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.
As of January 20, 43 delegates, including Peadar Cremin, former president of Icusta and president of the Mary Immaculate College in Ireland, Joseph McFadden, executive director of Icusta, and former UST Rector Fr. Ernesto Arceo, O.P., now rector of Aquinas University in Legazpi, Albay, are expected to attend the conference.
The theme of this year’s conference is “The Role of Universities in Permeating Public Life with Catholic Principles.”
The meeting will begin with a Concelebrated Mass to be led by Archbishop Joseph Edward Adams, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines.
On the second day, a Concelebrated Mass will be led by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, to be followed by a discussion of Icusta’s programs and strategies, group reports, resolutions, and the reading of Icusta’s “manifesto of commitment.”
The delegates will attend the Quadricentennial Thanksgiving Mass on the third day. Delegates will also be given a cultural tour of Manila.
Icusta is an international association of Catholic institutions that adhere to the ideals and teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas.
The University was chosen to host the conference in 2009 during the Icusta meeting in Ireland, where Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., Rector of UST, was elected president.
“It took several months to plan this conference including the theme and logistics. With the cooperation of the preparatory committee members, and with God’s grace, the conference will proceed as planned,” De la Rosa said in a letter to the Varsitarian.
According to its official website, stthom.edu, Icusta was founded in 1993 in Chile by Dr. Gerardo Rocha Vera, president of the UST Corporation in Chile.
The group decided to expand and hold a biennial meeting, beginning in 1995 with the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. Since that time, the organization has expanded to its membership of 24 institutions. UST of Manila hosted the conference in 1997.
After that, the meetings were held in Fredericton, Canada in 1999; Angelicum, Rome, in 2001; Mar del Plata in Argentina in 2003; Abat Oliba University in Barcelona, Spain in 2005; Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia in 2007; and a Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, Ireland, in 2009. Jilly Anne A. Bulauan with reports from Justinne Chynna V. Garcia
