Mindanao gave birth to the original Church of the Poor in the Philippines, a Church that has managed to remain prophetic and engaged in social issues. New pastoral ministries were also first initiated in Mindanao including work with the Lumad, Inter-Religious Dialogue (IRD) and Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC). Many of these initiatives were undertaken by women and men religious, including the diocesan priests and laypeople, who we are at the cutting edge of Church's pastoral programs that reached out to the poor and powerless. However, as a group, it was the religious – especially the religious women - who were most active in these prophetic initiatives.
Through the last four decades, a number of women and men religious in Mindanao made the option to be engaged in these ministries. These engagements began years before Marcos declared martial law, deepened during the height of the dictatorship and took on new vigor just before the rise of the third millennium.