by Sister Victoria Joson, RGS
In a Papal visit to the Philippines in the early ‘70s, Pope Paul VI exhorted the Philippine Church to be the bearer of the Gospel message in Asia, being the sole Christian country in this teeming continent.
In a Papal visit to the Philippines in the early ‘70s, Pope Paul VI exhorted the Philippine Church to be the bearer of the Gospel message in Asia, being the sole Christian country in this teeming continent. It would turn out that in the ensuing decade, Filipino priests, religious sisters and even lay migrant workers themselves, would start carrying out the role of re-evangelizers beyond this frontier, to the European continent – the so called bastion of Christianity.
The Catholic Church as an institution passed through a period of upheaval in the wake of the Second Vatican Council convoked by Pope John XXIII in 1962, in an inspiration to make the Universal Church relevant in the modern world. Along with the increasing tide of secularism settling in Europe, established religious congregations of men and women which sent missionaries to far flung regions of the world during the past centuries, are now faced with dwindling numbers. The ageing members are confronted with the burden of continuing their once flourishing apostolates in their respective countries in Europe.
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