Filipino Catholics,sacraments and catholic faith.

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Dhugz said:
Pardon for my mistake, maybe many is the right term. But you must agree that most of in the Poor community, attending Mass is not their Priority. How many Filipino Catholics in Manila, do they all attend the mass in sundays? You must consider the population of Manila than that of those devotedly attend the Mass every Sunday, Those 8 millions who participate in the Black nazarene prosession, do they actively participate in the Mass every sunday? Are there at least 5 million of them regularly present in the Mass? I doubt! Even the Bishops may agree with me that many Filipino Catholics not attending Mass regularly, Many areas in the Philippines that when a Priest say Mass every Barangay community only 10-15 people will participate, and many of them are children. Let us face this, that yes there is problem within the Church. I just open this issue to you on how to convince these fellow catholics who do not give importance on our obligations to the Church.
I will respect your opinion, but please dont call me non sense!👍
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I did not say you were nonsense. I said your statement was nonsense.

It also makes no difference if its Manila where I live or the provinces which I regularly visit. The Churches for Sunday Mass are always full. The poor are not turning away from Mass.
Mass attendance is not falling here. I really don’t know where you get these ideas from. I have friends who are priests in Manila and the province and their views completely differ from yours.

You should be more concerned with the Church in western countries where I think members of these forums will say that Mass attendance is around 25%.
 
One of my best friends is from Cebu. A few years ago I went with her to visit her family and found a very devout Catholic community. We ended up going to mass at least four or five times during the week I was there. The church was always packed to the rafters no matter the day of the week or the time of day.
Dhugz said:
Many Catholics believes in faith healers or those witch doctors. Many of us here also are using contraception, and are unaware that it is a mortal sin. And, many things beyond the Catholic Faith.
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As in most countries that have been colonized and had a new religion forced on them, the people tend to combine a few elements of their previous religions with the new religion. From what I could see, however, most people are faithful Catholics. As for the use of ABC among Catholics, that is certainly not unique to the Philippines.
 
thistle said:
I did not say you were nonsense. I said your statement was nonsense.

It also makes no difference if its Manila where I live or the provinces which I regularly visit. The Churches for Sunday Mass are always full. The poor are not turning away from Mass.
Mass attendance is not falling here. I really don’t know where you get these ideas from. I have friends who are priests in Manila and the province and their views completely differ from yours.

You should be more concerned with the Church in western countries where I think members of these forums will say that Mass attendance is around 25%.
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thistle,

Quit trying to paint a rosy picture! There are quite a few Catholic men who got burnt over there, including me. In post #10 I told everyone that my sister-in-law told me over the phone that the Catholic Church over there has tightened up lately. I have plenty of pictures of the Filipino Cathloic percessions throughout my wife’s home town. Believe me, that was not what I had in mind when she told me that she was Catholic.
 
Dhugz said:
Just want to share practice of the Filipino catholics in our country that most maybe 70-80 percent don’t go to confession before receiving the communion. Most will attend only the mass for if there is great feasts like, black nazarene etc, also on Palm sunday only, many do not know the importance of the sacraments, like confession, confirmation, marriage and anointing of the sick. Some will attend mass only for devotion to a saint like Mary, some will attend the mass for healing and miracles, some will attend mass only for the blessings of the palm, oil, and water on easter sunday. Some believe that they will just attend the Mass for the forgiveness of their sins, some believe that St. May is God, Many filipino catholics do not participate in the Parish programs, Many Catholics believes in faith healers or those witch doctors. Many of us here also are using contraception, and are unaware that it is a mortal sin. And, many things beyond the Catholic Faith.

I amaze when I read many things in this forum, American or the english speaking catholics are very aware of our catholic theolgy and beliefs.
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Geee…it seems many Catholics in general are ignorant of the faith.
 
Nicea325 said:
Geee…it seems many Catholics in general are ignorant of the faith.
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Well, we have to look at it from both directions. Maybe, we Americans are ignorant and intolerant of the Filipino/Catholic faith? For example, our family, as with many other families in my wife’s home town, have a life sized statue of a Saint. These statues are antiques that were imported from Spain. The statues are dressed with real material imported from Spain. They are absolutely beautiful! Our Lention Saint is Santa Maria Jacobe, and it’s mounted on a platform that takes 4 men, one at each corner to carry.

And there are the fires during the Easter Vigal on Saturday before Easter Sumday. When the Filipinos build a fire, it’s a big fire. With there modern digital cameras they take a lot of pictures of the flames trying to get images that look like spirits, or something? I still don’t understand that one?
 
johndoe100 said:
thistle,

Quit trying to paint a rosy picture! There are quite a few Catholic men who got burnt over there, including me. In post #10 I told everyone that my sister-in-law told me over the phone that the Catholic Church over there has tightened up lately. I have plenty of pictures of the Filipino Cathloic percessions throughout my wife’s home town. Believe me, that was not what I had in mind when she told me that she was Catholic.
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What have the processions got to do with what I am talking about.

I am talking about Mass attendance which in the Philippines is probably the highest in the world whereas the other poster is trying to make out its low. It is NOT low. It IS high.
I couldn’t care less about processions. I never attend them.
 
thistle said:
What have the processions got to do with what I am talking about.

I am talking about Mass attendance which in the Philippines is probably the highest in the world whereas the other poster is trying to make out its low. It is NOT low. It IS high.
I couldn’t care less about processions. I never attend them.
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Well, you keep mentioning Manila, and that is where the “feast of the Black Nazarene” and procession takes place on Good Friday. You can’t tell me that all of metro Manila go th Church every Sunday. There isn’t enough churches and priest to handle them all. It’s pretty much like the OP stated.

I appreciate you defending the faith, but for the sake of the thousands of Catholic men who marry Filipino women, let’s give them an honest impression of what they are getting themselves into. It’s different! Catholic, but different than American Catholics.
 
johndoe100 said:
Well, you keep mentioning Manila, and that is where the “feast of the Black Nazarene” and procession takes place on Good Friday. You can’t tell me that all of metro Manila go th Church every Sunday. There isn’t enough churches and priest to handle them all. It’s pretty much like the OP stated.

I appreciate you defending the faith, but for the sake of the thousands of Catholic men who marry Filipino women, let’s give them an honest impression of what they are getting themselves into. It’s different! Catholic, but different than American Catholics.
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I repeat. In the Philippines throughout the whole country SUNDAY Mass has an average 80% attendance.
That is honest and is not just an impression. That is something to be happy about and not to be scoffed at. Other countries should aspire to that level of attendance.
I find it strange that as a Catholic (albeit a non-filipino) you have a problem with that.
 
One Filipina told me that there are a lot of “visionaries” in the Philippines. Would those of you who live(d) there agree that’s true?
 
TrueLight said:
One Filipina told me that there are a lot of “visionaries” in the Philippines. Would those of you who live(d) there agree that’s true?
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A lot claim to be but as thistle said, they have mostly been frauds.
 
Dhugz said:
Just want to share practice of the Filipino catholics in our country that most maybe 70-80 percent don’t go to confession before receiving the communion.

Pardon me…but do you still reside there in the Phil and what part?
Most will attend only the mass for if there is great feasts like, black nazarene etc, also on Palm sunday only, many do not know the importance of the sacraments, like confession, confirmation, marriage and anointing of the sick.
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There is an statistics last 2003 that Philippines: Just 15% Attend Mass. And this was a pronouncement by our cardinal vidal.
atheism.about.com/b/2003/07/26/philippines-just-15-attend-mass.htm

and I got also some source from an pinoy atheist blog for the full story of it.atheistangpinoy.blogspot.com/2005/04/only-15-of-catholics-attend-mass.html

But last june 4, 2012, a Bishop Bacani is asking the priests to improve their Homilies because number of Church goer declined.
cbcpnews.com/?q=node/19678

newsinfo.inquirer.net/206781/ho-hum-homilies-disappoint-bishop-bacani

philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=816108&publicationSubCategoryId=107
 
thistle,

My Filipino wife is sitting right here in the family room with me. Out of a very large supposingly Catholic family where almost everybody is related to someone in her home town in the Philippines, only her Aunt Rose goes to Mass on Sundays. But, they are at the processions and witchcraft stuff.

On the American side (Michigan) I am the only one out of 75 supposedly Catholics relatives who goes to church on Sundays. In fact, I am usually at the weekday morning Mass. Yes, I am proud of of myself, coming out of such poor stock. 🙂

What happened in the Philippines is there are now Born Again ( what ever that means?) Christian churches where the regular Sunday Filipino Sunday church goers congregate. Sad to say!
 
johndoe100 said:
thistle,

My Filipino wife is sitting right here in the family room with me. Out of a very large supposingly Catholic family where almost everybody is related to someone in her home town in the Philippines, only her Aunt Rose goes to Mass on Sundays. But, they are at the processions and witchcraft stuff.

On the American side (Michigan) I am the only one out of 75 supposedly Catholics relatives who goes to church on Sundays. In fact, I am usually at the weekday morning Mass. Yes, I am proud of of myself, coming out of such poor stock. 🙂

What happened in the Philippines is there are now Born Again ( what ever that means?) Christian churches where the regular Sunday Filipino Sunday church goers congregate. Sad to say!
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Its true that Evangelical churches are making gains in the Philippines, but fact remains that a good number of people are still faithful Catholics regardless of the level of catechesis they have. Churches are still full, parishes say Mass almost 'round the clock on Sundays.

If you come here to Vancouver, literally 50% of the parishioners of the RC parishes in the archdiocese are Filipino. The bishop himself is thankful of the Filipinos and admit that if not for the mass immigration of Filipinos to Canada, he would have had to close half of his parishes.
 
TrueLight said:
Yeah, I meant to say “claim”. It seems to be quite popular.
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Yes, well pagan spiritism still prevails so some people are gullible enough to buy it. Not only visionaries but there are those who claim to be possessed by God, the Theotokos or any saint. They speak in funny voices when this happens. But remember that as a third world country we are a bit behind in medical sciences. These people could just be suffering schizophrenia. And because they are poor, they probably will never be diagnosed.
 
TrueLight said:
Wow!
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Well, some people buy it. There is a saying that one of the newscasters there say at the end of his news show, “walang mangloloko kung walang nagpapaloko.” Literally translates to, “there won’t be any con artists if there is no one who gets fooled”.
 
johndoe100 said:
thistle,

My Filipino wife is sitting right here in the family room with me. Out of a very large supposingly Catholic family where almost everybody is related to someone in her home town in the Philippines, only her Aunt Rose goes to Mass on Sundays. But, they are at the processions and witchcraft stuff.

On the American side (Michigan) I am the only one out of 75 supposedly Catholics relatives who goes to church on Sundays. In fact, I am usually at the weekday morning Mass. Yes, I am proud of of myself, coming out of such poor stock. 🙂

What happened in the Philippines is there are now Born Again ( what ever that means?) Christian churches where the regular Sunday Filipino Sunday church goers congregate. Sad to say!
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Its sad when anyone turns their back on the Church but I can assure you that on Sundays the Churches are full and I have found the poor to be very devout.
I can only repeat what I said and that is that Sunday Mass attendance in the Philippines is HIGH.
My wife’s relatives are from Quezon province (Sariaya and Lucena) and my sister-in-law has to go early to the 5.30 am Mass on Sunday because the Church gets full quickly and the other Masses during Sunday are so full that people are standing inside the Church and having to stand outside in the parking areas listening to the Mass via the speakers.
Anyone who thinks Sunday Masses in this country have low attendance is dreaming.
 
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