Search for bones of first Filipino bishop continues
Published Dec 5, 2018 03:54 pm
By Leslie Ann Aquino
A team of Filipino student-priests went to the Dominican Mausoleum at Campo Verano in Rome last month to search for the bones of first Filipino bishop, Jorge Barlin, in the hope of bringing his remains back here in the country in time for the 500th year of Roman Catholicism in 2021.
Bishop Jorge Barlin monument (Wikipedia / MANILA BULLETIN)
"It would be a great tribute to the man whose courage and unwavering faith had preserved the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines against the threat of a schism,” Fr. Ericson Jouse, part of the team, said in a CBCP News post.
“Without his defense, the Roman Catholic church in the islands would have been dragged as minority and have not reached a glorious quincentenary,” he said.
The attempts to bring back Barlin’s remains started several years ago but to no avail because his bones were deposited on a common grave of the Order.
“It has become difficult to identify which of the remains were his (Barlin),” said Jouse.
While his death and burial records are well-preserved, his tombstone has also been “missing.”
As parish priest of Sorsogon town during the Philippine Revolution, Barlin was declared the civil governor of the province by the Spanish governor who left the country, making him the first Filipino priest to be a governor.
Named a bishop for Nueva Caceres in 1905, Barlin broke the 350-year-old myth that no Filipino is worthy of such a high ecclesiastical office.
Being loyal to the church, he defended the properties of the Catholic Church against the encroachment of the Aglipayan clergy, a case upheld by the Supreme Court.
As the only Filipino bishop, Barlin was given the honor to deliver the invocation at the inaugural session of Philippine Assembly on Oct. 16, 1907.
The bishop died in Rome while on an “ad limina” visit in September 1909.
The team of Filipino student-priests was led by Fr. Gregory Ramón Gastón, rector of the PontificioCollegioFilippino and Dominican Fr. Gerard Timoner of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission.
Bishop Jorge Barlin monument (Wikipedia / MANILA BULLETIN)
"It would be a great tribute to the man whose courage and unwavering faith had preserved the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines against the threat of a schism,” Fr. Ericson Jouse, part of the team, said in a CBCP News post.
“Without his defense, the Roman Catholic church in the islands would have been dragged as minority and have not reached a glorious quincentenary,” he said.
The attempts to bring back Barlin’s remains started several years ago but to no avail because his bones were deposited on a common grave of the Order.
“It has become difficult to identify which of the remains were his (Barlin),” said Jouse.
While his death and burial records are well-preserved, his tombstone has also been “missing.”
As parish priest of Sorsogon town during the Philippine Revolution, Barlin was declared the civil governor of the province by the Spanish governor who left the country, making him the first Filipino priest to be a governor.
Named a bishop for Nueva Caceres in 1905, Barlin broke the 350-year-old myth that no Filipino is worthy of such a high ecclesiastical office.
Being loyal to the church, he defended the properties of the Catholic Church against the encroachment of the Aglipayan clergy, a case upheld by the Supreme Court.
As the only Filipino bishop, Barlin was given the honor to deliver the invocation at the inaugural session of Philippine Assembly on Oct. 16, 1907.
The bishop died in Rome while on an “ad limina” visit in September 1909.
The team of Filipino student-priests was led by Fr. Gregory Ramón Gastón, rector of the PontificioCollegioFilippino and Dominican Fr. Gerard Timoner of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission.