450 Years of Conversion and Grace

Homily of Most Rev. Charles John Brown D.D., Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines

450th Founding Anniversary of the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Conversion of St. Paul

April 30, 2025 | Cathedral and Parish of the Conversion of St. Paul, Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

For me as the Apostolic Nuncio, it gives me a lot of joy and happiness to be with you here this morning, in your beautiful cathedral, the Metropolitan Cathedral and Parish of the Conversion of St Paul.

Indeed, we heard in the first reading about the Conversion of Saint Paul. Why are we here this morning? We are here to celebrate 450 years since the foundation of this church, since the beginning of your Church, here in Vigan City, here in the Province of Ilocos Sur.

I'm extremely grateful to your beloved Archbishop, His Excellency, the Most Rev. Marlo M. Peralta, D.D., the Archbishop of Nueva Segovia, for having invited me, with some others from the Nunciature, including the SECRETARY of the Nunciature, Rev. Fr. Vjekoslav Holik, to come up here to Ilocos Sur, this morning to celebrate this Mass in celebration and recognition of 450 years. Imagine that. Since the foundation of your beautiful cathedral.

It's wonderful to see a large number of bishops who have traveled, some of whom have traveled for more than eight hours to be with us this morning, for this glorious celebration, this explosion of joy and recognition, this great hymn of thanksgiving that we make to God for 450 years of Catholic life here in Ilocos Sur. Because your cathedral-parish was the first parish in Northern Luzon. It was from here that the light of the gospel spread throughout the entire region of Northern Luzon. For that reason, this is a very historic and important place in the history of the Church here in the Philippines. For that reason, as I said already, it gives me a lot of joy and happiness to be with you this morning on this wonderful celebration.

From Saul to Paul

Our First Reading (Acts 9:1-20) is about the name of your cathedral: the Conversion of Saint Paul. At the beginning of that reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear about Saul, not “Paul”, but “Saul”. Saul was his name before his conversion. In that first line, “Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord Jesus”. So, Saul was someone who was very devoted to his Jewish faith. He was a Pharisee. He was well instructed in the faith. He had a great animosity, even a great hatred for the followers of Jesus.

We didn't hear it this morning, but Saul was present and participated in the first martyrdom in the history of the Catholic Church, the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen (Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59). Saint Stephen, who was stoned to death in Jerusalem. The account of the Acts of the Apostles tells us that those who put Stephen to death laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul (Acts 7:58). That is who we celebrate today. Saul who was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of Jesus. Saul, who was on his way to Damascus to try to find Christians there, to arrest them, and bring them back to Jerusalem. Saul, who was filled with hatred for Jesus? What happened along the road to Damascus? An amazing moment. It was Jesus appears to Saul, and says to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4).

Of course, Saul is filled with astonishment. He doesn't know what is happening. He says, “Who are you Lord?”, and Jesus says, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” At that moment, Saul, the persecutor of the faith, Saul, who hated Christians, becomes an apostle. He becomes a follower of Jesus. He goes into Damascus, and soon after we hear in the reading, he's baptized. Then he becomes a great evangelist, bringing the Catholic faith all over the area of Jerusalem, Judea, and then, as tradition has it, and as history recounts, Paul ended up going to Rome, to bring the Christian faith, to preach about Jesus, also in Rome; and in Rome, Paul himself suffered martyrdom.

We see him beautifully represented in this image in front of me, in his red cloak, which is an indication of his martyrdom. He's holding a sword. Why a sword? Because he was put to death with a sword. He was decapitated. His head was cut off. He was beheaded outside of Rome, where there's a monastery even today. So, Saul became Paul. He was converted.

That is what your Cathedral is named for. This idea of conversion, this idea of change. With God, all things are possible. Sometimes the biggest sinners become the greatest saints. That's what Christian history is all about: conversion. That's the name of your cathedral. How beautiful is that? How wonderful that is? As you keep that idea in mind: the grace of conversion.

No one is beyond the redemptive love of Jesus.

No one is beyond the redemptive love of Jesus. Jesus goes in search of even the ones who hate him, to convert them to Himself. That is what your cathedral is all about, this idea of conversion.

From Sinner to Saint

There's that very famous line from an Irish playwright who was very, very famous in the 19th Century, Oscar Wilde. He has this line, which I want to repeat to you about conversion. He says this, “Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.” What does that mean? He's talking about conversion. Every saint, like Saint Paul, has a past―a moment in the past in which he was converted to Jesus, in which he experienced the love of Jesus, the mercy of Jesus, for him who was a terrible opponent of the Lord. “Every saint has a past” where he was converted, but also “every sinner has a future,” a potential future. Every sinner has a potential future.

There is no one beyond the redemptive reach of Jesus.

Jesus came into the world to reconcile sinners. So, every sinner, everyone today, in 2025, who is distant from the Church, who doesn't know the Lord, who even thinks he knows the Lord and hates the Lord. “Every sinner has a future,” a future of conversion. Because the Lord came to look for those who were lost and even those who hated Him.

When we think about the Conversion of Saul into Paul, you can also remember that maybe Saint Stephen, who was already in heaven, having been martyred, maybe Saint Stephen in heaven was interceding for Saul, and was instrumental from heaven in Saul's conversion to become Paul. So, that is what your Cathedral is all about.

What do we celebrate here? 450 years of conversions. Everyone who is baptized is converted to Jesus. All of us know Christians who call themselves “Born Again Christians”, but all of us as Catholics are born again. We're born again in the baptismal font. We're born again in baptism, to become followers of Jesus. All of us experience conversion again and again. Maybe that is the message.

In the Church there are certainly people who have converted from great lives of sin to great holiness. That is a beautiful witness to the power of the resurrected Jesus; but there's also, most of us, who make little conversions, day by day. Little conversions, step by step, “baby steps”, we can say, of conversion. Trying to love the Lord more deeply, to follow Him more closely, to adore Him more sincerely, every day of our lives. We're all called to conversion, each and every one of us.

Conversion to Christ and Daily Conversion

You know? It's beautiful at this Easter time, the newspapers in Europe and America were filled with the news that many people were converted this Easter to Catholic faith. The highest number in many years in France were baptized into the Catholic faith, this Easter. God is still at work. Jesus is still here, and active. Miracles are happening all around us, if we only have the eyes to see. That's what your Cathedral is all about: 450 years of conversion, 450 years of blessings, 450 years of God's grace. That's why we say “Thank you Lord. Thank you, Saint Paul. Thank you, Mama Mary, for these 450 years.” “Help us remember two things: one, that no sinner is beyond the reach of the Lord.”

We should never count someone out and say “That person is impossible.” “The Lord will never be able to reach that person.” “Every sinner has a future”, a potential future of conversion. Let's remember that. As part of our evangelizing efforts in today's world. Even the people who are distant from the Church, people who don't like the Church, they have a potential conversion. They have a future in front of them, a future of God's grace. Let's remember that.

Let us also remember that we who have already been converted, need to be converted again and again, day by day. That continual conversion that comes from loving the Lord: walking in His steps, seeing Him in our neighbors, seeing Him in the poorest of the poor, seeing Him in people on the peripheries. When we do that, the conversion that we've all already experienced in baptism becomes stronger. It becomes reinforced in our souls. We become filled more and more with the light of Christ that we celebrate during this Easter season, a time of conversion for all of us to love the Lord more and more completely. 

On Pope Francis

As we celebrate this Mass today, in the Second Week after Easter, we celebrate, of course, Easter Week, we think and our thoughts go to Rome, where Saint Paul was martyred, probably in about the year 63-65. We think about Rome today. We think about Rome, which has lost its bishop, our beloved Pope, Francis, who was called to God, as all of you know, on Easter Monday, the day after the resurrection. That single day of the Easter week, in which Pope Francis was called to God.

What a beautiful sign of God's approval on Pope Francis. To bring him to Himself on Easter Monday. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who were praying for Pope Francis in these last months. For the last two months or so, I have been asking everyone here in the Philippines to pray for him.

Remember, about two months ago, Pope Francis was very close to death. He almost died two months ago, but then the entire world started praying. People in the Philippines were praying, people all over the world, and he recovered his health. He was able to leave the hospital, come back to his home in Vatican City, and there, on Easter Sunday, he was still working. He received the Vice President of the United States on Easter Sunday. He went into Saint Peter's Square on Easter Sunday. He said, Happy Easter to all of his beloved people there on Easter Sunday. He drove around the square in the Popemobile on Easter Sunday. Then, less than 24 hours later, he was called to God.

That is really a testament to the power of prayer. That he was able to come home from the hospital, and then greet his people, all of us from Saint Peter's Square in those last hours of his life. What an amazing, incredible witness to the power of prayer.

Pope Francis and the Filipino People

So, we thank God for the gift of Pope Francis. As all of you know, Pope Francis loved the Filipino people very, very much. He came here, as all of you know, in that very famous visit 10 years ago, 2015. That visit left a deep mark on his heart. I know, whenever I was with Pope Francis in these years, he's 12 years when I visited him in Rome, and had meetings with him, he would always remember that visit that he made here through the Philippines.

You know, during those 12 years, he would always ask me, and when I met with him, to ask you, his beloved Filipino people to pray for him. I continue to do that today. We still need to continue to pray for Pope Francis, because we believe, as Catholics, that when we leave this Earth, our passage, our transition into Heavenly Jerusalem, can take some time; and we can be helped when we leave this earth by the prayers of those on earth. So, that's why we pray for those who have died. That is why we offer Masses for those who have died, so we can hasten and help them as they enter into the heavenly kingdom.

So, let's continue to pray for Pope Francis, on this the 450th anniversary of your beautiful parish, your beautiful cathedral, named for the Conversion of Saint Paul.

Let's always remember the love of Our Lady, Mary, the mother of Jesus. It's very interesting, brothers and sisters. Pope Francis is not buried in Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. So, if you go to the Vatican City, and you look for his tomb in Saint Peter's, you won't find it. You have to go across the city to another church named for Our Lady, Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Santa Maria Maggiore. There you'll find Pope Francis near that beautiful image of Mary, who is the salvation and the health of the Roman people. That image in front of which Pope Francis would always pray before he went on his voyages, and would always thank Mary when he got back to Rome. He's buried right there near Mary. So, let's ask Our Lady, in this very special way, to pray for Pope Francis. Let us thank God for the gift of his pontificate. 

Let's also this morning, thank God for the gift of 450 Years of Catholic Life here in your beautiful parish, this wonderful cathedral, Metropolitan Cathedral of the Conversion of Saint Paul.

May God bless you.

Continue to pray for Pope Francis.

Transcribed by Joel V. Ocampo