THE Philippine Independent Church, or Aglipayan Church, will ask Pope Francis to recognize the Philippine church’s baptismal rites to ease inter-denominational marriages and facilitate the enrollment of Aglipayan children in Roman Catholic schools.
Aglipayan Supreme Bishop Efraim Fajutagana said he will make the request when he meets the Roman pontiff during the scheduled ecumenical meeting at the University of Santo Tomas campus in Manila on January 18.
The Aglipayan prelate announced the request during the installation on Sunday of the new Aglipayan bishop for Greater Manila area, the Rt. Rev. Bartolome Espartero.
Fajutagana noted that it is currently the policy of the Roman Catholic Church to require Aglipayan believers to be baptized before they could marry Roman Catholics.
The prelate said Aglipayan children are also asked to be baptized as Catholics before they could enroll in Catholic schools although non-Catholics, even non-Christians, are allowed to enroll without such requirement.
Fajutagana stressed, however, that the request does not mean that the Aglipayan Church now recognizes the primacy of the pope and the Petrine succession nor will it change its toleration of the priestly ordination of women or optional priestly celibacy.
The prelate will make the request amid the urging of Filipino Catholic apologists, particularly the Defensores Fidei Foundation, to “win back” members of the Aglipayan Church, officially called the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, which separated from the Catholic Church in 1902.
The IGI was founded by a group led by Isabelo de los Reyes and was named after its first bishop, Gregorio Aglipay, who spearheaded the schism after Spanish prelates refused to grant Filipino priests the same rights as their Spanish counterparts shortly before the Philippine Revolution of 1896.
The Philippine Roman Catholic hierarchy made not comment on Fajutagana’s request but the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines had earlier announced the the IFI will be among the religious groups invited to a dialogue with the pope on January 18 at the UST.
Aside from the Aglipayans, the other groups invited to the dialogue are Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish as well as the Philippine Evangelical Church.
The CBCP also announced that Francis will use three Philippine-made pope-mobiles, similar in design to the local jeepney, which was approved by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
There will be two pope mobiles for Francis’ trips around Manila and another for his travels in Leyte province, said Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos.
“[The pope mobiles were made] according to specifications of the Vatican, visible for all and accessible for the Holy Father to go down and meet our people. It is simple which defines the nature of His Holiness, simplicity and availability to all people, especially the simple and ordinary,” Santos said.
Meanwhile, President Benigno Aquino III said the country faces a great challenge in securing the pope and he called on Filipinos to cooperate and display bayanihan in ensuring the success of the five-day visit.
“It is a great honor that the Pope is visiting us, but with this, we also face a great challenge,” he said in his address to the nation yesterday.
“To ensure the significance of the papal visit, we need everyone to cooperate and show bayanihan. Not only is the safety of the Pope and the public at stake: our honor as a country is on the line. Do we want to go down in history as the country where a tragedy involving a Pope happened?”
“It is the obligation of the government to ensure everybody’s safety, but to succeed in doing this, you also have an obligation. We appeal to all of you to listen and abide by the guidelines we will be issuing. Let us show the world that we can ensure the safe visit of Pope Francis by working together,” the President said.
Aquino said while there was no direct threat to the safety of the Holy Father, the government is not taking chances and is “touching base with allies,” such as Interpol and other member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations “to identify any threat whatsoever coming from any direction.”
In particular, he said Interpol has a watchlist of all individuals, not just Filipinos, who may have gone to Syria and Iraq to train with the terrorist network ISIS.
“There are the thousands who are waiting for the convoy of the Holy Father, and the millions who will participate in the mass at Luneta. Crowd surge in an excited bid to get nearer to the Pope might trigger chaos,” Aquino said.
At the same time, security officials said the government will impose a “no-sail” zone in areas around the venues of papal activities where no sea craft or vessel will be allowed.
The no-sail zone will cover a three nautical miles radius within the center of the Pope’s activities in Manila, Tacloban City in Leyte and the nearby town of Palo. The ban will complement the “no-fly” zone imposed on all aircraft by aviation authorities.
“No bancas, no yatch and other vessels will be allowed to come near the activity area of the pope,” said Transportation and Communication Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya.
He pointed out however that there’s a certain area where the government will allow ports surrounding the Qurino Grandstand to operate but will be subjected to close monitoring on the vessels movements.
“There’s also an exclusive zone where we will allow out port to continue to operate, but the Philippine Coast Guard would be checking even at the entrance to Manila Bay and that all ships will be strictly screen, such that what ever movement will be under the close monitoring of the Coast Guard and the government,” Abaya explained. With Joyce Panares and Francisco Tuyay