Being Catholic in the Contemporary Philippines: Young people reinterpreting religion (Routledge, 2016)

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Copyright © 2016. Rou

tledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright

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EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 3/31/2017 11:03 PM via ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVAN: 1259023 ; Cornelio, Jayeel Serrano.; Being Catholic in the Contemporary Philippines : Young People Reinterpreting ReligionAccount: s5027820

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Being Catholic in the Contemporary Philippines

This book, based on extensive original research, examines the nature of Catholicism in the contemporaryPhilippines. It shows how Catholicism is apparently flourishing, with good attendance at Sunday Masses,impressive religious processions and flourishing Charismatic groups, and with interventions by theCatholic hierarchy in national and local politics. However, focusing in particular on the beliefs andpractices of young people, the book shows that young people are often adopting a different, moreindividualised approach to Catholicism, which is frequently out of step with the official position. Itconsiders the features of this: a more personal and experiential relationship with God; a new approach tomorality, in which right living is seen as more important than right believing; and a critical view of what isseen as the Catholic hierarchy’s misguidedness. The book argues that this reinterpreting of religion byyoung people has the potential to alter fundamentally the nature of Catholicism in the Philippines, but that,nevertheless, young people’s new approach involves a solid, enduring commitment and a strong view oftheir own Catholic religious identity.

Jayeel Serrano Cornelio is Director and Assistant Professor of the Development Studies Program at theAteneo de Manila University, the Philippines. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max PlanckInstitute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.



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Routledge Religion in Contemporary Asia Series

Series EditorBryan S. Turner, Professor at the City University of New York and Director of the Centre forReligion and Society at the University of Western Sydney

1 State Management of Religion in IndonesiaMyengkyo Seo

2 Religious Pluralism, State and Society in AsiaEdited by Chiara Formichi

3 Thailand’s International Meditation CentersTourism and the global commodifcation of religious practicesBrooke Schedneck

4 Digital Culture and Religion in AsiaSam Han and Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir

5 Being Catholic in the Contemporary PhilippinesJayeel Serrano Cornelio



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Being Catholic in the Contemporary PhilippinesYoung people reinterpreting religion

Jayeel Serrano Cornelio



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First published 2016by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2016 Jayeel Serrano Cornelio

The right of Jayeel Serrano Cornelio to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, orother means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrievalsystem, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification andexplanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataNames: Cornelio, Jayeel Serrano, author.Title: Being Catholic in the contemporary Philippines : young people reinterpreting religion / Jayeel Serrano Cornelio.Description: 1 [edition]. | New York : Routledge, 2016. | Series: Routledge religion in contemporary Asia series ; 5 | Includes

bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2015042067| ISBN 9781138803343 (hardback) | ISBN 9781317621966 (ebook)Subjects: LCSH: Catholic Church–Philippines–History–21st century. | Catholic youth–Religious life–Philippines. | Young

adults–Religious life–Philippines.Classification: LCC BX1658.2 .C67 2016 | DDC 282/.59909051–dc23LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015042067

ISBN: 978-1-138-80334-3 (hbk)ISBN: 978-1-315-75372-0 (ebk)



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Contents

List of illustrationsAcknowledgements

1 Young people and the changing face of Christianity

2 Rethinking religious identity

3 Researching youth and religious identity

4 Will the real Catholic please stand up?

5 Reinterpreting religion: Creative Catholics and their reflexive spirituality

6 Conservative yet liberal: Creative Catholics and their moral attitudes

7 Indwelt individualisation: Creative Catholics and the emotional anthology of resources

8 The isolated generation?

9 Being Catholic

Index



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List of illustrations

Figures

1.1 In a tweet, CNN’s report on the papal Mass in early 2015 was re-appropriated to show that “the Filipino faith iswaterproof”

1.2 Pope Francis’s tweet in the wake of his visit to the Philippines

Tables

3.1 Tally of student interviewees3.2 Tally of student religious organisations for every type of university visited



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Acknowledgements

His immanence is a far cry from the ‘divine butler’ of their American peers. He is a brother, friend, andcompanion. That is a claim many young people make about Christ in the Philippines. For creativeCatholics, the subject of this study, Christ stands alongside his youth and often speaks to them througheveryday signs and relationships. All these ideas are woven together in the book's cover photo.

That relationships also accompanied the writing of this project is probably divine. To acknowledgethem here is, course, to hold neither my friends nor God accountable for whatever I am arguing in thepages of this book.

For purposes of confidentiality, I regret not having the liberty to specifically thank the students,mentors, and staff of the various universities with whom I have collaborated. I suspect, however, that someof them will get to read this book. It is but appropriate to thank them first for sharing with me theirthoughts about their faith, the Church, and even personal stories that in many cases were emotionallycharged. In honour of their openness, I have tried to remain, to the best of my abilities, faithful to theirinsights and narratives.

Mentors to whom I am grateful also accompanied me along the way. The project began as a simple ideawhile I was still at the National University of Singapore, where I received a very generous doctoral grantfrom the Asia Research Institute. Professor Bryan Turner and Julius Bautista supervised my work. A bigpart of it was also written as a visiting research student at the Department of Politics, Philosophy andReligion at Lancaster University. Professor Linda Woodhead, whose public engagements continue toinspire me, asked the right questions to sharpen my interpretations and arguments.

Turning the whole doctoral study into this monograph became possible while I was a postdoctoralresearch fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingenand the director of the Development Studies Program at the Ateneo de Manila University in thePhilippines. I am thus thankful to the mentorship of Professor Peter van der Veer in Göttingen andProfessor Jun Aguilar and Leland dela Cruz in Manila.

Friends and colleagues have also accompanied me by either confronting me with challenging questionsor opening up opportunities to share my work with a diverse audience: Nate Roberts, Huang Weishan,Roschanack Shaery, Lau Sin Wen, Angie Heo, Sajide Tuxun, Kang Jie, Jin-Heon Jung, Sahana Udupa,Lisa Björkman, Luo Rumin, Samuel Lengen, Shaheed Tayob, Tam Ngo, Huang Yuqin, Radhika Gupta,and Sarover Zaidi in Göttingen; Rebecca Catto at Lancaster University; Hoon Chang Yau at SingaporeManagement University; Professor Ging Gutierrez, Manuel Sapitula, and Nicole Curato of the PhilippineSociological Society; Don Antonio Velez, Gretchen Abuso, and Timothy Salera at Xavier University inCagayan de Oro; Martina Mancenido at the University of Santo Tomas; Septrin Badz Calamba atMindanao State University in Iligan; and Cleve Arguelles at the University of the Philippines – Manila.Helena Patzer at the University Warsaw, Xicotencatl Martinez at Instituto Politecnico Nacional, andJonathan Ong at the University of Leicester offered their precious time to patiently read and comment onsome of my chapters.

In the course of this study, I developed meaningful relationships in different places. The families ofUncle Loi and Auntie Margaret in Singapore; Kuya Arthur and Ate Haide and Rev. Steve and Sue inLancaster; and Dorothea and Alex Reuß in Göttingen took me as their own. They fed me well. Mygratitude goes out, too, to my close friends who perennially reminded me that there was life outside theuniversity. Pat Murphy, Keerti Krishnan, Fiona D'Souza, Johanna Jung, Richard Chong, and James Zhang,with whom I am still in touch, were good friends at Lancaster. They all kept me sane. In Singapore, I amgrateful for the friendship of Lin Weirong, Lester Lim, Nicholas Hee, and Thomas Barker. In Göttingen,Pastor Brani Beocanin and the brethren at church offered their loving support. Jason Cabañes at LeedsUniversity and Leloy Claudio at Kyoto University have been fellow geeks. Patrick Echevarria, now aJesuit, has been a companion since we were undergraduate students. Sean O’Callaghan at Salve ReginaUniversity is both friend and mentor who genuinely understands the harrowing episodes depression entails.



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Zoltan Szenyi, my friend I met at a graduate summer school at the University of Warsaw, has a specialplace in my life. But he left too soon.

Finally, colleagues at Routledge deserve my gratitude, too, for assisting me throughout the publishingprocess. Peter Sowden, Dominic Corti, and the rest of the editorial team in London offered their supportand patience. They assisted me in different ways to make sure the book speaks to an audience that goesbeyond the Religion in Contemporary Asia Series. I also want to recognise the administrative supportprovided by Mel Mar-Reyes at Ateneo de Manila, KS Raja and Selvi Krishnan at NUS, Gillian Taylor atLancaster, and Julia Müller and Zhang Jie in Göttingen. Deserving recognition, too, are Ross Fallorina ofthe University of the Philippines – Diliman, who proofread the manuscript, and Ed Ryan Confesor Reyes,who kindly shared the book’s cover photo.

Because of all these friends and colleagues, who were in effect my own providential signposts, thisstudy has been extremely rewarding and worthwhile.

This project is at once professional and personal. Sociology to me is a discipline that, by listening to thevoices of different groups, can contest mainstream discourses. This book is a result of this ongoingvocation. Young people are not passive participants in social and religious change. Whether they are awareof it or not, they are helping shape the contemporary and future state of Christianity. May the stories thatunravel in the following pages help towards rethinking the role of young people in reinterpretingChristianity not just in the Philippines but the Global South as well.

My first monograph is dedicated to the people from whom I first learned the value of hard work,education, faith, and unconditional love. They are my parents and grandparents.

Jayeel Serrano CornelioManila, Philippines

June 2016



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1 Young people and the changing face of Christianity

Viva il Papa

Nothing could have rendered the start of 2015 more providential for the Philippines, as it has once againdemonstrated the enduring vibrancy of Catholicism in the country. Pope Francis, in whom 72% of adultFilipinos have a great deal of trust, made an official apostolic visit, and his faithful did not disappoint him(SWS, 2015). From his arrival until his departure, the public mood during his four-day trip wasconsistently festive, a terrific showmanship of joy and force that betrays the inherent solemnity of Catholicrites. During his concluding Mass, held at the Luneta Grandstand in Manila, an unprecedented crowd of 6million came, beating the city’s own record of the largest papal crowd of 5 million when Pope John Paul IIvisited in 1995 (AP, 2015).

That Manila was suffering a typhoon, a rare occurrence in January, did not seem to matter to hisfollowers. The rain, the Mass, the Pope, and his drenched Filipinos all became a picturesque momentshowcasing the continuing relevance of Catholicism in a country whose grand narrative is that of sufferingunder the successive regimes of Spain, the United States, Japan, martial law, and now natural disasters andpoverty. Immortalising the moment are photo galleries showcasing how “the Filipino faith is waterproof”which have gone viral in social media (Bartolome, 2015).

The Pope’s tight itinerary also included a visit to the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas (UST), theoldest university in Asia. While it was mainly in keeping with the tradition of his predecessors, his visit toUST also underscored his desire to meet young people. Indeed, thousands of young people camped out thenight before and braved the rain to see the Pope and participate in a liturgy that included a series ofprayers, songs, Scripture reading, and testimonies from selected youth. Indicative of his endearment toyouth was his moniker “Lolo Kiko,” which referred to Pope Francis as grandfather.

What made this event especially moving was when Lolo Kiko deviated from his prepared speech inresponse to a 12-year-old girl who, in her testimony during the program, broke down in tears as she asked,“Why does God allow children to become prostitutes?” Recognising that she was the only person who hadposed this question, “for which there is no answer,” Pope Francis took the opportunity to challenge hisaudience to “think of St. Francis who died with empty hands and empty pockets with a full heart.” In hisimpromptu speech, the Pope believes that in following the example of the saint whose name he chose forhimself, there will be “no young museums” and only “wise young people” (Pope Francis, 2015).



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In a tweet, CNN’s report on the papal Mass in early 2015 was re-appropriated to show that “the FilipinoFigure 1.1faith is waterproof”

Source: twitter.com/PinoyQuotes/status/556818336160309248/photo/1

Apart from the spontaneity of the Pope, the encounter at UST also drew attention to the youthfulness ofCatholicism in the Philippines. On his Twitter account, the Pope exclaimed that the Philippines bears1

“witness to the youthfulness and vitality of the Church.” Short as it is, the tweet is loaded with meaning.Followed by more than 5 million Twitter accounts around the world, it was a message meant to show thatin contrast to its state in Europe, Catholicism elsewhere is not dying. Yet it also recognises that the presentand future of Catholic vibrancy has moved to postcolonial societies like the Philippines. Christianity, asJenkins (2011) and Sanneh and Carpenter (2005) have pointed out, has moved to the Global South.



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Pope Francis’s tweet in the wake of his visit to the PhilippinesFigure 1.2Source: twitter.com/pontifex/status/555997950338293760

Turn to the south

Undeniably, the impression one gets is that Christianity is young and full of vitality in the Global South.Already, Christianity is making its presence felt through conversions and fast-growing movements in LatinAmerica, Africa and Asia – areas that largely constitute the generally young societies of the Global South.The Pew Research Center (2011) reports that 61% of Christians already live in this wide region. By 2050,the projection is that only 20% of the world’s “3.2 billion Christians will be non-Hispanic whites”(Jenkins, 2011: 3). Accompanying the impression that Christianity is vibrant in the Global South is theview that it is highly pious and largely conservative in relation to the Scriptures and morality (Cornelio,2014b). Reinforcing this general impression is the apparent liberalism of Christianity in the West,especially among Protestant denominations that have already welcomed gay bishops and women clergy(Jenkins, 2006).

However, the picture in the Global South is not entirely homogeneous. Christianity, to begin with,cannot be assumed to be solely a monolithic entity. It has a long history involving dissension and theemergence of new movements and denominations (Woodhead, 2004). While it may have monolithicfeatures in the form of its rituals and doctrine, its spread around the world is coloured by local knowledgeand practices (Whitehouse, 2006). In the contemporary period, it confronts too many issues on global andlocal scales that compel its movements and congregations to “remain relevant in a changing world”(Vincett and Obinna, 2014: 1). The various strands of theological thought in Asia, for example, areinformed by different encounters with local spiritualities, the reality of pluralism, and specific experiencesof conflict and suffering (Amaladoss, 2014). So while there are comparable experiences of sufferingamong Indians and Koreans, their theologies of emancipation specifically relate to local histories ofinternal and regional conflict.

Even within societies, Christianity cannot be assumed to be homogenous either. In the Philippines, thevibrancy that Pope Francis witnessed is equally complex. Based on a very recent national survey, several2

indicators point to the very high religiosity of Filipino Catholics (see Mangahas and Labucay, 2013). Some78%, for example, consider themselves “somewhat” or “very” religious, and 84% attend Mass at least oncea month. In terms of belief, the Philippines has consistently topped different countries in the surveyadministered by the International Social Science Programme (Smith, 2012). In their 2008 survey, 83.6%asserted that “I know God really exists and I have no doubts about it,” and 91.9% believed in a personalGod (Smith, 2012: 7).

Coupled with media-sensationalised events such as human crucifixion during Lent and theoverwhelming procession of the Black Nazarene at the start of every year, these statistical data may easilysuggest both the high level of piety and the theological conservatism of Filipino Catholics (Bautista andBräunlein, 2014). Indeed, in terms of moral views, the Philippines is also arguably conservative. A recentsurvey shows that among adult Filipinos, 93% deem it “unacceptable” to have an abortion, 71% to havepremarital sex, and 67% to get a divorce (Pew Research Center, 2014).

At the same time, however, Catholics in Philippine society appear to undergo a transition with regard to



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their religious and moral attitudes. Perhaps most drastic is the decline in church attendance amongweeklyCatholic adults from 64% in 1991 to 37% in 2013 (Mangahas and Labucay, 2013). The controversialReproductive Health Bill, passed into law in 2012, received the support of 71% of adult Filipino Catholics(Dalangin-Fernandez, 2008). Church leaders rejected it for various reasons, including the moral issue theyhave with modern family planning and reproductive health education in schools, but 51% of FilipinoCatholic youth disagree with their church leaders on this issue and many others (Rufo, 2015). Some 55%of these youth also disagree with the “involvement of the Church in political issues,” which seems to be adirect affront to the long history of political participation by church leaders (Rufo, 2015).

Turn to the youth

It is in light of this complexity that Catholicism and youth in the Philippines presents itself as a worthwhilecase to study. With 81% of the population professing it, Catholicism is the predominant religion in thecountry (NSO, 2014). In context, Philippine society is significantly young, with 40% of the populationbelow 18 years old (NSO, 2014). Enriching our understanding of world Christianity, the young people thisbook examines are part of this changing religious landscape in the Philippines (Phan, 2012). It is notsurprising, therefore, that their thoughts and narratives that unfold in the succeeding chapters resonate withthese changes. In this sense, young people are not just signifiers of social change. They may not realise it,but they may be behind a shift that is taking place within Catholicism today.

This book draws attention to the religious identity of young Filipino Catholics today. What does it mean In this book, several areas are probed to discern the contours of these youngto be Catholic to them?

people’s religious identity: their personal narratives, the dimensions of their reflexive spirituality, and theirmoral views. In the following pages, different accounts unfold showing the complexity of youthfulCatholicism in the Philippines today. For example, while many of them may not necessarily go to churchfor Mass on a given Sunday, they are actively involved in community activities where they find fulfilmentof their spirituality. Their religious identity demonstrates their religious individualisation but in ways thatdo not simply replicate the experience of their counterparts in the West.

Young people and Christianity

This book locates itself primarily in the emerging literature on youth and Christianity, an important movein trying to understand the condition and possible future of the religion (Joas, 2011). As hinted at above,the condition of young Filipino Catholics exemplifies the “messiness of the lived forms of Christianity”around the world that simple theological categories like conservative or liberal will fail to capture fully(Clarke, 2014: 195; see also Cornelio, 2014b).

The book’s even wider context involves scholarship on world Christianity, which gives attention to thediverse experiences of the religion in postcolonial contexts (Sanneh, 2003). Although aware of itscomplexity for the laity, much of the literature has focused on matters that primarily relate to Christianityas an institution: theological distinctives (Sanneh, 2003), missionary work (Clarke, 2014), leadership(Jenkins, 2011), and even changing global organisational networks (Sanneh, 2005). In this body ofscholarship, the religious situation of young people tends to be overlooked, an irony given the youthfulcondition of many developing countries in the Global South where Christianity is emerging (Jenkins,2011). As Christianity continues to spread and evolve around the world, young people cannot be expectedto be passive recipients of a unified set of beliefs and practices. They have their own generational contextsand influences that allow them to “create new forms of Christianity with new markers of fluency andauthenticity” (Vincett et al., 2012: 282). In context, Christianity is the predominant religious affiliation of32% of the global population, and it is considerably young with a global median age of 30 (Pew ResearchCenter, 2012).

So how do young people fare in relation to Christianity around the world? My view is that as far asyoung people are concerned, there is no one grand narrative that informs the changing face of Christianity(Cornelio, 2015). While there may be dominant discourses depending on social, historical and geographicconsiderations, the overall picture for world Christianity is quite multifaceted. In some places such asEurope, there may be decline on some religious indicators, but there are also movements elsewhere thatreshape or revitalise the Christian faith of young people. These phenomena cannot be isolated from one



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another in the context of globalisation (Joas, 2011). It is this complexity that makes it difficult to argue thatChristianity is under the threat of secularisation on a global scale. So the task of researchers – especiallythose in the Global South – is to document, characterise and theorise the changes taking place withinChristianity without uncritically subscribing to template narratives derived from Western experience(Berger, 1999).

Nevertheless, the bulk of scholarship on youth and Christianity points to what can be characterised asthe “weakening thesis,” or the idea that the religiosity of young people is declining on various counts.These studies typically show a decline in religious affiliation and participation, a more selective approachto prescribed beliefs and moral issues, and the increased possibility of abandoning their Christian identity(Rausch, 2006). While the weakening thesis is already a well-rehearsed argument in the sociology ofreligion, especially in relation to intergenerational secularisation (Bruce, 2011; Voas, 2010), it is worthhighlighting some recent findings. Pew’s landmark study on Millennials (born in the 1980s) in the USAshows, for example, that 26% consider themselves religiously unaffiliated (Pew Research Center, 2010).This statistic is remarkably high compared with those of other generations.

Some of these studies make careful qualifications to the weakening thesis. A more recent and nuancedsurvey shows that while American Millennial Catholics agree that “being Catholic is an important part ofwho I am” (86% Hispanic, 68% non-Hispanic), not many find the papacy “very meaningful” (41%Hispanic, 25% non-Hispanic) – an indication of a critical attitude towards Church hierarchy (D’Antonio etal., 2013: 143–144). Also, while sizeable proportions of Hispanic (62%) and non-Hispanic (41%)Millennial Catholics say the Mass is “very meaningful,” collectively only 20% of them attend on a weeklybasis (D’Antonio et al., 2013: 144). In the USA, this example illustrates the condition of believing withoutbelonging that Davie (1994) initially documented in the UK.

Interestingly, some other studies substantiate the weakening thesis by offering qualitative material.Day’s ethnographic work on youth and religion in the UK, for example, problematises Davie’sbelieving-without-belonging thesis. For Day (2009), young people, including those who may profess theyare Christian, articulate their beliefs in terms of a sense of security and intimacy not with the divine butwith their family and friends. Although others have described this faith condition as the “immanent faith”of young Christians in the postmodern world, it still draws from a discernible repertoire of beliefs andpractices when the need arises (Collins-Mayo et al., 2010: 32). Personal prayer is an example of spiritualactivity common to many young people.

The grand narrative that Christianity is dying among young people especially in the West isincreasingly challenged. Apparently, the depiction of decline is not necessarily straightforward. Based onnational surveys, a recent work on emerging adults (18 to 25 years old) in the USA shows that weeklyMass attendance has gone down from 34% in the 1970s to 20% since the 2000s (Smith et al., 2014). In thistime, an increase is notable too among non-attendees. However, at the same time, change across otherseveral beliefs and practices has remained minimal in the past four decades. Frequency of prayer, belief inan afterlife, attitudes to the Bible, and strength of religious affiliation have been consistent, for example.

As a counterpoint to the weakening thesis, other studies have considered trends or spaces thatdemonstrate the continuing vibrancy of religion for young people. A recent survey of self-identifyingChristian students in the UK, for example, shows that instead of being a totally secularising force,universities have in fact fostered enhanced religiosity in the course of their education (Guest et al., 2013).Although a huge proportion (30.9%) are unchurched students, 25.9% are “active affirmers” who areconsistently high on various indices such as praying frequently (94.2%), reading the Bible frequently(75.6%), and involvement in Christian activities at university (72.9%).

Without a doubt, these active students are clearly a minority in the wider religious milieu of the UK.Their development of a conservative religious worldview like Evangelical Anglicanism necessitates morethan just a quick assent to a body of doctrines. Belief, as Strhan (2013) shows in her ethnographic work onstudents in an Evangelical congregation in London, is an ongoing embodied exercise of comprehending theScriptures and leading moral lives in the context of small groups and shared activities. Taken together,these moments foster accountability and affirmation of their religious convictions.

Some recent and influential studies demonstrate that what Christianity undergoes for young people is infact a transition with regard to how they view and embody their religion. The UK Youth on Religion studyshows, for example, that the largest proportion of adolescents who profess to be Christian are “flexibleCo

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adherents” (Madge et al., 2014: 87). These are believers willing to accommodate to their faith multipleworldviews such as science and other moral codes as they are convinced that some of Christianity’straditions may be dated. Their attitude towards Christianity is not necessarily dismissive or ambivalent asthat of some of their “bystander” or “pragmatist” peers might be. In Poland, Mandes and Rogaczewska(2013) argue that the conservatism of the Catholic Church on sexual morality and the traditional familyset-up explains the decline in the sacramental participation of its young adults. However, instead of leavingthe Catholic Church, they still participate in different religious gatherings such as local feasts, festivals andpilgrimage which they consider their “occasions of faith” (ibid.: 270).

What these cases so far mean is that for many young Christians, their religious identity is not so muchdefined by propositional beliefs or sacramental obligations as their behaviour. In Scotland, the“performance Christianity” of some young people means that they move across denominations andrecognise the importance of relationships as authentic expressions and sites of their faith (Vincett et al.,2012). Their relational activities to help others matter not because they are to proselytise but they enactwhat they believe are authentic expressions of Christianity.

Developing on their own are popular commentaries or assessments of the state of the more successfulforms of contemporary Christianity. Much of the success of independent churches and Christian music inthe USA, for example, has to do with their youthful appeal which some authors have branded “hipsterChristianity” for its tendency to be more concerned with “image and presentation and ancillary appeal”(McCracken, 2010: 12). In the Philippines, some commentators have expressed their concern over thepalpable attraction of Evangelical Christianity among youth. Some young people seem to have convertedto Evangelical megachurches, for example, because of their youthful services and experiential modes ofapproaching the Scriptures. These commentaries give the impression that young people do not thinkthrough their faith (Macasaet, 2009).

Research questions

This book complicates our understanding of youth and world Christianity by giving attention to the case ofyoung Filipino Catholics. Thus far, the wider literature on youth and Christianity has focused on theexperience of adolescents and emerging adults in the West. My view is that such interest among scholarsin the West is driven not only by questions of secularisation but also some concern for the future ofChristianity in post-Christian contexts (see Collins-Mayo et al., 2010; Savage et al., 2006; Smith andDenton, 2005). While intrigued by what the future holds for Filipino Catholic youth, this book recognisesthe continuing vibrancy of the faith in the Philippines. It is a very different situation. Also, as mentionedabove, the empirical interest of this book is important given the fact that world Christianity is typicallyapproached from institutional or theological lenses. These approaches have overlooked the everydayreligion of young people. To adopt these lenses among scholars of world Christianity is expected since thereligion in many postcolonial societies asserts itself in terms of novel theological distinctives or performedinstitutional unity against a common enemy, be it theological liberalism in the West or stateauthoritarianism in their own countries.

However, my interest is in the often-overlooked realities of Christianity among young people. As thediscussion above shows, there is no one grand narrative to characterise their place in the religiouslandscape today. Investigating the religious identity of Filipino Catholic youth can unravel novel andnuanced narratives about their brand of Christianity. In this light, my hope is that this book, too, becomes acounterpoint to the dismissive commentaries on the state of Christianity among young people thatgenerally depicts it as watered-down and consumerist faith.

To fill these scholarly gaps, the book asks a simple question: What does being Catholic mean to With this primary research question, the book attempts to come up with a deep andFilipino youth today?

nuanced grasp of how young people understand their Catholic faith, in which many of them were born andraised. Without pre-empting the discussions in the succeeding chapters, the attention to “being Catholic”reflects how religious identity throughout this book is problematised and defined in terms of youngpeople’s personal religious meaning or self-understanding. Addressed in the last section, the book presentsa secondary question as well: What social conditions account for their religious identity?

The young people who participated in this qualitative study are undergraduate students involved inCopyright © 2016. Rou


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different Catholic organisations on campus. They come from various disciplines in tertiary academicinstitutions in Metro Manila, the country’s capital, which attracts students from different parts of thePhilippines to come to its universities. While they do not clearly represent all Filipino Catholic youth,these students’ participation in this study has been intentional and strategic. I am interested in the noveltytheir religious involvement offers. Membership in a religious organisation – a voluntary act for theseyoung people – exposes them to greater opportunities for religious socialisation and practice. For example,involvement in religious organisations connotes religious expressions that straightforwardbelief-and-practice checklists in quantitative research may miss. In other words, these are expressions thathint at a heightened level of religiosity whose content and nuances deserve closer investigation. However,we cannot readily assume that they embody conservative views and highly pious practices simply becausethey are uniquely committed Catholic students (Guest et al., 2013). Indeed, this decision to focus onundergraduate students instead of parish-based youth has proven fruitful and wise in that I discovered that3

many, in fact, do not go to Mass and participate in their local parishes regularly.There is another wisdom to the empirical attention on involved Catholic students. Focusing on their

religious identity affords us a glimpse of the religious nuances and tensions among future Catholic adultsin the Philippines. By virtue of life chances, these undergraduates are potentially the society’s opinionleaders as future professionals, generally informed Catholics or even religious themselves. As futureprofessionals, they have the propensity to shape opinion within their respective spheres of influencewhether in the private or public sector. These undergraduate students have the potential to becomepowerful voices that the Catholic hierarchy will have to engage. For this reason, this book also explorestheir moral views on some recent controversial issues such as divorce and the use of contraceptives.4

As informed Catholics at a young age, they carry the possibility of becoming more involved asCatholics in the future, whether as religious or lay persons (see Wuthnow, 1999; Hoge et al., 2001). In fact,these options are verified in my interviews. While the majority do not see themselves becoming clergy,they are open to lay participation in church affairs. Some of them could even move over to the adultpermutations of their current religious organisations. Some students have also spoken of alumni comingback to their campus to help with the activities, a possibility for them, too.5

To reiterate, the primary goal of this study is to discern the nuances of young people’s Catholic identityand make sense of them by relating them to ideas in the sociology of religion. These nuances are meant tosubstantiate or challenge the findings of recent quantitative studies on youth and religion in thePhilippines. Even more importantly, my hope is that the book opens up the space for more scholarly workon youth and religious identity in relation to Christianity, the Philippines, and the rest of the Global South.

David Martin (2011: 43) has argued that “the future of Christianity depends not on what scientificadvance may show, but on whether the Christian drama continues to make sense.” In other words,Christianity’s drama demands a careful balancing act between humanity’s transcendence of nature andparticipation in it. As the following pages painstakingly narrate, the drama of Catholicism still makes senseto the Filipino Catholic youth, but they are rewriting this story. Young people are reinterpreting religion ina manner that sees God as an intimate entity and their human relationships as the stage on which rightliving matters more than right believing.

For the sake of clarity, the study is not about the organisations of which they are part, although as willbe seen in a later chapter, they have a role to play in their religious socialisation (see Shepherd, 2010).Although it is about undergraduate students, this study is also not concerned with how religion is at workin their respective universities (Cherry et al., 2001; Guest et al., 2013).

Structure of the book

The book is progressively structured in nine chapters. and are foundational as theoretical andChapters 2 3methodological discussions on the concept of religious identity. to address the main question.Chapters 4 7Engaging the secondary question, explores the social conditions accounting for the shape ofChapter 8their religious identity. draws some conclusions.Chapter 9

Chapter 2 lays the foundation for the other chapters by offering a particular definition of religiousidentity. The book presents religious identity in terms of self-understanding, a view that has not been fullyexplored in the sociology of religion. This accounts for the book’s title, . Asking about whatBeing CatholicCo



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individuals mean when they profess a particular religion makes sense in view of the inherent hybridity ofeveryday religion, the role of everyday believers in initiating religious change, and the very condition ofreligion in modernity. The latter speaks of secularisation, sacralisation and individualisation.

Chapter 3 explains at length the qualitative approach taken during the fieldwork. Drawing from theframework explained in , the main question I asked in the interviews and focus group discussionsChapter 2was In total, I have conducted 62 interviews, four focus groupWhat does being Catholic mean to you?discussions, and participant observation of two student-led religious activities. Some 13 different tertiary6

institutions in Metro Manila were visited to account for methodological variation.The first empirical discussion is in , which presents biographical notes from Brendan, ImmanChapter 4

and Katherine. Their narratives provide powerful illustrations of orthodox and creative Catholics.Orthodox Catholics embody high participation in the sacraments and their religious identity sees thecentrality of institutional Catholicism in terms of doctrines surrounding the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist,for example. Creative Catholics harbour a self-defined religious identity focused on such matters ashelping the poor and experiencing God personally. Therefore, they do not see the immediate importance ofinstitutional Catholic life, say, in the sacraments and doctrinal adherence. All but four of my intervieweesare creative Catholics. They then become the emphasis of the succeeding chapters.

Chapter 5, which begins with an account of a Taizé prayer event at a Catholic university, directlyaddresses the main question of the book. Drawing from interviews and focus group discussions, threeimportant themes surrounding “being Catholic” come into view: a personal and experiential relationshipwith God; an action-oriented relationality in which “right living” is more important than “right believing;”and a critique of the Catholic leadership’s perceived misguidedness and their peers’ religious insincerity.Collectively, these three themes help in reformulating the concept of reflexive spirituality in the literature.As self-defined elements of their religious identity, the absence of traditional religiosity concerning theMass, rosary and saints, for example, is noteworthy. It is in this chapter where I suggest that their religiousidentity points to an undercurrent of experiential religion of humanity within Philippine Catholicism. Thisfinding is very important in nuancing the complexity of world Christianity. It is not simply moving in thedirection of theological and institutional conservatism.

As suggested above, the study of religious identity does not have to end in the meanings alone. One ofthe advantages of taking religious identity in terms of religious self-understanding is that they shed light onother aspects of the religious life such as particular beliefs, practices and experiences even if they may behybrid or contrary to official teachings of the Church. This is demonstrated in in which theirChapter 6moral views are foregrounded. Specifically, although their attitudes towards the controversial issues ofdivorce, cohabitation, premarital sex, homosexuality and reproductive health are forthrightly conservative,the underlying principles are paradoxically liberal. It is not the gravity of sin or moral error that becomestheir basis. Their valuing of relational commitment, which justifies their being anti-divorce andanti-cohabitation, for instance, is informed by what has been shown in the previous chapter as theiraction-oriented relationality. It will be seen, too, that moral authority does not reside in the doctrines of theChurch. Instead, they believe in the moral ability of the individual.

This last point is very telling. The reflexivity young people exercise over their spirituality and moralviews points to a particular mode of religious individualisation. In particular, religious authority is nolonger in the official promulgations of the institution but in the self. What is interesting, however, is thatthis does not, in any way, suggest any declining attachment to Catholicism. If anything, my informants seethemselves as being “more Catholic” than their peers. What explains the paradox?

Presented in is a novel understanding of individualisation not as occurring outside a religiousChapter 7institution but inside it. It is in this chapter that I propose the concept of “indwelt individualisation.”Challenging the claims in the literature, the chapter demonstrates that individualisation can take placewithin a religion insofar as the self becomes the final arbiter of spiritual experience and the most importantelements, resources and practices of one’s faith. This happens through the two processes of traditionmaintenance and tradition construction. In the latter half of this chapter, I explain how the concept ofindwelt individualisation is evident from the various resources that shape the religious identity of creativeCatholics. Collectively, I have called these their “emotional anthology of resources,” reflecting how theyare closely associated to friends and family for religious socialisation (Collins-Mayo et al., 2010).

It is in where I answer the second question, Chapter 8 What social conditions account for their religiousCopyright © 2016. Rou


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This chapter presents a novel argument as well. Whereas individualisation in the West is oftenidentity?correlated to capitalism and globalisation, in my informants’ case, individualisation draws from theirexperiences of exclusion. In this chapter I argue that the expressions and enactments of their religiousidentity, such as seeing God as father and friend and wanting to help others more than going to church, areattempts to navigate the generational conditions of isolation. It is no wonder that my informants share thesame religious identity regardless of class, gender, academic background or even nature of religiousorganisation. This is an argument that invites future researchers to investigate.

Inspired by the sociology of generations, I propose that my informants are generationally conscious –that is, they are aware of the distinctiveness of what I have called their “isolated generation.” In otherwords, they see their generation as being aimless, hopeless and powerless. From their nuances, threeemergent strands inform their self-assessment: political detachment, economic vulnerability and familyrestructuring. These are processes that isolate or individualise religiously involved students from theinstitutions of society, thereby creating what Giddens (1991) would consider ontological insecurity.

Notes

1 .twitter.com/Pontifex2 A special issue of is dedicated to the complexity ofPhilippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

Filipino Catholicism. See my introduction to the issue in Cornelio, 2014a.3 Parish-based youth also deserve attention in future research.4 One may refer to Raffin and Cornelio (2009) for a recent example of how the Reproductive Health Bill in the

Philippines was a very contentious issue for the Catholic Church since it was supported by the general public.5 On the question of religious change among these Filipino students in the future, whether in terms of conversion to

other religions or decline (and hence they may no longer be as potentially influential), one can only bespeculative. While the literature on the sociology of religion in the West generally inform us that young peopleare turning to alternative forms of spirituality, if not losing all interest in institutional religion (Raffin andCornelio, 2009), there are also those who document the continuity in the religious lives of many adults (Smith andDenton, 2005; Smith and Snell, 2009). If they could be taken at their word today, many of my informants wouldsay they are happy to remain Catholic. In fact, even those who are already exploring other religions in thePhilippines such as Evangelical Christianity, say that there is no compelling reason for them to leave the Church,a point to be revisited in Chapters 5 and 7.

6 In this book all names of interviewees and focus group members are pseudonyms.

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Documents

Being Catholic in the Contemporary Philippines: Young people reinterpreting religion (Routledge, 2016)