MANILA, Philippines – John Edison Regalado and his family took the chance of a lifetime on Friday morning, September 13, as the Pope was leaving Singapore for Rome.
Regalado, a 37-year-old financial risk manager in Singapore, said they already missed Pope Francis when he and his wife visited Rome last year. They arrived on a Thursday, a day after his weekly general audience when he goes around Saint Peter’s Square, and left on a Saturday, a day before his weekly Angelus, when he appears at a papal apartment window to pray and deliver a speech.
This time, as the Pope included Singapore in his 11-day Asia-Pacific journey, not only did Regalado’s family see the Pope up close — in a most unforgettable moment for Regalado and his 30-year-old Indonesian wife Vanessa Lingkaran, Francis even blessed their son Luis, who is almost two months old.
Being touched by “Lolo Kiko,” as the 87-year-old Pope is fondly called in the Philippines, was an experience shared by many Filipinos like Regalado who work in Singapore. While Catholics are a small minority in the world’s most religiously diverse country, Filipinos form the largest group in the Singaporean Catholic Church of around 395,000 people.
“Today was something special,” Regalado wrote on Friday. “We were by the roadside, hoping to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis before he flew back to Rome. He noticed Luis and waved us over, despite the security, and gave our little one a blessing. He also gave us a rosary.”
In the faith chat room of the Rappler Communities app, Regalado recounted, “Honestly, I never imagined it. It was a blessing beyond anything I could have dreamed of.”
“Meeting the Pope in such a personal way during his visit to Singapore was surreal. It felt like a moment of grace, and I was deeply moved by his warmth and humility,” said Regalado, who hails from Lucena City, Quezon, and has worked in Singapore for half a decade.
He also recalled the Pope’s emphasis on love during the papal Mass at Singapore’s National Stadium on Thursday, September 12. “His message and his gestures of kindness remind us that we are all called to lead with love and compassion, inspiring us to build a more caring and empathetic world.”
The National Stadium, a 55,000-seater venue that also hosted Taylor Swift during her Eras Tour, would now be remembered as holy ground for Catholics in Singapore.
Carmella Austria of La Castellana, Negros Occidental, was among the tens of thousands who joined the Pope’s Mass at the National Stadium on Thursday. With Carmella, 38, was her 39-year-old husband Merwin Austria from Sariaya, Quezon.
Carmella, who has lived in Singapore for the past 14 years, is an office manager at an international law firm. Merwin, who has spent the past 18 years in the city-state, is the head of vertical health care in a global logistics and supply chain.
Carmella, in Rappler’s faith chat room, said it was their second time to meet the Pope and it “was truly unforgettable.”
The Pope, at that time, was riding the popemobile around the National Stadium to greet people ahead of the 5:15 Mass on Thursday. He arrived half an hour before the Mass, and the Vatican livestream captured him blessing children, the elderly, and persons with disability.
When the Pope reached their area, Carmella was holding a papal blessing parchment, a Vatican-issued memorabilia with the face, name, and signature of the Pope, along with the promise of a papal blessing. It was a wedding gift for Carmela and Merwin who tied the know in 2016.
“To my surprise, he noticed me holding our papal blessing parchment and gestured for me to come closer. Overwhelmed with emotion, I told him, ‘We pray for you,’ to which he kindly replied, ‘Pray for me too,’” Carmella said.
She said that eventually, “my husband was asked to join me, making the moment even more special.”
The Pope then signed their 2018 photo at the Vatican, when the pontiff blessed them along with other newlyweds. “As if that weren’t enough,” according to Carmella, “the Pope handed me a rosary, a token of faith that will forever remind us of this blessed encounter.”
Meeting the Pope a second time on Thursday “was a deeply humbling and spiritual experience,” said Carmella. “It filled us with an overwhelming sense of grace, gratitude, and connection to our faith. We believe the Pope’s gestures are a reminder of the importance of love and unity.”
For Neil Francis Bactol, 29, his own experience of meeting the Pope at Singapore’s National Stadium was “a moment I will cherish forever.” This was especially because he was not able to attend the papal Mass when the Pope visited Manila in January 2015.
He and his wife Janine Perez, 31, both health care workers in Singapore, will never forget how the Pope touched and blessed their four-month-old baby girl, Jillian Autumn.
“We ourselves never thought that we will be that close to the Pope, and when I saw the chance I kind of like offered my daughter to the Pope to be blessed and have an encounter with Him even though she won’t remember a thing,” Neil said in the faith chat room.
Neil said he and Janine “found ourselves in tears while we hugged our daughter as she experienced something profoundly-moving and enlightening.”
Julius Henry Ventanilla, a 39-year-old Filipino civil engineer, said hearing the Pope’s Mass at the National Stadium was “an unforgettable and emotional day for me.”
Ventanilla, who has worked in Singapore for the past 10 years, dreamt of becoming a priest when he was a child, “but there was no chance for me and maybe I have a different calling.”
Eventually, when he focused on his career, he realized there was a void in his life, and there was something wrong. His wife Mara later came into his life, “and that’s also the time I started praying the rosary every day.” He keeps a strong affinity with the Blessed Virgin, stating, “Jesus redeemed me through Mother Mary.”
Ventanilla cried at the end of the Mass at the National Stadium when Pope Francis approached an image of the Blessed Mother, faced the statue with his back to the crowd, and prayed.
“This was the most beautiful and most solemn Mass I have attended in my life,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino. “Truly, God is amazing.”
While Filipinos in Singapore remembered his small acts of kindness during his Singapore trip, the Pope made his grandest gesture for them hours before the Mass, when he delivered a speech before Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and other leaders, civil society representatives, and the diplomatic corps.
In his speech, Francis paid homage to the migrants of Singapore, around 200,000 of whom come from the Philippines. Philippine government statistics show 84% of them are overseas Filipino workers (OFW), with around 40% of OFWs as domestic helpers. The remaining 60% of OFWs are classified as skilled and semi-skilled.
In this 5.9-million-strong city-state that is said to be run like a corporation, the Pope warned against the risk of “focusing solely on pragmatism or placing merit above all things, namely the unintended consequence of justifying the exclusion of those on the margins from benefiting from progress.”
“Here, I recognize and commend the various policies and initiatives put in place to support the most vulnerable, and I hope that special attention will be paid to the poor and the elderly — whose labors have laid the foundations for the Singapore we see today — as well as to protecting the dignity of migrant workers,” said the Pope.
“These workers contribute a great deal to society and should be guaranteed a fair wage,” he added.
Ending his speech, the Pope prayed that God may help Singapore “respond to the needs and expectations” of its people, and encourage it “to see how God can accomplish great things for the good of all through those who remain humble and grateful.”
“May God bless Singapore!” – Rappler.com
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