ARCHBISHOP Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan urged seminarians and priests to view formation as a lifelong process, as he installed Fr. Clarence Victor Marquez, O.P. as the 13th rector of the UST Central Seminary on Friday, Aug. 28, at the Santísimo Rosario Parish Church.
In his homily during the Installation Mass, Villegas said new Church guidelines on priestly formation emphasized accompaniment, making it the rector’s primary responsibility beyond administrative duties.
“The new definition of formation is accompaniment. In other words, the first duty of the rector is not to administer, but to accompany as a teacher, to accompany as a shepherd, to accompany as a servant,” Villegas said.
He also called on seminarians to accompany their rector, reminding them that formation in Christ does not end with seminary training but continues throughout priestly life.
Drawing from the teachings of St. Augustine, Villegas outlined three principles of seminary formation that he said went beyond academic and administrative work.
First, Villegas said “the poor are our masters,” stressing that the poor should not be regarded merely as statistics in research or beneficiaries of apostolate.
He said encounters with the poor would test a priest’s fidelity to Christ, noting that “there are lessons only the poor can teach us.”
Second, he said “the children are our teachers,” pointing to lessons the faithful could learn from the innocence of children.
Lastly, Villegas described “crisis [as] our unlimited library,” saying suffering and humiliation could impart spiritual lessons that an easy life could not.
Villegas challenged members of the Central Seminary community to reflect on the heart of the good shepherd in their ministry.
“May our heart be like the heart of the good shepherd. May our mind be always attuned to the mind of the Church. May our feet walk the way of the gospel. May our hands do the work of the Lord,” he said.
Founded in 1928, the UST Central Seminary is the Philippines’s interdiocesan seminary, housing seminarians handpicked for Thomasian formation by diocesan bishops from all over the country.
Marquez previously served as rector and president of Colegio de San Juan de Letran Manila and as UST vice rector for finance from 2006 to 2007.
He is the president of the Catholic Biblical Association of the Philippines.
Marquez succeeded Fr. Quirico Pedregosa Jr., O.P. as seminary rector.
The seminary rectorship had been a stepping stone to leadership roles in the Dominican Order. A former rector, Fr. Gerard Francisco Timoner III, O.P., became Filipino provincial and was elected Master of the Order in 2019. Enzo Miguel D. Mejia
