BISHOP LEDESMA’S TOUR TURNS TRUE BLUE*
Seattle Ateneans welcome bishop-Atenean

Bishop ANTONIO LEDESMA, S. J., D. D., swung by the International Drop-In Center on July 20, 2005, at 7301 Beacon Avenue S in south Seattle. The Ateneo Alumni Association of Washington (AAAW) and GREG CASTILLA’s Life After Forty Basketball League were able to pin down the prelate for a presentation and open forum.

AAAW President ROD AGBUNAG welcomed the seventy-five individuals that occupied all the rows. ROMY RAMOS then proceeded to introduce the cleric and preceded it with a bouquet of the latter’s academic and administrative accomplishments. The ordinary’s local host was his brother BENJIE LEDESMA of Bellevue, Washington. JP PAREDES also prepared a range of queries for a private interview afterwards.

The first part of the evening the visitor covered via PowerPoint was the history, administration, and operations of his ecclesiastical district, the newest in the Philippines. Ipil was part of Zamboanga until it branched off on its own as a separate prelature. A prelature is a geographical area administered by a bishop. Having just celebrated their silver year, he half-joked “Life after 25” is what’s being sketched n the blueprints.

Key focuses were on the flowering of lay leaders, ecumenical peace demonstrations, parish-church construction, and more-effective natural family-planning practices. A village may have several cells with each gathering for religious services and handling of practical livelihood concerns. A cell congregates in a chapel (kapilya) and a trained lay minister (kaabag) presides.

Of special interest was the interweaving of Catholic liturgical worship with traditional native practices that, far from diluting Christian prayer potency, actually edges the believer closer to Jesus Christ because it stems from what is already natural. Ditto with constructive co-existence via dialogue and solidarity declarations by three dominant groups—Christian, Muslim, and Subanon.

The second part that stirred up the kettle more and flavored the evening was when the audience tossed in questions when the man opened the top of the country’s boiling political pot.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is being accused of fraud by seeking to contaminate the last presidential elections. She phoned a top election official prior to the final count and proclamation. She admitted calling and a short recorded exchange between the two quickly spread like a summer heat wave when used as cell ring tones.

The Jesuit stressed that the Catholic Church in the archipelago today seeks to shun from spearheading political changes and charges. He underscored the laity has the proper role in affecting and effecting necessary political alterations while the institutional church is supposed to merely offer moral and spiritual shepherding. He cautioned about the colonial past when friars overshadowed governments with dark results.

A collection was taken and entrusted to the guest speaker. AAAW members did not exactly give him the shirt off someone’s back, but he received three Ateneo T-shirt souvenirs!

*Blue is Ateneo’s key color.

Back to the classroom. Ateneans join former teacher and, for some, schoolmate Bishop Antonio Ledesma, S. J., D.D., by the chalkboard symbolizing the Jesuitical bent that learning lasts a lifetime. Front: Romy Ramos (Davao and Manila), Vilma Ancheta Mendoza (Xavier or Cagayan), Bishop Ledesma (Manila), Anna Doloso (Manila). Back: Dennis Annonuevo (Zamboanga), Agustus Martinez (Manila), James Cam (Manila), Ed Ferrer (Naga), Benjie Ledesma (Manila), Rod Agbunag (Manila), JP Paredes (Manila), Bob Friedlander (Manila), and Greg Castilla (Naga and Manila). Photographer: Pete Ivan Guballa (Naga). The empty chair represents the Atenean who skips classes, but manages to graduate with high grades anyway—and perhaps makes it abroad.