Francisco Araneta, S.J.

Father Francisco Araneta has done at least two things of permanent value: he obtained a university charter for the Ateneo de Cagayan, and he obtained a university charter for the Ateneo de Manila. He was the first Filipino Rector to head both institutions.

Though his home language was Spanish, he was interested in promoting Tagalog studies. On the eve of his final vows, when he had to renounce his considerable fortune, besides substantial donations to educational and charitable institutions, he set aside a sum for the promotion of Philippine cultural studies.

His obtaining a university charter for the Ateneo de Cagayan was by no means easy. He did not find a university already existing in fact if not in name. He had to create the situations to fulfill the requirements for a university charter. He received the help of many friends. And when the obstacles seemed insurmountable, he asked for help from a powerful Patron, the Jesuit Saint for whom he was named, St. Francis Xavier. Almost like a miracle, the approval came. In gratitude he renamed the school Xavier University.

Of Father Araneta’s first six-year term as Rector of the Ateneo de Manila, much could be said if we were writing the history of the Ateneo. But here it is perhaps enough to say that academically, culturally, socially, religiously, and financially, it was one of the more brilliant periods of Ateneo history.

Unfortunately that brilliant period was short-lived. The entire country entered into a period of turmoil. It was a period of activism, of an exaggerated, fanatical ultranationalism, and also a period of Communist infiltration. The Ateneo was very seriously infiltrated.

At the height of that turmoil, the incumbent Rector resigned and a replacement had to be found quickly. One Board member put it bluntly: "If we appoint a young man as President, he will almost certainly be destroyed. We must appoint an older, more experienced man; he may be able to weather the storm; if he does not, the harm is less than the destruction of a younger man."

It was on that basis, clearly explained to him, that Father Araneta was asked to return as head of the Ateneo for the second time. This time as a crisis manager of a crisis that was almost unmanageable.

He adopted a policy not popular with many Jesuits, a policy of maximum patience and tolerance. The provocations were constant and in some cases almost insupportable; no retaliation or repression followed. Maximum tolerance. It was a policy that worked. The Ateneo weathered the storm. Father Araneta did not. He left the Order, a victim of his own innocence and zeal.

Karl Rahner translates an Ignatian insight as follows: At present, he says, "medals and ribbons are normally given for worldly success They are not generally given for those deeds that really usher in the Kingdom of God."

Such deeds that really usher in the Kingdom are hidden, obscure, lowly, laborious. It was to such deeds that Father Araneta devoted himself after he left the Jesuit Order.

For several years he worked among the people in the slums of Leveriza in Pasay. Then he was assigned by the Chancery to a parish in Taguig. He himself had no rectory. He lived in a small room off the sacristy of the church.

It was at this point that Father Araneta received an extraordinary invitation. He was invited by Ambassador Howard Dee to accompany him to Rome as his personal adviser.

Among other things, they organized prayer breakfasts exclusively for ambassadors. The project was so successful, so many ambassadors wanted to join, that two groups had to be formed. Among those who attended these prayer breakfasts were the ambassadors of Great Britain and the United States.

I was in Rome one summer when an American delegation, headed by a Jesuit, went to Rome. I forget now what their mission was, but the Jesuit told me that they could not have done anything without the help of Father Araneta. "That man is splendid," said the American Jesuit.

Not long after their return to Manila, Father Fritz became ill. After his recovery from that first illness, he began another apostolate: every afternoon (except Sunday) he went to the EDSA Chapel, he heard confessions and then said Mass. He continued to do this until he again became ill, this time for the remaining years of his life.

He was fortunate to have relatives who were loving and caring. They took care of him, especially in his illness. May God reward their charity to him. And may God reward the kindness of superiors, after Fritz had returned to the Jesuit Order.

One episode may help to understand the real character of Father Araneta.

In January and February of 1945, before and during the Battle of Manila, the Japanese massacred people by the hundreds. Those who were not killed by Japanese bayonets died from shells from American artillery. Ermita, Malate, and Paco were full of corpses lying unburied. The Spanish Vincentian Fathers of San Marcelino Church were herded to the edge of a nearby estero and bayoneted. Their corpses floated for days in the dirty waters of the estero.

The Jesuit scholastics and many volunteers were among those who went out every day, and with great difficulty, without proper tools, buried the corpses in shallow graves.

That outstanding corporal work of mercy of burying the dead was initiated and led by a group, among whom was Francisco Araneta.

Even before the Battle of Manila, during that last terrible year of the Japanese Occupation, Fritz and other scholastics were already involved in helping the needy.

That was Francisco Luis Araneta y Zaragoza. An apostolic priest. A genuine Christian.