Palma ushers in opening of classes

CEBU Archbishop Jose Palma ushered in the opening of classes with a Mass at a Catholic university in Cebu City on Monday.

The 63-year-old prelate reminded over a thousand students “that to be educated is to be blessed.”

“I pray with you and for you that we will be imbued with a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to go to school, to be able to study,” he said in his homily during the Mass held at the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) quadrangle.

“The original meaning of the word scholar is leisure. Only those who have the leisure, only those who have the opportunity, provided of course by time and means, are able to study. So today, if only in this Mass, you say Lord, thank you,” he added.

Though USJ-R began holding classes since June 5, the school’s administration scheduled the Mass on Monday to coincide with the opening of classes in other schools.

The university’s entire religious administration led by university president Rev. Fr. Enrico Peter Silab, OAR, and Rev. Fr. Vicente Ramon, OAR, the local prior of the Recollect community in Cebu, co-celebrated the Mass.

USJ-R is run by the Order of Augustinian Recollects.

“I know how much it costs to study,” said Palma, who finished Philosophy at the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary and Theology at the St. Joseph Regional Seminary, both in Iloilo City, before getting his licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas in Manila, and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas, Angelicum in Rome.