UST grad wants to relive experience during Pope’s meeting with students

Arturo Bustria, a retired IBM Corp. executive now based in the United States, was at the event in 1970 when Pope Paul VI (in photo) visited the University of Santo Tomas. He wishes to be there again when Pope Francis comes to the campus in January. AFP FILE PHOTO

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines—The news about Pope Francis’ scheduled meeting with students of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila next month has excited Arturo Bustria, a retired IBM Corp. executive now based in the United States.

Bustria, 65, was at the event in 1970 when Pope Paul VI visited the university. He wishes to be there again when Pope Francis comes to the campus.

Francis, the third pope to visit the country, is scheduled to address some 24,000 students on Jan. 18, the fourth day of his five-day visit to the country.

Bustria, in an e-mail to the Inquirer, said he was planning to return to the Philippines to attend Pope Francis’ visit to UST and join in the celebration.

Bustria, who lives with his family in Los Angeles, California, migrated to the US in early 1973, almost two years after his graduation from UST in 1971.

More than joining the celebration, a homecoming to his alma mater during the papal visit may be a good opportunity for him to reminisce about his close encounter with a former leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

As president of the UST Central Board of Students then, Bustria delivered the welcome address on behalf of Filipino students during Pope Paul VI’s visit to the university on Nov. 28, 1970.

Bustria said he felt honored and blessed, but nervous, at the time.

“After my speech, I knelt before the Holy Father and kissed his hand and papal ring. As I kissed the ring, he placed his hands over my head and gave me his blessing,” said Bustria.

“To me, it was a very solemn celebration, a wonderful experience, very touching and deeply spiritual,” he said.

Pope Paul VI then handed him a St. Christopher medallion, which he still has among the other souvenirs he got from the papal visit.

Bustria’s short part at that event made him one of the more recognizable student leaders of the time.

To this day, he said, his elementary and high school classmates and contemporaries from this city remind him of the event during reunions.

But after that short meeting with Paul VI, Bustria said the Vatican did not communicate with him again.–Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern

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