116. FIRST MASS IN 1521 AND NO MASS IN 2020

FIRST MASS IN 1521 AND NO MASS IN 2020

Dr. Troy Alexander G. Miano
15 March 2020

 

As long as I can remember, Catholic Masses has been celebrated every Sunday.  Today, however, the third Sunday of Lent, was an exemption. A friend, who is the parish priest of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Visitation of Guibang in Gamu, Isabela, Rev. Fr. Gregorio Marvic Castañeda Uanan, JCD, posted in his Facebook account the letter of Diocese of Ilagan Bishop David William V. Antonio, DD to the people of God in the diocese. Furthermore, Fr. Uanan posted: “NOTICE TO ALL ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITHFUL IN THE PROVINCE OF ISABELA (DIOCESE OF ILAGAN) ON THE TEMPORARY CANCELLATION OF MASSES FROM MARCH 15-22: In line with the Executive Order of the Governor of Isabela regarding the precautionary measures against the spread of the Covid 19 Virus, the memoranda of LGUs, and the recommendation of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), ALL PUBLIC MASSES IN THE DIOCESE OF ILAGAN ARE CANCELLED (which includes the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guibang and the Monastery of St. Clare) starting March 15, 2020 until March 22, 2020.

You are encouraged to PRAY IN YOUR HOMES by lighting candles before your altars and grottos, spending moments of silence, listening to meditative music, reading the bible, reciting the rosary, performing devotions. You can also participate in celebration of masses broadcasted by radio or television, or live-streamed by social media.

However, the Churches will remain open for visits.

We will remember you all in our private masses and we offer them for deliverance from COVID-19.

We continue to pray for the immediate resolution of temporary crisis we are all in.”

Before this day, news around the globe informed us that Masses and other religious rites were also discouraged since there were already proclamations from their respective leaders on the ban on all public gatherings. In Isabela province, Governor Rodolfo “Rodito” T. Albano III issued Executive Order No. 15 on March 11 directing the public to practice social distancing and avoid mass gathering of people. The governor; however, did not particularly mention religious rituals and practices since it’s beyond the government’s jurisdiction and of course due to the separation of Church and State. With the COVID-19 quandary at its zenith, CBCP and the Diocese of Ilagan decided to comply with the call of the situation. Personally, my family tuned in to the live broadcasting of the Mass at Bombo Radyo Cauayan (DZNC) in lieu of the actual Catholic service.

Almost 499 years ago, the recorded first Roman Catholic Mass in the Philippines was held on March 31, 1521, Easter Sunday, at Limasawa, now an island-municipality of Southern Leyte province. The rites was celebrated by Andalucian Franciscan friar, Pedro de Valderrama along the shores of what was referred to in the journals of the Italian traveller Antonio Pigafetta as "Mazaua" in the presence of the Spanish crew of Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) who sailed half of the globe in search for a western route to “Spice Islands” in the Moluccas (also known as Maluku, an archipelago in eastern Indonesia) commencing on September 20, 1519. The First Holy Mass marked the birth of Roman Catholicism in the Philippines. Colambu and Siaiu were the first native chiefs of the archipelago to attend the Mass among other native inhabitants.

During my Senate and DENR days, a colleague who hailed from the highly urbanized city of Butuan in Caraga Region in Mindanao, Vicente Calibo de Jesus, gave me research materials proving that the first mass was celebrated not in Limasawa but in Masao in Butuan City. Since he was notified earlier that I am a lover of history, he would tirelessly expound and explain to me the proofs and evidences of his claim. Up to present, Sir Vic, as he is fondly called, continues his fight to “correct” the historical mistake of the site of the first Mass.

On March 11 this year, Sir Vic posted: “Can you imagine all these powerful minds hadn’t read Antonio Pigafetta and all the more the three-paragraph Limasawa pseudohistory!

The True Believers ALL THINK MAZAUA & LIMASAWA ARE ONE. This is a sampling of people who think, and some reason out, Limasawa and Mazaua are one and the same. Mazaua is what Antonio Pigafetta wrote in 1521 as anchorage of Magellan's fleet. Limasawa comes from a 3-paragraph pseudohistory in 17th century that talks of Magellan's fleet anchored at Butuan; and there is NO mass anywhere.

Can all these formidable minds be wrong about Limasawa being Mazaua? Dr. Marcelino A. Foronda, Dr. Lawrence Bergreen, Dr. John N. Schumacher, Dr. Samuel K. Tan, Dr. Isagani A. Medina, Dr. Alfredo T. Tiamson, Dr. Miguel A. Bernad, S.J., Dr. Benito J. Legarda, Dr. Jose M. Cruz, S.J., Dr. O.D. Corpuz, Dr. William H. Scott, Dr. Ambeth R. Ocampo, Dr. Prudencia C. Cruz, Dr. Heidi K. Gloria, Dr. Serafin D. Quiason, Pablo Pastells, S.J., Dr. James Alexander Robertson, Dr. Carlos Conant, Dr. Emerson B. Cristie, Dr. Ma. Luisa T. Camagay, Justice Emilio A. Gancayco, Dr. Ricardo Jose, Dr. Celestina Boncan, Chitang Nakpil, President Duterte, etcetera etcetera.

To Ambeth and all PSEUDOHISTORIANS: "A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct the mistake." -- John C. Maxwell.”

Others known personalities who support the Mazaua version are historian Dr. Sonia Zaide and Congresswoman Charito “Ching” Plaza also from Butuan.

The Pangasinenses also claim that the site of the first Mass is in their province particularly in Bolinao town. Blessed Odoric of Pordenone (1286-1331, also known as Odorico Mattiussi or Mattiuzzi), an Italian Franciscan friar and missionary explorer, is heartily believed by many Pangasinenses to have celebrated the first mass in Pangasinan 197 years before the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan. A marker in front of Bolinao Church states that the premier Mass on Philippine soil was celebrated in Bolinao Bay in 1324. However, there is scholarly doubt that Odoric was ever in the Philippines. Ultimately, the National Historical Institute led by its chair Ambeth Ocampo recognized the historical records of Limasawa in Southern Leyte as the venue of the first Mass in 1521.

This is my first time to encounter the term “pseudohistory”. Google provided the meaning: a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often using methods resembling those used in legitimate historical research. Markers and shrines including printed books of NHCP and public and private textbooks for schools; however, permanently etched Limasawa as the site of the Catholic ritual. On June 19, 1960, Republic Act No. 2733, called the Limasawa Law, was enacted on June 19, 1960 without executive approval which lapsed into law. The legislative fiat declared the site in Barrio Magallanes, east of Limasawa Island in the Province of Leyte, where the first Mass in the Philippines was held, as a national shrine to commemorate the birth of Christianity in the Philippines. 

In 1984, First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos who hails from Tacloban City, Leyte had a multi-million pesos Shrine of the First Holy Mass built, an edifice made of steel, bricks and polished concrete, and erected on top of a hill overlooking barangay Magallanes, Limasawa. A super typhoon completely wiped out the shrine just a few months later. In 2005, another memorial was inaugurated.

Limasawa celebrates the historic and religious coming of the Spaniards every March 31 with a cultural presentation and anniversary program dubbed as Sinugdan, meaning "beginning." Yet this has no reference at all to a Catholic mass being held on March 31, 1521.

Whether it be on Limasawa or Mazaua; whether there is actual mass or virtual mass; whether there is mass or no mass at all, what is important is that we faithfuls knows how to pray and adhere to the doctrines of our faith.