San Agustin Church, originally known as “inglesia de San Pablo”, founded in 1571, is the oldest stone church (built in 1589) in the Philippines. It is a Roman Catholic church under the auspices of The Order of St. Augustine, located inside the historic walled city of Intramuros in Manila | Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Epilogue for “Fourteen Letters to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV” Series
Dear Holy Father:
“Is ‘Prevostlution’ the Church’s Back-to-Basics Socioeconomic Reformation?” may serve as a suitable epilogue for the forthcoming book, “A Prevostlution of Hope (Book I)”. Why?
This “Fourteen Letters to Pope Leo XIV” is not intended to be a modern version of Martin Luther’s most famous work, namely his Ninety-Five Theses (also known as “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”). Martin Luther’s document, published in 1517, critiqued the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences and is widely regarded as the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation.
The coming book about the “Fourteen Letters” with prologues and epilogues (now probably in five volumes) will be titled “Prevostlution of Hope”. And its subtitle is “Catholic Church’s Suggested Socioeconomic Reformation”. Hopefully, the Vatican and the Prevost Family of Chicago, Illinois, will not object to the title.
By the way, lay people who never really got to know Martin Luther may not be aware that he was a monk of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine (also known as Augustinian Hermits). He joined the order in 1505 and remained a member until he began his Reformation work. It is a remarkable coincidence that Pope Leo XIV was a distinguished member of the Order of St. Augustine and headed it before being ordained a bishop and subsequently elevated to the cardinalate.
This author became an altar boy in 1955 at the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral of the capital town of Sorsogon (now a city) of the province of Sorsogon. He will soon publish an account of how he was introduced to the Catholic faith at the age of 9, while working as a shoeshine boy. The Catholic bishop’s residence (called the “Palacio” or Palace) was just literally a stone’s throw from his family’s residence. One Saturday morning, he took the initiative to visit the “Palacio” and asked if the people living there had dirty shoes that he could polish. Of all the people working there, the bishop was, fortunately, the only guy whom the shoeshine boy found and asked. In short, he became the boy who shined “the shoes of the fisherman’s bishop in Sorsogon” until 1962, when he graduated from high school. Most Reverend Teopisto V. Alberto, D.D., was promoted to head the Archdiocese of Nueva Caceres (in Naga City), the spiritual capital of the Bicol Region, which includes Sorsogon.
Bishop Alberto introduced Catholicism to this shoeshine boy, especially since the former learned that he was the son of the frontrunner in the 1955 election for governor. (His dad, who was not a practicing Catholic, lost in the November 1955 election.) Of course, even at that young age, the shoeshine boy knew that the customer was always right. So when the bishop invited him to train to become an altar boy at the said cathedral, the bishop’s suggestion became a command. And thus began 70 years (and counting) of becoming not only a Christian but also a Catholic activist. The bishop introduced him not only to the Ten Commandments but also to the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ. The Beatitudes became part of this author’s written works after he completed his journalism studies at a Benedictine college in Manila. He spent 12 years of studies in four Catholic schools and colleges.
Last Monday. July 7, Pope Leo XIV said (as announced in several Facebook Groups dedicated to the new pontiff): “Those who follow Jesus must tread the path of the Beatitudes, where poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy, hunger and thirst for justice, and peace-making are often met with opposition and even persecution. Yet God’s glory shines forth in his friends and continues to shape them along the way, passing from conversion to conversion.”
“Perhaps Pope Leo XIV can start a new Age of Reformation in the Vatican and in all the world’s dioceses where 1.406 billion Catholics live, work, and worship. Maybe it is predestined that the new pontiff can start uniting all the denominations, beginning with the Lutheran Church.”
When Joe Biden became the president-elect in November 2020, this author started a series of suggested “Biden’s Back-to-Basics Doctrine” as the anchor of governance. But Mr. Biden, the second Catholic to be elected the POTUS, never acknowledged the series of column articles that were published in a book in 2023. Perhaps the White House Press Office never bothered to inform him of such a suggested doctrine. He could have done more had he applied the suggestion of promoting the Beatitudes as a spirit of back-to-basics solutions for the country’s numerous socioeconomic problems — from poverty to homelessness, to the lack of universal healthcare and affordable college education.
It is quite a coincidence that in 1517, during the Martin Luther-led protest, the pontiff was Pope Leo X, who led the Catholic Church from 1513 to 1521.
Perhaps Pope Leo XIV can start a new Age of Reformation in the Vatican and in all the world’s dioceses where 1.406 billion Catholics live, work, and worship. Maybe it is predestined that the new pontiff can start uniting all the denominations, beginning with the Lutheran Church.
The author can help in the Philippines. He happens to be a grandson-in-law of Senator Isabelo de los Reyes, the founder of the Philippine Independent Church (PIC), which is also known as Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI). It was organized in 1902. It was established in the context of the Philippine struggle for independence from Spain and then from the United States of America. It was a protest against the control of the Roman Catholic Church by Spanish clergy. The church was formally proclaimed on August 3, 1902, by Isabelo de los Reyes, with Gregorio Aglipay (a former Catholic priest) as its first Supreme Bishop.
Isabelo (Don Belong) de los Reyes was also the founder of the Philippine Labor Movement, the father of Filipino folklore, and a pioneer of Philippine socialism. He is also dubbed the first Filipino Renaissance Man. He translated the Spanish Bible into Ilocano, the language of the Ilocos Region in Northern Luzon. He was elected the interim president of the First Philippine Republic in absentia after the U.S. Army captured its first president, as De los Reyes was then in exile in Barcelona, Spain. The U.S. colonial authorities also banished him to the same Spanish city after he led the first labor strike in the Capital City of Manila.
The PIC now has some 8 million members. This journalist has refused to leave the Catholic Church, as he always tells the PIC bishops that he has unfinished business, namely completing reforms that he initiated in his home Catholic Diocese of Sorsogon in 1995. He has accused the two bishop-successors of corruption, in apparent contrast to the sincere and saintly Archbishop Alberto, whom they succeeded. The PIC has been working with the Episcopal Church of the United States and the Church of England.
Thank you for your attention and assistance, Your Holiness.
Very respectfully yours in Jesus Christ,
(Bobby) M. Reyes
Journalist and Book Author
