THE Philippines ranked third worldwide in 2024 as the nation with the largest Catholic population at 86 million. By contrast, the United States was a distant fourth with 67 million. Brazil tops the list with 105.3 million, followed by Mexico with 91.2 million, according to worldpopulationreview.com as of Jan. 11, 2025.

Catholicism's spread in the Philippines after its introduction by Ferdinand Magellan began with the first Catholic Mass, said to have been celebrated on Leyte's Limasawa Island on March 31, 1521. Since then, and after more than 300 years of Spanish colonial rule, Filipinos have become the bastion of the Catholic faith in this part of the world. Exclamations like 'Por Dios por Santo' (For God's sake) and 'Susmaryosep' (an abbreviation of Jesus, Mary and Joseph), commonly heard from our elders, and expressions like 'Bahala na' ('Bathala na') manifest God's presence in the lives of Filipinos.