Filipinos all over World Youth Day in Oz
By Giselle Goloy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 16:27:00 07/21/2008
SYDNEY -- PRIME MINISTER Kevin Rudd must have been aware that the Philippines holds the current record for the largest attended World Youth Day (WYD) event -- 4 million in Manila in 1995! Rome, the seat of the Catholic Church, is a far second with only 2 million.
Thus, Rudd spoke in Filipino, among other languages, when he warmly welcomed WYD pilgrims from all over the world: “Malugod ko kayong tinatanggap sa Australya. (I welcome you to Australia with pleasure.)”
WYD may be a religion-based event, but it is also a celebration. So it is like one grand party, where everyone is on a natural (read: spiritual) high.
And because it is a Catholic event, trust that there are Filipinos at every turn.
On Tuesday at the prelude to the opening Mass in Barangaroo in the northwest edge of Sydney, a Fil-Australian girl named Joy was one of the hosts. Another, Katrina Alvir, was among the speakers who recounted their experiences at previous WYD festivals.
Earlier that day, my Filipino colleague at work, Belle Tungol-Reyes, spotted Edgar Allan Mendoza, her town mate from Floridablanca, Pampanga, on the front page of The Daily Telegraph. The photo showed Edgar among the bearers of the WYD Cross, as the procession made its way into the Sydney Central Business District on the final leg of its journey around Australia.
On Wednesday morning, the award-winning University of the Visayas Chorale from Cebu sang at a Pilgrims’ Mass at the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in North Sydney. This was a day before Pope Benedict XVI made a brief visit prior to his first public appearance.
8,000 volunteers
Among the 8,000 WYD volunteers working at various event venues are Filipinos living in Australia, like me. As far as I know, there are only three other WYD volunteers from my office, and guess what? They’re Filipinos too.
Priscilla Corpuz and her son Melvin are assigned to crowd control at Barangaroo while Rolando Rillo and his wife are tasked with unloading boxes of giveaways for volunteers and pilgrims. Priscilla’s family has also hosted two pilgrims. Another friend, Diana Dionisio, is assigned to help with the pilgrims and their home-stay families.
At the International Media Center, where I am assigned, I met Tats Lopez, who is covering the event for the Catholic cable network EWTN, and Ana Gacis, a freelance journalist for the Catholic News Agency.
And then, there are the Filipino pilgrims -- 3,000, if one is to base it on an Internet report that the Australian Embassy in Manila issued that number of visas to pilgrims.
I met some Filipino pilgrims on Wednesday at Circular Quay. Belle and I spotted three or four Philippine flags fluttering among other national colors above the mass of people moving toward the Sydney Opera House.
Of course, we seized the chance to greet the flag-waving group: “Kababayan, mabuhay!”
From Mindanao
The pilgrims turned out to be from Mindanao, part of the official delegation of the Episcopal Commission on Youth (ECY) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. They were led by Bishop Joel Baylon of Masbate and Fr. Conegondo Garganta, ECY chair and executive secretary, respectively.
To prepare the pilgrims, the ECY conducted a program of prayer, reflection, and discussions on this year’s WYD theme taken from Acts 1:8: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.”
Fr. Larry Espuerta of Surigao diocese, who spoke for the Mindanao delegation, said the group had 64 members from Davao, Digos, Tagum, Mati, Butuan, Surigao, Malaybalay, Kidapawan, Cotabato, Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Jolo, Iligan and Marawi.
Their participation was coordinated by the Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference youth secretariat, headed by the director, Fr. Efren Reyes, and coordinators Lourd Ronald Bocbo and May Solano.
In all, the ECY delegation is composed of 700 students, teachers, priests, nuns, seminarians and youth ministers, said Father Garganta on the phone upon arrival in Sydney on June 12.
He said there were other delegations and pilgrims who were traveling on their own.
More Filipinos
I also chanced upon four Filipino girls from the University of Asia and the Pacific, who later met American and French pilgrims. They exchanged souvenirs, like postcards and bracelets, and e-mail addresses.
Then a group of Canadians (I know this from the flag they were waving) passed and greeted us: “Mabuhay!” Well, what do you know, more of us!
The Filipinos all said Sydney was a beautiful, exciting place, and everyone was warm and friendly despite a bit of chill. (It’s the middle of winter in Australia.)
But even if the pilgrims were in a partying mood, particularly in the evening after catechesis (teaching) sessions, they were generally well behaved. Sure, they kidded around, laughed out loud, even joked with the priests and nuns, but no one was rude.
A French journalist I had met at the Media Center said he had talked with policemen patrolling the city and they were surprised that they had not had one incident that required their intervention. Believe me, that’s a rare occurrence on a weekend in the city CBD.
Kochie of the Mel & Kochie tandem, hosts of the popular TV morning show “Sunrise,” said he was not Catholic but that it was hard not to be infected by the happy atmosphere.
He also said that even though the late-night party at Barangaroo after the opening Mass was boisterous, everyone seemed to stay sober. (I’m sure some of the over-21s may have slipped into the pubs, but I have not heard any incident reports.)
Catholic and proud of it
Kochie’s comments were typical of the surprise reception of Sydneysiders to World Youth Day.
As I wrote in my Multiply blog on the eve of WYD: “Some locals think this will be a major headache, and that it’s nothing more than an inconvenience. But if we start thinking of God as an inconvenience, then we are doomed. Hopefully, the joyous atmosphere will rub off on those who grumble and complain.”
It seems it has. Where I work, people hardly knew what WYD was all about, until I applied for a leave of absence to volunteer.
It seems too that whether or not we intend to, we Filipinos are known as a people proud of our Catholic tradition, never apologetic because it’s second nature to us.
We don’t see things any other way, and it seems logical to be nice and helpful because that’s what our faith instills in us.
Reminiscing WYD in Manila, Katrina Alvir, a teacher, observed: “Here in Australia, we are taught tolerance. Everyone is free to believe in what they want to believe in, but we don’t want to show it.
“We keep our love for God to ourselves,” she said.
But at the vigil at Rizal Park in 1995, she said, she saw millions of young people openly proclaiming their Catholic faith. That night, she said, she realized she was not alone. “I should not hide my faith,” she said.
Editor’s Note: The author, a Filipino geologist working in North Sydney, is a World Youth Day volunteer assigned to the International Media Center. She is also a volunteer at the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in her local parish.
|
