I am working on this week’s newsletter in Poro Island, one of the 7,641 islands in the Philippines. I could tell you how beautiful it is, how tranquil and how friendly the locals are but these aren’t the reasons I came here. I made Poro Island one of the first destinations in my month-long visit to the Philippines because it was where my mother came from. I had not been here since 1993 and I felt that it was time for me to reconnect with my mother’s side of the family. I have always believed that you cannot really know who you are without knowing where you came from.

Poro Island is part of the Visayas which is a pivotal region in the country’s Christian history. It was in the Visayas that the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, and his Spanish crew first landed in March 1521. It was in the Visayas that the first Catholic Mass was celebrated in the Philippines. From there, Catholicism grew in the archipelago. To this day, it is the dominant religion in the country, with more than 80 per cent of the population identifying as Roman Catholics.

And so in a way, I have returned not just to my genealogical roots but also to my spiritual roots. I am where the seed of Christianity was first sown in my country of birth and this fills me with such profound gratitude. I have led many pilgrimages to various Catholic shrines including Lourdes, the Holy Land, Fatima and Italy. Each of those places has drawn me to a deeper understanding of our faith. Poro Island, though not a shrine, has given me this and more. It makes me thankful to the Spanish expedition which landed in the Philippines more than 500 years ago. If not for that historic event, I would not be who I am today: a member of the Church that Jesus Christ founded 2,000 years ago.

My Catholic faith is the greatest gift that my parents have ever given me. To know Jesus our Saviour is the greatest gift that any Catholic parent can give to their child. The priest says at a child’s baptism: This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us therefore profess our faith, the greatest gift of all, both in words and actions every day of our life.

Fr Antonio, Philippines