BRIEF HISTORY OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
A. THE BEGINNINGS
The early part of 1987 saw the archbishop of Palo, the Most Reverend Pedro R. Dean, along with the administration and faculty of the Sacred Heart Seminary, in a quandary. They had just received the bad news that starting the academic year 1987-1988, the Seminario Mayor de San Carlos of Cebu, the theological seminary to where Palo had been dispatching most of her seminarians for theological studies, was finally closing her doors to Palo, a former Cebu suffragan. The reason was that there was no more room for seminarians of dioceses not belonging to the Cebu Metropolitan Province.
Seminario Mayor de San Carlos was not alone in sending Palo these bad signals, the other seminaries like Our Lady of Angels Seminary in Novaliches, Quezon City, as well as St. Augustine Major Seminary in Tagaytay City had informed the archbishop that they were limiting the entrants due to lack of space. UST Central Seminary and San Jose Seminary, in particular, had long been accepting very limited number –only one or two- from their sending seminaries.
Naturally, this caught the Archdiocese of Palo by surprise. By 1987 there were 18 seminarian-alumni of Sacred Heart Seminary ready for theological studies. Eight of them came from the archdiocese, while the rest came from suffragan dioceses of Samar (Borongan, Calbayog, and Catarman). It became a problem in looking for a way to make the incoming school year fruitful to these seminarians, and not be put to waste. To keep them busy, the seminarians were dispatched to places within the diocese. They took up related subjects in St. Peter’s College in Ormoc City. They helped out in the parishes in whatever way they could. By the end of the first semester, some went to the Focolare Community in Tagaytay City.
Meanwhile, the suffragan dioceses tried to remedy the situation by putting up their own formation houses but without much success. It was under these circumstances that the Archbishop of Palo decided to establish a theologate. Since there was not a single centavo to start such a gigantic task, the archbishop had to borrow from the bank a sufficient amount that would start the project, along with the plan to seek financial assistance at some funding institutions in Germany and Italy.
On March 22, 1988, a modest crowd gathered at the easternmost side of the playcourts of the Sacred Heart Seminary. The occasion was the laying of the cornerstone for the future theologate. It, too, was reckoned as the official launching of the fundraising campaign in support of the project. By the end of July 1988, the fist half of the necessary structure was finished and was ready to welcome the first group of formands. Twenty-eight young men from the dioceses of the metropolitan province began to fill the yet-unfinished building.
On August 5, 1988, the half-finished structure was blessed by Archbishop Dean in a simple but solemn ceremony, and in the presence of the suffragan bishops of the Metropolitan province of Palo: Bishop Maximiano Cruz of Calbayog, Bishop Leonardo Medroso of Borongan, Bishop Angel Hobayan of Catarman, and Bishop Filomeno Bactol, Auxiliary Bishop of Palo. It was also on this occasion that the pioneer formators were installed into office: Msgr. Benjamin Bacierra, Rector, Father Joseph Cesar Diamante, Procurator, and Father Romeo Murillo, Spiritual Director.
By the early part of 1990, the construction of the seminary building and an octagon-shaped two-storey edifice (the second floor serving as the chapel) was completed. The official building and inauguration of the whole complex took place on February 21, 1991, the date of the Archbishop’s 61st birthday. Archbishop Dean himself presided over the rites of blessing, and the pontifical mass, with the suffragan bishops of the metropolitan province (which at this time already included the Diocese of Naval, with Bishop Filomeno Bactol as the ordinary), the clergy of Palo, and a good number of lay faithful in attendance.
B. THE NAME
At first it was agreed that the name of the theologate would simply be “Sacred Heart Seminary, Theology Department,” making the theologate a new department for the mother seminary. However, in due time, it was experiencing communication-related problems. So, in 1990 the theology department was officially christened, St. John the Evangelist School of Theology, after the writer of the Fourth Gospel. The theologian-evangelist has since become the theologate’s patron and protector.
But it took some time, however, before the theologate officially and legally became a separate entity from the Sacred Heart Seminary. It was on January 28, 1998 that it was duly registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission under the registration number C199800079.
C. FACULTY DEVELOPMENT
St. John the Evangelist School of Theology is presently staffed by a faculty with sufficient academic preparation. Since 1985 Archbishop Dean has been encouraging some of his priests to go on study leave and come back armed with licentiate and doctoral degrees. The archbishop has not ceased sending people abroad for further theological training, and with the view of assigning them a teaching job in the theologate. There are, by far, fourteen priests from the archdiocese holding doctoral degrees either in theology, Philosophy or Canon Law, not to mention, too, of the priest-doctors from the suffragan dioceses working in the seminary as guest-professors.
D. GRADUATE DEGREE IN THEOLOGY
On January 23, 2001, and after eleven years of offering theology courses, SJEST was granted by the Commission on Higher Education a permit to offer the Master’s degree in theology. On March 23, 2002 during the graduation ceremonies, ten students received their diplomas from Most Reverend Jose Palma, Bishop of Calbayog. These students became the SJEST’s first batch of graduates of the degree, Master of Arts in Theology.
It was on June 14, 2002 that SJEST was awarded the full government recognition. Based on the document, the recognition to conduct the MA Program was effective Academic Year 2001-2002. By this grant, the Graduate School of Theology is now configured as a unit of SJEST, and its aim is to provide quality theological training to seminarians, religious and laity from the Eastern Visayas and from other parts of the country.