Missionary leader shows RP global religious clout

First posted 01:23am (Mla time) April 16, 2006
By Lito B. Zulueta
Inquirer



Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the April 16, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

FR. Antonio Pernia, the superior of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), one of the largest missionary orders in the Catholic Church, personifies the heightened global presence of the Filipino religious.

According to Vatican correspondent and author John Allen, Pernia is "the first Asian ever to be elected superior of an international religious order in the Catholic Church."

Pernia not only represents the widening presence of Filipinos' international missionary work. He also embodies the increasing global complexion of the Church to which Filipinos and other Asians have made important contributions.

Based in Rome where the SVD headquarters is located, Pernia is easily one of the top Asian religious functionaries in the Holy See. The SVD headquarters at the Via dei Verbiti is a palatial Italian villa obscured by a huge garden in front accessible through a security gate.

The building also houses several offices not exactly connected with the order, including the Service for Documentation and Research, which provides documentation of religious missionary work across the globe by the SVD and other international religious orders. The office is headed by a Spanish Dominican priest, Carlos Rodriguez, who often banters with his SVD confreres.

Pernia said Filipino religious missionaries working outside of the Philippines should number some 1,500. The last survey done 12 years ago, he said, showed some 800 Filipinos. About 160 Filipino members of the SVD are stationed abroad.

Filipino religious presence abroad, however, cannot be limited to the Filipino religious.

"The Filipino overseas workers also provide a certain religious presence," Pernia said. "Here in Italy, for instance, stories abound of Filipino domestic workers influencing whole families to return to the practice of the Catholic faith."

But Pernia lamented that overseas Filipino workers "have no pastoral care at all or have only the very minimum of pastoral care."

"It is essential that this deficiency is addressed as soon as possible by the Churches of both the host country and the country of origin," he said.

Prominent religious

Other prominent Filipino religious in the Vatican are Father Quirico Pedregoza, who is deputy for the Asia-Pacific to the Master of the Order of Preachers (or Dominicans), and Sr. Regina Kuizon, the communications head of the Religious of the Good Shepherd.

The Filipino Dominican Edmund Nantes was the treasurer of the Dominican Roman curia until he was elected in 2004 as prior provincial of the Filipino Dominicans.

Filipino religious are spread out all over the world as missionaries, often in harsh and inhospitable environments.

"We should feel proud and happy about Filipinos making important contributions to missionary work abroad," said Marist Brother Manuel de Leon, vice chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines. "They do their work despite difficulties and challenges, especially since they are situated in mission fields where Catholics are a minority and sometimes persecuted."

7th largest in the world

The Society of the Divine Word (Societas Verbi Divini in Latin, or SVD, the initials attached to all members' names) is the seventh largest Catholic congregation for men in the world. With more than 6,000 members, it is present in many countries, notably in Africa and the Americas.

In the Philippines, the SVD is the largest male congregation, with some 600 members, a number of active bishops in the hierarchy, and several mission posts and schools, notably the University of San Carlos in Cebu and the Divine Word College in several provinces.

Members of the SVD and similar congregations for men and women are called "religious," as contrasted with the "secular" or the "regular" clergy that are based in the dioceses and work under the bishops.

The religious form a community established in order to promote their founders' charism or chosen apostolic focus. They live lives of holiness and apostolate work, taking vows of poverty, obedience and chastity.

Founded by a saint

In canon law, the SVD and the other orders and congregations-Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, Benedictines, Marists and Good Shepherd sisters-are called "institutes of consecrated life."

The SVD was founded in the late 19th century by the German priest Arnold Jansen, one of the last saints to be canonized by John Paul II before he died last year.

Jansen wanted a congregation that would focus on missionary work and spread "the divine word" through active ministry, publishing and running Catholic schools.

The SVD missionaries arrived in the Philippines during the early part of the American period and, unlike older European orders, pursued relentlessly a program to build native vocations.

In due time, the SVD became more of an "Asian" order, with Indians, Indonesians and Filipinos forming the bulk of the membership. It became only a matter of time for an Asian to assume the leadership of an order that originated from the Old World.

"It is still a mystery to me that I was chosen superior general (in 2000)," Pernia told the Inquirer.

"Others, however, say that I was the natural choice since I was vice superior general in the previous term, 1994-2000. I think the society was looking for a superior general coming from Asia since a little more than half of the members now originate from Asia."

'Why me?'

"But why me among the many Asians?" he asked. "Perhaps partly because I had acquired greater international visibility over the years."

Like many top Filipino religious, Pernia has a cosmopolitan outlook, having studied in Rome and acquired knowledge of foreign languages.

He was appointed to several international study commissions of his order. Later on, while serving as superior of the SVDs in the Visayas, he was elected vice superior general in 1994. Since then, he has been based in Rome but constantly travels, visiting SVD missions all over the world.

Pernia denied he was bringing a uniquely Filipino management style to the SVD.

"I make my decisions in accordance with the general spirit of the Society and specific norms of our constitutions," he said. "But I would hope that in the longer term, some more significant changes will take place."

More relevant than management style perhaps is whether there's a Filipino or Asian "way of doing mission."

But the question comes with a caveat.

"With the majority of our missionaries now originating from Asia, I have always wondered whether we are just replacing personnel from one cultural origin with personnel from another cultural origin-with the work being done and the way of doing it remaining basically the same," Pernia said.

From conquest to dialogue

Thus, there's a need to come up with new missionary modes to improve or refine accepted traditions that are often of European origins.

"My hope, indeed, is that the emergence of Asian missionaries results in a different way of doing mission-that is, from the 'conquest mode' of mission in the past (where the Christian Gospel was often merely imposed on people, sometimes in a violent way) to the 'dialogue mode' of mission (where the Gospel is made to enter into respectful dialogue with the cultures of people)."

Related to the dialogue mode is doing mission in which the missionary draws from the resources of his own unique culture.

Pernia explained: "Asian missionaries seem to do mission with a flavor of their own-for instance, the Indonesians with their simplicity of lifestyle and closeness to ordinary people, the Indians with their contemplative spirit and prayerful approach to mission work, and the Filipinos with their strong sense of community and spirit of celebration."

As an international and multicultural order, the SVD has to be fully integrated culturally.

One heart, many faces

"How to promote diversity and maintain unity in the Society is one important challenge today," Pernia said.

"Our motto during the canonization of our founder two years ago was 'One Heart, Many Faces.' The challenge is precisely how to form this one heart without suppressing the multiplicity of faces, that is, how to nurture unity in diversity in our society," Pernia said.

There's also the old religious challenge of being "in the world" without being "of the world," he added.

"The globalized world offers both opportunities and challenges," he said. "How to remain open to the world without being seduced by its consumerist attractions. How to be responsive to the challenges of the globalized world without being co-opted by its spirit. How to remain relevant to the globalized world without losing our prophetic edge."

Filipino way

"Ultimately, this will require the development of a profound spirituality of openness to the world and rootedness in the Spirit," he added.

One reason Filipinos are effective missionaries is because of their "historical experience of colonization and our socioeconomic condition of poverty," Pernia said.

"Filipino missionaries will tend to approach mission not from a position of power or superiority but from a position of powerlessness and humility," he explained.

"The Filipino missionary will not preach the Gospel from a position where he looks down on the people. Rather, he or she will pass over to the people and be genuinely one with them in their condition of oppression and poverty, discrimination and loss of identity, suffering and sin."


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