About a year ago, on May 9, 2016, the Filipino people–or at least, 16 million of them, about 39 percent of the electorate–entrusted our nation to a strange shepherd. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte came to power promising to protect the innocent by spilling the blood of the guilty: criminals, especially…
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Homily from the Mass on the First Anniversary of the Death of Fr. John J. Carroll, SJ by Fr. Chester Yacub, SJ 16 July 2015 Walter Hogan Conference Hall I do not know if you are aware of the movie The Fault in Our Stars, or if you have watched the movie, or…
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I never had the chance to see Nelson Mandela in person. But I have experienced what is, I suppose, the next best thing. I have listened to Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak. Ten years ago, Tutu was invited to deliver the keynote address for a peace conference at the Kroc Institute…
Leave a CommentYes, I am still an American citizen, waiting these many years for permanent-resident status as a step toward Philippine citizenship. I follow American political developments, although not as closely as those of my adopted country. Yes, I have a ballot for the upcoming US presidential election, and I shall send…
Leave a CommentSeptember 23, 1972, was a Saturday. But at St. Theresa’s College Quezon City (STCQC), we were at school to make up for unplanned holidays owed to typhoons and mass protests. The lesson we got was unplanned, too. Scrawled on the blackboards were the words “Martial law has been declared.” Proclamation…
Leave a CommentNew York City, Sept. 11, 2001, 8:51 a.m. The usually urbane voice of WNYC’s news anchor rang with rare urgency. A plane had flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The roof of our Brooklyn apartment building looked out at Lower Manhattan, just across the East River.…
Leave a CommentSadness and satisfaction. Two feelings struggle within me as our institute turns over the feeding program at Nazareno Chapel in Payatas to the local parish. Sadness because it means closing the book on our earliest social program there, one that has occupied my time and attention for some 25 years.…
Leave a CommentThe community of Loyola House of Studies was gathering for a special outdoor supper when we were shocked into silence by the booming of a great bell in the tower over our heads, tolling slowly the nine rings of “De Profundis,” the Church’s prayer for the dead. Fr. Francisco Montecastro…
Leave a CommentMy friend John Gibson graduated from high school in 1942, as the United States was throwing itself into World War II. He thought of entering the Jesuits, but his parents objected—fearing that he might be sent as a missionary to the far-off Philippines. John was not sure either about his…
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Camino Ignaciano — St. Ignatius’ way
I am a pilgrim. Along with friends from the Christian Life Community of the Philippines and with guidance from P. Josep Lluís Iriberri, SJ, I recently walked a hundred kilometers to do the Camino Ignaciano in 10 days. Following the footsteps of St. Ignatius of Loyola, we walked around the…