Xavier, dela Costa, Arrupe, Banaynal, Barredo

Antonio Montalvan II

IN the right transept of the Basilica of Bom Jesus in the Portuguese center of the city in India known as Goa lies the incorrupt body of the man known to Goans as Goencho Saib (Lord of Goa). Born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta, he died on Dec. 3, 1552 at Shangchuan Island near what is now Hongkong while waiting for a boat that would have taken him to Mainland China. Buoyed by his Japan missions, it was his dream to evangelize China. Fate had dictated otherwise. He was first buried on the beach of that island then was brought to Portuguese Malacca in the Malay Peninsula in 1553. He was eventually brought home to India where he had labored and converted an estimate of 30,000. Initially, the miraculously mummified body was exposed for all to touch and see. In 1554 an overzealous worshipper reportedly bit off the pinky toe of his right foot, which then purportedly gushed blood as if from a living body. In 1622, only three years after his 1619 beatification, Pope Gregory XV canonized him as Saint Francis Xavier.

The right forearm that Francis Xavier used to bless and baptize his converts had previously been ordered detached by Jesuit Superior General Claudius Acquaviva in 1614. It has been displayed since in a silver reliquary at the main Jesuit church of the Il Gesù in Rome. On Aug. 22, 1949, Francis Xavier’s arm was in the town of Cagayan de Misamis and was reserved for public veneration at the Ateneo de Cagayan. Records from the Archives of the Jesuit Philippine Province in Manila relate how the relic was met at the airport by then Bishop James Hayes, and then borne in a public procession around the crowd-filled streets of town from a top-down open white Buick convertible. At the Ateneo gym, cadets formed an honor guard as the public had kept vigil to pray before the remains of the Jesuit saint considered one of the greatest saints after St. Paul.

This exceptional event happened 70 years ago. Interpretation of significant historical events evokes meaning and relevance for contemporary times. Commemorations, for instance, can remind a living illumination of the historical record. One fine example was the Mindanao commemoration on Dec. 28, 1964 of the sesquicentennial (150^th) of the 1814 restoration of the Jesuits (after their 1773 suppression). The memorial of that zeitgeist in world history was graced by the presence of the then Jesuit Provincial Superior who now goes by the illustrious name in Filipino scholarship, Horacio dela Costa. Dela Costa arrived simply at Lumbia airport garbed in his white sotana, his left hand clutching a small travelling bag. XU Rector Fr. Cornelius Quirke SJ met him at the tarmac. All Jesuit missionaries assigned in rural Mindanao, including those laboring in the desolate boondocks, gathered at the university chapel for a mass offered by the great dela Costa.

We weigh a place with its historical significance when its very existence is under grave threat of demolition, as in the case of plans to sell the campuses of the XU Ateneo de Cagayan. Why is that? When an official national historical marker of the state is installed, the text is carefully composed to include events that had transpired in that place. Events specially bear on historicity because persons and events establish actuality and factuality as opposed to myths and fiction. A national marker for XU can possibly mention, for instance, that Ramon Magsaysay was at Lucas Hall when he was president, talking to students of the Ateneo de Cagayan with Fr. Rector Andrew Cervini SJ by his side.

On July 30, 1981, the so-called Black Pope visited XU, at that time the Basque Pedro Arrupe. The name “Black Pope” is a nickname of urban legend proportion given to the superior general of the Society of Jesus who wears a black robe in contrast to the pope’s white robes (hence the current general Arturo Sosa Abascal of Venezuela has said: “I do not like being called Black Pope”). One event in Arrupe’s schedule was the groundbreaking of the new building for the college of engineering where he was to lower a time capsule containing the names of XU’s pioneer engineering students. One of those names was Jose Hildy Banaynal of Wa-o, Lanao del Sur who became a licensed civil engineer. Banaynal later entered the Jesuits in 1989 and was ordained priest in 1999. A missionary for the past 25 years, he currently serves as curate of St. John the Apostle parish in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Also with him when he entered the Jesuits was the electrical engineer Earl Barredo, a native of Puntod, Cagayan de Oro city now assigned as assistant headmaster of Ateneo de Manila grade school.

“I trust the wisdom of the Jesuits,” one alumni begged neutrality. But Jesuits themselves have expressed opposition to the sale. The alumnus Fr. Jose Banaynal SJ for one: “I think of the important historical presence of the mission of the church in education in the heart of the city. It is the soul of the city. Condos and malls may be the trend, but cultural and historical value is priceless.” History as collective memory can result in profundity – how deeply people’s lives were affected by it. Events of history cannot be brushed aside as to obliterate the historical record.

An entreaty for discernment has also come from the Jesuit Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro Antonio Ledesma who has released an official statement that was the product of listening to various sectors of stakeholders. His statement strikes attention: “XU is selling land as if it was selling raw land inasmuch as the very functional buildings will be demolished for the new commercial and condo complex. Financially, XU is giving up so much to relocate at Manresa. It is giving up much more than what could be gained from this transaction. Is this financial cost for XU worth it?” The archbishop has counted 16 functional buildings to be demolished under the plan. One of those is the School of Business Management and its state of the art audiovisual-equipped amphitheater lecture halls. It was in one of those rooms that I had surprised my graduate students in history one day, telling them to expect a guest. The class erupted in applause when came in the Fukuoka Prize awardee national historian and intellectual Ambeth Ocampo who gave the class an exposition of his latest research at Kyoto University.

Imagine if all that history will just be consigned to crass commercialism in the form of malls and condominiums. Malls and condos certainly have a place in development. But some things just cannot be converted to cash because their value goes beyond that. Desecrate that value and it will be a point of no return.

(Antonio J. Montalván II is a social anthropologist known for being vocal against corruption in government, human rights abuses, and matters involving indigenous peoples.)