Being first or original in the mission areas virtually became the moral basis for the social power the missioners wielded over the localities and over the people in these localities. With the Philippines a saturated market, the missionary form left was the charismatic: most of the foreign orders/congregations were engaged in specific apostolates that expressed the charism of their founders. In all of these waves, there had been attempts at decolonizing, with the Spanish wave producing the sentiment of separating from the Catholic Church and forming an independent, nationalist church after the Katipunan declared independence and declared war against Spain and after the three priests Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora were martyred. The American regime wave brought to the surface the need to Filipinize the churches and makes them “local” expressions of their “mother” churches.
Papaano natin maipapaliwanag, halimbawa, ang patong-patong na kabuwisitan at kaguluhang nangyayari sa atin? Papaano natin maipapaliwanag na habang ang ibang mga bansa ay puspusan ang kanilang politikal na hakbang tungo sa konsolidasyon ng lahat ng kanilang kayang gawin at kagalingan ay heto naman tayo, tayong mga Filipino na nagyayabang na tagapagmana pa man din ng dalawang tradisyon ng mga malalayang sining, heto tayong nakanganga at tuloy ang pag-eexport ng mga trabahante sa ibang bansa, tuloy ang implisito nating palisya ukol sa tiyakang pagwarak ng ating mga pamilya at relasyon, tuloy ang ating pagyakap sa glinobalisang pag-iisip hanggang sa mapagtanto natin na ang ating mga dalandan ay nangawala na at napalitan na ito ng tuwiran ng mga ponkan, peras, mansanas, at ubas.