Blue Symphony Auditions

STFAP: The ICTUS Launch!

STFAP: The ICTUS Launch!
June 27, 2010
Aldaba Hall, UP Diliman
3PM
Tickets at P100

Come and join us as we launch ICTUS and it’s project for the Academic Year 2010-2011!

Come and get to know more about ICTUS and its plans for the coming year!

Come and see your ICTUSian friends dance and perform for you!

Proceeds of this event will go to the UP ICTUS SCHOLARSHIP FUND as well as to the funding of all the outreach activities of ICTUS (APOSTOLATES)

For tickets and.or any questions, please contact Hazelle (09163720115) and/or Julian (09063339727) or any ICTUSian

Sexual Abuse and the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Note: This is a reblog from James Martin, SJ. He is culture editor of America magazine and author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. This essay is adapted from a longer post at “In All Things.” This has been published at America and The Huffington Post.

Today Catholics mark the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Permit me a meditation on the Sacred Heart and, believe it or not, the way that this traditional devotion, typically derided as outmoded and old-fashioned, can help the Catholic Church address some of the factors behind the sexual abuse crisis.

(Now some advice for my atheist and agnostic friends: You’ll want to skip the next few paragraphs, because what follows is some heavy-duty Catholic piety that I promise you’re not going to like. )

In the late 1600s in Paray-le-Monial, France, Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation sister, began receiving visions of Jesus. In a series of mystical experiences, Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary, showing her his “Sacred Heart.” Unfortunately, Margaret Mary had a tough time getting anyone in her convent take her or her intimations in prayer seriously. (This if often the lot of the saints in religious orders: no one believes them.)

Close to despair, Margaret Mary heard Jesus in prayer tell her that he would send his “faithful servant and perfect friend.” A short time afterwards, Fr. Claude la Colombière, a French Jesuit on his “tertianship” assignment (the last stage of formal Jesuit training) showed up at her convent to be a spiritual director to the sisters. To the young Jesuit she confided her astonishing experiences in prayer, which Fr. Claude concluded were authentic.

An aside: being the “faithful servant and perfect friend” of Jesus is a good way of expressing the goal of every Christian life. (Perfect Friend is also the title of a now hard-to-find biography of St. Claude by Georges Guitton, first published in 1956, which made a deep impression on me as a Jesuit novice.)

Since then, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been part of the mission and spirituality of the Society of Jesus, aka the Jesuits. But lately the devotion has been viewed by many in as “outmoded” in the post-Vatican II Catholic world. Too many kitschy dime-store paintings of the Sacred Heart, too many cheesy statues where Jesus has a dopey look on his face, seemed to have doomed this devotion to spiritual obscurity and religious irrelevance. But we neglect it at our peril: It is a powerful symbol of the Love of God that needs to be recovered in a world filled with hatred and bitterness. And it can help us as we address a church riven by the scandal of sexual abuse.

But first let me share a favorite contemporary meditation on the Sacred Heart. The first is an essay fromAmerica magazine (later collected in a book on devotions called Awake My Soul) by Christopher Ruddy, a theologian who teaches at Catholic University. Here’s my favorite part:

I did not grow up with any devotion to the Sacred Heart, and it is only in the last few years, as I have struggled with vocation and the demands of family life, that the practice has spoken to my own heart: the fearful heart that paralyzes me when I think of the future, rendering me unable to open myself in trust to God; the cramped heart that refuses to admit my wife and infant son, but clings to my own prerogatives, choosing to watch Peter out of the corner of my eye as I read the morning newspaper rather than get on the floor and play with him; the oblivious heart that holds forth at dinner on the recording history of The Beatles’s Abbey Road, but forgets to ask Deborah how her class went that afternoon. At times like these I wonder, have I really let into my life those I love so much? Have I gone out to them? Are they part of my flesh or merely fellow travelers?

On a particularly difficult afternoon last summer, I took Peter for a walk. We wound up at a church in our neighborhood, and, almost unable to bear the despair and self-loathing that was consuming me, I went in to pray. I lit a candle before Mary for my wife and one for myself before Joseph. Almost accidentally I stopped in front of a wood-carving of the Sacred Heart. Caught somewhere between rage and tears, I looked up at the heart and, for the first time, saw beyond the barbed-wire crown of thorns encircling it, into its gentleness. A prayer rose up in me, “Jesus, give me a bigger heart.” I looked at Peter in shame and in hope, and I went out into the day.

I remain irritable and irritating. I continue to struggle with a stoniness that shuts out so many. I know ever more clearly my deep sinfulness. But in continuing to pray to the Sacred Heart, I have also come to know God’s still deeper mercy. I am strengthened by a heart pierced but unvanquished. I am welcomed by a heart that knows only tenderness and so makes me tender. I look on that pulsing, fleshy heart: courageous and vulnerable, compact and capacious, never one without the other.

The image of the heart of Jesus still has a great deal to teach Christians, Catholics and the Catholic Church today. Especially today — in light of the sexual abuse crisis. To that end, a story.

Yesterday I was speaking with a Jesuit in my community about the idea of Jesus as a joyful person (part of a new book I’m working on). And he said spontaneously, “Oh he must have been!” I was surprised by his utter confidence in this.

“Why do you think so?” I asked.

“Because children wanted to be around him,” he said. “To me that indicates that he was a joyful and gentle person. Children don’t want to be with someone who is an ogre.”

Good point. Not surprisingly — since my friend mentioned children — I was put in mind of the sex abuse crisis. And I started to think about what the Sacred Heart can teach us.

In 2003, soon after the scandals broke in the United States, I participated in a panel discussion, at a large teaching hospital in New York City, on the topic of sexual abuse in the church. The audience was mainly health-care professionals, clergy and several victims of abuse. The panel included several psychologists and psychiatrists. After I gave my talk on what I saw as the causes of the abuse, a psychiatrist outlined the two main characteristics of abusers. (The proceedings were later gathered into a book called Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims.) It was an illuminating presentation that I’ve never forgotten. The two characteristics were narcissism and grandiosity.

The narcissist, said the psychiatrist, does not care how uncomfortable he makes a child — or anyone, for that matter — even if a child expresses or indicates discomfort. That is, an emotionally healthy person would know when another person is feeling uncomfortable. The narcissist does not, and so he persists in his abusive behavior. And, after the abuse is revealed, or the abuser is convicted of a crime, the narcissist personality mainly feels sorry for himself (or herself). Because, as the saying goes, it is all about him.

The abuser with grandiose feelings, the psychiatrist explained, is the “Pied Piper,” the larger-than-life personality, the frequent Lone Ranger, who figures into so many abuse narratives. The person who attracts children into his orbit through the sheer force of his personality. The person in whom parents mistakenly place their trust because of his “gifts” with children. The person whom bishops and religious superiors give a wide berth, or even give a pass, because of his “unique” ministry.

Both of these characteristics — narcissism and grandiosity — are devastating for anyone in ministry. Yet they are the hallmarks, said the psychiatrist, of the abuser. And the priest-abuser.

How much the Sacred Heart still has to teach Catholics — especially today. For narcissism and grandiosity are the opposite of the way that Jesus loved. He did not love to serve himself, nor did he love to be seen as “more than” others. Indeed, he “emptied himself,” as St. Paul said in the Letter to the Philippians. And though Jesus naturally attracted people to himself, it was never to fulfill his own desires for grandiose plans: indeed, he rejected all of those plans in the desert.

The Sacred Heart is not narcissistic and grandiose but selfless and humble. Jesus’s heart is the model for the hearts of all in Christian ministry, and for all who wish to be his “faithful servant and perfect friend.”

May all Catholics and the Catholic Church, with God’s grace, be freed from narcissism and grandiosity. And may the Sacred Heart, this “courageous and vulnerable” love of Jesus, be our goal as we move ahead in a broken church.

The UP Student Chaplaincy Program

NOTE: The UP Chaplaincy from 2003-2008 had this program for the students and faculty of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. As a result of the expansion of the vision of the University in its Centennial Celebrations that ended on 17 December 2008, the service of the Jesuits went beyond the walls of the University into every nook and cranny of the world.  A new mission is now given to us. The succeeding posts endeavors to share the Gospel in a Global University.

VISION: What is the Vision of a Jesuit Youth Chaplaincy?

First, a Student Chaplaincy facilitates the building of a Wisdom Community. The sense of community is “an undergraduate experience that helps students go beyond their own private interest, learn about the world around them, develop a sense of civic and social responsibility, and discover how they as individuals, can contribute to the larger society of which they are a part.” A wisdom community cultivates wisdom learned through conversation, in friendship, in small communities, from and with wisdom figures such as teachers and ministers. Wisdom is an interpersonal endeavor. Wisdom is more than knowledge and skill; it includes values and a grasp of one’s own ultimate meaning. Meaning is where religious tradition becomes relevant to the university’s search for wisdom.

Second, the Student Chaplaincy hopes to contribute constructively to culture. In the dialogue between faith and wisdom, faith makes a contribution to culture and to leadership. The Katipunan Block of UP, Ateneo and Miriam forms future leaders of the Philippines.

Culture tends to overlook the depth dimension of human life and the realm of ultimate meanings. The chaplain and the campus minister can be an instrument for helping an individual to see the relationship between one’s faith commitment and the need to make the culture more human and more Christian. In an increasingly secularized society, campus ministers can alert the culture to its religious roots and help individuals achieve personal integration.

The Student Chaplaincy thus considers several factors for its effective ministry. Ateneo’s campus is metropolitan and public. The university has four student residences or dormitories: Cervini, Eliazo and the newly-constructed North and South University Residences. Ateneans can be classified as residents who live in university-owned housing, and commuters who live outside of the university premises. A commuter is any student who does not live in campus-owned housing.

Each type of student has specific needs. In Ateneo, residents have roommate problems, privacy and financial needs, and specially the freshmen, they struggle with adjustment. Many of them suffer from homesickness. The commuters of Ateneo and UP have mobility problems. Travel presents a stress source. They need a support system in a huge university. They lack independence; they suffer from parental pressure for grades; they have domestic duties; and their parents may not be able to understand the university environment. In addition, the commuter needs to have sense of belonging, that they find a home in the university. Thus friendships and organizations are important to them.

To minister to students, these factors are considered. And thus, the program for the Chaplaincy and the qualifications of Chaplain and mentors should be built around these profiles.

PROGRAM: How does the UP Chaplaincy provide pastoral care to students in UP Diliman?

First, the chaplaincy forms a wisdom community. This community gathers together in one primary event: the Eucharist. Isolation is one of the most commonly described experiences on a university campus. The call to form community based on faith flows from the nature of the gospel itself and offers the real possibility of overcoming differences based on age, roles and social position. The Eucharist is the primary focus for the creation of faith community and a venue for cultural appreciation and development in the Church’s mandate to inculturate our faith. This is also in the spirit of Fr. John P. Delaney SJ who initially formed the community in UP Diliman.

In UP, the primary venue for gathering is the 11:00 AM Sunday mass at the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice. The choirs are composed of students. Lectors, servers, commentators (members of the Student Campus Ministry Group or SCMG) are all students of the university. Sometimes other non-religious groups such as fraternities and sororities, co-curricular organizations serve at mass. Dance Groups such as the UP Filipiniana Dance Group have lent their talents in the mass. Choral groups of international fame such as the UP Concert Chorus and the UP Singing Ambassadors have sung during these masses. Choirs such as the UP Employees, Canto Cinco, Sandiwa, Catholic Students Community Choir, and Koro Emerenciana of student boarders sing regularly in student-sponsored masses at 6pm weekdays and 11 AM Sundays. We have formed Musica Chiesa or Church Music, composed of volunteer musicians from the College of Music. They play every Sunday at 11AM.

Upon the requests of many sectors in UP, masses are held at different areas in the university. At the request of specific groups, the UP Chaplain goes to their areas for masses and blessings. St. Ignatius exhorts Jesuits to go where the need is and where they are. As constitutive of this pastoral sense, we have been able to reach the dormitories, colleges, offices, student organizations and barkadas who request for masses. There are masses held under mango trees (for barkada masses), corners, offices and lobbies of buildings.

Second, the chaplaincy has student-group focus. Club or organizational status gives official recognition to campus ministry. By law, any privilege or benefit given to a college club at a public institution is also offered to campus ministry — especially if there is a lack of institutional support.

Thus, the presence of religious organizations like In-Christ Thrust for University Students (ICTUS), UP-Student Catholic Action (UPSCA), Christian Life Community (UP-CLC), Christ’s Youth in Action (CYA), Youth for Christ (YFC), Musica Chiesa and the Student Campus Ministry Group (SCMG) lend recognition to the presence of the chaplaincy in the university.

Non-Religious Groups also participate in the Chaplaincy. Two specific groups asked the Chaplaincy to provide spiritual guidance and support for its members. Thus, I have become part of their formation. These are the UP Filipiniana Dance Group and the UP Fighting Maroons.

Third, the chaplaincy works with the parish. The parish provides venues for meetings, planning and holding meaningful events. The Delaney Hall has been a venue for the CYA, YFC prayer meetings; organizational and catechetical events and social gatherings. Two organizations that have been present for more than 25 years, ICTUS and UPSCA and the new UP-CLC hold their tambayan or offices within the parish premises.

With this collaboration, the students support parish events such as the Shell-ter Project for the repair of the church’s dome, and provide catechism and tutorials to UP Communities such as UPCLC’s Area 14 & 17. The students also give catechism and tutorials to different areas in the Diocese of Cubao such as Krus na Ligas High School and Balara Elementary School.

Fourth, the chaplaincy involves the larger community through communication media. Traditional communication vehicles such as the Campus Ministry Bulletin board, parish announcements are used to get the support of the larger community of UP.

Posters and Flyers. In the Ignatian principle of cura personalis (personal care), we give items to churchgoers as keepsakes: Christmas Flyers and cards during the Chaplaincy-sponsored Simbanggabi mass, stampitas and bookmarks, and small gift items. We have used radio and television to announce our activities such as our rock concert last February 23, 2007.

Cyber-evangelization. The McCann Erickson survey of 2006 tells us that the young (age 20 and below which comprise 51% of the population of the Philippines) and the youth (age 21 to 39) live virtual lives (ergo, the Internet cafes). They compose the majority of the Chaplaincy’s clientele.

The regular campus ministry newsletter, UP and About, was distributed monthly every 2nd Sunday has evolved today into a website (http://upchaplaincy.wordpress.com), so that it will be read by countless others, at their own time and place.

The website contains weekly news in photos, the Rationale of the UP Chaplaincy (History, Vision, Program, etc.), Feature Articles.

It also contains the monthly schedule of the Chaplaincy, so that those who visit the site will be updated of activities in the Catholic life of students in the university.

The website’s main links has Fr. Jboy’s homilies, daily prayer points based on daily mass readings, done by Patrick Nogoy SJ who is assigned in UP. He updates this site regularly, and is helping students to pray while on the internet.

The website has links for contact information, to all religious organizations and affiliates, and a comment and tagboard for feedback and inter-active comments.

It also contains a 2-minute reflection on video, from Fr. Jboy’s Kape’t Pandasal on ABS-CBN.

Fifth, to make the connection between faith and everyday life, the UP chaplaincy provides faith-sharing activities to help students appropriate their faith. With the help of Jesuit scholastics from Loyola House of Studies and Arrupe International Residence, Execom and Leadership Faith Sharings of ICTUS, UPSCA and UP-CLC are done. The Charismatic communities of the Youth for Christ (YFC) and the Christ’s Youth in Action (CYA) are handled by their own leaders, however talks and catechism is given by the UP Chaplain. As of the moment, I have 9 Jesuits helping me in this program.

Moreover, the Retreat In Daily Life (RDL) was opened for students who would like to deepen their faith in God. The RDL spans 10 weeks. The retreatant regularly sees his/her spiritual director who provides them with prayer points and listens to their progress in prayer. We have two batches of RDL participants each school-year (August – November; December to March).

ICTUS and UPSCA will have their RDLs cut-out for their members. Mark Lopez SJ will handle UPSCA’s RDL and Patrick Nogoy SJ will handle ICTUS. Prayer points will be available at the chaplaincy’s website. Shown is the link for retreat prayer points maintained by Fr. Jboy SJ.

Spiritual Direction for members of organizations (not just those on RDL) are provided for members of ICTUS, UPSCA. CLC’s activities are handled by Fr. Jboy and the team of CLC-Philippines.

The chaplaincy also helps give retreats and recollections to these students, as well as the faculty of UP.

UPSCA at Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila. Faculty and Alumni Retreatants of UP chose between two programs during the Holy Week: a live-in retreat at San Jose Seminary and a live-out retreat with speakers for each day.

Catechism is regularly held in UP for students who volunteered to teach catechesis to different schools. Question-and-answer or Open Forum classes provide students to ask questions about the faith, which they find it difficult to get in UP. There is no religion class offered in the university. This program is called Cat for Cat (Catechism for Catechists). However, the catechism classes are not exclusively for catechists. There are talks cut-out for questions about the faith. The picture shows Fr. Jboy explaining the Eucharist using a video.

Sixth, community-building events are not to be missed. Sports events for Student Catholic Action organizations in Katipunan (AtSCA-Ateneo, PSBA-SCA, and UP-SCA) have been organized. Inter-Chaplaincy sports events and collaborative shows/concerts have been organized.

When mudslides devastated Bicol, the UP Chaplaincy organized a 3-stage relief operation in collaboration with the UP religious organizations, the Bicol-regional organizations, Gawad Kalinga (UP-Ateneo-Miriam) and other volunteer student orgs. This 3-Stage Activity is better at bringing all organizations to work for a cause.

STAGE 1. The month of December 2006-January 2006, we began with immediate collections of relief goods sent via Philippine Airlines to the Diocese of Legaspi.

Stage 1 included an inter-school exhibit to increase awareness. Photos were contributed by UP Bicolano Students who went home for Christmas. The exhibits were displayed at various buildings in UP, then it was transferred to Miriam, and finally to Ateneo before the concert.

STAGE 2: THE CONCERT. On 23 February 2007, we had the rock concert, Sa Bicol Banda: mga banda para sa Bicol, featuring 15 popular rock bands and solo performers in the music industry with the help of the Jesuit Music Ministry and the Rock-Ed.

The pictures show the students who organized the concert, Mr. Noel Cabangon, and Sponge Cola.

STAGE 3: In April 2007, volunteer students and faculty of UP went to Bicol to build houses for the victims with the help of GK UP/Ateneo/Miriam. Transportation for the first 60 UP volunteers was free. (Check out the pictures at our website or my multiply page at http://jboygonzalessj.multiply.com).

Finally, the chaplaincy has a visibility program. This enables the chaplaincy to be really present to students. Requests for blessings, masses, ecumenical events, convocations and meetings are accepted. Dormitory programs such as masses, prayer groups and the recent question-and- answer talk for students with questions about Catholicism at the Kamia Residence were well-received. Bro. Francis Xu-feng SJ and the Aruppe scholastics organized this event.

In addition, the chaplaincy helps coordinate and collaborate with different offices in the university social events such as the UP Maroons basketball games, beauty contests, song writing contests, etc.

The chaplaincy also joins advocacy events such as book drives with the National Book Development Board, environmental advocacy and disaster response. The pictures you see are the families of FIND, Families of Involuntary Disappearance of the College of Social Work and Community Development.

Special Performances are included in the Chaplaincy’s menu of activities. A prayer concert with student musicians was held in December 2006. Marian haranas on September and organizational living rosaries were organized by the Campus Ministry office. Culminating activities for each semester are done through the 2nd Sunday Mass in October (for the 1st semester), the Simbanggabi mass (last day of classes for the Christmas season), and 2nd Sunday of March for the 2nd semester.

Please note that some of these activities can achieve various goals of the Chaplaincy. For example, prayer concerts and performances are spiritual events, community-building events and visibility activities altogether.

Future Plans. Last June 2007, execom members of each organization with the choirs for the student masses met for a planning session at La Mesa. We decided to continue with our 3-year plan again for this year, but we have other exciting activities in store. The choirs have coordinated the songs till May 2008. The list of the songs is posted at our egroups. Musicians have been given guidelines from official Church documents. And mass songs will be arranged by them for vioins 1 & 2, viola, flute, cello and percussions.

After a successful healing concert, Musica Chiesa with the choirs of the Sunday 11 AM Mass will organize a healing concert for children with cancer, orthopedic and UP-PGH in collaboration with the chaplaincy of UP-PGH and UP-Manila (Fr. Richie Elot SJ).

Through these programs, we hope that we will be able to be of service to the students and contribute to their holistic formation. We hope that they will be able to become heroic leaders of the Philippines in the near future.

PARISH VS CHAPLAINCY. What is the difference between the Parish and the Chaplaincy? What distinguishes a parish priest from the chaplain in the university?

The Parish Priest. Canon Law 518 says, “As a general rule, a parish is to be territorial, that is, it embraces all the Christian faithful within a certain territory (Book II, Part II, Title III, Chapter VI Parishes, Pastors and Parochial Vicars). Thus, the parish priest who is in charge of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice in UP Diliman, takes care of the faithful who reside in UP. There are 14 communities in UP, and most of those who reside there are not members of the UP academic community. Within the main university premises are the communities of Pag-Asa, Ricarte, Dagohoy, Palaris, Area 1 & 3, Area 2, Village A and Village B. Along CP Garcia Street are Areas 14 & 17, Area 11, Amorsolo, and Hardin ng Rosas. Near Philcoa are the communities of Arboretum and UP Bliss. Aside from the parish communities, there are churchgoers who attend mass in UP, but are not necessarily from the academic community. The present parish priest of UP Diliman is Fr. Raymond L. Arre of the Diocese of Cubao.

The Chaplain. Canon 564 defines the role of the chaplain: “A chaplain is a priest to whom is entrusted in a stable manner the pastoral care, at least in part, of some community or particular group of the Christian faithful, to be exercised in accord with universal and particular law.” Moreover, the chaplain is given all the faculties that are needed for the proper pastoral care of his flock (Cannon 566) and is “appointed for those who cannot avail themselves of the ordinary care of the pastor because of the condition of life such as migrants, exiles, refugees, nomads, sailors, etc. (Cannon 568).” Thus, chaplaincies are set-up for special people who does not reside in the territory but need personal care. The Jesuits have chaplaincies in Muntinlupa for prisoners (Jesuit Prison Service), for the sick (Philippine General Hospital and Culion Leper Sanitarium), for sailors (Apostolate of the Sea in Cebu City), migrants (Pastoral Ministry for Overseas Workers) and lumads. As Fr. John Patrick Delaney SJ was assigned to the UP community who had just transferred from Manila to Diliman, Fr. Jboy Gonzales SJ is assigned to give pastoral care to the students whose needs vary from permanent residents.

The Campus Minister. The Catholic Church defines for those working within the university the role of ministers including the Chaplain and the Campus Minister like Sr. Sonia Aldeguer RSCJ: “Since a true education must strive for the integral formation of the human person, a formation which looks toward the person’s final end, and at the same time toward the common good of societies, children and young people are to be reared that they can develop harmoniously their physical, moral and intellectual talents, that they acquire a more perfect sense of responsibility and a correct use of freedom, and that they be educated for active participation in social life (Can 795).” And thus, the Church directs the diocesan bishop (who is Most Rev. Honesto Ongtioco of the Diocese of Cubao) “to have serious pastoral concern for students by erecting a parish for them or by assigning a priest for this purpose on a stable basis; he is also to provide for Catholic university centers at universities, even non-Catholic ones [such as UP], to give assistance, to young people (Can 813).” It is important to note that ‘young people’ here means all of them regardless of religion.

When we look at the Catholic community in UP, the Church has shown her concern and love for each member who come to deepen their lives of faith. It has explicitly assigned people to care for specific groups including those who are not enrolled or are employed in the university. The work of charity is different from legalism. Fr. Raymond, Sr. Sonia rscj, and Fr. Jboy SJ, including the parish and student religious organizations like UPSCA, ICTUS, YFC, CYA, CLC and the SCMG (Student Campus Ministry Group who serves at mass) who take on the same work as ours, work together for the UP community in general. The ministers collaborate with the academic administration and government officials for the whole community of UP, residents or transients. Hopefully, we may be able to help in the formation of all for the sake of our country, and in a wider sense, for humanity.

History of the UP Student Chaplaincy

HISTORY

FLYING SAUCER OF A CHURCH
Narita M. Gonzalez*

Since its construction almost 50 years ago, the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, has remained pretty much the same.

There are 14 entrances that remain open all the time. Prominently, above the altar, the huge crucifix still hangs. The wooden pews follow the curve of the communion rail. Their years of use account for many broken armrests; but there is no doubt that those pews do still work.

Nothing has been done to alter the structure of the building, but there have been changes inside the chapel. A little to the right of the sacristy is a section that used to be a mortuary. Now, it is where the Blessed Sacrament is installed, with air conditioning and wall-to-wall carpeting. You leave your shoes outside and enter the room barefoot. There are no seats at all. But there are many throw pillows to sit on when one is tired from kneeling on the floor.

It is on the grounds where you find spectacular changes. These are no longer as austere as these might have seemed to many, being now abounding with flowering plants. With this landscape, the current pastor, Msgr. Bayani Valenzuela, surprised everyone. While designed to be welcoming to everyone, the chapel and its grounds have to be protected from desecration. Hence, a fence, simply designed and elegant. The gates are locked up at night; when the worshippers come at six in the morning, the gates are opened again.

The grounds have become a favorite of photographers, professional as well as amateurs; what with nine masses on Sundays, for instance, where families come in drove, and children love playing around, their smiling faces always a boon to those cameras close by.

Best artists

One distinction of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice is often overlooked, though. And it is this: it is the only parish church in Metro Manila and, probably, in the entire country, into whose design and construction the country’s best artists have contributed.

To begin with, the design was that of the late Leandro Locsin. The ‘river of life’ lined in marble on the floor, in masses of black and white, gracefully flowing from out of the altar circle at the center, is the work of Arturo Luz. The ‘double’ crucifix — for Christ is represented here both as the traditional figure as well as priest — is the work of Napoleon Abueva. Vicente Manansala painted the Stations of the Cross, adding a 15th panel representing the Resurrection.

The chapel can truly claim to have provided the occasion for four of the country’s most outstanding artists to leave us lasting legacies of their genius. And they worked at a time when no notion of national honors was in anyone’s mind. Three of them have since been awarded the title National Artist.

Who built the chapel of the Holy Sacrifice? This is the question frequently asked, and the best answer of course, is the simplest one — the UP Diliman community or, to be rather persnickety, the Catholics round and about. Neither answer would be correct, of course. For convenience, people simply attributed the entire project to the man who made it possible, Fr. John Patrick Delaney, SJ. That person, people will say, virtually moved heaven and earth to bring Christ to Diliman — that is, the campus of the University of the Philippines.

Godless

The university has always been thought of as a ‘godless one.’ For this reason, Fr. Delaney had been very unpopular with those who thought that God has no place in an academic world like the “Republic of Diliman.” He proved them wrong.

Fr. Delaney was already UP Chaplain when the old campus moved from Manila to Diliman in 1949. The new campus was all of 493 hectares, in stark contrast to the one block campus in Ermita. The Manila campus was bounded by Taft Avenue, Isaac Peral (now, UN Avenue), Florida (now, Maria V. Orosa), and Padre Faura Streets. The new campus seemed so far away from Manila and civilization.

The move was not popular with many. Those who chose to follow their beloved UP found a tree-less,talahib-covered countryside. Their homes would be made of sawali and bamboo. There would be the letter T before the house numbers. T meant temporary.

Only two permanent buildings made of concrete existed then, those of the College of Law and the College of Education. The houses that were habitable at this time were the ones to found in Areas 1,2,3 and 5. Farther away were Areas 14 and 17.

Area 1 was favored by deans and professors, among these, Dean Patrocinio Valenzuela, Prof. Nicolas Zafra, Dean Ignacio Salcedo, Prof. Antonio Abad, Dean Julita Sotejo, Dean Presentacion Perez, Prof Ramon Portugal, Prof. Arturo Guerrero, Dean Antonio Baguio, Prof. Jose Uichanco, Prof. Agustin Rodolfo, Prof. Gabriel Bernardo, Prof. Priscila Manalang, and instructors, such as Ceferina Cayabyab, Nieves Dayrit, Agustin Cailao, Esperanza Limcauco and Ligaya Fernandez. The sawali houses were old but very spacious. Most students boarded with these families.

Bamboo house

In the middle of this vast track of land stood an old dilapidated building made of sawali and bamboo. The chapel of a US Army detachment used to occupy the grounds. The building later became a stable.

It was at this state when Father Delaney saw the possibilities for the worn-out structure. With the help of the volunteers, he had the crumbling construction repaired and fixed up a portion for a sacristy. He did not have a bedroom then.

But Fr. Delaney did not lack for volunteers. Professors, employees, students, housewives and their children were all drawn to this tall, gaunt man of the cloth who was making the bamboo construction, humble though it was, their house of God and worship.

One day a visitor from Manila came by. He saw some boys and young men working earnestly and said to himself that he had never before seen so well-dressed, diligent janitors. Quick to correct the impression Father Delaney said, “They are college students, instructors, and young professors. They have taken it upon themselves to help me keep the chapel from destruction.”

The little old brown chapel was, indeed, giving way to the elements. Here the lessons of love of Christ and love of the Holy Sacrifice were being learned, and despite the loving care now being given it, the building yielded to the sun, wind and rain.

This was in the days when women customarily wore veils to church. Those veils were never thick enough when the sun was up and heat poured in from the high open windows. On rainy days the roof leaked; when Mass was in progress, only self-control kept parishioners from opening their umbrellas.

The chapel was truly old, and it was becoming too small for the fast-growing community. Protestants and for a short time, Aglipayans, too, shared the chapel with the Diliman Catholics.

Before long, the Protestants were able to build a church of their own, in Area 1, known today as the Church of the Risen Lord.

Passes

Father Delaney and his old chapel attracted people from all over. The Misa de Gallo became popular. Outsiders crowded out UP parishioners. When passes were issued to churchgoers to ensure them seats, a professor (one of those known to rarely go to church anyway) was heard to say: “So you need passports now to enter the church!”

Certainly, innovations were well on their way. In this old church were lessons about the Holy Mass, family life, faith and sacrifice started, Father Delaney would concentrate on the participation of the congregation. Already he had celebrated Mass by facing the congregation; this before it became the practice in other churches. This manner of celebration allowed Father Delaney to spot who in the congregation was passive and sleepy, or as in the case of many women, those who preferred to say the rosary while the Mass was in progress.

Fr. Delaney insisted that communion was part of the mass. Soon families were occupying entire pews. At communion time, parents and older children trooped to the communion rail and received the host. Instead of jostling for position to receive the host ahead of others, communicants observed order and solemnity during the entire ritual.

Latin was still used then; it was the language children learned their prayers in. The Pater Noster became a favorite. Visiting on a Sunday, Cardinal Gilroy once told Fr. Delaney, “Your parishioners are well-versed in Latin!”

How did Father Delaney fare in the sawali chapel that had no kitchen? He had to eat out, and, literally, had to determine where his breakfast, lunch or dinner would be.

Only a few Diliman families owned cars in the 50’s; Father Delaney himself did not have one. He had to walk, rain or shine, to the home where he was to have his meal. Most often, his host would fetch him and they’d walk away together.

One day, it became known on the campus that Fr. Delaney was found of spaghetti, so spaghetti it was for many meal; some housewives learned to make their own hams; so it was ham for many a dinner, especially during the Christmas season. Father Delaney never complained.

Families

Meals with him were happy experiences for families and even the household help. Family life was the favorite topic at the table. Asked by working mothers about how important the care of children was, (many UP couples had four, six, eight or even a dozen children), Father Delaney surprised them how yet more important their husbands were. Husbands and wives should not retire for the night without resolving conflicts, and that ‘vigilance’ was part of the ‘care and feeding’ of husbands.

Many were touched by the sincerity of this man of God, their first close contact with a priest who happened to be a Jesuit and an American. Students flocked to his lectures on love, courtship and marriage. As a retreat master, he had no equal. As friend and counselor, he was always there when needed.

A friend now in America remembers fondly how he and Raymond Gough SJ, had acted as chaperons for UP Manila nursing students so that they could attend a Diliman Mardi Gras. To somebody who needed a plane ticket he gave the required amount without question. To a newly wed who did not have a bed, Father Delaney readily gave away his own.

There were of course close friends who saw to it that Father’s own needs were provided for. These were rather few. He did smoke through, and his one particular ‘whim’ if a whim it was, was to wear a freshly-ironed sutana every day to mass.

Many vocations were fostered and nurtured during his stay at UP. Young instructors entered seminaries and convents, the Cenacle sisters drew postulants from the UPSCAns (UP-Student Catholic Action). Idealistic UP young men and women found warm welcome in the Medical Mission, the Good Shepherd, and St. Pauls. The Jesuit Seminary in Novaliches also took a number of young men.

Rich Harvest

The community certainly did well by that old sawali chapel, whose priest centered his every effort on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This is the core of one’s faith, he reiterated; and one’s faith did not stop at the church’s door. He took it home with him, and carried it over to his workplace and neighborhood.

Father Delaney knew that the sawali chapel had served his purpose. He had also come to know personally almost all his parishioners. He awakened the faith in some and renewed it in others. He had come to have a good idea of their cooperativeness and then generosity. The time had come to plan with the community towards a permanent structure, a house of God which the Catholic Diliman community should build and be proud of.

One evening, during one of those scheduled meals in Area 17, in the home of the Abueva brothers — Billy, Teddy and Pepe — Father Delaney met an architect. It was quite a fortuitous event. The architect was Leandro Locsin, who was only 26 that time.

Billy and Lindy

Thirty years later, Pepe Abueva would be UP President, and Billy a National Artist, an honor Leandro Locsin would also win for himself.

“I was the architect Father Delaney was looking for,” Locsin would recall that evening.

The concept of a church-in-the-round was exactly what Father Delaney wanted. The priest must be close to his parishioners as the Mass is celebrated. With the altar in the center of the church and the communion rail around it, a oneness between the celebrating priest and the communicants could be achieved. In most churches, people at the back pews could hardly view the celebrant. A church-in-the-round would bring them closer to the altar than had been possible.

Locsin presented a model of his church to Father Delaney. One afternoon, after cleaning up the old chapel, counting host for the next Mass and like chores, Father Delaney called in some ‘sacristines’ and his two favorite grade school volunteers, Evelyn Lesaca and Selma Gonzalez. Not too long ago, he’d give the two girls paper dolls, or, with one hanging only his arm, he’d lift them off the ground, they were that light. Little did he know that they might have something to say about the model of church-on-the-round.

Like the sacristines, the two girls thought the church-in-the-round was a far-fetched dream. “A flying saucer of a church though” was the way the girls described it, to tease Father Delaney. They had been so used to the sawali chapel and had been comfortable with it, but now there was this dome model, suggesting a church that not only would look big, solid, and permanent but would also cost a great amount of money.

That was a kind of practicality that had interesting developments. As construction details were finalized and even as the fund-raising started in earnest, Father Delaney declined big donations and offers of that scale from wealthy people and corporations.

“This is your church,” a Diliman resident remembers Father Delaney emphasizing to the community. “Help build it. Give till it hurts,” he exhorted the congregation.

That, in fact, became the battle cry of the fund-raising campaign. Sorority sisters, bless them, contributed money they would have spent for their ball gowns for sorority dances. Students gave up their movie and merienda allowances. A young sixth grader, upon receiving his wages as a movie extra, passed on all his earnings to church-building fund. He later became the first young man who grew up on campus to become a member of the Society of Jesus.

Several young professionals and college instructors, calling themselves, ‘the suicide squad’ made a hefty collection from their earnings: the sacrifice truly hurt.

Other modes of fund-raising evolved. Plays were staged, concerts like the one conducted by Maestro Antonio Molina were performed before enthusiastic captive audiences. Cholang Lorenzo and Bella Manalo, College of Liberal Arts faculty, discovered their impresario and directing talents. They gathered a cast from among the college faculty and called one and all to rehearsals no matter how tight their teaching schedules were. Their efforts would see fruition as a musical to be embarrassedly billed, “Faculty Follies.”

Before the work on the church-in-the-round could begin, Father Delaney had wanted a ‘spiritual foundation’ for it. This the Diliman community gave him. One thousand churchgoers — students, young and old, professionals, deans and faculty members, and academic personnel and employees of the University — had made a pledge: they would attend Mass daily until the chapel was built. The names of these one thousand faithful were written on a scroll.

During the ground-breaking ceremony, the scroll was buried in the spot where the altar now stands. There was also a campaign for bottles of all kinds and sizes; there were ground and the bits and pieces mixed with the cement; the material was for the dome. The pouring of the cement for the dome was attended by some drama.

The procedure required specific weather conditions, so Father Delaney led the community in special prayers ‘for a gentle shower’ on the day of cement-pouring. This would forestall a quick-drying mixture, which could later cause the cemented rook to crack.

Shower

On the day set for the pouring, the skies began to darken. There was much anxiety all around. Only when a gentle shower began to fall was everyone relieved, Architect Leandro Locsin most of all. This was the first thin-shelled concrete dome ever made. The expert help he had from Prof. Alfredo Juinio, David Consunji, and other UP engineers had been invaluable, but what if the weather had been different?

In any case, the Diliman parishioners believed that their prayers had been answered. In fact, Abe de Berthume, the authority on Liturgical Art and Architecture would late make the observation, in 1956, that the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice was ‘the finest example of modern church architecture.”

Sculptor Napolean Abueva, and painters Arturo Luz and Vicente Manansala, in constant consultation with Father Delaney, began work on the interior. To this day, their works are in excellent condition. Quite apart from being components of daily worship and Catholic life at UP Diliman, they remain works of art.

The marble altar stands solidly in the center of the church. There used to be a device which, at the press of a button, brought out from beneath the top of the altar table and ciborium and chalice; but when the electrical shortages began to occur too frequently its use had to be discontinued.

The altar area, in any case, is so designed to show the source of the ‘river of life,’ rendered by Arturo Luz in the form of black, white, and gray sparkled marble overlay flowing toward the three entrances of the church. A fourth leads to the sacristy.

Flow

The idea of the flow is pursued by Arturo Luz though his design of the individual pew itself, which conforms with the circular communion rail, and in their alignment in relation to the altar, unmistakably creating the impression of worship radiating from the altar.

Over the wall hangs from the high dome ceiling the crucifix of Christ Crucified and Christ Resurrected. It was in his Area 17 studio where Napoleon Abueva carved the two figures. The placement of the crucifix, up above the plain marble altar standing on the sourcebed of the rivers of life, is to Father Delaney, the Eucharistic scene in its entirety. No other altar decorations, no buloloys of worship, as saying goes, are necessary.

There was a time in the ‘50s when even the manangs objected to flowers or decorative plants on the altar remembering Father Delaney saying that cutting flowers is like “cutting the heads of the children.”

The austerity made for a fuller and more compelling concentration on the celebration of the Mass. In this context might also be placed Father Delaney’s idea to keep the sacred statues and icons in the sacristy, to be brought out only on special days, as when a saint is honored on his or her feast day.

Mention has been made of the fact that the church has no doors but only entrances, and 14 of them. Father Delaney meant the open chapel to welcome anyone, any time. Here one may pray and meditate beneath the airy and quiet dome. It is only today that fanatics, non-believers — and even lovers thinking of using the chapel their trysting place — the iron fence has been built and the gate locked at stipulated hours.

Father Delaney had wanted stark simplicity around the altar. But for the panels between the entrances he wanted color and bigness. For the perspective, the murals of Vicente Manansala — his 14 Stations of the Cross — reflect the idea. His figures are larger than life and rich colors fill the panels from top to bottom. Manansala, yet, gave more fullness with his 15th panel: The Resurrection. Parishioners then and now, take these painting for granted for the most part. Who would remember, for example, that barriers had been placed in from of panels three times. The present ones are waist high to keep one from jumping over the barrier or leaning on the wall.

Indeed, quite frequently, the church is crowded. Most parishioners are not too aware perhaps of how valuable the murals are. They are a national treasure and, as assets of the church, simply priceless.

Impossible

Fr. John Patrick Delaney SJ has succeeded indeed in bringing Christ to UP Diliman. He has masterminded the building of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice which, in their innocence, two young girls had thought to be a flying saucer and, as a church, perhaps impossible to build. It turned out to be an excellent liturgical architecture and is, today, beloved — much beloved, indeed. One has only to see it rise from the dome stands against the sky.

The church-in-the-round project might have just been too much for Father Delaney’s heart — which, in a literal sense, was already hurting. In quite a different context, he had been branded as an alien priest.

Although Irish by birth, he was an American citizen, he would say. “But I am a Filipino by choice,” he would add. On being accused as alien, he answered the remark that has since become famous: “How much more of myself must I give,” he said, “before I can become one of you?”

He died on January 12, 1956, in Baguio, where he had been sent to recuperate. The tears shed by hundreds and hundreds who mourned him were verily like the gentle shower that helped the cement roofing of the dome set slowly but surely.

For a long time, a cloud of grief continued to hover over the UP community.

Father Delaney was a most unusual man of the cloth, dearly beloved by those who knew him personally — for his austere ways, his concern and friendliness for all, and his complete dedication to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

*Mrs. Narita Gonzalez is the wife of NVM Gonzalez. She wrote this article for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 11, 1995. I found it best to introduce the UP Chaplaincy again by telling you the history of the Chaplaincy and the Church of the Holy Sacrifice from an eye-witness – the way the evangelists tell us about Jesus in the Gospel.

**Napoleon Abueva’s altars are featured. Abueva’s Cross is the icon for the profiles. Manansala’s paintings are all-over the blogs.

*** Since this article was written in 1995, Arturo Luz was not yet mentioned. Arturo Luz was awarded National Artist for the Visual Arts in 1997.