The Island’s Filipino community will mark the Philippines’ 116th Independence Day tomorrow with a mass officiated by visiting priest Carlos Macatangga.

Father Macatangga described it as the first Filipino mass to be celebrated on the Island since the community began to flourish in the mid-1970s.

“The word ‘mass’ means thanksgiving, and that’s the primary reason — to give thanks to God,” Fr Macatangga told The Royal Gazette.

“I believe it will be a time to thank God for the Filipino community that is here in Bermuda, and to thank the people of Bermuda for welcoming them.

“Filipinos have been here as a community since 1975 and this will be the first time that they have a mass in our own Filipino language. It will be a spiritual celebration of going back to our roots as a people.”

Fr Macatangga said the Philippines, as the only Roman Catholic nation in Asia, traditionally marked its day of independence from Spanish rule with a religious service.

“It’s a national holiday that always comes with a parade and the laying of wreaths, as well as a mass of thanksgiving.”

The Pastor of Cristo Rei Parish, Fr Macatangga was invited to the Island by Bishop Robert Kurtz, and will co-celebrate the mass with Frs Paul, Julio and Joe.

The event will be held tomorrow at 6.30pm in St Theresa’s Cathedral in Hamilton. It will be followed by a fellowship gathering, with food and drinks, to meet with Fr Carlos.

Evelou Mosley, president of the charity Answering the Cry of the Poor (ANCOP), said the Independence Day Mass had been greeted with “a lot of excitement”.

“We are hoping that employers will let there Filipino staff get off a little early to attend the service,” she said.

“We used to celebrate it with a lot of entertainment but because of the economic crisis we decided to just concentrate on the thanksgiving mass.”

For more information, contact the group Couples for Christ at 799-6659, 534-7476 or 535-7760, or e-mail cfcbermuda@gmail.com.