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In the Footsteps of Francis Xavier
Jesuit schools have long sought to shape global citizens, and since 1847, Xavier in particular has worked to send forth young men to transform the world. Beginning in 1921, 34 Sons of Xavier followed in the footsteps of their alma mater’s namesake, the great missionary Francis Xavier, traveling to the Philippines to serve the Society of Jesus, the Church, and the Philippine people. Their wisdom and courage, especially during the brutal World War II years, still reverberates. By JOSEPH PARKES, S.J.
In a letter dated March 4, 1921, the Jesuit Superior General, Fr. Vladimir Ledochowski, S.J., announced that he had transferred the Mission of the Philippine Islands to the Maryland-New York Province. A group of Maryland-New York Jesuits that had originally planned to serve the people of India (until they encountered issues securing passports from the British colonial government, possibly the result of their overwhelmingly Irish last names and the ongoing Irish War for Independence) was redirected to Manila. Jesuits from the Aragon Province, who had labored for decades in the Philippines, were reassigned to Bombay.
On June 12, 1921, as announced in The New York Times, a solemn parting ceremony and Mass were celebrated at the Church of St. Francis Xavier to bid farewell to the 20 priests and scholastics of the MarylandNew York Province who were to take off the next day for the monthlong trip to Manila by train and ship. Three of the 20 were Xavier alumni who had volunteered to follow in the footsteps of St. Francis Xavier. The other volunteers came from the New York City area and various other spots along the East Coast. Most were alumni of other Jesuit high schools. Like today's USA East Province of the Society of Jesus, the then Maryland-New York Province covered the vast Eastern Seaboard from Portland, Maine to Georgia.
Last July, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first group of East Coast Jesuits in Manila on July 11, 1921. In the ensuing century, 411 East Coast Jesuits have served in the Philippines, including 34 Sons of Xavier—Patrick Rafferty, S.J. 1896, Charles Connor, S.J. 1897, Joseph Mulry, S.J. 1906, James Hayes, S.J. 1907, John Fidelis Hurley, S.J. 1910, Vincent O’Beirne, S.J. 1916, John Sweeney, S.J. 1917, John Murray, S.J. 1920, Thomas Cannon, S.J. 1921, Wallace Pangborn, S.J. 1922, Forbes Monahan, S.J. 1925, Joseph Farrell, S.J. 1926, William O’Rourke, S.J. 1926, Harry Furay, S.J. ’29, James Blewett, S.J. ’32, Hugh Costigan, S.J. ’32, Edward Klippert, S.J. ’33, Michael Cashman, S.J. ’35, Alfred Orth, S.J. ’39, Richard Leonard, S.J. ’40, Robert Rice, S.J. ’40, Thomas Connolly, S.J. ’45, Bill McGarry, S.J. ’45, Joseph Roche, S.J. ’45, James Dehn, S.J. ’48, Bill Klintworth, S.J. ’48, Nick Cushner, S.J. ’50, Tom O’Gorman, S.J. ’50, Thomas Walsh, S.J. ’50, Stan Joyce, S.J. ’52, Neil Mahoney, S.J. ’52, Richard Croghan, S.J. ’53, Jack Dougherty, S.J. ’54, and Roger Haight, S.J. ’54.
Those Sons of Xavier gave distinguished service to the Society, to the Church in the Philippines, and to the Philippine people. Some noteworthy examples are detailed below and on the pages that follow.
PATRICK RAFFERTY 1896, CHARLES CONNOR 1897, and JOHN FIDELIS HURLEY 1910 were the first three Xavier alumni to be assigned to the Philippines. Upon arrival, Connor was immediately given charge of the Ateneo de Manila High School. He introduced boxing as a sport, much to the chagrin of the remaining Spanish Jesuits. He implemented changes to make the school more like the Xavier he so fondly recalled and set it on the path of academic excellence that has marked it ever since. Rafferty was put in charge of the Jesuit community and Hurley, still a scholastic, taught in the Ateneo High School.
JOSEPH A. MULRY 1906 was assigned to the Philippine Mission in 1924. For the next 17 years, until the outbreak of World War II in 1941, he taught at the Ateneo de Manila High School and was widely known as the most outstanding liberal arts educator in the Philippines. To this day he is remembered as the mentor of the “Three Summas,” the leading students of the Ateneo Class of 1935 who went on to exceptional careers. Horacio de la Costa became the most famous Filipino Jesuit. He earned a Ph.D. in history at Harvard, served as a professor of history and dean at the Ateneo college, the first Filipino Jesuit provincial, and an assistant to Jesuit Superior General Pedro Arrupe in Rome. Leon Ma. Guerrero became a distinguished novelist, diplomat, and nationalist. Jess Paredes, Jr. taught in two law schools, helped Catholic schools with needs from the government and wrote speeches for President Ramon Magsaysay, who planned to make him Secretary of Education. Sadly, he died with Magsaysay in a plane crash when he was only 42. Fr. Mulry spent part of the war years imprisoned in a dungeon and two years in Los Baños prison camp, where he died on the operating table, a victim of World War II.
Archbishop James T.G. Hayes
JAMES T.G. HAYES 1907 arrived in the Philippines in 1926 and was assigned to the mission area of Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao where he spent the next 44 years as Superior of the Jesuits, first Bishop of the new diocese of Cagayan de Oro, founder of the Ateneo de Cagayan de Oro (now the renowned Xavier University), founder of San Jose Seminary, and first Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro. A major street there is named in his honor.
JOHN FIDELIS HURLEY 1910 was named Superior of the Mission in 1936 and remained in that capacity throughout the brutal years of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II. His heroic leadership, often at the risk of his own life, is recounted in the 2005 book, Wartime Superior in the Philippines. He spent two years in the Santo Tomas prison camp and lost close to 100 pounds. But even from the prison camp, he kept the Philippine Mission afloat. Immediately after the war, he organized the Catholic Welfare Organization to coordinate the relief efforts of the Church, the U.S. military, and the U.S. government. For his efforts, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by General Douglas MacArthur. After his return to New York to regain his health, he worked with U.S. government officials to secure more than $5,000,000 in war reparations to build a magnificent new Ateneo de Manila campus. The previous one had been destroyed by an American bombing campaign intended to drive the Japanese military out of Manila, where they had murdered tens of thousands of civilians. MICHAEL J. CASHMAN ’35 was assigned to the Philippine Mission in 1940 to complete his philosophy studies. Before he could be assigned to teach as a scholastic, he wound up under house arrest for two years and then spent two years in Los Baños prison camp. After liberation and a return to New York, he taught at Brooklyn Prep for less than a year. Cancer took his life when he was only 29.
JOSEPH ROCHE ’45 was assigned to the Philippine Province for philosophy studies prior to his three-year regency at the Ateneo de Cagayan de Oro. After ordination, he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at Fordham University. He then spent 30 years in the philosophy department of the Ateneo de Manila and Loyola House of Studies on the Ateneo campus. He was one of the first professors to teach philosophy in Tagalog, the national language. He received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Award in 2006 for his teaching, writing, and lectures that promoted the connections between philosophy and theology. He currently lives in the Health and Wellness Center on the Ateneo campus, where President Jack Raslowsky and I will visit him this summer.
Over the past century, the Philippine Province has grown large and become one of the great provinces in the worldwide Society of Jesus. Sons of Xavier assisted a small mission that was devastated by World War II in its growth to greatness.
BILL McGARRY ’45 spent most of his apostolic life in the Micronesia Mission in parishes on Pohnpei. In between parish assignments there, he served in Manila as President of the Jesuit Conference of East Asia and then as Rector of Arrupe International Residence on the Ateneo de Manila campus. After a stint as Episcopal Vicar on Pohnpei, he returned to the Ateneo de Manila for good in 2001 as campus minister and assistant tertian director. He was beloved by the Ateneo students. In his final years, he reconnected with Xavier through its publications and a regular correspondence with Director of Communications Shawna Gallagher Vega. He died in Manila in 2018.
TOM O’GORMAN ’50 was assigned to the Philippines for philosophy studies. For regency he taught at San Jose Minor Seminary in Quezon City. After theology studies and ordination in the U.S., he earned a doctorate in spirituality at the Gregorian University in Rome. He spent the rest of his life teaching at Loyola House of Studies on the Ateneo de Manila campus. He taught several generations of young Filipino and other Asian Jesuits. His last assignment was as Spiritual Father at Arrupe International Residence. He died on November 22, 2021.
ROGER HAIGHT ’54 was assigned to Cebu for philosophy studies. He completed his regency teaching at the Ateneo de Davao, where he also coached the basketball team. After theology studies at Woodstock, he earned a Ph.D. in theology at the University of Chicago. He returned to the Philippines and taught theology at Loyola House of Studies for several years. He had a great influence on a generation of Filipino Jesuits. Haight was the last Xavier alumnus assigned to the Philippines. A prolific author and past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, he is now a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary.
Over the past century, the Philippine Province has grown large and become one of the great Provinces in the worldwide Society of Jesus, with some dozen outstanding educational institutions and even more outstanding social ministries. Sons of Xavier assisted a small mission that was devastated by World War II in its growth to greatness. And in return, the experience of living and working in the Philippines was a real blessing for Sons of Xavier.
Joseph Parkes, S.J. is the provincial assistant for pre-secondary and secondary education for the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus. He is the former provincial of what was then the New York Province, former president of Saint Peter’s Prep and Fordham Prep, and the founding president of Cristo Rey New York High School. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, he completed his regency at the Ateneo de Manila High School in the Philippines.
Prisoners of war on the Bataan Death March.
The Philippines During World War II
In December 1941, 10 hours after the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Japanese bombers turned their ire toward another American possession: the Philippines.
A U.S. commonwealth since the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Philippines endured an especially brutal invasion and occupation by the Japanese. Within a month of the invasion, the Japanese had captured Manila, and American and Filipino forces were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula.
After the defeat of Allied forces and General Douglas MacArthur’s escape to Australia, 75,000 sick and starving American and Filipino soldiers were forced to endure what became known as the Bataan Death March, a 65-mile march to internment camps in intense heat. Thousands died along the way, with many more perishing in the camps.
As Americans, the East Coast Jesuits serving in the Philippines suffered a terrible toll throughout the war. They also displayed tremendous courage. John Fidelis Hurley, then Superior of the Mission, ran a smuggling network that delivered food, medicine, and money to Allied soldiers and civilians being held in internment camps. He also provided shelter to American soldiers who had escaped from the Bataan Peninsula.
Like many other Jesuits, Fr. Hurley ended up in an internment camp. Thousands were imprisoned in such camps in the Philippines during the three years of Japanese occupation. Starvation and disease ran rampant. By the end of the war in 1945, an estimated one million Filipinos had died.
On the Fourth of July in 1946, the U.S. kept the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s promise and established the independent Republic of the Philippines in honor of their bravery during World War II.
