LRMS TODAY

Their presence in the Philippines especially in Manila provided Church leaders the mission of evangelizing them both locally and abroad. With that, the Chinese Apostolate was born. The canonization of St. Lorenzo Ruiz was a concrete evidence of the presence, fruitfulness, and fidelity to the mission of evangelization among the Chinese in the Philippines. Today, the inspiring sainthood of Lorenzo Ruiz brought new developments in the Chinese Apostolate in the Philippines. One of the hallmarks of this development is the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society. It is a living witness and indeed a result of a 500-year-old mission legacy that has never faded throughout the centuries.

The Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society was formally launched in 1997 with seven new priests to form the first members of the local born mission society. It has to be recalled that the establishment of an indigenous clergy for the mission was acknowledged and promoted by Pius XI in his Encyclical entitled Rerum Ecclesiae. It was written on February 28, 1926. The Encyclical focused on the affirmation of local cultures that is tantamount to appreciating and promoting the local clergy. Thus, the emergence of the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society as an important instrument of the evangelization of the ethnic Chinese in the Philippines is an example of the promotion of the local clergy for the mission of the local church.

The evangelization among the Chinese in the Philippines was the initiative the local church of Manila in 1583. Concurrent to the evangelization of the Chinese in the Philippines was also the preparation for a mission embarkation in Mainland China. The missionaries like the Augustinians and Dominicans who built their missions in the Philippines began to fix their gaze on a mission of a bigger empire from where the traders came from. The trajectory of missions to mainland China from the Philippines was a challengeable task. The wave after wave of Chinese influx to the Philippines for trade made the missionaries foresee and imagine a bigger empire beyond the shores of the country. The Chinese in the Philippines who were called Sangleys which is translated as “frequent coming” during that time. To be able to do mission beyond the shores would mean that they have to begin to speak Chinese and to know the culture and history.

Evolving Mission among the Chinese in the Philippines

The Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society is a product of an evolving Apostolate. The Apostolate that was initiated by Bishop Domingo de Salazar cannot just be thrown into oblivion but has to develop in the course of time. He planted the mission, developed by different missionaries, and reaped by different generations. His desire to bring the Gospel to the Chinese is considered the foundational vision of the current mission of the Apostolate today. Both leaders of the Church and missionaries of the past saw the importance of the Apostolate and they promoted it with great enthusiasm. To continue the vision of the forebears of this Apostolate is already a form of missionary work. Thus, the formation of missionary priests like the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society for the continuity of mission among the ethnic Chinese in the Philippines is remarkable. The mission among the Chinese in the Philippines had to be “saved and renewed.” The Second Vatican Council is clearly articulated this: “In the present state of affairs, out of which there is arising a new situation for mankind, the Church, being the salt of the earth and the light of the world (cf. Matt. 5:13-14), is more urgently called upon to save and renew every creature, that all things may be restored in Christ and all men may constitute one family in Him and one people of God” (AG 1).

At the advent of the Second Vatican Council, the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate had to adapt to signs of the times due to the changes transpiring in the Philippine society. The leaders of the Church were crucial figures for the evolving Apostolate. The first among the signs of the times was the changing Philippine society with the growing population of Chinese-Filipino. In the 1950s, the number of Filipino-Chinese reached 1.2 million which was 1.8 percent of the entire country’s population that time. The second among the signs of the times was increasing missionary and pastoral needs of the Filipino-Chinese because of the growing Philippine-born ethnic Chinese. The approaches for sustaining the Apostolate had also to be carefully restudied. The third among the signs of the times was the need for clergy to evangelize them. The third signs of the times constituted the arrival of the Chinese seminarians in the Philippines after the priests and seminarians left St. Joseph Seminary in China due to the political problems that time. They left China to avoid the persecution of the Church.  When the Chinese seminarians were ordained priests, they were all distributed to the entire Philippines to improve and promote the Apostolate to the Chinese like building schools, hospitals, and establishing parishes specifically for the local Chinese.

With the emergence of the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society, one cannot say that the mission towards the ethnic Chinese in the Philippines was abandoned in spite of the growing integration of the Chinese-Filipino into the wider Filipino population. The gradual loss of Chinese practices, customs, and values and the movement to adapt Filipino customs did not hinder the Church to continue its task. The Archbishops of Manila were examples of how the Apostolate has been kept and nourished.

        1) Archbishop Michael O’Doherty- He became the Bishop of Manila in 1916-1949. He was Bishop of Gibraltar and Zamboanga before he was appointed Archbishop of Manila. It during his episcopacy the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines was established, he introduced the Legion of Mary in the Philippines, and he also represented the Philippines on the occasion of the 34th Eucharistic Congress that was held in Budapest, Hungary in 1938. In his 33 years of service in the Archdiocese of Manila, he supported the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate. He agreed and approved the plan of the faithful to establish a chapel for the Chinese Catholics after the Church of Binondo was bombed by the Japanese in 1944. In 1946, he also approved the establishment of a Chinese parochial school which was called the “Crusader’s Academy” and now “Lorenzo Ruiz Academy.”

        2) Rufino Cardinal Santos, D.D.- His Eminence Rufino Cardinal Santos, D.D. was the first Filipino Cardinal and was also the 29th Bishop of Manila. He was Archbishop of Manila from 1953-1973 and was made Cardinal in 1960 by Pope John XXIII. It was during his time that Radio Veritas was born. He established Pius XII Catholic Center, the Asian Social Institute, Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary, the Pontificio Collegio Filippino, and the womb where Caritas Manila was born which was called Catholic Charities. The 4 Chinese Parishes namely: Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Binondo, St. Jude Thaddeus Parish, San Miguel, Manila, Mary the Queen Parish, Greenhills, San Juan, and St. Peter the Apostle Parish, Paco, Manila were recognized as parishes for the evangelization of the Chinese in the Philippines. Alongside with these parishes was the specific Filipino-Chinese Apostolate which all parishes of its nature share in the whole archipelago. Radio Veritas Asia was an important instrument for evangelization and catechesis and the nourishment of the faith among the Chinese and other countries overseas. In 1952, Pius XII issued a document acknowledging the establishment of new parishes in the Philippines as a sign that the local church values their local cultures. In his Letter entitled "Exsul Familia Nazarethana," he said: "Very recently, to cite but one example, parishes were set up, by decree of the Consistorial Congregation, for the Chinese living in the Philippine Islands."

        3) Jaime Cardinal Sin, D.D.- Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, D.D. succeeded Archbishop Rufino Cardinal Santos, D.D. He became Archbishop of Manila from 1974-2003. He became one of the icons of the EDSA Peaceful Revolution in 1986 to promote a transitional government that would mark the end of a dictatorial rule of President Ferdinand Marcos. He welcomed Pope John Paul II in the Archdiocese of Manila twice, one in 1981 which was the occasion of the Beatification of Lorenzo Ruiz and one in 1995 which was the 10th World Youth Day. He founded the Lorenzo Mission Institute in 1987 and the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society in 1997. The first priests of the Lorenzo Mission Institute were assigned in St. John’s Institute, a Filipino-Chinese School, Mary, the Queen Parish in Bacolod City, and in Sacred Heart Parish, Davao City. It was during his time that San Jose de Trozo was administered by Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society priests. He gave the pastoral leadership and administration of the Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord, SM Megamall also to the LRMS priests. Both new assignments were non-Filipino-Chinese centers.

        4) Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, D.D.- Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, D.D. succeeded Jaime Cardinal Sin, D.D. as Archbishop of Manila from 2003 to 2011. He supported the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate by sending LRMS priests to JiLin, China through the generosity and assistance of the SME priests. Another important focus of evangelization by the Cardinal was priestly formation of Chinese priests abroad and locally. The Galilee Center in Tagaytay City which was intended for the on-going formation of priests was an enormous contribution for the priests working for the evangelization of ethnic and foreign Chinese priests.

        5) Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, D.D.- Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, D.D. widened the sense of mission among the LRMS priests. In 2018, during the Plenary Assembly of the Society, he encouraged all members of the Society to rethink and consider having missions in Japan where St. Lorenzo Ruiz was martyred. It was during his term that some members of the Society became involved in non-Filipino-Chinese apostolate like being the Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, being Assistant Executive Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. In spite of the new assignments approved and given, the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society maintains its mission of attending to the pastoral needs of the Filipino-Chinese communities in the country.

        6) Jose Cardinal Advincula, D.D.- Jose Cardinal Advincula, D.D. has a missionary vision for the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society. As the Society moves from limiting its direction from missiones ecclesiae to missio Dei, Cardinal Advincula considers sending LRMS priests to Australia. He sent priests to work missio ad exteros like sending a priest in the diocese of San Carlos. It is also remarkable that he assigns LRMS priests in the parishes of the Archdiocese of Manila which are not Filipino-Chinese in nature and identity. It was also during his term as Archbishop of Manila that the administration of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Binondo was given to the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society.