Tag: 2011

THE WHIRLWIND that was school year 2010-2011 was indeed imbued with unending grace.

The first half of the University’s Quadricentennial year, which saw a grand week-long celebration, has been filled with many ups—and downs—that prove to be part of the colorful 400-year history of the “oldest institution of higher learning in the Far East.”

Celebrations began as early as December 2009, with the annual Paskuhan that marked the 400-day countdown to UST’s 400th year, gathered a record crowd of 50, 000 people—Thomasians and non-Thomasians alike.

Showcases

A DIFFERENT show of people-power was staged last March 25 at the Quirino Grandstand when the clergy and religious, pro-life groups, and the Church as a whole gathered to call for the abolition of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

During the Mass, attended by some 200,000 to 300,000 people, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales called for respect for life and the junking of the RH bill. Cardinal Rosales said that despite the bill’s avowals of “responsible parenthood” and “sexual responsibility,” its bias for contraception and “safe sex” is very evident, so that it is hardly expected to foster authentic responsibility and discipline, two virtues, he said, that the people and the nation need. He added that people’s indifference to life, if not their utter disrespect of it, could lead to moral decay.