5There was nothing special about my relationship with the Church in the Philippines. My visits were very infrequent. After I was baptised I didn’t go again till I was twelve. On that occasion I went with Aida and Pedro and his wife for my confirmation ceremony, the third sacrament I had undergone, after baptism and confession.
First confession had been organised by the school. Schools usually call in a priest to meet the third-grade children and take their confessions. I was nine when the priest came to see us and perform this rite. We lined up outside the classroom and the priest sat inside receiving the children one after another. The sins they confessed were what you would expect from children of that age – fairly insignificant, nothing more than ‘Once I lied to the teacher’ or ‘I diso
