CATHOLIC bishops paid tribute to Bishop Julio Xavier Labayen, OCD, who for many years served the cause of the poor. Labayen, 89, passed away at 6:52 a.m. on Wednesday at a hospital in Manila, where he was confined.
Caceres Archbishop Rolando Tria Tirona said Labayen offered his 60 years of priestly ministry serving the marginalized and fighting for the protection of the environment.
“He lived a dedicated life serving and loving the Church, especially the poor,” said Tirona, who currently chairs the bishops’ National Secretariat for Social Action-Justice and Peace (Nassa), which Labayen served as its first national director.
“The Church has been blessed with the person and ministry of Bishop Labayen, especially his vision of the Church of the Poor,” he said.
Born on July 23, 1926, in Talisay, Negros Occidental, Labayen was ordained as priest of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCD) on July 4, 1955. Together with Fr. Bernard Ybiernas-Mapa and late Fr. Anselm Cañonero, they were the first Filipino OCD priests, and had their formation in Washington, D.C.
Eleven years later, on July 26, 1966, he was appointed prelate of the Prelature of Infanta, where he served for almost 50 years. Also in 1966 he published Impact, a magazine that braved the suppressed media during martial law.
Fr. Eliseo Mercado, a known peace advocate, said the prelate was among the Church’s towering figures in the struggle against martial law “from the beginning to the end.”
“Post-martial law, he remained the strong voice against abuses of human rights, a prophetic voice for genuine land reform, and a voice for true and equitable share in the wealth of the nation,” Mercado said.
History has it that Labayen was among, if not its principal figure, the famed “Magnificent 7,” a group of proactive Catholic bishops who fearlessly denounced relentlessly President Marcos’s martial rule.
Labayen was also the first national director of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Commission on Social Action Justice and Peace from 1966 to 1982. According to Mercado the prelate was one of the pioneers for the Basic Christian Community-Community Organizing (BCC-CO) in the Philippine Church.
He said many bishops then were “fearful” of the BCC-CO and substituted it with Basic Ecclesial Community “putting back the bishops and the clergy at the center of the BEC to ward off their perceived ‘leftist penetration’ of the Church.”
However, the priest said Labayen “remained steadfast in the BCC-CO that truly empowers the laypeople in both the governance of the Church, as well as in the celebration of the sacraments.”
In 2014 the prelate was conferred the Gawad Kagitingan national award during the 106th anniversary of the Philippine Independence at the Monument of Heroes in Quezon City.
Despite his retirement as prelate of Infanta, Quezon, in 2003, Labayen did not stop in his struggle for the promotion of a spirituality that is rooted and lived in the humanity of each person, particularly the poor. During the Arroyo administration, the indefatigable radical in Labayen made him even more visible in almost every forum amid the wrenching national issues and problems besetting the country.
On November 29, 2007, Labayen, and Bishop Antonio Tobias were among those arrested for allegedly joining the mutineers who held out at a hotel in Makati City while calling for withdrawal of support for Arroyo.
The two were released by the authorities the following day.
Current Infanta Prelate Bernardino Cortez said Labayen’s life has been a blessing to many people he served for many years.
“The prelature is thankful to all those who became part of the life of Bishop Labayen,” Cortez said.
Labayen’s wake started on Wednesday evening at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in New Manila, Quezon City. Labayen’s body will be brought to the Alagad Ni Maria Seminary in Antipolo City, on Monday morning. He will be buried on Tuesday, after the 10 a.m. Mass.
Roy Lagarde/CBCPNews and OCD
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