DURING Pope Francis’ UST visit on Jan. 18, 2015, an emotional moment unfolded as thousands of young people gathered in the rain-soaked Grandstand and Open Field. Onstage, two children, Glyzelle Palomar and Jun Chura, both former street children supported by the Tulay ng Kabataan Foundation, stood before the Pope to share their stories.
The crowd fell silent when 12-year-old Palomar broke down in tears as she asked the Pope why God allows children to suffer.
“Marami na po ang mga batang pinabayaan ng kanilang mga magulang,” Palomar said, weeping. “Marami sa kanila ang naging biktima, at masama ang nangyari sa kanila, tulad ng droga o prostitusyon.”
“Bakit po pumapayag ang Diyos na may ganitong nangyayari?”
As the children spoke, Pope Francis listened intently, holding a translated copy of their message in Italian. The translation had been prepared by Fr. Louie Coronel, O.P., who then led the now-defunct UST Social Media Bureau.
The assignment came to Coronel on short notice — just a day before the papal encounter — after the Archdiocese of Manila sought a translator for the questions presented to the pontiff, including those from Palomar and Chura.
“Translating those lines, I was overcome with emotion,” Coronel, now UST secretary general, told the Varsitarian. “I remember wanting to share that moment with someone — but the content was under strict embargo until the encounter had concluded.”
“Hearing the children deliver their speeches in Filipino, and seeing the Holy Father gently receive and read from the copy I had painstakingly translated, was a joy unlike any other. When the 12-year-old Glyzelle Palomar broke into tears, I knew — without question — that it was the very part where I, too, had nearly wept.”
After a pause, Pope Francis stood, walked toward Palomar, and embraced her on stage. The Pope, visibly moved, then addressed the crowd, urging Catholics to allow themselves to feel deeply and weep.
“Let’s learn to weep. … Let’s not forget this witness. She asked the big question, and the big answer which we can give, all of us, is to learn how to weep. Only when we are able to weep over the things that you experienced, can we understand and give some kind of response.”
Coronel said he hoped his small role in the encounter would serve as a reminder to the Thomasian community of the essence of Pope Francis’s message — mercy and compassion.
“In that (encounter), he did not explain suffering — he entered it. He embodied the very culture of encounter he preached: one that begins in compassion, grows in listening, and culminates in communion.”
Lessons from the Pope and the 2015 papal visit
In addition to translating for the Pope, Coronel wore several hats during the pontiff’s visit to UST. He coordinated with artists performing ahead of the event, assisted then-Public Affairs Director Prof. Giovanna Fontanilla in handling media needs, and helped prepare pastoral materials, including the official homily guide used across dioceses.
He described the experience as an “intimate window into the pastoral heart of Pope Francis” and reflected on the Pope’s persistent call for “encounter,” pointing to a message the pontiff wrote in the University’s guestbook: “May the Lord bless all those studying and working for a culture of encounter.”
“For the Thomasian community, this meant engaging the world not from a place of prestige, but from the margins,” he said. “In that brief but personal inscription, he revealed the heart of his pastoral approach —C hrist-centered, dialogical, inclusive, compassionate, and missionary.”
“Unconventional, deeply human, and prophetically pastoral, Pope Francis showed the Thomasians — and the world — that true leadership kneels, listens, forgives, and embraces. He called us not to defend the Church from the world, but to bring Christ into it.”
Coronel, a former parish priest of UST’s Santisimo Rosario Parish, noted that Pope Francis’s emphasis on journeying together helped foster stronger ties between the Dominicans and Jesuits — the Pope’s religious order.
“There has been a renewed emphasis on pastoral care, discernment, and engagement with the peripheries, values that resonate deeply with both the Dominicans and the Jesuits,” Coronel said. “What we now witness is not merely institutional partnership but a pastoral synergy as pilgrims of hope, where the wisdom of Aquinas and the discernment of Ignatius are brought into harmony for the good of the Church.”
Popes maintain a direct connection with UST, which was designated a Pontifical University by Pope Leo XIII in 1902 and later recognized as the “Catholic University of the Philippines” by Pope Pius XII in 1947.
The Vatican is actively involved in the selection of UST’s rectors, with final approval resting with the Holy See. Pope Francis affirmed three such appointments: the second term of Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. (2016-2020), and both terms of Fr. Richard Ang, O.P. (2020-2024; 2024-present).
In a tribute posted on Facebook, the UST remembered the Pope’s 2015 visit as a “historic moment,” describing how he “went beyond governance to minister to Asia’s pioneer university.”
“He continued the Church’s long-standing advocacy for social justice and made prominent the missionary nature of the Church,” UST’s statement read. “In the latter part of his pontificate, he made a clear emphasis on the need to walk and journey together, as pilgrims of hope, and led the institutionalization of synodality.”
Pope Francis died at 7:35 a.m. on Easter Monday, April 21, at Casa Santa Marta following a prolonged hospitalization for double pneumonia. He was 88. The cause of death was reported as a stroke and irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse. His funeral took place on April 26.
As the 266th pontiff, he sought to reshape the Catholic Church’s global image through humility, inclusivity, and reform, departing from the more traditional stance of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
