Foundation funds chapel construction for Xavier School

MANILA, Philippines—The Wong Chu King Foundation (WCKF), a nongovernment organization that supports education projects and programs, is funding the construction of the Sacred Heart Chapel of the Senior High School Building for Xavier School in San Juan City.

The chapel will be dedicated in memory of industrialist Wong Chu King, patriarch of the family behind WCKF, and Jesuit priests Jean Desautels and Ismael Zuloaga.

WCKF vice president Caesar D. Wongchuking said the chapel was being built “in line with my father’s cause and passion for education.’’

Wong Chu King was one of the school’s founding donors, while Father Desautels, a French-Canadian Jesuit, was one of the school’s founders and its first president and director. Father Zuloaga was the school’s longest-serving president and director, from 1966 to 1985. The school is named after St. Francis Xavier, one of the first leaders of Jesuit missions in China.

“Father Desautels went door-to-door in Manila for donations to buy the land needed to set up the school. At 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 15, 1955, Father Desautels closed the deal and purchased the land barely an hour and a half before the 5 p.m. deadline agreed on with the seller of the land on which the school was eventually built,” the WCKF vice president said.

“All of us, my siblings and I, graduated from Xavier School and imbibed the Jesuit’s God, education and service-centered mission,” he added.

“This project is our way of honoring our father’s friendship with the Jesuit community and paying forward for the excellent education we received from the school,” said Alexander D. Wongchuking, WCKF executive director and Caesar’s elder brother.

Signing the deed of donation are Marietta Wongchuking-Co Chien, WCKF director; Johnip Cua, chair of the Xavier School board of trustees; and Fr. Aristotle Dy, school president and director.