In preparation for the great Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola on July 31, the Ateneo community in Naga participated in a month-long celebration of Ignatian spirituality. Community members and the students were challenged to take part in a 31-day IGNATIUS DAILY which began with THE EXAMEN on Day 1, through SUSCIPE on Day 20 and onto IN OMNIBUS AMARE ET SERVIRE on Day 30.
The Society of Jesus in the Philippines celebrated the Solemnity of St. Ignatius province-wide at the Ateneo de Manila High School on 30 July 2023 with Fr. Primitivo E. Viray, Jr., SJ, Provincial Superior, as presider and Fr. Roberto E. N. Rivera, SJ, Ateneo de Naga University President. as homilist.
Leading up to the month long observance, the Ateneo de Naga commemorated milestones in its role in educational and spiritual development of the youth in Naga City in particular and in Bicol in general.
Groundbreaking at the Pacol Campus
June 23, 2003 was marked on the pages of the history of Ateneo de Naga as the day its High School moved to the new Pacol campus in upland Naga and welcomed the first girls as it turned coeducational 63 years after its foundation.
This momentous event was preceded with the groundbreaking ceremony held on 23 March 2002. It was graced by officials, staff, Jesuits, and alumni of the Ateneo University and High School, then city mayor Jesse Robredo, Mr. Eduardo Mercado and representatives of Laguna Properties Holdings, Inc., the joint donors of the 10-hectare land. Prior to the ceremony, there was a motorcade from the main Bagumbayan campus to Pacol.
Celebrating the 20th Year of the Junior High School
By Honesto S. Bermudo III, Ateneo de Naga Junior High School Facebook Page, June 22, 2023
Ateneo de Naga High School welcomes 186 girls in historic school opening rites.
All roads led to Barangay Pacol, Naga City for Ateneo de Naga High School’s historic Opening of Classes at that Monday in June 23, 2003! In fulfillment of what barely two years ago was just a dream, AdNU’s High School stood proud and tall on this day in its new sprawling 10-hectare campus fronting the Metro Naga Sports Complex, seven kilometers away from the Bagumbayan main campus. Eagerly, it welcomed its 1,535 students who this year opted to be part of this major move.
It was a day of many firsts! Ateneo de Naga High School was opening classes in Pacol for the first time! One hundred eighty-six girls joined a previously exclusive male population for the first time! And enrollment was the highest it had ever been in its 63 years of existence!
Private vehicles and public utility jeepneys bearing blue Ateneo flaglets trooped to Pacol in time for the 8:30 a.m. Schola Brevis. The first jeepney that left the Plaza Quezon terminal at 6 a.m. had thirteen students and three teachers on board. Ten minutes later, it arrived at the gate of the new campus.
For the first time in the 63-year history of the Ateneo de Naga High School, 186 girls donning white blouses with embroidered sleeves and checkered skirts joined the boys in the first Eucharistic Celebration held at the Covered Courts in their new home in Pacol. This time the girls were not visitors but officially enrolled high school students of AdNU’s High School. During the Holy Mass officiated by University President Fr. Joel E. Tabora, S.J., the girls were loudly applauded when Fr. Tabora requested them to stand up to be recognized.
Right after the mass, the introduction of school administrators, department chairs, faculty and staff immediately followed. In his Welcome Address, Mr. Gregorio Re Abonal, High School Principal, exhorted the high school community to take good care of God’s gift to them, namely, the High School Complex. He also expressed gratitude to the University President and the Board of Trustees for making Pacol Campus a reality. Acknowledged as well were the engineers and hundreds of workers who built the buildings across many days and nights without ceasing just so that classes could commence as scheduled.
The rest of the day was spent for the Main Building tour and homeroom sessions where guidelines for “The First Days in Pacol” were discussed. During the scheduled vacant periods of the students, the Covered Courts area was transformed into an instant picnic place as over a hundred parents, who had accompanied their sons and daughters on the occasion of this historic event, shared meals together.
A total of 1,535 students have enrolled this school year in 2003, the highest thus far in the history of Ateneo de Naga High School. This figure is 166, or 12% higher, than that of last school year’s 1,369. The second highest was in the school year 1993 – 1994 when Ateneo de Naga High School had 1,467 students. Of the 1,535 students, 494 are Freshmen, 415, Sophomores, 296, Juniors and 328, Seniors. Of the 494 Freshmen, 151 or 30% are girls while of the 415 Sophomores, 34 girls account for .08 % of the total number. The current Junior High School Principal is Fr. Martin A. Licup, SJ.
Welcoming the students at the main campus is a 9-foot statue of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Next to it is the soon to be finished St. Francis Xavier Chapel whose stained-glass altar with cascading waters on both sides is a sight to behold. In contrast to the “classic inspired” Four Pillars of the Main Building in Bagumbayan campus, the ones in Pacol campus are much taller and rectangular in shape, resembling computer microchips. Standing next to the main building is the Multi-Purpose Covered Courts with a seating capacity of 2,500. It also houses two cafeterias.
The top floor of the yet unnamed main building provides the students with a spectacular view of Mount Isarog National Park in the east and the historic Mount Tancong Vaca in the west. Among the features of the rectangular shaped 4-storey building are 54 classrooms, 8 science and computer laboratories, 2 reading laboratories, 2 audiovisual rooms, 1 seminar hall and a spacious library with OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) system.
The Bagumbayan campus may have been the bastion of boys of yesteryears, but the Pacol campus is now home of the young men and women of the future. In Bagumbayan, the high school spent 63 glorious years. In Pacol, it begins a new chapter amid much grandeur and the promise of more glory to come. For up high in Pacol, the space is boundless and the opportunities countless. To say that “the sky is the limit” is an understatement! From glory to God’s Glory, it shall go.
Recent Milestones:
ATENEO ROCK: On June 28, 2023, the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, the Ateneo community commemorated the 134th birthday of Msgr. PEDRO PAULO S. SANTOS, D.D., 31st Ordinary (Bishop) of Caceres and its 1st Archbishop. Bishop Santos, a Kapampangan, co-founded the Ateneo de Naga with Fr. Francis Burns S.J. in 1940. He was an alumnus of the San Jose Seminary ran by the Jesuits. Bishop Santos’ mortal remains are in the altar (right-side facing the crowd) of the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral.
EL PRIMERO: On July 2, 2023, the Ateneo community celebrated the 88th birthday of Rev. Fr. RAUL JACINTO BONOAN, SJ (3 July 1935–6 April 1999), first University President. He is best remembered for catapulting the Ateneo de Naga from a backwater college to its present university status, after he was missioned to close either the college or the high school because of financial woes in the 80’s. He rallied the changes that led to a turnaround and expansion instead, initially making Ateneo land 18th among the Best Colleges & Universities in the Philippines.
CURA PERSONALIS: Fr. MICHAEL F. ROONEY, SJ (July 10, 1938 – April 3, 2006) was the well-loved Director of Guidance of the Ateneo de Naga High School, minister to the inmates of the local city jail, and pastor to many Ateneans and their families. He was laid to rest at the Jesuit Cemetery which lies between the University Church and the Jesuit Residence in the Bagumbayan main campus. He was the first Jesuit to be buried in Naga, and the last American Jesuit in Naga. The Junior High School Building built in 2002 is named after him. He was best remembered for the rare feat of knowing all the students and calling them by their family name. He was loved for his pastoral work by doing home visits to students and employees of the school.
References and photos: Ateneo de Naga High School Facebook page