The Filipino community in the Spanish capital of Madrid in Spain recently got together in a Holy Mass to celebrate the 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines.
According to a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines News post, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, apostolic nuncio to Spain, led the mass.
The archbishop said, “Filipino migrants are the fruits of that Church born in the Philippines in 1521 through the Spanish missionaries. Filipino migrants are the best missionaries of the Church,” he said.
“Almost everywhere, Filipinos are there. And the first place we look for and where we gather is the church,” Auza added.
Around a hundred Filipino migrants attended the celebration which was held at the Parroquia de San Francisco Javier y San Luís Gonzaga. Also present were 10 other priests, including Society of Divine Word Fr. Mark Angelo Ramos, who heads the Filipino Chaplaincy in Madrid.
“What a privilege to be in Spain, where it all began,” said Auza, who has been the nuncio to Spain and Andorra since January 2020. He asked the mass attendees “to pray for the Church in Spain, which has been experiencing a crisis of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life and a waning religious practice.”
The Church leader called on the Filipino migrants to continue to help spread the faith.
“We are commissioned to make that faith bear abundant fruit everywhere we are. As an act of giving back and of gratitude, may we then be leavens of the Joy of the Gospel here in Spain.” Auza said.
In 2014, around 26,000 Filipinos were recorded to be working in Spain.
Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid has earlier thanked the Filipinos in Spain. “We are thankful to the Filipinos who work today in our homes. Through their witnessing, they are returning back the faith we have brought to them,” he said.