Friday, March 29, 2024

Tag: January 26, 2011

Vatican declares Jubilee Year

POPE Benedict XVI has declared a Jubilee Year from January 2011 to January 2012 to mark UST’s Quadricentennial, underscoring the spiritual nature of the celebrations at Asia’s only Pontifical University.

The Holy Father won’t make it to the festivities but will deliver a recorded video message on January 28, University officials said.

In a decree last December 21, the Roman Catholic Church’s Apostolic Penitentiary allowed Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales to bestow a Papal Blessing carrying a Plenary Indulgence following the Jubilee Mass on January 24.

Cardinal Rosales opens ‘Quadri’ week

MANILA Archbishop Cardinal Gaudencio B. Rosales formally opened UST’s Quadricentennial festivities last January 24, ushering in a Jubilee Year or a year of pardon.

The prelate declared the Santisimo Rosario Parish Church or UST Chapel a Jubilee church, granting pious visitors a plenary indulgence which remits punishment due to sin under Church teaching, and giving the Quadricentennial celebrations a spiritual dimension.

UST is oldest, period

UST’s old campus in Intramuros, Manila. Photo from UST ARCHIVES NOW IT’S settled.

A scholar from Cebu has sided with the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in the lingering dispute with Cebu’s University of San Carlos (USC) over who’s the oldest.

In an article in the January-April 2011 issue of Philippiniana Sacra, the official publication of the Ecclesiastical Faculties of UST, Fr. Aloysius Cartagenas argued that Santo Tomas, founded in 1611, has the rightful claim to the title, not San Carlos, which can only trace its foundation to the year 1867.

San Carlos cannot claim to have descended from the Colegio de San Ildefonso founded by the Jesuits in 1595, despite taking over the latter’s facilities when the Jesuits were expelled by Spanish authorities in 1769, Cartagenas said.

BSP, Philpost bare Quadri collectibles

HERE come the UST collectibles.

UST’s Quadricentennial is being celebrated on a national level with the release of commemorative bills, coins, and postage stamps.

Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., Rector of UST, together with officials of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Philippine Postal Corp. (Philpost) unveiled the commemorative items before the press last January 21 at the Main Building lobby.

The BSP is releasing P2 billion worth of P200 bills with an overprint of the Quadricentennial logo, and gold and silver medals with the image of Msgr. Miguel de Benavides, O.P., founder of UST and the third archbishop of Manila.

The bills are legal tender but the medals have no value, the central bank said.

Aquino appoints Artlets alumnus as political adviser

PRESIDENT Benigno S. Aquino III has appointed a former student activist and UST Journalism alumnus as his adviser on political affairs last January 21, adding to the growing number of Thomasians named to government posts.

Ronald Llamas, a former Varsitarian features editor, is president of the Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party, which endorsed Aquino’s presidential bid.

Malacañang Palace said Llamas, who frequents the shooting range with the President, will serve as a “bridge” to political parties.

In 1981, Llamas became the president of AB Student Council and wrote the first student constitution in the University in order to check the administration’s meddling. Other colleges followed suit. Later, the Central Student Council was formed.

UST sues carpark operator, tenants

UST HAS sued multi-deck carpark developer Selegna Holdings Corp. and more than 20 tenants at the carpark, including a firm owned by Thomasian whistleblower Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada and fastfood restaurants McDonald's and KFC, for entering into lease deals without the University’s approval.

The University is primarily accusing Selegna Holdings of fraud, claiming the carpark firm gave sister companies and children of the owner cheaper rent than other tenants, and sublet the spaces at higher rates.

Thomasian professors win international research prize

TWO THOMASIAN researchers clinched the country’s first Award for Outstanding Research on Development last January 14 at the Global Development Awards and Medals Competition in Bogota, Colombia.

Faculty of Arts and Letters professors Alvin Ang and Jeremaiah Opiniano, who are both under UST’s Research Cluster on Culture, Education, and Social Issues, won the top prize for their research proposal titled “Remittance Investment Analysis in Rural Hometowns (Ricart): a piloting tool to determine where Overseas Filipinos from two rural hometowns can best invest their money.”

The proposal contained general guidelines on how the remittances of overseas Filipinos from two fourth-class municipalities can be best utilized for investment and development finance.

Heads of ‘UST’ schools worldwide grace celebration

UST will host the 10th Biennial Conference of the International Council of the Universities of St. Thomas Aquinas (Icusta) on January 26 to 28 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex Auditorium, with President Benigno Aquino III expected to deliver the keynote speech.

International and local delegates of Icusta, the colloquium of universities named after St. Thomas Aquinas, will be coming to the University to discuss and forge strategic ways for member-universities to respond to the challenge of public life with Catholic principles. Icusta currently has 24 members.

Sec-Gen unblocks Facebook for ‘Quadri’ updates

ENJOY it while it lasts.

The school administration has allowed temporary access to the widely popular social networking site Facebook to help promote UST’s Quadricentennial celebration.

Fr. Florentino Bolo Jr., O.P., secretary general, authorized the Santo Tomas e-Service Providers (STEPS) to unblock access to Facebook—which is usually barred on campus — to help disseminate information regarding this month’s activities. Access began in the first week of January and would be allowed until the end of the month, he said.

UST officials were traditionally wary that allowing access to Facebook and other popular sites might distract them in their school work.

UST chosen as new venue of bar exams

UST WILL be the new venue of this year’s bar examinations, which will take place in November or two months later than usual.

Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina said the Supreme Court had decided to transfer the bar exam to UST in November, after the monsoon season. This gives aspiring lawyers more time to review.

“It’s perfect and very timely since it coincides with our Quadricentennial year,” Divina added.

The implementation of a multiple-choice exam will also start this year, as earlier proposed by former Civil Law dean Roberto Abad, now associate justice at the Supreme Court.

“The first three Sundays will be allotted to the multiple-choice questions while the fourth will be dedicated to the essays,” Divina said.

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