On June 30, 1906 a group of Irish and Australian missionaries belonging to the Irish Redemptorist Province arrived in the Philippines. The country had gone through an upheaval following the revolution of 1896, the end of the Spanish colonial rule, the imposition of American rule and the Filipino resistance. The Catholic Church was also going through a crisis brought about by the conflict between the nationalist clergy and the Spanish leadership and religious orders, the withdrawal of the Spanish friars from the parishes, the Aglipayan schism and the influx of American Protestant missionaries. Many of the Catholic faithful were like sheep without shepherds. The Redemptorists were among the new wave of missionaries who came to respond to the urgent pastoral needs of the Philippine Church in a new situation.
During the early years the Redemptorists took care of parishes in Opon, Cebu and in Malate, Manila. By 1913, they started giving missions. Eventually, the missionaries gave up their parishes and concentrated their efforts on the mission apostolate. The missions preserved and revitalized the faith of the people and helped check the expansion of the Aglipayan and Protestant churches in the country.

In 19281 18 the Redemptorist mission in the Philippines was divided into two units. The Redemptorists in Baclaran who belonged to the newly established Australian Province, became responsible for the mission work in Luzon. (The Redemptorist communities that were later founded in Luzon became the Vice-Province of Manila.) The Redemptorists in Cebu and Iloilo were given the responsibility for the mission work in the Visayas and Mindanao. They remained part of the Irish province and composed the Vice-Province of Cebu. Their number gradually increased after the Second World War. Redemptorists communities were established in Tacloban, Bacolod, Davao, Dumaguete, Iligan and Butuan. (Butuan was given over to the diocese in 1980, while Bacolod was also turned over to the diocese in 2009.) These communities were able to expand the mission apostolate in the Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas and Mindanao.

The serious effort to recruit Filipino vocations began after World War II. In the late fifties and early sixties, the number of Filipino Redemptorists started to grow. During this period, they began working side by side with the Irish confreres in the mission apostolate. In the late sixties and early seventies, the Redemptorists began to expand the scope and nature of their apostolic work as a response to the changes in the Church following Vatican II and to the crisis in Philippine society. Parishes were established in Iloilo, Tacloban, Cebu, Dumaguete, Davao and Butuan. Eventually, the building of Basic Christian Communities (later known as Basic Ecclesial Communities) became the pastoral thrust of these parishes. With the active involvement of Redemptorists in the retreat movement, retreat houses were established in Cebu, Iloilo and Bacolod. In order to make use of the mass media as a means of evangelization, the Redemptorists set up a radio station, DYRF, in Cebu. (In 1975 this was turned over to the Society of the Divine Word (S.V.D.) A number of confreres also got involved in social action.

The declaration of Martial Law in 1972 and the setting up of a dictatorial regime brought new challenges to the Redemptorists. The search began for a more relevant method and message for the mission and parish apostolates. The message of justice and liberation was adopted. In 1975, the mission council made two major decisions: 1) the recruitment and training of lay missioners to work with the Redemptorist mission teams, (2) the experimentation in the use of community organizing in the building of Basic Christian Communities in the missions. As a result, longer missions with the involvement of lay missioners developed.

A new mode of conducting popular missions arose when the mission’s time-frame became longer in duration (for more than one year) and there was a need for the missionaries to be fully immersed among the people themselves. Once approved by the Provincial Chapter, this model was given the go-signal for experimentation. The Iligan mission team was renamed the Redemptorist Itinerant Mission Team (RIMT) starting in 1989.

The RIMT is regarded as an alternative way of living the Redemptorist community life. The RIMT has conducted missions across Mindanao and lately, also in Eastern Visayas. Under the government’s dictatorial rule, the Redemptorists exercised their prophetic ministry by preaching explicitly the liberating message of the Gospel and by denouncing the injustices and violations of human rights. The confreres got involved injustice and peace work. The Redemptorist communities, mission teams and parishes were subjected to black propaganda and harassment. Several Redemptorists and seminarians were picked up and detained. In 1985, Fr. Rudy Romano was abducted by military intelligence operatives. Like hundreds of desaparecidos he remains missing. Some parish workers trained during the missions were killed. A Redemptorist justice and peace desk was established. The people’s uprising, highlighted by the Edsa event in 1986, caused the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship and led to changes in Philippine society, especially in the political arena. A liberal democratic government, though elitist, has replaced the dictatorial system. The insurgency abated. However, the basic problems remain: poverty, human rights violations, inequality, graft and corruption and the foreign control of the economy. In response to the new situation, the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP II) was held and this has given the Church a more focused direction. This has challenged us anew to work closely with the local Church.

The Redemptorist churches continue to function as centers of evangelization and devotion, especially to the Mother of Perpetual Help. There are five parishes run by Redemptorists (Cebu, Dumaguete, Tacloban, Iloilo and Davao) and these are considered as permanent missions where Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) are being built and strengthened. The three retreat houses – in Cebu, Iloilo and Bacolod (name the retreat houses) – continue to be centers of on-going formation for the clergy, religious, lay people and other church groups. There are ongoing efforts to coordinate the programs of these three retreat houses under a layperson who is assigned as in-charge. For many years now, the Redemptorist Center for Social and Ecological Concerns (ReCSEC) has coordinated the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) of the different communities across the Province. Based on the pressing needs, two offices have been set up to coordinate the Province-wide programs of the Redemptorist Youth Ministry (RYM) and the new media with the Provincial Communications and Media Office, also known as Redemptorist All-Access Media Ministry (RAMM). These offices are staffed by both Redemptorists and lay partners.
In all these various apostolic undertakings, the Redemptorists work with lay partners.They have become part of the Redemptorist life and apostolate after Vatican II and eventually formed themselves into Redemptorist Lay Cooperators Association (RELCA). RELCA’s history goes back to 1977 when the first gathering of lay partners was organized. To centralize and systematize their initial and ongoing formation the Alphonsian Lay Formation Institute (ALFI) was established.
From being a Vice-Province, Cebu became a Province when its application to change its status was approved by the Generalate in Rome and the official inauguration was done on September 27, 1996. The number of vocations continues to increase. Today, there are more Filipino Redemptorists than Irish confreres. They have begun to assume positions of responsibility in the apostolates, the communities, the various stages of formation, and in the Provincial government.
Meanwhile in the whole congregation, the 25th General Chapter in 2016 put an emphasis on the process of restructuring for mission which was to be implemented throughout the whole Congregation. One of the most important decisions of this General Chapter was to begin the process of union/federation/confederation with other Units under the guidance of the General Government and the Conference Coordinator (c/o the Final Documents of the 25th General Chapter, part 3).
This process was also included at the Conference of Asia-Oceania, since challenges of missionary dynamism, vocations, and leadership are common among many. During the Asia-Oceania Conference Assembly in 2020, the decision was made that the Units of Cebu, Vietnam, Thailand, along with the Region of Korea, would form a new Confederation, named the Confederation of St. Clement. The concept of Confederation is to reserve the autonomy of each Unit, while at the same time, promoting close collaboration and serious commitment in the areas of mission and formation.
The collaboration between Cebu (the oldest unit in the confederation), Vietnam, Thailand, and Korea in terms of mission and formation has had a history spanning over threedecades. In 1991, the Korea Mission was established by confreres from Cebu, Thailand, and a Korean Redemptorist from Campo Grande, Brazil. Students from Korea have been in contact with confreres from Cebu and Thailand in their early initial formation. Cebu and Thailand Provinces started their collaboration of initial formation in a humble way in 1997, with Thai students being sent to study the last years of their theology degree in Davao.

Since then, Davao has gradually become one of the Common Theologates of Asia- Oceania, with confreres from Malaysia-Singapore, Manila, Colombo, Vietnam, and Indonesia joining the Institute. When St. Alphonsus Theologate (SAT) in Davao, became St. Alphonsus Theological and Mission Institute (SATMI), Vietnamese students joined the Institute to be future missionaries in Asia-Oceania, especially in countries with no Redemptorist presence. At this moment, there are Vietnamese confreres working in Laos and Myanmar. The Vietnam Province recently started the Taiwan Mission and will be supported by this Confederation. Lipa Common Novitiate has been where Units of Manila, Cebu, Thailand, Malaysia-Singapore, Oceania, Colombo, and Korea have sent novices since the early 2000’s.

From 1906 to 2024 (when the present Statutes were revised), the Redemptorists of the Province of Cebu moved across the territories of central and southern Philippines. With seven permanent communities and one itinerant community constituted by the present number of Redemptorists, their presence continues to be felt by those who take advantage of the services of our parish churches, shrines, and retreat houses. The mission teams, through more than a hundred years, have penetrated the most isolated villages across the Visayas and Mindanao, touching the lives of tens and thousands of the members of the Church, especially the poor and most abandoned. Responding to the call of the most recent 26th General Chapter, the Redemptorists of the Province of Cebu continue to follow in the footsteps of the Redeemer!