SAN DIEGO — “How do we respond to the gift of Christ?”
Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Pulido said Pope St. John Paul II explored that question in 1981 in Manila at the beatification of Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint and martyr.
“We respond by the daily giving of ourselves to that gift,” Bishop Pulido said. “The pope spoke of Lorenzo’s witness as an example of what it means to be a Christian.”
Bishop Pulido celebrated the annual diocesan Mass for San Lorenzo Ruiz on Sept. 12 at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, accompanied by Bishop Michael Pham; Father Peter McGuine, the parish’s pastor; and about a dozen priests.
Filipino Catholics from across the region packed the pews of the 257-year-old mission, lifting their voices in traditional hymns. The Diocesan Commission for Filipino Priests organized the celebration.
St. Lorenzo Ruiz was born in the Philippines in 1594. He learned the Catholic faith from Dominican friars, served as an altar boy, married and had a family. He was falsely accused of murder in 1636 and was forced to flee to Japan, along with Dominican and Japanese priests.
There, the rulers were persecuting Christians and arrested San Lorenzo Ruiz and the priests and subjected them
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