The Catalan parish of the Pope believes in the impossible and prays in Filipino

BarcelonaThe Catalan parish that the Pope will visit believes in the impossible, prays for healing, and grants wishes. This Friday, thousands of people have passed through the parish of Sant Agustí in Barcelona to celebrate Saint Rita. It is a festival deeply linked to this order, which is the Pope's order, and deeply rooted in Catalonia. They came from everywhere, with roses to offer and pray. The midday mass in Catalan was packed to the brim, with people standing along the sides and at the back, in a parish that normally prays mainly in Filipino and that also represents the missionary Church.

"The same people every year," says Fèlix, a florist waiting for the faithful to buy from him in front of the church, in a square full of stalls like his. Fina and Emili come from Terrassa to make an offering to Saint Rita. She doesn't see very well, she doesn't usually go to mass, but she has been devoted to Saint Rita since 2017 during a delicate time due to her lung operation. Mari Carmen, Lolita, María Ángeles, and Jordi come from Premià de Mar, pilgrims with their devotion passed down by María Ángeles, who is 94 years old and was devoted before her delicate health condition. But there are also Ritas: Rita the mother, the daughter, and the grandmother already was, in a family where the sister and the children of the second Rita are also present, very young, one of them on his father's lap. They are from Molins de Rei, and the elder Rita does attend Sunday mass, unlike the rest.

"One of the most popular festivals", according to Father Antoni Nello, of a saint whose legend says that in the middle of winter her wish to smell roses was fulfilled. The patron saint of the impossible causes people to offer blessed roses right after mass ends. The one o'clock mass in Spanish is indeed officiated by a bishop, an auxiliary, like Javier Vilanova, with much less attendance.

"We are Filipinos"

Julián Alcántara controls, with a fluorescent vest, the entry of people through the main door of the church. "There is a lot of devotion to Saint Rita in the Philippines," maintains this 91-year-old man, Filipino and the oldest and most recognized in his community. And with a half-smile, amid the emotion for the pontiff's visit, he jokes about the strict security control planned: "I am very happy that the Pope is coming, I will climb a tree to see him." He prays "every day to Saint Rita" and helps the community, which has two priests of his nationality, Dennis and Michael –who are collaborating today in the masses, which are ten–, under the regency of the Augustinian order led by Father Faustin Mlelwa, the rector who personally met Leo XIV on a trip to Tanzania. This is the country of origin of the friar from Raval. Faustin, overwhelmed, has the opportunity to photograph the church when he is not officiating, as it is the mass in Catalan.

"It's where there are most Filipinos," says Fredi, who is Bolivian and today distributes holy cards and candles at the parish. He has been here for more than a decade, where he discovered the fervor for Saint Rita. He is next to Gloria, a Filipina. "We have a lot of religious fervor," he points out about his country, although this volunteer who arrived in the country in 2005 does not know much Spanish, and no Catalan, but she does know English. "It's the parish of the Filipinos," adds Julián, who speaks broken Spanish.

He is always at the parish and explains that he has already been beaten and stabbed on two occasions that sent him to the hospital, the last one just over two years ago –after scolding a man who was eating inside–. He arrived in the country in 1984, had an appliance store near Via Laietana, and spends the day at the church with his compatriots, while his wife is now in the Philippines with two common daughters. Julián loves to tell stories from his life, such as having to eat Japanese hearts during wartime.

Community

Ramón Vázquez, retired, is a Barcelona volunteer at the parish to carry out all kinds of procedures for the community: regularization, pensions and aid, payrolls or the census. He approached it after a relationship with a Filipina and today he estimates that between 5,000 and 6,000 people must have entered – the full parish accommodates a thousand – and comments that the Pope's visit has changed some things, such as the various chapels have been painted and a net that was on the ceiling has been removed because paint was falling from it.

The Filipino personal parish was founded thirty years ago, although the community has been strong for 40 years. On the other hand, the conventional church is nourished by immigration, according to Vázquez, from Latin America. Every Sunday there is a mass in honor of the patron saint of a country. For Saint Rita, however, Catalans from all over come.