HE WAS very hard-working and it cost him his life.
Last Dec. 15, Faculty of Civil Law regent Fr. Braulio Peña, O.P. died of cancer of the stomach’s lymphatic system at the UST Hospital (USTH) after a five-month battle with the dreaded disease. He was 62.
Faculty of Arts and Letters regent Fr. Lucio Gutierrez, O.P said Fr. Peña’s disease was only discovered toward the end of July. Father Peña was later hospitalized in September.
Fr. Peña was eventually operated on his stomach, of which 75 percent was removed. He was discharged on Oct. 16 and then underwent chemotherapy.
According to Fr. Gutierrez, Fr. Peña improved tremendously because of the two chemotherapy sessions.
But instead of resting and regaining his strength at the Father’s Residence, Fr. Peña went out on Nov. 30 to say Mass at the Sta. Catalina College—run by Dominican nuns—in Legarda St. and then baptized a friend’s child in Muntinlupa.
Fr. Guttierez said that when Fr. Peña returned to the priory later that day, he had weakened again.
“He was very faithful to his religious commitments. He was very true to his ministry. He never turned down offers to administer the sacraments, especially baptismal and wedding rites,” said Fr. Guttierez, who has known Fr. Peña since they were small children growing up in Calaruega, Spain.
Fr. Peña would never recover from his ailment. And when he was admitted at the USTH for his third chemotherapy session last Dec. 2, his doctors found that he was dehydrated, weak, and had difficulty breathing.
On Dec. 3, he was transferred to the hospital’s intensive care unit where he lost consciousness the following day.
Fr. Guttierez said Fr. Peña would occasionally open his eyes during treatment but never conversed with anyone. His condition worsened until he expired on Dec. 15 at 5:15 pm.
Fr. Peña was born on March 26, 1940 in Calaruega, Spain, the same place where St. Dominic of Guzman, founder of the Dominican Order, was born. He studied Philosophy at the Dominican House of Studies (DHS) in Madrid and earned his Theology degree from the DHS in Washington, D. C. He was ordained in 1964.
Fr. Peña also had a doctorate degree in Sacred Theology from the Lateran University, Rome and a Ph. D. in Philosophy from UST. Fr. Peña was assigned to the Philippines in 1968.
Fr. Peña also wrote a number of books in theology, including “Catechetics: The Psroclamation of the Soteriological Message.”
Aside from being the Civil Law regent, Fr. Peña was also the Faculty of Sacred Theology dean from 1994-97. He is also a former assistant dean of the Religion Department (1971-75). He was also assistant regent of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (1974-1978) and acting regent of the UST High School (1981) and the College of Commerce (1983).
To those who may have not known him, as former Civil Law Dean Amado Dimayuga said, Fr. Peña seemed enigmatic. But to those close to him, he was very helpful, cheerful, and very industrious.
“There was no idle moment for Fr. Peña as a regent,” Dimayuga recalled.
Fr. Peña would always be remembered as someone who never stopped working to propagate the Catholic faith and improve the University’s quality of education. Teodoro Lorenzo A. Fernandez
