CICM Philippines

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characterized this zealous missionary during the homily at Bishop Brasseur's golden jubilee as a priest. Born in 1903, Father "Willy" was ordained a priest in 1929 and arrived in the Philippines in 1931, where he worked tirelessly in several missions among the Benguet tribes until on June 20, 1948 when he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of the Mountain Province and ordained a bishop in Baguio Cathedral two months later.

A warm, simple-living, kind and prayerful man, Bishop Brasseur had a dream for the Mountain people which he was able to see come true. His first challenge was to reconstruct the physical plants of the missions, eighty percent of which were destroyed by the war. He established farmers' cooperatives. Under his administration, eight rural hospitals and twenty dispensaries were erected. He established a Catholic school system which now counts thirty-six high schools, twenty-four primary schools, three colleges and one university, prestigious St. Louis University in Baguio City. He also founded the native Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which counts fifty-five professed sisters.

Catholic Education is probably the single most effective factor for change in the Mountain Provinces towards a more Christian mentality and more openness to the modern world. In 1911 Fr Seraphin Devesse, cicm, founded a one room elementary school in Baguio for ten local boys. From this humble origin the Saint Louis School system began. In 1921, the high school was inaugurated. In 1952, college-level courses in the Liberal Arts were offered, and Saint Louis College had its first Rector. In 1955, the graduate-level programs of Saint Louis College were granted recognition, but the real turning point came on 13 May 1963, when Saint Louis College was conferred University status by the Philippine Government. From the one-room Saint Louis School in 1911, Saint Louis University has grown to a six-hectare campus with twenty three buildings and around 90,000 square meters of floor space for more than 25,000 students in 1997. Today, SLU is the largest university north of Manila. It has sustained itself throughout the past 86 years to become one of the top centres of academic excellence in the Philippines that meet international standards in tertiary education. Most of its programs, from the elementary to the graduate level, have received the highest level of accreditation. Saint Louis University now offers 26 post-graduate programs, including Doctor of Medicine and Bachelor of Law, and 64 undergraduate courses in its nine colleges and 59 departments served by more than 700 faculty.

Apart from the Saint Louis University, the CICM Missionaries also run the Saint Mary's University in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, and the Saint Louis College in San Fernando, La Union, and the Saint Louis College in Tuguegarao, in the Cagayan valley, thus covering a major part of Northern Luzon with outstanding educational institutions.

The century long commitment of the CICM Missionaries has produced impressive fruits and major developments for the people of the Mountain Provinces.

Filipino CICM Missionaries in the World Today In the early 1950's, the CICM missionaries in the Philippines decided that it was time to share their charism and missionary vision with Filipino young men. A juniorate for possible candidates for the foreign missions was started. On March 6, 1953, the General Council of the Institute officially erected the CICM novitiate in Baguio City, which opened in May of that same year with eight novices.

Today there are over 150 native Filipino members in the Institute, several of whom have important positions in the administration of the Philippine CICM province and in the formation of novices and candidates. Over eighty Filipino CICM priests are engaged in missionary work in Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Nigeria, Zambia, Mongolia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia.

SOURCE: www.scheutmissions.org/serve/philippi

Permission granted by Fr. Paul E. Staes, cicm through e-mail last 26 February 2001.