer and penance for the evangelization of the region. In 1948, the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Trinity founded the San Pedro Hospital. In the same year, the Jesuits returned to Davao to devote themselves in the field of education.

With the presence of these congregations, various Catholic educational institutions flourished and became a major evangelizing arm of the Church. The RVM Sisters established the Immaculate Conception Academy in 1934, which later became the University of the Immaculate Conception (UIC). When the Jesuits returned in 1948, at the request of then Archbishop Del Rosario of Zamboanga, they took over from the PME Fathers the management of the St. Peter’s parochial school, which was destroyed during the war, and which later became the Ateneo de Davao University. The PME-established St. Peter’s School of Toril was handed over to the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary (PM Sisters) in 1953, and which later became the St. Peter’s College of Toril. In 1958, two sisters from the Daughters of Mary of the Assumption (FMA Sisters) came to Davao at the invitation of then Bishop Thibault, and established what we now know as the Assumption School in Agdao.

The previously established annex of the Immaculate Conception College in Sta. Ana Avenue by the RVM Sisters, was later given to the PME Fathers, who managed and turned it into the Holy Cross of Davao College. Other parochial schools in the region established by the PME Fathers would later be granted to some religious congregations for management as the demands of evangelization grew bigger. In actuality, the archdiocese has six evangelizing educational arms: Holy Cross of Davao College, Holy Cross of Bunawan, Holy Cross of Agdao, Holy Cross of Babak, Assumption Academy of Peñaplata, and San Lorenzo College of Davao.

With the rapid growth of the number of the faithful as manifested in the increasing number of parishes established, the upsurge of Church apostolates, and the presence of a growing number of religious congregations involved in the apostolates of health care, Catholic education, and other charitable works, it was deemed the right time for the local community of Christ’s followers to be elevated into the status of Prelature Nullius, as stated in the papal bull entitled Satius Haud, issued by Pope Pius XII on December 17, 1949. Bishop Luis del Rosario of the Diocese of Zamboanga remained for the meantime the Apostolic Administrator until the pope appointed Fr. (now Msgr.) Clovis Thibault, PME, as Apostolic Administrator of the Prelature on April 12, 1950.

When Msgr. Thibault began his tenure as Apostolic Administrator, there were thirteen (13) parishes, thirty-one (31) PME Fathers, forty (40) religious men and women, four hundred thousand (400,000) Catholics, and one hundred thousand (100,000) Muslims. There were approximately three thousand (3,000) marriages, twenty thousand (20,000) baptisms a year, and only one seminarian studying in Manila that time. In his heart, Msgr. Thibault “viewed the problem of ecclesiastical vocations as the first among those nearest to his heart.” Hence, at his prompting, the Prelature established the St. Francis Xavier Seminary on June 11, 1956 for the formation of the future clergy of Davao. Later, on December 29, 1954, Msgr. Thibault was installed as the First Prelate Ordinary of Davao, and eventually, on February 11, 1955, he was ordained the first Bishop of Davao.

In 1962, Tagum was elevated into a Prelature, and as a result, the northern and eastern parts of Davao province were separated from the Prelature Nullius of Davao. On July 11, 1966, the Prelature Nullius was elevated into a diocese and into an archdiocese on June 29, 1970. This time, the archdiocese comprised the City of Davao, the Samal Island and the southern portion of Davao province.

On December 9, 1972, the archdiocese had its first Filipino archbishop in the person of Archbishop Antonio L. Mabutas, DD. In 1971, the Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference (MSPC) was founded and held its first conference in Davao City, with eight Mindanao bishops in attendance, including Archbishop Mabutas. In 1974, Archbishop Mabutas founded the Teresian Daughters of Mary (TDM Sisters), a locally hailed religious congregation, whose sisters provide great assistance to the indefatigable efforts of evangelization in various apostolates in the region and beyond, including school administration, diocesan functions and charitable works.

Digos was established as a diocese on November 5, 1979, and Davao del Sur was separated from the Archdiocese of Davao. Since then, the Archdiocese of Davao has the suffragan dioceses of Digos, Tagum and Mati. These towns are now the capital cities of the three Davao provinces, which were delineated earlier in 1967.

The flourishing local Church was graced with the historical pastoral visit of (now Saint) Pope John Paul II on February 20, 1981. Although, due to the security concerns in Mindanao at that time, the Pope only met the people and celebrated the Holy Eucharist at the old Davao International Airport, the spiritual impact of his visit is still palpable even today. In 1984, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, now St. Mother Teresa, visited Davao and opened her congregation’s (the Missionaries of Charity) first mission house in the archdiocese, the Home of Pag-asa at Fatima, which years later became the Archdiocesan Nourishment Center (ANC), which provides food to malnourished children in the area.

As a sign of the continuing growth of faith in the archdiocese, the local Church held its first Archdiocesan Pastoral Assembly of Davao (APAD) on November 4-6, 1982 and the second one on May 9-14, 1994, a sure sign that the Holy Spirit is truly guiding the barque of Peter in this portion of the vineyard. Spurred on by the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the Archdiocese moved to solidify its faith-structures: the parishes and GKKs (which has become a new way of being Church in Mindanao), seminaries, schools and other pastoral agencies. Pastoral programs for worship, formation and service were identified and given new impetus.

On November 28, 1996, Archbishop Fernando R. Capalla, DD, succeeded Archbishop Mabutas. Archbishop Capalla founded the Bishop-Ulama Forum (BUF) in 1992, which was later renamed Bishop-Ulama Conference (BUC), an interreligious and ecumenical organization aimed at fostering understanding and friendship among Catholics, Christians, Muslims and Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao. Hailed from Leon, Ilo-ilo, he was well remembered as a peace advocate of Mindanao, who firmly believed that “At the heart of peace is the peace in the heart”.

Presently, shepherding the flock of Davao is Archbishop Romulo G. Valles, DD, with his Auxiliary Bishop George B. Rimando, DD. Some 100 diocesan priests here and on mission abroad, half a dozen guest-priests, and more than a hundred religious priests collaborate in ministering to the faithful in 42 actual parishes, and various soon-to-be erected parish communities.

Indeed, the Archdiocese of Davao, after 75 years, is still in navigatione. But surely, in high and low waters, we firmly believe and are confident that Christ journeys with us, though sometimes He appears to be sleeping on the boat!