POPE BENEDICT XVI has been invited to come to the Philippines in 2011 for the 400th anniversary of the University of Santo Tomas.

Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, OP, rector of UST, said in the website of the Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) that the university is eyeing to invite the Pope for its quadricentennial celebrations in 2011.

?We are hopeful that the Holy Father will visit the Philippines and UST three years from now,? he said.

Last May, the CBCP president, Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo, said he and Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales sent a letter to the Vatican inviting Pope Benedict XVI to visit the country. The invitation was declined due to the Pope?s other commitments.

De la Rosa expressed optimism that the Pontiff will visit Manila to grace the celebrations, citing the fact that UST is a pontifical university under the authority of the Vatican. It is also one of the oldest and largest Catholic universities in the world.

He noted that every time a Pope visits the Philippines, a tour of the UST is always on his itinerary.

The university, now under its 397th year of existence, holds three titles: ?Royal? granted by King Charles III of Spain in 1785, ?Pontifical? bestowed by Pope Leo XIII on Sept. 17, 1902, and ?The Catholic University of the Philippines? conferred by Pope Pius XII in 1947.

The last Pope to visit the country, the only Catholic country in Asia, was Pope John Paul II in 1995 for the World Youth Day. During his Manila sojourn, the Pope also visited the UST.