Return of the Jesuits, 1900

When the steamer Labuan arrived in Davao on March 9, 1899, to fetch the remaining Jesuits who were ordered to leave town on orders of the head of the congregation in Manila, it had just come from the Pacific coastal missions of Mindanao for the same purpose.

But the parting of the priests was emotional and at times rowdy that the guard of the vessel had to be brought out to contain the crowd. Fr. Vicente Balaguer, SJ, in describing the incident, wrote that the ‘influence and leadership of the missionaries was the only thing left undiminished, respected by all, even by the most heartless, who in the midst of that drunkenness, did not fail to respect us in the least degree.’

Less than a year later, at the initiative of the interim local government led by Damaso Suazo and Teodoro Palma Gil, the town president and vice-president, respectively, a letter dated January 24, 1900 was sent to the Mission Superior in Manila, asking for the return of the Jesuits to Davao. The communication underscored the success the priests had achieved in capturing ‘the sympathy of the salvajes inhabiting the mountains nearby.’ In part, the town resolution reads:

‘[It is the] wish of the people who ask in the name of our Holy religion for a Jesuit priest to come to this mission. Many children are neither baptized nor inscribed in the Civil Register, since many parents of families refuse to do so until a priest has baptized their child. So, too, may of the espoused refuse to be married civilly but only in the Church, not to mention those who die without the Sacraments.’

The signatories were Tomas Monteverde, Mariano A. Generoso, Manuel Sanchez, Braulio Reyes, Fausto Nabung, Marino Regino, Victor Regino, Juan Honorides, Gabrief Dulfo, Benito Villamar, Chino Bamido, Bonifacio Quesadas, Nicolas Pizarro, Juan Bangoy, Florentino Quiñones, Pascual Ferrando, Justo Versoza, Isidoro Bustamante, Mariano Palma Gil, Cenon Rajal, the Matute Brothers, Estanislao P. Gil, Epifanio Reyes, Damaso Palacios, Juan Auad, Jorge Saavedra, and Melecio Loyola. Completing the request was the desire of the Jesuits to return to Davao.

Three months after, Fr. Victoriano Bitrian and Fr. Salvador Giralt travelled to southern Mindanao. Their trip, reported in the April 20, 1900, issue of Noticiero de Manila, was described as ‘a veritable applause for the priests the people crowding, greeting and urging them to stay.’

After getting a favorable review from the Mission Superior, the first American-era Jesuits arrived in Davao on October 1, 1900, comprised of Fr. Mateo Gisbert, Fr. Juan Martin, and Br. Ramon Morros, all veterans in the southeastern Mindanao missions.

Their arrival, however, provided surprises. The settlements they established before the takeover by the new colonial regime had vanished, while the churches were emptied of their bells and candlesticks, melted for use in native cannons. The people who had resided in the reductions had gone back to the mountains, many of them embracing again animist practices.

But the problems the clergy had to confront were not limited to the lack of clergy, many of whom had returned to Spain or bidding their time in a religious resthouse in Manila, but the issue of bringing back former converts to the old settlements.

The challenge of Protestantism and Freemasonry was also looming given their linked to bureaucrats and were better organized and funded. Under U.S. rule, which introduced the doctrine of the separation of state and church, the clergy also lost their state subsidy. American Jesuits later arrived to expand the missionary footprints.

Five years after, as the priests started to be content with their limited sources and were on track of bringing back the fire of conversion to the missions they founded, the first group of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM) arrived in Davao to open the first Catholic school for girls, the forerunner of the University of Immaculate Conception (UIC). (11)