Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, shown attending a 2017 meeting on migrants and refugees at the Vatican, is remembered as a down-to-earth priest by a former seminary student now living in Vancouver. (CNA photo)
Special to The B.C. Catholic
From his earliest days as a young priest, Filipino
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle has juggled multiple roles and assignments. Among
them: he was spiritual director at the seminary of the Diocese of Imus and
twice served as rector. During those years he touched the minds, hearts and
lives of countless seminarians under his charge, at least one of whom now calls
Vancouver home.
Cecil Quitasol attended Home of the Good
Shepherd seminary of the Diocese of Imus for part of his formation from 1989 to
1992. Then-Father Tagle returned to the seminary in 1992 after studying for his
doctorate in the United States. He also lived in the Good Shepherd Formation
Home and served as spiritual director for the seminarians.
Even before Quitasol met Father Tagle he knew
all about him because “he was a famous part of the community.” The main reason
for his “fame” was his charism. “His approach is different from other
formators,” Quitasol recalled.
As a formator, Father Tagle “did not separate himself as an authority.” He dined with the seminarians, talked to them as if he was speaking to brothers, and encouraged the seminarians to call him by his life-long nickname “Chito.”
Similarly he was on a first-name basis with the seminary’s housekeeping staff: gardeners, cooks, and kitchen staff. “He knew them well,” Quitasol recalled adding that it was easy to joke with “Chito” as they would joke with each other.
“This was somewhat unusual [back then]; priests had their own place, separate from seminarians,” the former student said. Father Tagle’s unique approach extended beyond the seminary dining room.
In the classroom, according to Quitasol, Father Tagle was a gifted teacher. “He taught ecclesiology. The classroom accommodated 60 to 70 students. It was always full when he was teaching. Even people who were not taking the class, other professors, would come to listen,” Quitasol said, adding that he himself sat on the floor or stood at the back to hear Father Tagle teach the class even though he had already completed ecclesiology.
The young professor used humour and simple examples “to make us understand anything under the sun.”
Students saw Father Tagle’s holiness as a spiritual director shining through his approach to them. “Our idea of holiness is prayer. His holiness is a life of service and prayer,” Quitasol said.
“He is so human. You can approach spiritual direction from above, or below. He starts from the person,” Quitasol recalled. “He has deep understanding of how it is to be human. He always cried with us because he is touched by the human experience.”
This approach to spiritual direction made it easy for Quitasol and his fellow seminarians to be open and honest with Father Tagle. “There was no condemnation. We would not hesitate to share our deepest, darkest things because we knew he would listen and understand.”
Despite being someone whose reputation preceded him because of his approach to formation, his academic abilities, and his method of spiritual direction, Father Tagle was “always just a person in the crowd.” Quitasol said he remembers Father Tagle just wanted to be “behind the curtain, working in the shadow, not showing himself to people, not being seen.”
Quitasol was ordained to the priesthood but eventually discerned that he should not be a priest. He is currently in the process of being laicized, but says his formation under Cardinal Tagle ingrained in him values that cannot be erased.
He said, “being formed in that community, with a leader like him, implanted the value that I believe I have to work hard to do what I know is proper.”
Cardinal Tagle will be speaking at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on March 19. Click here for tickets and more information.