HIGHLIGHTS

XS Chairman's Message: A NEW BEGINNING
BY Fr. Ismael Zuloaga

Posted Thursday, 23-Jun-2005 3:20 PM

Xavier School Chairman of the Board, Fr. Ismael Zuloaga, S.J., was the guest of honor during the Alumni Association of Xavier School's Induction Ceremony last June 22 at the MPC.  As we approach our Golden Jubilee, he posed a challenge to all alumni to let our light shine even brighter.  He asked all of us to renew our spirit and commitment.

Greetings!

Fr. Director, AAXS President, Vice Presidents - friends. Allow me to share with you some personal feelings in my relationship with the alumni nurtured in recent months. As you know, sometime this January, my kidneys declared a strike and my heart followed with an empathy attack. Ever since, if I am alive, it is due to God and alumni doctors:

Dr. Roderick Ng - Class 1984

Dr. Loewe Go - Class 1980

Dr. Ricky Quintos - Class 1989

Dr. Dave Tan - Class 1973

Dr. Jose Ortiz - Class 1983

All men of competence, dedication and with a personal touch.  I thank them. By their deeds they confirm my thoughts on the Alumni of Xavier.

As we celebrate the School Golden Jubilee, we are entering a new phase, "The Times of the Alumni".  We have now a very good number of alumni - 10,000 ? Many in their best productive years, with our Xavier Light ignited, shining in their hearts.

These “Times of our Alumni” are an opportunity for the new officers of the Association:

•  To get in touch with all alumni here but with renewed interest with alumni abroad, specially in North America.

•  Your Vision-Mission statement and By-Laws have to be finalized. You are now too many and too competent not to be governed by some sort of updated, reasonable by-laws.

•  Besides sports and homecomings - they are very good and necessary but, should we not organize mutual enrichment activities such as retreats, workshops, etc.?

•  Finally, our newly energized Xavier groups should reach out to needy communities around them.

Our Golden Jubilee celebrations are a new beginning for the Xavier Community.  Much of the success will depend on the alumni and their cooperation.  Mr. Hero Yu is the chairman and activities are planned.  From the alumni point of view, perhaps, the most encouraging for the present and future alumni is the tribute to the Exemplary Xaverians of the Past Fifty Years, that we are planning.  We have prepared the criteria and nomination forms.  “In recognition of highly commendable alumni of the past fifty years who have excelled in their respective fields and; moreover, who have used their talents and resources in the service of society, thus embodying to an outstanding degree the Xavier Ideal of being 'men for others'”.

The Awards Criteria are:

•  “ Men fully alive ” - imbued with the truly human and universal virtues of love, mutual respect and harmony with all

•  “ endowed with a passion for justice ” - has devoted his life to or is actively involved in humanitarian work or other selfless endeavors for the service of society.

•  “ and the skills for development ” - has fully actualized his potentials and continues to excel in his field.

Are we dreaming?

No.  An Alumni Association is part and parcel of a Jesuit School.  Our last two Generals have given clear and beautiful directives to Alumni Associations.   Pedro Arrupe passed by Xavier in ’81 during his visit to the Philippines.

In Valencia, Spain, July 1973 he gave a very forceful speech to the European Union of Alumni. Among other things he said:  “Men (and women) for others: the paramount objective of Jesuit education - basic, advanced, and continuing - must now be to form such people.  For if there is any substance in our reflections, then this is the prolongation into the modern world of our humanist tradition as derived from the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius.   Only by being a man (and woman) for others does one become fully human, not only in the merely natural sense, but in the sense of being the “spiritual” man (and woman) of Saint Paul.  Spirit that is: the Spirit of Christ, who gave his life for the salvation of the world; the God who, by becoming Man, became, beyond all others, a Man for others.”

Let me end by quoting the present General, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach in his speech to the Congress of the European Confederation of Jesuit Alumni(ae) in Malta, November 2001.

“You have received a formation and share a spiritual heritage, that of Ignatius of Loyola, which prepares you to work together, in partnership with Jesuits and others, and to face the new European and world scene.  The European Confederation and the National Associations have a key role to play in this regard.   More than a place where the “old boys” occasionally get together to cultivate nostalgia, the Associations should be the meeting point for the alumni to share the same vision, to feed anew at the sources of Ignatian spirituality, and to find the necessary support to make a reality your commitment to “work for others” through works of justice and compassion.”

Mr. President, Vice Presidents, all alumni, you are entering a new era. With the cooperation and with teamwork, let us translate these ideals into attractive deeds.

Thank you.

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