Filipino priests’ home in Rome needs repairs

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle: Appeal for support. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines–Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle is appealing to the Catholic faithful to support a global campaign to raise funds and refurbish the crumbling Pontifico Collegio Filippino, the “Home in Rome” to Filipino diocesan priests.

“The restoration of the Collegio will help preserve the environment of excellence it has established through the years, a quality that would redound to the entire Catholic community,” Tagle said in a statement.

Inaugurated in 1959, the four-story structure outside the Vatican walls—known officially as the Pontifical College Seminary of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage—on Via Aurelia in Rome “is in pretty bad shape,” according to CBCP News, the official news service of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

Quoting the Collegio’s rector, Fr. Gregory Ramon Gaston, the CBCP said the building’s pipelines and heating system were in bad need of an upgrade, while its dilapidated walls and cracked floors were in need of major repair.

The high construction cost in Europe, however, was a “major concern,” said Gaston, who added that the subsidy the Collegio received from residents’ lodging fees and guests’ donations were just enough to cover its daily operations.

Highlighting the importance of the Collegio and how it helped support the life of the Church, Gaston said it had produced more than 500 alumni, many of whom were bishops, archbishops and papal nuncios who later became professors and members of the Diocesan Curia.

They also served in specialized ministries such as communications and school systems, Gaston added.

“It takes two to four years for Filipino priests to obtain their ecclesiastical degrees, and after completing their formation, they return to their home dioceses to work with the bishops and to train future priests in seminaries,” Gaston said.