The Empty Tomb in Bontoc

Bishop Francisco Claver, S.J., passed away on July 1st, 2010. My last visit to him in the infirmary of Loyola House of Studies was towards the end of May. I brought him the latest issue of our archdiocesan newspaper, Bag-ong Lamdag (New Light), which featured the installation of Bishop Jose Cabantan on May 15th as the fourth bishop of Malaybalay.  He did not know Bishop Joe personally, but was interested to know more about him. He was glad to know that Bishop Joe came from the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, which was the mother diocese of Malaybalay. On my part, I mentioned to him that Bishop Joe was succeeding an illustrious line of bishops of Malaybalay, starting with himself followed by Bishops Gaudencio Rosales and Honesto Pacana, S.J.

A Missionary Church
In 1969 when the Jesuit Mission District in Bukidnon became the Prelature of Malaybalay, there were only 16 parishes manned for the most part by Jesuit missionary priests. (Now, after four decades, Bukidnon has 45 parishes with 87 diocesan priests.) Its first bishop appointed was Bishop Cisco. At the age of 40, he was one of the youngest bishops to be appointed. Indeed, Cisco was still finishing his graduate studies in cultural anthropology at the University of Colorado. One evening as he took his turn cooking and carrying the food to his small community of Jesuits in Colorado, he casually broke the news to them: “Your cook has been made a bishop.”

It was this casual, yet forthright, manner that characterized Bishop Cisco’s “episcopating” style – a term that he uses in his latest book   with a touch of humor and self-criticism. Since he came from Bontoc in the Mountain Province and was going to Bukidnon (meaning, a place of mountains), he aptly chose for his episcopal motto the Psalmist’s prayer: “Levavi oculos in montes.” (“I lifted my eyes upon the mountains.”)

During the summers of 1969 and 1970, as a scholastic regent based in Xavier University, I organized and supervised a “Summer-of-Service” (S.O.S.) program in Bukidnon. We contacted several Jesuit-run parishes to host our student volunteers for four weeks of community immersion and development work. It was in this setting, traversing what were then the bumpy and dusty roads of Bukidnon, that I got to know more about the diversity of strong characters among the missionary parish priests.

There were Italian Jesuits like Frs. Venere, Leoni and Caroselli expelled from China, and now learning another foreign language, Bisaya, to shepherd their adopted parish flocks. There were American Jesuits, outspoken, erudite, former professors  or novice masters – like Frs. Horgan, Shea, Groenendael, Cunningham, Poulin, Fitzpatrick, Risacher, Kirchgessner, Cullen, Bittner, Stoffel. And there were Filipino Jesuit priests as well – like Frs. Flores, Balansag, Jimenez, Alingal – who likewise manned several of the newly-formed parishes. At that time, there were only two Filipino diocesan priests; one of them was Fr. Jose Manguiran who is now Bishop of  Dipolog.

A Church under Martial Law
It was in this context of a pioneering, missionary, localizing church still spreading its roots that Bishop Cisco had his hands full. But it was probably the declaration of Martial Law in September 1972 that transformed the casual manner of Bishop Cisco in dealing with his brother priests into his forthright manner of condemning the excesses of military rule and the violations of human rights. The prelature’s radio station was closed. Its newsletter, Bandilyo, was banned.  And Fr. Cullen who was supporting the Federation of Free Farmers was detained at the Constabulary headquarters. Bishop Cisco had no other recourse but to write his weekly pastoral letters that were distributed and read from pulpits throughout the prelature.

During Holy Week in April 1981, Fr. Godofredo Alingal, S.J., a known critic of Martial Law, was gunned down inside his convento in Kibawe by hired killers suspected to be close to a local politician. Fr. Alingal’s remains were to be buried in Kibawe, but upon the pleas of a sorrowing mother, the Jesuit Provincial allowed the remains to be brought to Dapitan to be buried in his hometown. Bishop Claver nonetheless celebrated the funeral Mass in Kibawe and delivered a homily, entitled, “The Empty Tomb in Kibawe.” It was as much a stirring indictment of continued violations of human rights under Martial Law as it was also a renewed pledge to continue the struggle for justice and peace in the light of the Easter promise of the Resurrection.

Among his fellow bishops, Bishop Cisco came to be counted with the “Magnificent Seven” who were critical of Martial Law from the start. Gradually, as the years of Martial Law deepened, more and more bishops distanced themselves from the martial law regime. By February 1986 at the culmination of the snap elections pitting the widow Cory Aquino against the incumbent martial law President Ferdinand Marcos, the bishops finally came together in a special meeting to condemn the conduct of the polls: “In our considered judgment, the polls were unparalleled in the fraudulence of their conduct… According to moral principles, a government that assumes or retains power through fraudulent means has no moral basis.” The chief drafter of the bishops’ statement was Bishop Claver.

But what was distinctly characteristic of his outlook was reflected in the bishops’ “response in faith”:

“We therefore ask every loyal member of the Church, every community of the faithful, to form their judgment about the February 7 polls. And if in faith they see things as we the bishops do, we must come together  and discuss what appropriate actions to take  that will be according to the mind of Christ.” In effect, the bishops were saying that they would not take the lead for the people but they would “stand in solidarity   with them in the common discernment for the good of the nation.”

It was this same principle of people’s participation   and communal discernment that Bishop Claver would stress in drafting the bishops’ “1997 Pastoral Exhortation on Philippine Politics”:

“As at EDSA in 1986, so today: We must reason together for the common good, we must pray together and act together to transform politics into a means of national renewal, a means of just and integral development for every Filipino and for all Filipinos.”

This practice of praying, discerning, and acting together would also be for Bishop Cisco the distinguishing marks of Basic Ecclesial Communities. In his recently-published book, “The Making of a Local Church,” that synthesizes his four decades of pastoral experience, Bishop Cisco describes BECs as “worshipping communities of faith-discernment and - action at the lowest levels of the church that try, in a participatory way and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to put life and faith together into   an   integrated whole.” 

Journey to Bontoc
In January 1982, while I was on tertianship formation in Baguio, Bishop Cisco invited me and another tertian to ride with him to his hometown in Bontoc. We didn’t mind skipping one day from our tertianship sessions in exchange for the chance to see his native place. It was for me an eventful ride, passing at one point the highest section of the Philippine highway system. When we reached Bontoc, Bishop Cisco introduced us to an elderly Belgian ICM Sister who was maintaining a local museum of native Igorot culture. Then he brought us around some of the Igorot homes built in traditional style – some with a designated spot beside the house for the future burial site of the head of the household. In going up and down the narrow lanes, we noticed the solid stone walls that are part and parcel of Igorot culture − and a trademark skill of Bishop Cisco wherever he was assigned for some length of time. In visiting his hometown, little could I foresee that Bishop Cisco would be appointed in 1995 as Vicar Apostolic of Bontoc-Lagawe. He had come full circle and returned to his roots in the Cordillera – where, as he himself had once expressed in a meeting of local superiors, only native priests can truly bring about the inculturation of the Christian Faith for their own people.

A few months before he died, Bishop Cisco sent a letter to the Jesuit Provincial asking that his remains be buried in the Jesuit cemetery in Novaliches. In one sense, he was going against the cultural practice of his people. But in another sense, the empty tomb in Bontoc signifies that Bishop Cisco belongs to us all now – together with his message of hope in the midst of adversity and his faith in the communal strength of little people. May his spirit of casual yet forthright service continue to encourage us in our own pastoral concerns and actions for the People of God today.