Bishop Fortich

 The Diocese of Bácolod commemorates today the 99th birthday of its late Bishop Antonio Y. Fortich.  From Msgr. Felix P. Pasquin, Rector of the San Sebastian Cathedral,  I learned that the remembrance today is a prelude to a bigger commemoration next year, the centenary of the bishop’s birthday in Dumaguete which, at the time, was under the Diocese of Jaro.

For those who believe that God guides, but does not force, the destinies of men and nations, the assumption of Bishop Fortich of the Diocese came at the time of great changes in Catholic Church,  particularly that of Bácolod.

The Second Vatican Council convoked by Pope John XXIII in 1962 had just completed three years of discussions by over 2,000 bishops. It closed in December 1965. The Council decreed major changes in various aspects of the Catholic faith to move the Church to deal with the new realities of the modern world.

Bishop Fortich epitomized that new sense of change and when Bishop Manuel D. Yap died in October 1966, the clamor for then Vicar General Msgr. Fortich was so intense that the Vatican went out of the usual by appointing Msgr. Fortich to succeed Bishop Yap in 1967.

As the Vatican Council undertook reforms so did the episcopate of Bishop Fortich. He immediately implemented the decrees of the Council which Bishop Yap had been reluctant to implement because he believed the changes must be done slowly while many wanted immediate changes.

So it fell on the new Bishop to forcefully give life to the new decrees and to the dismay and even anger of many landlords and the joy of the lowly and the poor, Bishop Fortich convoked the Rural Congress in 1967. On March 26, 1967 he issued a Pastoral Letter that echoed the Papal Encyclical earlier issued by Pope Paul VI, successor of Pope John XXIII.

The encyclical, Populurum Progressio, redefined the role of the Church in modern society. This document and Fortich’s Pastoral Letter were revolutionary particularly in the Negros context where the divide between the landed and the landless, the hacenderos and their workers, the businessmen and their employees were wide and antagonistic in most. 

While Bishop Yap had supported social action projects like cooperatives and labor unions which the Jesuits pursued in the diocese (at the time included Oriental Negros and Siquijor), Bishop Fortich gave it impetus and spirit and placed the human and financial resources to social action.

Thus was born the Diocese Social Action Center with now National Democratic Front official  Fr. Luis Jalandoni as its head. The clash between the Church in Negros and the hacenderos was inevitable. Bishop Fortich defined the Church as the “Church of the Poor” at the time when this phrase was anathema.

The sugar industry challenged the Negros Church to, not just point out the long-enduring injustices, but help it resolved this social malaise. The DSAC did take direct action against the exploitation of the sacadas in cooperation with Antique Bishop Cornelius De Witt and the sugar planters associations.

It was a gigantic task. At the time the Negros sugar industry had over 36,000 sacadas, seasonal, migratory workers, mainly from Antique. The project meant the removal of labor contractors who arranged for their recruitment and working conditions. Hundreds of pages had been written about this social and economic problem and despite the best effort the controversial labor problem persisted until the advent of changes in the sugar industry and the sacadas disappeared.

Ironically the sacadas disappeared when more children were born in the haciendas making labor importation unnecessary and despite the increase in farm output. The problem solved itself.

His life and works can fill a good-sized book. Social scientists and anthropologist will find them interesting. In fact, his life cannot be disassociated with the history of the Negros sugar industry and of Negros itself (and that of the Church) because while he was bishop until he retired by mandate of Canon Law, he was a major until his passage in 2003.

The Church he led at the time of social ferment among the clergy and confusion among the faithful still reverberates with his influence. There are slowing downs and new definitions after him but God chose him to lead the diocese in its most dramatic period, the period of change and restraint, of new theology that the Papal Encyclical had prescribed for the Church in the modern world.

When he visited Blessed Pope John Paul II during his ad limina the Pope gave a message to “do something for the poor.” That was his mission in life, suffering in the process from ridicule, insults and even direct assault on his life. But he took them all in stride without losing his sense of humor, the lot of God’s faithful servant.*

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