Filipino migrants are missionaries of faith: Bishop

ECMI chairman and Maasin Bishop Precioso Cantillas (center) and San Fernando, La Union Bishop Artemio Rillera (2nd from right) led the National Migrants Celebration in La Union on March 1.



More than the money they earn abroad to support their family, which in turn helps prime up the economy, is the high regard of the Catholic Church on Filipino overseas workers.

Maasin Bishop Precioso Cantillas, Chairman of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) said the government looks at the importance of migrants in terms of financial gain, but not the Catholic Church which considers OFWs as modern-day missionaries in the countries where they work.

Leading the national celebration of Migrants Sunday in the diocese of San Fernando, La Union on March 1, the ECMI chairman said the occasion should lead people to reflect why Filipinos are pushed to go out of the country to seek greener pastures.

He admitted though that family needs and their children’s future are often the reasons that drive Filipinos to go overseas.

But he also noted that perhaps a deeper motivation is materialistic reason, to have more in life.

“We think we are greater when we have more things in life but in reality it does not define what we are,” Cantillas said. “We are great because we are children of God,” he added.

The problem of money, when solved with money maybe close to achieving a solution but it is never a complete solution, said the bishop.

He noted that OFWs have more temptation in terms of materialism, since what drives people to go abroad is to earn more money.

Cantillas explained that although money is not evil in itself, but the love for it can lead to evil. He said OFWs can take St. Paul as model because of his attachment to Christ, and not to material things.

The national migrant celebration has taken as theme “The Sacrifices of the Filipino Migrants mirror the journey of St. Paul.”

“Hopefully this celebration will not only make us aware of the plight of the migrants but will lead us deeper to real meaning of life and faith,” said the bishop.

He said migrants do a lot in terms of evangelistic activity outside of their own country.

A greater dimension is the sharing of their faith, their work, sufferings, and a lot is doing precisely that, he said.

“We are reminding our OFWs that their sufferings and difficulties are like the suffering of St. Paul. As Christians, Filipino migrants, like St. Paul should propagate the faith,” Cantillas said in his homily.

Statistics showed that among the 200 million migrants all over the world, more than 8 million are Filipinos, 4.13 million of whom are OFWs.

Pope John Paul II called them modern-day evangelizers praising their fidelity in the practice of the Catholic faith even in foreign countries.