The Catholic Church in the Philippines () is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the spiritual leadership of the pope in Rome. The Philippines is one of the two predominantly Catholic countries in Asia, along with Timor-Leste, and has the third-largest Catholic population in the world, after Brazil and Mexico. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) serves as the country's episcopal conference.
Christianity, through Catholicism, was introduced to the Philippine islands by Spanish soldiers, missionaries, and settlers beginning in the early 16th century, with the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition in Cebu. During the Spanish colonial period, Catholicism served as the state religion of the Philippines. Since the American colonial period, it has been practiced within the framework of a secular state. In 2023, an estimated 89 million Filipinos, or roughly 80% of the population, were Catholics.
History
Spanish Era
On May 4, 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Inter Caetera which permitted the Spanish Crown to explore and conquer parts of Asia apart from lands granted to the Portuguese. These explorations were motivated by evangelisation and finding spices. In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set out to the explore the Pacific Ocean and arrived in the Visayan Islands in March 1521. Magellan's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, noted that Mass was celebrated on Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521, in Mazaua. The local rulers Rajah Colambu and Rajah Siaui were in attendance, and a cross was erected at the site. There are contentions, however, on the location of this First Mass in the Philippines with competing claims it was held in Butuan, Bolinao, and Homonhon. Missionaries then worked to evangelize the natives of Cebu and performed mass baptisms.
The Spanish Crown first entrusted the conversion of Philippine natives to the Augustinians. In 1564, the Culhuacán convent in Mexico City issued a religious warrant establishing the first branch of the order in the Philippines. In 1565, the Legazpi expedition set off from Mexico City and marked the start of Spanish rule over the Philippines, beginning with Cebu. This expedition was an effort to occupy the islands with as little conflict as possible, ordered by Phillip II. Lieutenant Legazpi set up colonies in an effort to make peace with the natives and achieve swift conquest.
Christianity expanded from Cebu when the remaining Spanish missionaries were forced westwards due to conflict with the Portuguese, and laid the foundations of the Christian community in Panay between around 1560 to 1571. A year later, the second group of missionaries reached Cebu, and the island became an ecclesiastical see and the center for evangelization. Augustinian missionary Alfonso Jiménez reached the Camarines region in southeastern Luzon via Masbate, Leyte, Samar, and Burias, planting the roots of an ecclesiastical centre in Naga City. By 1571, Fray Herrera, who was assigned as chaplain of Legazpi, had advanced further north from Panay and laid the foundations of the Archdiocese of Manila. Herrera travelled further in the Espíritu Santo and was shipwrecked in Catanduanes, where he died attempting to convert the natives. In 1572, the Spaniards led by Juan de Salcedo marched north from Manila with the second batch of Augustinian missionaries and pioneered evangelization in the Ilocos (starting with Vigan) and the Cagayan regions,Under the encomienda system, Filipinos had to pay tribute to the encomendero of the area, and in return the encomendero taught them the Christian faith and protected them from enemies. Although Spain had used this system in America, it was not as effective in the Philippines, and missionaries were not as successful in converting the natives. In 1579, Domingo de Salazar, the first Bishop of Manila, and other clergymen were outraged because the encomenderos had abused their powers. Although the natives were resistant, they could not organize into a unified resistance towards the Spaniards, partly due to geography and ethnolinguistic differences.
With the increasing number of colonists, Spain and Mexico pressured other religious orders to join the evangelical mission started by the Augustinian in the Philippines. The Franciscans arrived in 1577, followed by the Jesuits in 1581, the Dominicans in 1587, and Augustinian Recollects in 1606.
Cultural impact
The Spaniards were disapproving of the lifestyle they observed in the natives. They blamed the influence of the Devil and desired to "liberate the natives from their evil ways". Over time, geographical limitations had shifted the natives into barangays, small kinship units consisting of about 30 to 100 families.
Each barangay had a mutable caste system, with any sub-classes varying from one barangay to the next. Generally, patriarchal lords and kings were called datus and rajas, while the mahárlika were the knight-like freedmen and the timawa were freedmen. The alipin or servile class were dependent on the upper classes, an arrangement regarded as slavery by the Spaniards. Intermarriage between the timawa and the alipin was permitted, which created a more or less flexible system of privileges and labor services. The Spaniards attempted to suppress this class system based on their interpretation that the dependent, servile class was an oppressed group. They failed at completely abolishing the system, but instead eventually worked to use it to their own advantage.
Religion and marriage were also issues that the Spanish missionaries wanted to reform. Polygyny was not uncommon, but was mostly confined to wealthier chieftains. Divorce and remarriage were also common as long as the reasons were justified. Accepted reasons for divorce included illness, infertility, or finding better potential to take as a spouse. The missionaries also disagreed with the practices of paying dowries, the "bride price" where the groom paid his father-in-law in gold, and "bride service", in which the groom performed manual labor for the bride's family, a custom which persisted well into late 20th century. Missionaries disapproved of these because they felt the bride price was the sale of one's daughter, and labor for bride's father allowed premarital sex between the bride and groom, which contradicted Christian beliefs.
Pre-conquest, the natives had followed a variety of monotheistic and polytheistic faiths, often localized forms of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam or Tantrism mixed with Animism. Bathala (Tagalog – Central Luzon) or Laon (Visayan) was the supreme creator deity above subordinate gods and goddesses. Native Filipinos also worshiped nature and venerated the spirits of their ancestors, whom they propitiated with sacrifices. There was ritualistic drinking and many rituals aimed to cure certain illnesses. Magic and superstition were also practiced. The Spaniards saw themselves as liberating the natives from sinful practices and showing them the correct path to God.
In 1599, negotiation began between a number of lords and their freemen and the Spaniards. The native rulers agreed to submit to the rule of the Castilian king and convert to Christianity, and allow missionaries to spread the faith. In return, the Spaniards agreed to protect the natives from their enemies, mostly Japanese, Chinese, and Muslim pirates.
Difficulties
Several factors slowed the Spaniards' attempts to spread Christianity throughout the archipelago. The low number of missionaries on the island made it difficult to reach all the people and harder to convert them. This was also due to the fact that the route to the Philippines was a rigorous journey, and some clergy fell ill or waited years for an opportunity to travel there. For others, the climate difference once they arrived was unbearable. Other missionaries desired to go to Japan or China instead and some who remained were more interested in mercantilism. The Spaniards also came into conflict with the Chinese population in the Philippines. The Chinese had set up shops in the Parian (or bazaar) during the 1580s to trade silk and other goods for Mexican silver. The Spaniards anticipated revolts from the Chinese and were constantly suspicious of them. The Spanish government was highly dependent on the influx of silver from Mexico and Peru, since it supported the government in Manila, to continue the Christianization of the archipelago.
The most difficult challenges for the missionaries were the dispersion of the Filipinos and the wide variety of languages and dialects. The geographical isolation forced the Filipino population into numerous small villages, and every other province supported a different language. Furthermore, frequent privateering from Japanese Wokou pirates and slave-raiding by Muslims blocked Spanish attempts to Christianize the archipelago, and to offset the disruption of continuous warfare with them, the Spanish militarized the local populations, importing soldiers from Latin America, and constructed networks of fortresses across the islands. As the Spanish and their local allies were in a state of constant war against pirates and slavers, the Philippines became a drain on the Vice-royalty of New Spain in Mexico City, which paid to maintaining control of Las Islas Filipinas in lieu of the Spanish crown.
Religious orders The Philippines is home to many of the world's major religious congregations, these include the Rogationists of the Heart of Jesus, the Redemptorists, Augustinians, Recollects, Jesuits, Dominicans, Benedictines, Comboni Missionaries, Franciscans, Carmelites, Divine Word Missionaries, De La Salle Christian Brothers, Salesians of Don Bosco, the indigenous Religious of the Virgin Mary, and Clerics Regular of St. Paul are known as Barnabites.
During the Spanish colonial period, the five earliest regular orders assigned to Christianize the natives were the Augustinians, who came with Legazpi, the Discalced Franciscans (1578), the Jesuits (1581), the Dominican friars (1587) and the Augustinian Recollects (simply called the Recoletos, 1606). In 1594, all had agreed to cover a specific area of the archipelago to deal with the vast dispersion of the natives. The Augustinians and Franciscans mainly covered the Tagalog country while the Jesuits had a small area. The Dominicans encompassed the Parian. The provinces of Pampanga and Ilocos were assigned to the Augustinians. The province of Camarines went to the Franciscans. The Augustinians and Jesuits were also assigned the Visayan Islands. The Christian conquest had not reached Mindanao due to a highly resistant Muslim community that existed pre-conquest. Although Christian conversion was successful in recently Islamized Manila wherein Islam had not yet been deeply entrenched, as well as Zamboanga City wherein high efforts expounded by Spain and Latin America, was exercised in order to Christianize the militantly Muslim Moros.
The task of the Spanish missionaries, however, was far from complete. By the seventeenth century, the Spaniards had created about 20 large villages and almost completely transformed the native lifestyle. For their Christian efforts, the Spaniards justified their actions by claiming that the small villages were a sign of barbarism and only bigger, more compact communities allowed for a richer understanding of Christianity. The Filipinos faced much coercion; the Spaniards knew little of native rituals. The layout of these villages was in gridiron form that allowed for easier navigation and more order. They were also spread far enough to allow for one cabecera or capital parish, and small visita chapels located throughout the villages in which clergy only stayed temporarily for Mass, rituals, or nuptials.
The Philippines served as a base for sending missions to other Asian and Pacific countries such as China, Japan, Formosa, Indochina, and Siam.
American period: 1898–1946