His Holiness Pope Francis on Sunday thanked the Filipino people for the joy they continue to bring to the whole world, as the Philippines celebrates the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the country.
“Dear brothers and sisters from the #Philippines, five hundred years have passed since the Christian message first arrived in your land and you received the joy of the Gospel. And this joy is evident in your people. Thank you for the joy you bring to the whole world,” Pope Francis said in a tweet.
Pope Francis led the mass along with several representatives of the Filipino Church, including Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the former Archbishop of Manila.
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“On this very important anniversary for God’s holy people in the Philippines, I also want to urge you to persevere in the work of evangelization – not proselytism, which is something else,” he said in a mass to mark the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines in St. Peter’s Basilica.
In his homily, the Pontiff said Filipinos received the joy of the Gospel when Christianity arrived in the archipelago 500 years ago.
“We see it in your eyes, on your faces, in your songs and in your prayers. I want to thank you for the joy you bring to the whole world and to our Christian communities,” he said.
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The pope also commended the role of Filipino women in spreading the good word in Rome: “I have often said that here in Rome, Filipino women are ‘smugglers’ of faith! Because wherever they go to work, they sow the faith. It is part of your genes, a blessed ‘infectiousness’ that I urge you to preserve.”
The predominantly Catholic Southeast Asian nation will kickstart the yearlong commemoration of the arrival of Christianity in the country on April 4, Easter Sunday. (RA)
