DESPITE the rains and the weird and intimidating surges of insistent rainfall, August is a month to be remembered by Baguio’s Catholic Clergy and the Baguio residents in whose minds and hearts still linger memories of the goodness and kindness of a foreign missionary called Father Willy or, Monsignor William Brasseur, the last Belgian Bishop of the Montañosa.
Bishop Willy or William as he was often addressed was ordained Titular Bishop of Agathonica on August 24, 1948. That was seventy long years ago.
His Excellency Msgr. O. Dougherty of Manila, assisted by Bishop Santiago Sancho and Bishop Constant Jurgens of Tuguegarao, led the ceremony where many confreres and a big number of people attended amidst the extremely inclement weather of August. The procession of the clergy from the Bishop’s House to the Cathedral was escorted by the Boy Scouts of the Philippines in Baguio, and the cadets of then, Saint Louis School.
The following day, August 25th, at eight o’clock in the morning, the Bishop sang a Pontifical Mass. August is a rainy month with weird surges of rainfall and storms, but on the bright side, it is a month too of good people who filled our lives with memories of hope, cooperation and progress for the Montañosa or now called Cordillera.
As first Vicar Apostolic of the Mountain Provinces, he was officially installed on the 7th of November, 1948, which function he carried for the next thirty three years and beyond, doing much service to our people until his last days in the year 1993.
As Bishop, he adopted a coat of arms with the words Anima Una, meaning, One Soul, his motto which expresses his desire for oneness, brotherhood and cooperation for all the missionaries in the local church of the region comprising at that time, Baguio City, Benguet, Ifugao, Bontoc, and Kalinga-Apayao. His coat of arms shows five peaks representing the five sub-provinces of the Montañosa then. The heart is borrowed from the coat of arms of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) to which he is affiliated.
Bishop William’s talents and skills as leader, organizer, administrator and visionary were manifested and widely acknowledged as he started organizing the Vicariate. He addressed the need to develop a strong local church that would someday be self-sufficient, first, by making himself unnecessary. He set out to prepare and develop a strong laity among the mountain people. At that time, the church was largely supported by people from Europe who extended significant financial assistance through Bishop William.
He opened as many high schools in the Vicariate as possible for the education of the people and encouraged as many missionaries as he could to open paths for students, leading to a vocation in the priesthood. He sought scholarships for those who chose to enter the seminary, especially those who were financially hard-up. This resulted in a good number of seminarians pushing through with their studies to become diocesan priests. Recruitment and formation of the native clergy was his priority and it was only in the 1970s that he allowed recruitment for the CICM group in the Vicariate.
To this last Belgian Bishop, Monsignor William Brasseur, we owe thanks for giving us a long line of local priests, some of whom became Bishops too! May their tribe increase and multiply! Thank you Bishop Willy!
And Baguio, I love you!