Bishops pay last respects to Francisco Claver

At least 50 Philippine Catholic bishops paid their last respects to the late Bishop Francisco Claver at a funeral Mass in his honor in Quezon City on Wednesday. Claver, a staunch human rights defender during martial law, died last July 1 from pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lung) at age 81. He was buried later that day at the Jesuit Sacred Heart Novitiate cemetery in Novaliches, Quezon City, the Union of Catholic Asian News said in its website on Wednesday night. Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo hailed Claver as one of Asia’s greatest Church leaders during the funeral mass attended by priests, nuns, and lay Church workers. Jesuit Father Calvin Poulin added Claver had a keen eye for detail, seen in his supervision of construction projects in Malaybalay diocese. Poulin was the late bishop’s vicar general, secretary and companion during his first assignment as bishop in Malaybalay in the southern Philippines in 1969, UCAN said. Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales led the concelebrated Mass at the Jesuits’ Loyola House of Studies chapel. Concelebrating the mass were Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of Cebu and apostolic nuncio Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams. Claver was born in Bontoc, Mountain Province in 1929. He entered the Society of Jesus on May 30, 1948, and was ordained a priest in 1961 after completing theology studies at Woodstock College in Maryland, US. He obtained a master’s degree in anthropology from the Ateneo de Manila and later a doctorate in the same field from the University of Colorado. Claver served as first bishop of Malaybalay from 1969 to 1984 and bishop of his home vicariate of Bontoc-Lagawe from 1995 to 2004. "In between these assignments and even during them, he taught and wrote articles on social justice and violence," the UCAN said. He also drafted the 1986 Philippine bishops’ statement considered to have helped trigger the People Power movement that unseated President Ferdinand Marcos. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV