Editors’ Note: This article was originally written for the journal commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Ateneo de Naga University. For the three year celebration which began in 2015, the university adopted as its over-arching theme, “Celebrating 75 Years of Magis, Living the Spirit, and Forging Towards New Frontiers”, which expresses the institution’s aspirations and its journey over the years. Fr. Robert C. Hogan, SJ truly lived out these ideals. Fr. Bob was born on February 16, 1933 and died on March 14, 2021 in the Jesuit Health and Wellness Center in Loyola Heights, Quezon City.

“I leave no traces of wings in the air,

But I am glad I have had my flight.”

(poetry by Rabindranath Tagore)

The new generation of Ateneans may not see traces of wings of Fr. Bob Hogan, SJ, in Ateneo De Naga University, but not the older generation of Ateneans whose lives were deeply touched and influenced by this humble Jesuit. No buildings may have been named after him, no pictures hang on walls, and no memorabilia are displayed to remind the Ateneans that once he was here and spent 15 years of his missionary life serving Naga and Bicol, but his memorabilia are etched in the hearts of the people he worked with and the students he served as a priest, teacher, administrator, co-worker, spiritual director, counselor, and friend, among others.

Fr. Bob’s Early Years

Fr. Bob’s father, Charles, was born in Ireland and was descended from quite a big family. The family moved to the US to escape the difficulties of life, then, in Ireland. Coming from a family with a deep religious background, he wanted to enter the priesthood. But after two years of seminary life, he had to leave to attend to some family needs. He learned how to speak the French language on his own. He took a course at Dale Carnegie for Public Speaking.

Fr. Bob’s mother, Nora O’Leary, was likewise born in Ireland. Her family moved to the US when Nora was a young child. Her father died when she was only seven years old and left her mother widowed at 37. The responsibility of raising four young children was laid on the shoulders of the young mother. This situation provided very little opportunity for the children to get the needed education. Nora was able to finish only her grade school.  Their family may have been financially wanting but not in religious formation. Her mother was quite insistent in her admonitions for the children to give importance to practicing their Catholic tradition. Nora had happy childhood memories growing up with other children in the same tenement house where they lived. She grew up taking joy in simple things like building a roof on the fire escapes of their building to watch the stars at night and attending occasional parties in a very friendly and supportive neighborhood. Growing up, her dream then was simple – to meet a nice man someday, get married, raise good children, and have a good family. Nora recalled that she met Charles, 5 years her senior, through her brothers when she was sixteen years old. They got married when Nora was 23 at St. Vincent’s Church in New York City. Life, after their marriage, for the couple was brighter. Charles was able to land good jobs and later on, became Director of a French Cruise Liner which gave the family not just financial security but opportunities for leisure and travel.

Robert Charles “Bob” O’Leary Hogan was born on February 16, 1933, in New York. He is the second child among four children, with an older sister and two younger brothers. One of his brothers, Patrick, later became a Marist brother. With both parents being very devout Catholics and daily mass-goers, the Hogan children grew up in a family atmosphere where religion was truly a way of life. Charles and Nora were active in the parish activities.  As a young couple, they would go yearly to the Church where they were wed on their wedding anniversary and would dedicate the whole family, especially their children, to God.  

During his elementary grades, Bob went to St. Joan of Arc Elementary School, a Catholic school in New York; then went to Bishop Loughlin High School in Brooklyn, New York. Bob recalled his childhood and teenage years being happy. He was like any normal teenager.

“I had ordinary adolescent experiences. I was doing well in school… I got interested in sports… I had a couple of jobs, I had money, I had friends, I socialized, I had a girlfriend, I went to parties…I had what the world had to offer but it seemed they were not worth giving my life to”.

After his high school graduation in 1951, he decided to apply to be a Jesuit at age 18.

Training as a Jesuit

In 1986, shortly before Fr. Bob celebrated his silver anniversary as a priest, his niece, Mary Furlong Moskowitz, engaged him in an interview and he was asked when he realized his vocation had started. An excerpt from Fr. Bob’s homily during his Golden Jubilee celebration as a Jesuit in 2003, may have captured in full his answer:

The first awakening of my conscious awareness of having a “mission in life” took place as far as I can recall, at age 8 when I was in 3^rd grade at St. Joan of Arc Elementary School in Jackson Heights. For during that year, in our course in American History, I read about a group of French Jesuits, who evangelized the American Indians in upstate North America and parts of Canada. All of them died as martyrs but one of them in particular, stimulated the first stirrings in my heart and mind of the dream to become a Jesuit Missionary.

This desire was reinforced by his religious home environment and by his involvement in the activities of their parish as an altar boy. The priest in charge of the Altar Boys Society of their parish and the examples, encouragement, and support he received from his parents were influential in nourishing the seed of vocation in the young lad. Bob had no real encounter with any Jesuit until shortly before his application to become one in 1951. He met Fr. Robert Gannon, SJ that same year, while his father was making his annual retreat given by Fr. Gannon at the Jesuit Retreat House in Staten Island. He considered this as the second stage of his journey to becoming a Jesuit. He had great admiration for Jesuits. Consciously or unconsciously in search of a role model, he felt he could resonate with the Jesuits in their missionary zeal, especially in reaching out to God’s people who were most in need.  He said he never felt pressure from his parents in making a favorable choice for the priesthood. He rather felt his parents were very liberal in allowing their children to make the choices each one felt he was called to respond to, and full support was given to them. Their only expectation was for them to be faithful to whatever state of life they have chosen to live.

His journey to the priesthood continued with Bob entering St. Andrew’s-on-the-Hudson, a Jesuit Novitiate in the New York Province, on August 14, 1951, along with 25 others.  Towards the end of his Novitiate, the Novice Master advised those interested to join the Missions to make their application before their profession. Bob applied.

“Since this was part of my childhood dream – to be a Jesuit Missionary- I made my application to the Provincial. It was only at the end of my first year in Juniorate in 1954 that I was told I was being considered as a candidate for the Philippine Mission. As the men a year ahead of us celebrated their Departure Ceremony that year, I remember the feelings taking place within me. The thought of them giving up everything, of “going all the way” strengthened my own desire of going to the missions myself. Finally, in October of 1954, I was informed, along with three fellow Juniors, that we would be going to the Philippines in June of 1955 to pursue our studies in Philosophy. It was then that I realized that I had made a very radical decision that would change my life forever. I was scared.”

He enrolled in Philosophy at Berchman’s College in Cebu City and graduated in 1957. He finished his master’s studies the following year in that same school. He spent three years of his regency in Ateneo de Manila teaching Religion, English, and Physics in High School.

In 1961, he went back to the United States for his theological studies at Woodstock College, in Maryland. During summers, he would take short courses in Physics and Math at various schools including Fordham University, Seton Hall College, and St. Louis University. He got ordained to the priesthood on June 18, 1964, at Fordham University. After finishing his theological studies in 1966, Fr. Bob spent his ten months of tertianship at Auriesville Retreat House in New York.  Tertianship is a stage in a Jesuit formation for the “schooling the heart”. It is a period meant  to enable each tertian “to come to grips with the concrete reality of the Society so as to achieve a vital synthesis of the spiritual, apostolic, intellectual or technical aspects of his formation and a personality that is well integrated into the Lord, in keeping with the Society’s  intentions as envisaged by St. Ignatius: that having themselves progressed, they may have more effectively help others on their spiritual journey, to the glory of our Lord.”

After his tertianship, Fr. Bob was then ready to return to his field of mission, the Philippines.

Ateneo de Naga: His First Field of Mission as a Jesuit Priest

Fr. Bob returned to the Philippines in 1967. When he arrived, the country was in political upheaval. There was growing discontent in the national leadership.  Cause-oriented groups and student leaders were very vocal in expressing their discontent and turned to the streets to stage and dramatize their cause. Activism was the in-thing and rallies were rampant. Some progressive groups as well as those with leftist orientations were getting louder in their protests advocating for change in the national socio-political system.  There were strong sentiments against foreign interventions especially by the Americans.    The declaration of Martial Law by the national government in the early seventies was meant to put these unsettling events to a stop. Freedom of speech was curtailed, and incarceration of persons suspected of causing rebellion against the government was common. 

The campus atmosphere in the Ateneo de Naga had traces of what was happening in the entire country. The write-up in the Souvenir Program celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the Ateneo de Naga described the campus atmosphere thus:

The students found some causes they were willing to fight for…The pride in excellence which gave the Ateneans their greatness was thrown wide open to accusations of elitism…The emphasis on the individual was discarded in favor of the emphasis on man’s relation to his fellowman and society. They shouted in the campus, they shouted in the streets: The system must be freed from deceit, greed, and corruption.

This was the atmosphere that ushered in the coming of Fr. Bob to the Ateneo de Naga where he would be spending 15 years of his life to fulfill the mission he felt he was called to do.

Ateneo de Naga was Fr. Bob’s first Philippine assignment after his ordination to the priesthood.  Here he would continue weaving the dream of his childhood, to be a Jesuit missionary priest in the service of God.

He was in Ateneo de Naga when he pronounced his final vows as a Jesuit on 18 August 1967, Feast of the Assumption of our Lady, at the school chapel. The occasion was quite simple, but the preparation for that event was more dramatic. Two pass-in reviews, one by the APMT and the other by the ROTC, were held on August 11 and August 12, 1967, respectively, with him as Guest of Honor. The faculty, staff, and student body were in attendance. In Fr. Maximo David’s letter of invitation dated August 9, 1967, he, as the School Rector, wrote:

Final vows represent the culmination of a Jesuit’s formation for his life’s work for Christ and his Church. The Ateneo de Naga considers itself blessed to be the scene and beneficiary of Fr. Hogan’s services at this point of his Jesuit life. We are happy to make this important step in his life modestly memorable through this simple celebration.

In Ateneo de Naga, Fr. Bob would leave his imprints in the various roles he played as a Jesuit Priest, as a teacher, and as a Formator in the Christian Life Community.

Fr. Bob, the Jesuit Priest

Fr. Bob as a Jesuit was a product of his time. His mission work was greatly influenced by two major events happening during his time: the convening of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the election of Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ as the 28^th Father General of the Society of Jesus in 1965. Fr. Bob was ordained as a Jesuit priest on June 18, 1964.

The Second Vatican Council or Vatican II brought massive reforms in the Catholic Church which affected not just the Society of Jesus but practically the whole Church.  Convened by Pope John Paul XXIII, it was designed to assess the role of the Church in the modern world. On its first day, Pope John Paul XXIII declared that the Council was convened “to open the windows and to let in some fresh air”. For many religious congregations and many Catholics in general, Vatican II brought not just fresh air but a strong wind.

 Fr. Thomas Ryan, Director of the Loyola Institute of Ministry in the US said that with Vatican II, “the Catholic Church sent the message that it is part of the world, not against, not above, not apart, but in the world”. The documents of Vatican II state that the Church should engage itself in conversation with the world. Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, Chair of the Committee on Divine Worship in the US, said “The Church, by its teaching and by its discipleship, has something to say to the world. At the same time, the world is saying something to the Church.”

Among the many other changes brought about by Vatican II is the shift in the manner of looking at other religions. The documents of Vatican II recognize that amidst the differences in the manner of expressing the faith, there is one common belief in God. This, later on, led to a popular Ecumenical Movement where stress is given to “what unites rather than on what divides.”. Liturgical celebrations became more participative with singing and were said in the language of the people rather than in Latin. The robes of religious nuns changed from long robes of heavy materials to simple attire similar to the clothes that people they serve wore. Stress was also given to the participation of the laity in evangelization by virtue of their baptism.  

With the many changes brought about by Vatican II, religious congregations had to rethink and refocus their mission thrusts and the manner of living out these thrusts, the Society of Jesus included.

Fr. Arrupe became Superior General of The Society of Jesus after the 31^st General Congregation in 1965. His dream of working for the poor was crystallized in the Decree 4 document of the GCXXXII convened in 1975 which states “Our faith in Jesus Christ and our mission to proclaim the Gospel demand of us a commitment to promote justice and enter into solidarity with the voiceless and the powerless.” GC32 then had set a defining moment for Fr. General Arrupe.  Under his leadership, the Jesuit mission then basically focused on the propagation of the Catholic Faith, which goes hand in hand with the promotion of social justice. Fr. Arrupe was aware that this was not easy for the Jesuits, especially in some mission areas like Latin America. In El Salvador, a number of Jesuits laid their lives and suffered martyrdom for serving the poor. In the country, there was a growing disparity between the rich and the poor. The Jesuit theologians, out of their experiences and work with the poor, started a movement called Liberation Theology which saw Christ as a liberator not just from sin but from all forms of oppression.

When Fr. Bob came back to the Philippines in June 1967, this time as a Jesuit priest, he was assigned to Naga City.  The Philippines, at about this time, had some semblance of what was happening in El Salvador. There was marked inequality in the distribution of the country’s wealth, with a very small percentage of the rich and a large majority of the poor. There was rampant corruption in public governance. Liberation Theology became popular as a movement with the Jesuits at the forefront. Notable among them would be Fr. Carlos Abesamis, SJ.

Fr. Bob, as a Jesuit priest, perceived his roles to be both institutional and prophetic. He performed the institutional aspect of his priesthood, in presiding the liturgy, ministering the sacraments, and spending time listening to people to understand their situation and verbalizing back to them their experiences. Hand in hand with this, he also saw his more important calling to be a prophet of God, proclaiming His word, as He intervened in man’s history as it unfolded.  The proclamation of the Word of God, in the context of the present realities, was central to Fr. Bob’s involvements, be they in school or outside of school. He had to be attuned to God’s word, thus he spent the first hours of his day in prayer, and he updated himself with what was going on in the world by reading the daily news.  As a priest, a teacher, and a formator, Fr Bob’s life revolved around the proclamation of the word of God. He believed that this prophetic task was not just the work of priests but of the laity whom he believed was the “heart of the Church”. Thus, he saw that one of the main roles he had to play was to help in the empowerment of the laity so that they, too, would be able to perform their prophetic mission of proclaiming God’s word and laboring for the sanctification of the world.  

Fr. Bob as a Teacher

Fr. Bob’s training as a Jesuit was geared more towards work in the school setting than parish work. He felt his interests and gifts were more appropriate for the education ministry. He saw great meaning in channeling his energies into the formation of young people whom he saw as future leaders and decision-makers of the country.

Having had training in the field of the Sciences other than Philosophy and Theology, he was first appointed to head the Science Department in College. He taught the course in General Physics and likewise taught English as well as Theology subjects. The College was quite small and there were not many Science subjects to teach. Besides, with so many socio–political and moral issues besetting the country, there was urgency in the need for responding to them than to the abstract and technical aspects of development. In the early seventy’s when martial law was declared, several moral issues ensued – curtailment of certain basic freedoms, militarization, unwarranted arrest of suspected civilians, injustices, and oppression, among others. In the Theology and Philosophy Department, some course descriptions were modified to be more responsive to the realities of societal needs beyond the school campus. The Philippine Church was very much challenged to give a well-directed response. The adjustment in the Theology and Philosophy curriculum was an effort to respond to this challenge. What used to be Christ and His Church became Church in the Philippine Context and, later on, a new course, Theology of Development and Liberation, was introduced as an elective subject.  Fr. Bob himself taught these two subjects with passion.

As a teacher, Fr. Bob felt he had to update himself with what was happening around him to put in context what he was teaching. His role was to challenge his students to take responsibility for the world around them and he thought that that would be difficult to do if he himself did not do it. He read a lot, he interacted with all sorts of people other than his students.  He got involved in fora, talked to local leaders, and even went around the city alone to observe what was going on. He got involved in crafting and in advocating mass movements like the Active Non-violence Movement of the ‘80s and the I Am for Peace Movement in settling conflicts.  He attended meetings of cause-oriented groups in dialogue to formulate and propose solutions to problems of national importance. He was vigilant in monitoring the movies notoriously showing bold films in the city. When he noticed that minors were being allowed to enter the cinemas, he would usually approach the ticket seller and give the necessary reminder to implement the city ordinance. He organized film analysis sessions with the faculty and people interested in learning how to critique popular films shown in movie houses. He even had a regular weekly slot in one local radio station DZGE to air assessments of films shown in these movie houses.  Fr. Bob talked when he needed to talk and acted when he needed to. He was outspoken and really expressed his views fearlessly when the situation called for it. He recognized that he had a streak of an “activist side in his temperament and personality.” He viewed all this in the context of the prophetic aspect of his priesthood…to find the reality of the presence of God in the events and to respond to these happenings in accordance with the Gospel values.  Where he found wrongdoings or immorality in these events, it was not unusual to see him boldly come forward to express his views and denounce the wrongdoings.

Many students find Theology and Philosophy to be abstract and quite boring. Fr. Bob had a way of making these subjects interesting. He was a good lecturer, but his style of teaching went further than this. His former students in Theology found his teaching style to be impact full. He engaged his students in experiential learning and then made them reflect on those experiences.  Melinda Granadino-Mabulo recalled, “He did not limit himself inside the four walls of the classroom doing lectures and asking questions. He would expose his students to the realities of the world outside of the classroom and make them reflect on these realities and challenge them to make the proper Christian response necessary. Fr. Bob would bring us on exposure trips to the prisoners of the provincial jail, to the patients of the mental hospital, to rural school communities to interact with the youth groups or to teach catechism, to the Naga City Supermarket to interact with the vendors, etc.; and our experiences of these social realities outside became our take-off point for discussion in our classroom.” Narcis Velasco, another former student, and currently the Purchasing Officer of the Ateneo, echoed similar experiences.

Another advocacy that Fr. Bob was strong about was the issue of Ecumenism. As described in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, it is “not just a particular job for which some Jesuits are trained and commissioned.; it is a new way of being Christian. It puts an accent on what unites rather than on what divides, on an effort to relate rather than to confront, and strives to know, appreciate, and love others as they wish to be known, appreciated, and loved, fully respecting their otherness, in an exchange inspired by truth, justice and mutual regard”. He instilled in his students the idea of respect for differences in religious dispositions of people. Melinda related that, at times, he would bring his classes to attend the services of the Evangelical Church in Naga. During the processing, he would strongly stress to value and practice of respect for differences among the various religious groups. This author, too, having been once a member of the Theology faculty during the time of Fr. Bob, had a chance to have a glimpse of this personal commitment of his. Once, she was requested to assist him in a gathering of Protestant Pastors held in Pili where he, a Catholic Jesuit, was the main speaker. This was pre- EDSA revolution days. Social issues were discussed and the call for collective Christian responses was explored.

Creating Social Change through the Christian Life Community

 In his homily during his celebration of his Golden Jubilee as a Priest, Fr. Bob specifically stated that his involvement with the CLC was one of the highlights of his missionary life in the Philippines. The CLC is an international organization composed of laypeople, who follow the Ignatian principles as a way of life. The CLC spirituality is centered on Christ. The members draw their inspiration from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  They engage in daily personal prayer based on Sacred Scriptures, do discernment through a daily review of one’s life, go for regular spiritual direction, and actively participate in the Eucharist and the Sacraments. They also have a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother. The group is guided by a Faith Group Guide, usually a Jesuit, assigned by the National Leadership of the community. Their apostolate work is varied.  “Our best way of discovering how best to bring Christ’s presence to our world is through apostolic discernment, which is both individual and communal. We respond to the call of Christ from within the world in which we live. Our lay identity and our mission lie in the Church and the world, in order to bring the gospel of salvation to all people and serve individual persons and society. We render preferential service to the poor, opt to live a simple lifestyle, and celebrate family life.” The group originated as the Sodality of our Lady and in the 70s had metamorphosed into what is now the Christian Life Community.

In the Philippines, all the Ateneos have student counterparts. In the Ateneo de Naga, Fr. Bob had served as Moderator of the group for several years, attending to the formational, spiritual, and sometimes even the temporal needs of its members. He was likewise assigned as its Ecclesiastical Assistant (EA) working hand in hand with Fr. Jack Phelan and Fr. Santiago Marasigan, another Jesuit. An Ecclesiastical Assistant is a Jesuit assigned by the national CLC to take care of the formational needs of the CLC members.  Fr. Bob was more hands-on with the formation of the members of the CLC on the campus.

In Bicol, the CLC is headed by Deacon Stanley Lee who had long been a CLCer since his high school days way back in the 60s. Under the able leadership of Deacon Stan, the CLC has put up a Retreat House, Sa Harong ni Lord, in Pamukid, San Fernando, Camarines Sur, and has acquired an 11-hectare farm lot being tilled by about 60 farmer families who are members of the CLC. Here, organic and modern methods of farming are taught.

As a student formator, Fr. Bob was quite strict. Lilia Abustan- Belangel, a CLCer in her student days, remembered the times when Fr. Bob would reprimand students who would be absent or who would come late for meetings and activities of the group. He stressed to them the importance of responsibility and commitment to fulfill the tasks they were expected to do. Fr, Bob would admonish them not to be “dead weights in the organization”.  Lilia further added that his strictness was appreciated by them because they knew it was meant for their own good, and because of the personal, fatherly love and concern that went with it. She nostalgically recalled how during the late night practices of students in preparation for the annual Pintakasi, a literary musical contest among school organizations in campus,  he would come with food from the Jesuit house to feed the CLCers who were practicing.”

The author, having been once a co-Moderator of the CLC, has this observation. Formation activities in those days were not held in sophisticated well-furnished retreat houses. And there was no school funding either. The meager school income derived from low tuition fees collected from students could provide barely for the salaries of employees and for school operations. The CLC 8-day retreats were held in the roofed open court serving as the main social hall of the Ateneo. This was the center of student activities then, as well as the canteen during the regular school days. The CLCers brought and cooked their own food. Those who had the means gave monetary contributions, but those who could not, brought what they could bring from the house. They brought anything from a few cups of rice, salt, sugar, onion, garlic, and the like, and no one was excluded from the activity, with or without contributions. This was the simplicity of life that the CLCers had been exposed to.

Salve Verdejo, a CLCer, had imbibed from Fr. Bob the idea of self-sacrifice as an integral part of a lifestyle that professed to be in the service of the poor. In the CLC, we “assigned one day a week as a Snack-less Day. The money we had intended for buying our snacks for the day we put in a common fund and used the fund for our apostolates with the poor e.g. the Agta, the prisoners. During the Christmas season, we would go out on caroling to raise funds for the apostolate projects of the organization.”

Norie Vergara-Banan recalled how Fr. Bob had challenged her from being a “hanger” to a committed CLC member.  To Fr. Bob, “hangers” were people who would come to the CLC activities for reasons other than committing themselves to the principles of the organization. They were there because their friends were there or simply because they just wanted to hang out.  Norie was edified by the patience and persistence of Fr. Bob in listening to their concerns. She further added that she would not have finished her college schooling if not for the help extended to her by Fr. Bob. She was a recipient of the Charles Hogan Scholarship until her graduation from college. Currently, she works with the DepEd as Coordinator of the Values Education Department of the San Isidro Magarao Elementary School.

In dealing with the CLCers, Fr. Bob went extra miles to attend to the needs of the members. Many of the members came from low-income bracket families and some even came from far-out and distant places. Salve Verdejo said it was not unusual to see Fr. Bob doing home visitations to their families on special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries and the like. In one of these visitations, he even had to ride the “skates”, a makeshift rail vehicle propelled by man instead of a motor, to reach the place. To help the financially needy but deserving students, Fr Bob put up a Scholarship Foundation financed by his family. He enrolled some of these students as scholars of the Charles and Nora Hogan Scholarship Foundation. Among his scholars were Norie Vergara-Banan, Salve Verdejo, and Nancy Talay-Adan.

Life in the CLC with Fr. Bob was not all serious and no play. There were fun moments, too. Lilia Abustan-Belangel happily recalled, “At times during school activities, the Faculty and Staff would be invited to play exhibition games of basketball. Fr. Bob would be one among the players and the CLCers would rally behind him as his personal cheering squad. Fr. Bob was quite a scorer in basketball. With his height of 6’1, he could easily throw a three-point shot, and the CLCers would keep cheering until they practically lost their voices”. Lilia also added, “He was a good swimmer, too. He could execute butterfly and freestyle strokes beautifully”.

This missionary passion of Fr. Bob of living one’s Christian life in the service and in solidarity with the poor influenced the lives of some people to certain extent. Among those whose life’s decisions and options were, to a large extent, influenced by Fr. Bob was Cesar Belangel, an active CLCer during his student days in the Ateneo.

“Within four years in college, I was participant to many apostolic activities organized and spearheaded by Fr. Bob Hogan S.J. I did not expect that he would create a meaningful impact in my life, probably without even him knowing it. I witnessed in him his great love and preference for the poor; something that left a mark in me, a value for the rest of my life.

After graduation, in 1982, Monsignor Alberto Nero, whom I met during my volunteer work at Social Action Center in Naga City, invited me to join his team. Together with Mr. Abang Mabulo (former Mayor of San Fernando and now Director of the Mirador Jesuit Retreat House in Baguio), I took a summer course in community organizing at the Asian Social Institute. Eventually, I was assigned to work with the fisherfolks of the coastal municipality of Siruma, Camarines Sur. Since then, I continued working with the farmers and fisherfolks, the rural women, and the tribal communities, not only in Bicol but in many places in the country. To date, I am managing a project with communities affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda in Eastern Samar and Leyte, assisting the farmers to rehabilitate their farms and organize them to build their collective capacity to advocate for favorable policies; and to engage with the local government units and national government agencies for better access to public programs and services.

I would always remember Ateneo’s slogan – “First the Kingdom of God”. I also learned from Ateneo that “faith without justice” is empty. But these big words were translated very clearly for me in the life of Fr. Bob Hogan SJ, our mentor in the Christian Life Community. “

Some of the remnants of the CLCers whom Fr. Bob had formed and mentored are still doing CLC work not just in Bicol but wherever their professional life brings them.  Sabas “Abang “ Mabulo, former Mayor of San Fernando, is now the Director of the Mirador Jesuit Retreat House in Baguio City, while his wife, Melinda, is managing  the CLC farm in San Fernando, Camarines Sur.   Salve Verdejo, Norie Vergara- Banan, and Nancy Talay –Adan are still helping Deacon Stanley Lee in the activities of the CLC Retreat House, “Sa Harong ni Lord”. Cesar Belangel worked with the Archdiocesan Social Action Center until his transfer to Manila where he is currently helping out the farmers victimized by Typhoon Yolanda in Eastern Samar and Leyte. He gives assistance to the farmers in rehabilitating their heavily damaged farms.  Joaquin Olitoquit, a former member of the Board of Directors of ADNU, and his wife are involved in enabling the out-of-school youth to get further education through the Alternative Learning System Program of the Department of Education. Some others have entered the religious life: Sr. Teresita Motos has joined the ACi Sisters and Rebecca Alcala, now Sr. Pauline Elizabeth HMC, has joined the Hermitage of Mt. Carmel in Lucena City.

Some people other than the students of Fr. Bob, together with the other Jesuits in the Naga community, had been helping Deacon Stan with the formational and spiritual needs of the CLC in Bicol.

In 1982, Fr. Bob was given a new assignment in Ateneo de Davao where he continued to serve with dedication and passion for another 26 years of his life. Currently, he is at the Jesuit Infirmary in the Ateneo de Manila University campus.

In one of his homilies, Fr. Bob said: “I left my US home for the Philippines in early June of 1955 and arrived in my new home on June 11, 1955”.  Counting the years, he spent more years of his life in his “New Home” than in his native country. When he celebrated his silver anniversary as a priest in 1986, his niece asked him what more he dreamed of and aspired for at that point in his life. To this, he replied, “I dream to become a Filipino citizen to be able to speak as one of them, to be part of their world, to contribute what I have, to be able to say, our country, our dreams… not as a foreigner in a foreign land.”

And once, he was asked by a friend if he would do what he had done if he were given the chance to go back and start again, and he answered, “Without a moment’s hesitation, I would do it all over again. The only difference would be that I hope I would do a better job than I have done the first time”.

Indeed, he has shown his deep love for his “New Home” and his new family… and to Fr. Bob, FOR ALL THAT HAS BEEN, THANK YOU.

Acknowledgements

Taped interviews were conducted with: Mary Furlong Moskowitz, re: “Nora O’Leary Hogan, Life Interview at 82 Years Old”, and re: “Fr. Robert Hogan, Life Interview at 56 Years Old”. In-person interviews were with: Melinda Granadino-Mabulo, Narcis Velasco, Stanley Lee, Lilia Belangel, Salve Verdejo, Norie Vergara-Banan, Salve Verdejo, and Nancy Talay–Adan. Interview by email was with Cesar Belangel.

Special thanks to Lilia Belangel for the CD’s of the Interviews with Fr. Bob and his Mother Nora and the other documents in her personal collections; to Ms. Edna San Buenaventura , Aida Hontiveros of the O’Brien Library Archive Section and the Library staff, for the assistance in the conduct of this research, to the HRMO Office for the needed documents, to Deacon Stanley Lee of the Bicol CLC for all the support, to all the respondents of the interviews.