“AQUI EN la Pampanga hay mucha piedad pero poca caridad.” Too much piety, too little charity. So noted Bishop Cesar Ma. Guerrero, the fi rst to occupy the bishopric of San Fernando, of a dichotomy in the Kapampangan character, instanced in “the stark class differences between the rich and the poor, the strife between the landlords and the tenants, and a deteriorating socio-political-economic situation bordering on socialism.”
These were manifest situations of the imperative of revolution in his See. And a revolution did indeed obtain then in Pampanga, with the Huks already “knocking at the very gates of Manila.”
The guerrilla force Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon (Hukbalahap) morphed into the post-war revolutionary Hukbong Magpapalaya ng Bayan (HMB) bannering the standard of socialism as the solution to the social cancer afflicting the country.
Marked as apostates pursuing the establishment of a “godless” society, the Huks naturally had to be stopped, and their ideology uprooted to “save the country and Mother Church.” A strategic policy of the Cold War placed the Church at the bulwark of the war against communism.
Thus, Bishop Guerrero organized the Cruzada – the Crusade for Penance and Charity – in 1952. In revolutionary praxis, the Cruzada served the ends of a counter-revolution. Unrepentant communists would readily see it as the affirmation of the Marxist dictum: “Religion is the opium of the people.”
Images of the Virgen de los Remedios and Santo Cristo del Perdon were taken all around the Pampanga parishes were they stayed for days, the faithful seeking their intercession and intervention through non-stop prayers and nightly processions.
A hymn to the virgin was composed with peace as recurrent refrain: “…ica’ng minye tula ampon capayapan / quing indu ning balen quequeng lalawigan / uling calimbun mu caring sablang dalan / ding barrio at puruc caring cabalenan / agad menatili ing catahimican… (… you gave us joy and peace / to the mother of our
province / when taken in procession / in all the barrios in the towns / peace descended upon them…)”
Forgive the poor translation. The charity end of the crusade – lamac – was institutionalized – all the barrio folk, even the poorest of them, shared some goods that would accompany the images to their next destination and given to the neediest there.
As the hymn goes: “Ding sablang pisamban ampon ding bisitas/ a quecang delawan O virgen a maslag/ ding anggang memalen pigdala mung lamac/ metula lang dacal, queca pasalamat/ casalpantayanan miunlad, milablab/ ing pamicalugud agad linaganap.
(all the churches and chapels/ that you visited O virgin most radiant/ all the faithful you gifted with charity/ rejoiced in thanksgiving/ fi red up in their faith/ love permeating all). Poor, poor translation.
But you got the drift, right? The Cruzada in effect became an equalizing and unifying factor among the faithful, regardless of their socio-economic situation. And relative peace did come to the province.
For a time.
The breadth and depth of the devotion to the Virgen de los Remedios of the Capampangan moved Pope Pius XII to approve her canonical coronation as the patroness of Pampanga on September 8, 1956.
Fifty seven years hence, “the stark class differences between the rich and the poor” is even more pronounced; “the strife between the landlords and the tenants,” dissipated in the various land reform legislations no matter
their infi rmities; “a deteriorating socio-political economic situation bordering on socialism,” in the pages of history.
The death knell had long been tolled for the Huk rebellion. The last of its Supremos now in mainstream politics – Mayor Emmanuel “Bon” Alejandrino of Arayat in a different arena of struggle for people’s liberation.
Fifty seven years hence, devotion to the Virgen de los Remedios has not waned. On the contrary, it has gone beyond provincial borders, onto the United States where the Kapampangan faithful celebrate the Feast of
the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Canonical Coronation Anniversary of the Virgen de los Remedios at the magnifi cent Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles, California every September 8 – in full solidarity, if not in communion, with the celebrations here in Pampanga.
Ours, truly, is the Indu ning Capaldanan (Mother of Remedies) that is the Tula ding Kapampangan (Joy of the Kapampangan). So blessed, we are.
