GUAGUA, PAMPANGA – President Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday joined her kabalen (province mates) in honoring the late Rufino Cardinal Santos, the first Filipino cardinal, during rites celebrating his 100th birth anniversary here.

Ms Arroyo attended Mass officiated by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, Kapampangan Bishops Roberto Mallari, Pablo Virgilio David, Florentino Cinense, Teodoro Bacani and Sengson Bagio, and 15 priests.

At the front pew, Ms Arroyo was a seat away from Gov. Eddie Panlilio. Dr. Arlyn Villanueva, president of the Holy Angel University, the co-organizer of the event, sat in between the two officials.

Panlilio was seated next to Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo.

Ms Arroyo and Panlilio exchanged nods during the peace offering. The young Arroyo and Panlilio shook hands.

Born to a father who was a farm overseer and a mother with Chinese ancestry, Santos grew up in a house located 30 meters from what is now the Immaculate Conception Parish, the venue of the centennial event.

He entered the San Carlos Seminary in 1921, finished Canon Law in 1929, completed his doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1931 and was ordained into the priesthood on Oct. 25 that same year.

Savior

Rosales said Santos saved the life of Manila Archbishop Michael O’Doherty by admitting to the Japanese Army that it was he, as a secretary of the archbishop, who donated food to the poor, including Filipino guerrillas.

Refusing to collaborate with the Japanese Army, Santos was sentenced to death but was plucked out by American liberation forces on the night of his execution.

Succeeding O’Doherty and Archbishop Gabriel Reyes, Santos became archbishop of Manila in 1953 at the age of 45. He led the reconstruction of the archdiocese and of the war-damaged Manila Cathedral.

He founded the Catholic charities (now known as Caritas Manila), led the reconstruction of St. Paul Hospital (now the Cardinal Santos Medical Center), re-instituted the Philippine Trust Company and the Catholic Travel Office, founded the Radio Veritas and built the Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary.

First cardinal

Pope John XXIII made Santos a cardinal on March 31, 1960, the first Filipino to become so after 400 years of Christianity in the Philippines.

What was not known to many, Rosales said, is that Santos was a diabetic and that he suffered from a malignant brain tumor.

Cebu’s Ricardo Cardinal Vidal sent a message hailing the day as a milestone in the history of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.

Aniceto urged the faithful to live by the zeal and faith of Santos who, he said, defended the church against modernism and radicalism.

After the Mass, Ms Arroyo and Rosales unveiled a six-foot statue of Santos sculpted by Kapampangan artist Edillardo Paras beside the church.

She also inaugurated the Cardinal Rufino Santos Memorabilia Exhibit put up on the second floor lobby of the old church. Villanueva also presented to her a copy of the book “Padre Pinong, the First Filipino Cardinal” by Augustinian brother Francis Musni.