BISHOP FELIX P. PEREZ, D.D
A SIMPLE AND HUMBLE MAN OF GOD
The disappearance of the Soledad in 1984 traumatized the Virgin’s devotees. But it brought out an otherwise unknown historical aspect regarding the icon.
When the picture was removed by the robbers from its Frame and stretcher. Found written at the back was following: “A doze de Abril 1692 años Juan de oliba Puso esta Stma. Ymagen Haqui”. this means. “This sacred image was palace here by Juan Oliba on April 12,1692.”
For the first time, t here was actual evidence as to when the virgin was enthroned at the altar of the Ermita de Porta Vaga in 17th century. However, this did not give the other needed information of Her exact date of arrival in the Philippine Shores. But this significant discovery was more than what her devotees could ask for.
Keeping this important date in mind, sometime in 1989, the Most Rev. Felix P. Perez D.D., the second Bishop of Imus, conceived by the idea of celebrating the tri-Centennial anniversary of Her enthronement. It was just fitting, he thought, that this should be done.
Even as a child, Bishop Perez was already a faithful devotee of Our Lady of Solitude. His mother, Doña Rosario Paz de Perez y Hidalgo used to bring him along to attend the fiesta celebration of the Soledad. Which was held every second Sunday of November:
Mother and son would take the vapor Yanco for the hour-long trip to Cavite Puerto From the Muelle de la Industria. The boat would dock at pantalan de Yangco, located just behind the Sanctuario de la Soledad. The son would never forget these memorable pilgrimages during the fiestas of Cavite with his saintly mother and would even enhance his own devotion as he grew older. Later as Bishop of Cavite he did everything to revive the devotion to the Virgen de la Soledad which had then faded after World War II. Moreover, whenever he had problems. He would visit San Roque Church and kneel to pray before the icon of the Soledad even at late hours of the night.
As a fervent Marian devotee, Bishop Perez would go to Antipolo, Naga or Cavite City to pray and pay homage to Our Lady. For the Soledad, he did everything possible to promote further the veneration to Her. In 1974 for instance, while the board of Consultors of the Diocese of Imus was deliberating on the name of the new seminary. Msgr. Mojica suggested it the name of Our Lady of Porta Vaga Seminary. However because of the new type of formation for priesthood as envisioned by Bishop Perez, he decided it would best be named Tahanan ng Mabuting Pastol at Tagaytay City. On the other hand, he proclaimed that the Soledad would be the patroness of the seminary chapel in 1975. On the occasion of the inauguration of the seminary, the Jesuit fathers gifted him with an 18th century print of the Soledad which used to be in the Jesuit College of Cavite.
In 1978, Bishop Perez requested Rome to allow the Canonical Coronation of the Virgin. He was consistently a part of yearly celebration of Her fiesta and after the recovery of the icon. He initiated its visit to different parts of the province of Cavite and the Misa de Gracia on the Friday before her fiesta as an act of thanksgiving for her return.
THE YOUNG FELIX
The Most Rev. Felix P. Perez, D.D. was born to Don Fernando Perez y Canon, a Spaniard and Doña Rosario Paz de Perez y Hidalgo, a Spanish meztiza at Plaza del Carmen, Quiapo, Manila on July 7, 1920. His father, Don Fernando, was the son of a Spanish army officer in Quezon and a nephew of the famous guitarist and revolutionary, Fernando Canon. His mother, Doña Rosario, was niece of the foremost Filipino painter and patriot, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, after whom the bishop was named.
Even as a young boy of seven. Felix already showed signs of his desire to become a priest. He had a great grand uncle, Fr. Sabino Padilla, who has a canon of the Manila Cathedral Chapter. Felix grandmother, Doña Rosario Resureccion Hidalgo, a sister of the famous painter would watch him play “saying Mass.” To encourage him, she would give him a whole set of Mass paraphernalia such as a chasuble cut from newspapers and for the communion hosts, “paciencia” bread. His brothers and sisters, Lourdes, Antonio, Estrella and Eduardo would “come for communion.”
Felix would serve as an acolyte at San Sebastian church which was just a stone’s throw from their house. After he received his first communion, Felix assisted as sacristan and rarely missed daily mass up to his college days. Thus the priesthood beckoned to the boy Felix even at this very early age.
Felix went to De La Salle University at Taft Avenue from prep to college. After graduation from high school, he sought the permission of his father to enter the seminary but the latter thought that he was too young to make such a serious decision. Don Fernando was likewise worried that his son might have been influenced to enter the seminary because of the prodding of the La Salle brothers. Instead he advised his son to take a college course and make the decision later in 1942. Felix finished his Bachelor of science in commerce at La Salle.
Felix’s parents were against his entering the seminary at such an early age because they felt that not only that was he still too young, but also they thought it was like losing their son. They therefore kept on stalling him.
My mother was worried,” recalls Estrella. “She would tell him, ‘as a diocesan priest, who will take care of you when I die? When you get sick, what will happen?’ Mother felt that unlike members of a religious order where the congregation would take care of their members, diocesan priests were left on their own.”
THE WAR YEARS
During the Second World War, the Perez family remained in Manila. Life became difficult. To lessen his parent’s burden, Felix worked as a young bodegero for NARIC at Azcarraga. The years he spent working here enabled Felix to know firsthand the hardships and pains of the ordinary working man which would later show in his consistent concern for the marginalized sectors of society: the workers and the poor. This experience also proved helpful in that as Bishop of Imus, He would listen with the compassion to plight of the workers and he himself would bring their problems to management.
Also during the war Felix, together with his father, were imprisoned at Fort Santiago on suspicious of sympathizing with the Americans. While inside their prison cell, Felix arduously prayed to the Virgin Mary with his father: his cousin the former Senator Manuel Manahan; and other fellow prisoners like Hans Menzi of the Manila Bulletin and other notable personalities of Manila they would make rosary knots out of strands of threads from their towels. They prayed together daily to sustain them in their sufferings and this lasted throughout their prison days, a total of three months for Felix, longer for his father who has released after seven months. The Bishop would later recount the prisoner of Fort Santiago became so prayerful that even Hans Menzi himself who was a protestant was converted and baptized a Catholic after his release .
Felix’s experience left a deep imprint on him both as an ordinary man and later on as Man of God.According to Msgr. Nico Bautista, another incident which tremendously affected Felix happened during the liberation.
Antonio, Felix’s brother, died in a landmine left by the Japanese at Fort McKinley. It was Felix who undertook the painful duty of picking up the bloodied and mangled part of his brother’s body. This experience must have stirred him tremendously so that by 1946, Felix was determined to finally enter the seminary.
THE PRIESTHOOD
After the war, with the vocation for the priesthood getting stronger, Felix finally decided to quietly leave his parents’ home for the San Carlos Seminary. By this time he was already 26 years old.
“When he decided to go,” recalls Lourdes “Luding” Perez del Rosario, his eldest sister, “Li did not say goodbye to any of us.” The nickname “Li” was given to Felix by Butch. His eldest nephew and confirmation godson, who as toddler could not pronounce his name but only Tito Li. The name stuck. “He just waved a silent goodbye to me.” Adds Lurding. She would find out that his brother left their home without even a toothbrush, mosquito net nor a pillow. These are items provided by the families of seminarians.
His sudden departure disappointed Felix’ parents. “My mother would not go see him for two years,” explains Lurding. “I would visit every Sunday bringing him goodies and to have his clothes laundried.” It was when he was ordained as a priest on April 9, 1955, after years of formation, that both Felix’s father and mother already accepted their son’s vocation. They attended his ordination officiated by the late Rufino Cardinal Santos in the chapel of San Carlos Seminary. With his parents blessing, it was one of the happiest days for Reverend Father Felix Perez. The very next day, he said his first mass at the Sacred Heart Parish at Sta. Mesa with Chito, one of his nieces, receiving her first Holy Communion.
Immediately after his ordination, Fr. Felix Perez was assigned as assistant parish priest of San Miguel Pro-Cathedral. Concurrent of his duties as pastor, he was made financial secretary at the Arzobispado de Manila since he was an accountant. Later he served as an assistant parish priest of Balic-balic.
Father Perez also became parish priest of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Quezon city, succeeding the very popular Rev.Fr. John Delaney. He became the professor and chaplain of his alma mater De La Salle University. “It was while he was at UP that I used to pass for his laundry every Saturday to bring to my mother’s house.” reminisces Estrella. “I liked doing it because the road to U.P. was smooth and it was a reason for me to see and talk to him.”
The peak of Fr. Perez religious calling came on May 27, 1969 when Pope Paul VI appointed him as the second Bishop of Imus. He was consecrated as Bishop by Rufino Cardinal Santos (who ordained him as a priest) together with Bishop Amado Paulino at the Manila Cathedral.
Lurding recalls that at first, her Brother had a hard time in Cavite being a non-Caviteño but he persisted and eventually served as Bishop of the Diocese for twenty-three years, until his timely death on February 29,1992 at the De La Salle University Hospital in Dasmarinas, Cavite
He was Truly a Bishop for the poor,” fondly says Lurding. “My impression of him was that he was always happy in the company oh the poor. Rather than the rich with whom he did not feel at ease. Of course he liked his classmate at La Salle but he rarely socialized with them. He would visit his well-to-do classmates, who became business tycoons, whenever he needed funds for his seminarians. Even if they were in the middle of a board meeting, Li, as a Bishop, would drop by. He would not leave their meeting unless they issued him a check, mostly in the six figures at least,’’ she amusedly recalls.
‘’Even my children could never say no to him,’’ narrates Lurding especially when it came to getting items from her house which he would eventually pass on his poor seminarians. ‘’One time I remember looking for a night lamp and my children told me that their Uncle Li asked for it. I was not informed of its disappearance until I would look for it. When he asked for our poll table, we give it; only to find out he again passed it on to his seminarians. Everything we would give him, he gave to his priests in need.’’
Bishop Perez, who disliked loud persons, also had no patience for those who talked nonsense. But when it concerned the poor, his patience knew no bounds He would go out of his way, no matter how late or tired he was, to bless the house of their household cook, for instance. It was already ten in the evening on the day of the said blessing and apparently, the cook’s family thought he had forgotten them. He still went His simplicity in lifestyle extended to sitting beside the family drive on trips.
‘’I even lost a good driver because of him,” she adds. “It seems in one of their trips, he convinced my driver to go back home to the province to be with his family. He obeyed the Bishop and left me without a driver for a while,” says the proprietor of the popular Makati City restaurant, El Comedor.
When Lurding became a window after sixteen years of a happy married life, it was the Bishop who consoled her and her children. They were not afraid of him, for he always joked with them. “Even now that he is no longer around, I would pray to him.’’
THE BEST SON, THE BEST BROTHER
Bishop Perez was considered the best son and the best brother by his family. Before his mother died, he never failed to regularly visit at her sick bed just to hold her hand, sit beside her to make conversation, and of course, to say Mass. She passed away at age 98, three months before the Bishop himself died. The mother who was worried and hesitant for her son’s entering the priesthood because no one would take care of him when she passed away, followed her soon after. His own father had died years earlier, just after the couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.
Even in the eyes of his fellow clergy, Bishop Felix Perez was held in high esteem.
Fr. Manny Colmenar, an alumnus of the Our Lady of the Pillar seminary which the Bishop himself started, feels fortunate to have known him for almost ten years.
‘’As a person,’’ says Fr. Colmenar, ‘’he was really open, Frank about what he felt, and could readily tell you what he liked and disliked. He would tell us that even if some priests have gone astray or lost their path, he always went out of his way to reach out to them.’’
Monsignor Nico Bautista clearly describes him as a very humble man of God.
’Although the good Bishop came from the illustrados of old Manila. He chose to live the life of low profile and obscure priest. Even when he became a Bishop, he preferred to stand quietly in the background. He loathed the limelight.” Msgr. Bautista likewise observed that he would only wear his full Episcopal attire during the “Ad Limina” visits to Rome. Otherwise, he would be seen in his barong and Sandals.
For his part, Bishop Claver saw his colleague as “a simple man of simple tastes and simple needs, who abhorred any fussing in his regard. His self – effacing nature made him non-confrontational in his dealings with people. Still, he did not run away from unpleasantness. He was too honest not to recognize evil where there was evil and not face it squarely. Because he was that kind of man, he suffered much, very much – even from the very Church he was unreservedly dedicated to serving.”
“If any man had reason to be a bitter, disillusioned ecclesiastic, it was he. It is a measure of his greatness of spirit that he bore no lasting ill will towards those who had wronged him. Not that he would not complain about them. He did. But in the end, his enormous capacity for humor would have him laughing at himself even at his own expense. A saving grace, that capacity. And he never lost it even in the grimmest of situations.”
As a Filipino, Bishop Perez was a very nationalistic man. He loved his country so much that he would say his homilies even in faulty Tagalog. He was more at home in English and Spanish. He was also quite articulate regarding abuses in government.
Msgr. Bautista once wrote that during the reign of the Dictator, seven Bishops of the Philippines made the heroic stand against martial rule. They became known as “The Magnificent Seven.” One of these was Bishop Felix Paz Perez of the Diocese of Imus.
THE LAST DAYS
On the aspect of how her brother’s health eventually deteriorated, Lurding can only remember that he was always in a hurry and how tired he often became. “He wanted to be released of some of his duties but it could not be. He had so many activities. He had a heavy figure and his doctors always advised him to observe his diet. He was fond of fish and whenever he came to El Comedor or to my house here in Makati, we would always pack food for him to bring home.”
Bishop Perez had excitedly awaited the visit of the Black Nazarene to Cavite, one of the last activities of the tri-centennial anniversary celebration of the Nuestra Señora de la Soledad de Porta Vaga which he initiated.
“One of his priests told me that on the day of the visit, he was at the coastal road in the early morning for the welcome ceremony,” recounts Lurding. “He later rushed to San Roque Church for the Salubong. He was so excited of the visit because his two favorite devotions, the Black Nazarene and the Soledad, were meeting at his diocese for the first time in their history.” Three days later, due to stress from his numerous duties and concerns, he went into a coma and was brought to the University Medical Center in Dasmariñas.
On the third day after he went into a coma, the historic icon of the Virgen de la Soledad was brought by Msgr. Godoy, Tony Nazareno, Monching De Leon, and Ghit Perello to his hospital bed. They placed it on his lap with his limp hand resting on top of it. At 2:15 p.m., February 29, 1992, Bishop Felix Perez slipped away quietly and unobtrusively, just the way he lived his seventy-one full years of service to God and his people. He passed away touching the most venerated image of his favorite devotion, the Lady of Solitude.
The Bishop’s remains were laid in state at the chapel of his residence. Four big candles kept vigil day and night with a bouquet of white orchids surrounding his casket.
On the day of his interment, bishops, sisters, diocesan and religious priests, all paid homage to this very humble and simple Man of God. Thousands came to pay their last respects.
In his homily during the funeral mass, Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin described him as one who “was ahead of his time, a man of vision, a man of persistent truthfulness and zealous love for what is right and just.” The Apostolic Nuncio, the Most Reverend Gian Vincenzo Moreni, read the papal message of condolence.
After the mass, the Bishop’s remains were brought in solemn procession around the Imus Cathedral to the crypt at the side of the building. The funeral entourage passed through the plaza of the cathedral in order to enable the huge number of people who could not get inside to see for the last time the remains of their beloved pastor. As the priests carrying his casket passed them by, the faithful which easily numbered in the thousands broke into continuous thunderous farewell applause. In his final resting place as in during his wake, the icon of the Soledad never left his side. During the internment it was placed in a niche atop his tomb, looking down on him.
Before he went into a coma, Bishop Perez was supposed to give a talk to the seminarians of Tahanan ng Mabuting Pastol, the diocesan seminary of Cavite. After he died, when his room was opened by the priest in charge, he found on the Bishop’s desk notes which he had scribbled for his talk. Aptly ahead of his time as always, his last meditations reflected the legacy of a holy life fully dedicated to serve an ultimate purpose—to live and to die for Christ and the people. The following are excerpts from that meditation:
“Death for Christ is life for the people. This pure and seeming contradiction is indeed a paradox… and many time an absurdity to die is to live…
“Absurdity if there is no intentionality; but for me, my reason for dying is for Jesus and the people. Therefore, my reason for living is for the same Jesus and the people… whom I have loved. The pristine example is unless a grain of wheat dies, it cannot have life.
“Death is the end of my earthly existence. All are decreed to die. Who of you can say, I will not die?
“The tragedy of death is if it has no end. But birth ends in death and death ends to give birth… A change of my existence to a new and better life.
“The more we are attached to this life, the more we fear death. To die for Christ is to give life to the people.”
The disappearance of the Soledad in 1984 traumatized the Virgin’s devotees. But it brought out an otherwise unknown historical aspect regarding the icon.
When the picture was removed by the robbers from its Frame and stretcher. Found written at the back was following: “A doze de Abril 1692 años Juan de oliba Puso esta Stma. Ymagen Haqui”. this means. “This sacred image was palace here by Juan Oliba on April 12,1692.”
For the first time, t here was actual evidence as to when the virgin was enthroned at the altar of the Ermita de Porta Vaga in 17th century. However, this did not give the other needed information of Her exact date of arrival in the Philippine Shores. But this significant discovery was more than what her devotees could ask for.
Keeping this important date in mind, sometime in 1989, the Most Rev. Felix P. Perez D.D., the second Bishop of Imus, conceived by the idea of celebrating the tri-Centennial anniversary of Her enthronement. It was just fitting, he thought, that this should be done.
Even as a child, Bishop Perez was already a faithful devotee of Our Lady of Solitude. His mother, Doña Rosario Paz de Perez y Hidalgo used to bring him along to attend the fiesta celebration of the Soledad. Which was held every second Sunday of November:
Mother and son would take the vapor Yanco for the hour-long trip to Cavite Puerto From the Muelle de la Industria. The boat would dock at pantalan de Yangco, located just behind the Sanctuario de la Soledad. The son would never forget these memorable pilgrimages during the fiestas of Cavite with his saintly mother and would even enhance his own devotion as he grew older. Later as Bishop of Cavite he did everything to revive the devotion to the Virgen de la Soledad which had then faded after World War II. Moreover, whenever he had problems. He would visit San Roque Church and kneel to pray before the icon of the Soledad even at late hours of the night.
As a fervent Marian devotee, Bishop Perez would go to Antipolo, Naga or Cavite City to pray and pay homage to Our Lady. For the Soledad, he did everything possible to promote further the veneration to Her. In 1974 for instance, while the board of Consultors of the Diocese of Imus was deliberating on the name of the new seminary. Msgr. Mojica suggested it the name of Our Lady of Porta Vaga Seminary. However because of the new type of formation for priesthood as envisioned by Bishop Perez, he decided it would best be named Tahanan ng Mabuting Pastol at Tagaytay City. On the other hand, he proclaimed that the Soledad would be the patroness of the seminary chapel in 1975. On the occasion of the inauguration of the seminary, the Jesuit fathers gifted him with an 18th century print of the Soledad which used to be in the Jesuit College of Cavite.
In 1978, Bishop Perez requested Rome to allow the Canonical Coronation of the Virgin. He was consistently a part of yearly celebration of Her fiesta and after the recovery of the icon. He initiated its visit to different parts of the province of Cavite and the Misa de Gracia on the Friday before her fiesta as an act of thanksgiving for her return.
THE YOUNG FELIX
The Most Rev. Felix P. Perez, D.D. was born to Don Fernando Perez y Canon, a Spaniard and Doña Rosario Paz de Perez y Hidalgo, a Spanish meztiza at Plaza del Carmen, Quiapo, Manila on July 7, 1920. His father, Don Fernando, was the son of a Spanish army officer in Quezon and a nephew of the famous guitarist and revolutionary, Fernando Canon. His mother, Doña Rosario, was niece of the foremost Filipino painter and patriot, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, after whom the bishop was named.
Even as a young boy of seven. Felix already showed signs of his desire to become a priest. He had a great grand uncle, Fr. Sabino Padilla, who has a canon of the Manila Cathedral Chapter. Felix grandmother, Doña Rosario Resureccion Hidalgo, a sister of the famous painter would watch him play “saying Mass.” To encourage him, she would give him a whole set of Mass paraphernalia such as a chasuble cut from newspapers and for the communion hosts, “paciencia” bread. His brothers and sisters, Lourdes, Antonio, Estrella and Eduardo would “come for communion.”
Felix would serve as an acolyte at San Sebastian church which was just a stone’s throw from their house. After he received his first communion, Felix assisted as sacristan and rarely missed daily mass up to his college days. Thus the priesthood beckoned to the boy Felix even at this very early age.
Felix went to De La Salle University at Taft Avenue from prep to college. After graduation from high school, he sought the permission of his father to enter the seminary but the latter thought that he was too young to make such a serious decision. Don Fernando was likewise worried that his son might have been influenced to enter the seminary because of the prodding of the La Salle brothers. Instead he advised his son to take a college course and make the decision later in 1942. Felix finished his Bachelor of science in commerce at La Salle.
Felix’s parents were against his entering the seminary at such an early age because they felt that not only that was he still too young, but also they thought it was like losing their son. They therefore kept on stalling him.
My mother was worried,” recalls Estrella. “She would tell him, ‘as a diocesan priest, who will take care of you when I die? When you get sick, what will happen?’ Mother felt that unlike members of a religious order where the congregation would take care of their members, diocesan priests were left on their own.”
THE WAR YEARS
During the Second World War, the Perez family remained in Manila. Life became difficult. To lessen his parent’s burden, Felix worked as a young bodegero for NARIC at Azcarraga. The years he spent working here enabled Felix to know firsthand the hardships and pains of the ordinary working man which would later show in his consistent concern for the marginalized sectors of society: the workers and the poor. This experience also proved helpful in that as Bishop of Imus, He would listen with the compassion to plight of the workers and he himself would bring their problems to management.
Also during the war Felix, together with his father, were imprisoned at Fort Santiago on suspicious of sympathizing with the Americans. While inside their prison cell, Felix arduously prayed to the Virgin Mary with his father: his cousin the former Senator Manuel Manahan; and other fellow prisoners like Hans Menzi of the Manila Bulletin and other notable personalities of Manila they would make rosary knots out of strands of threads from their towels. They prayed together daily to sustain them in their sufferings and this lasted throughout their prison days, a total of three months for Felix, longer for his father who has released after seven months. The Bishop would later recount the prisoner of Fort Santiago became so prayerful that even Hans Menzi himself who was a protestant was converted and baptized a Catholic after his release .
Felix’s experience left a deep imprint on him both as an ordinary man and later on as Man of God.According to Msgr. Nico Bautista, another incident which tremendously affected Felix happened during the liberation.
Antonio, Felix’s brother, died in a landmine left by the Japanese at Fort McKinley. It was Felix who undertook the painful duty of picking up the bloodied and mangled part of his brother’s body. This experience must have stirred him tremendously so that by 1946, Felix was determined to finally enter the seminary.
THE PRIESTHOOD
After the war, with the vocation for the priesthood getting stronger, Felix finally decided to quietly leave his parents’ home for the San Carlos Seminary. By this time he was already 26 years old.
“When he decided to go,” recalls Lourdes “Luding” Perez del Rosario, his eldest sister, “Li did not say goodbye to any of us.” The nickname “Li” was given to Felix by Butch. His eldest nephew and confirmation godson, who as toddler could not pronounce his name but only Tito Li. The name stuck. “He just waved a silent goodbye to me.” Adds Lurding. She would find out that his brother left their home without even a toothbrush, mosquito net nor a pillow. These are items provided by the families of seminarians.
His sudden departure disappointed Felix’ parents. “My mother would not go see him for two years,” explains Lurding. “I would visit every Sunday bringing him goodies and to have his clothes laundried.” It was when he was ordained as a priest on April 9, 1955, after years of formation, that both Felix’s father and mother already accepted their son’s vocation. They attended his ordination officiated by the late Rufino Cardinal Santos in the chapel of San Carlos Seminary. With his parents blessing, it was one of the happiest days for Reverend Father Felix Perez. The very next day, he said his first mass at the Sacred Heart Parish at Sta. Mesa with Chito, one of his nieces, receiving her first Holy Communion.
Immediately after his ordination, Fr. Felix Perez was assigned as assistant parish priest of San Miguel Pro-Cathedral. Concurrent of his duties as pastor, he was made financial secretary at the Arzobispado de Manila since he was an accountant. Later he served as an assistant parish priest of Balic-balic.
Father Perez also became parish priest of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Quezon city, succeeding the very popular Rev.Fr. John Delaney. He became the professor and chaplain of his alma mater De La Salle University. “It was while he was at UP that I used to pass for his laundry every Saturday to bring to my mother’s house.” reminisces Estrella. “I liked doing it because the road to U.P. was smooth and it was a reason for me to see and talk to him.”
The peak of Fr. Perez religious calling came on May 27, 1969 when Pope Paul VI appointed him as the second Bishop of Imus. He was consecrated as Bishop by Rufino Cardinal Santos (who ordained him as a priest) together with Bishop Amado Paulino at the Manila Cathedral.
Lurding recalls that at first, her Brother had a hard time in Cavite being a non-Caviteño but he persisted and eventually served as Bishop of the Diocese for twenty-three years, until his timely death on February 29,1992 at the De La Salle University Hospital in Dasmarinas, Cavite
He was Truly a Bishop for the poor,” fondly says Lurding. “My impression of him was that he was always happy in the company oh the poor. Rather than the rich with whom he did not feel at ease. Of course he liked his classmate at La Salle but he rarely socialized with them. He would visit his well-to-do classmates, who became business tycoons, whenever he needed funds for his seminarians. Even if they were in the middle of a board meeting, Li, as a Bishop, would drop by. He would not leave their meeting unless they issued him a check, mostly in the six figures at least,’’ she amusedly recalls.
‘’Even my children could never say no to him,’’ narrates Lurding especially when it came to getting items from her house which he would eventually pass on his poor seminarians. ‘’One time I remember looking for a night lamp and my children told me that their Uncle Li asked for it. I was not informed of its disappearance until I would look for it. When he asked for our poll table, we give it; only to find out he again passed it on to his seminarians. Everything we would give him, he gave to his priests in need.’’
Bishop Perez, who disliked loud persons, also had no patience for those who talked nonsense. But when it concerned the poor, his patience knew no bounds He would go out of his way, no matter how late or tired he was, to bless the house of their household cook, for instance. It was already ten in the evening on the day of the said blessing and apparently, the cook’s family thought he had forgotten them. He still went His simplicity in lifestyle extended to sitting beside the family drive on trips.
‘’I even lost a good driver because of him,” she adds. “It seems in one of their trips, he convinced my driver to go back home to the province to be with his family. He obeyed the Bishop and left me without a driver for a while,” says the proprietor of the popular Makati City restaurant, El Comedor.
When Lurding became a window after sixteen years of a happy married life, it was the Bishop who consoled her and her children. They were not afraid of him, for he always joked with them. “Even now that he is no longer around, I would pray to him.’’
THE BEST SON, THE BEST BROTHER
Bishop Perez was considered the best son and the best brother by his family. Before his mother died, he never failed to regularly visit at her sick bed just to hold her hand, sit beside her to make conversation, and of course, to say Mass. She passed away at age 98, three months before the Bishop himself died. The mother who was worried and hesitant for her son’s entering the priesthood because no one would take care of him when she passed away, followed her soon after. His own father had died years earlier, just after the couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.
Even in the eyes of his fellow clergy, Bishop Felix Perez was held in high esteem.
Fr. Manny Colmenar, an alumnus of the Our Lady of the Pillar seminary which the Bishop himself started, feels fortunate to have known him for almost ten years.
‘’As a person,’’ says Fr. Colmenar, ‘’he was really open, Frank about what he felt, and could readily tell you what he liked and disliked. He would tell us that even if some priests have gone astray or lost their path, he always went out of his way to reach out to them.’’
Monsignor Nico Bautista clearly describes him as a very humble man of God.
’Although the good Bishop came from the illustrados of old Manila. He chose to live the life of low profile and obscure priest. Even when he became a Bishop, he preferred to stand quietly in the background. He loathed the limelight.” Msgr. Bautista likewise observed that he would only wear his full Episcopal attire during the “Ad Limina” visits to Rome. Otherwise, he would be seen in his barong and Sandals.
For his part, Bishop Claver saw his colleague as “a simple man of simple tastes and simple needs, who abhorred any fussing in his regard. His self – effacing nature made him non-confrontational in his dealings with people. Still, he did not run away from unpleasantness. He was too honest not to recognize evil where there was evil and not face it squarely. Because he was that kind of man, he suffered much, very much – even from the very Church he was unreservedly dedicated to serving.”
“If any man had reason to be a bitter, disillusioned ecclesiastic, it was he. It is a measure of his greatness of spirit that he bore no lasting ill will towards those who had wronged him. Not that he would not complain about them. He did. But in the end, his enormous capacity for humor would have him laughing at himself even at his own expense. A saving grace, that capacity. And he never lost it even in the grimmest of situations.”
As a Filipino, Bishop Perez was a very nationalistic man. He loved his country so much that he would say his homilies even in faulty Tagalog. He was more at home in English and Spanish. He was also quite articulate regarding abuses in government.
Msgr. Bautista once wrote that during the reign of the Dictator, seven Bishops of the Philippines made the heroic stand against martial rule. They became known as “The Magnificent Seven.” One of these was Bishop Felix Paz Perez of the Diocese of Imus.
THE LAST DAYS
On the aspect of how her brother’s health eventually deteriorated, Lurding can only remember that he was always in a hurry and how tired he often became. “He wanted to be released of some of his duties but it could not be. He had so many activities. He had a heavy figure and his doctors always advised him to observe his diet. He was fond of fish and whenever he came to El Comedor or to my house here in Makati, we would always pack food for him to bring home.”
Bishop Perez had excitedly awaited the visit of the Black Nazarene to Cavite, one of the last activities of the tri-centennial anniversary celebration of the Nuestra Señora de la Soledad de Porta Vaga which he initiated.
“One of his priests told me that on the day of the visit, he was at the coastal road in the early morning for the welcome ceremony,” recounts Lurding. “He later rushed to San Roque Church for the Salubong. He was so excited of the visit because his two favorite devotions, the Black Nazarene and the Soledad, were meeting at his diocese for the first time in their history.” Three days later, due to stress from his numerous duties and concerns, he went into a coma and was brought to the University Medical Center in Dasmariñas.
On the third day after he went into a coma, the historic icon of the Virgen de la Soledad was brought by Msgr. Godoy, Tony Nazareno, Monching De Leon, and Ghit Perello to his hospital bed. They placed it on his lap with his limp hand resting on top of it. At 2:15 p.m., February 29, 1992, Bishop Felix Perez slipped away quietly and unobtrusively, just the way he lived his seventy-one full years of service to God and his people. He passed away touching the most venerated image of his favorite devotion, the Lady of Solitude.
The Bishop’s remains were laid in state at the chapel of his residence. Four big candles kept vigil day and night with a bouquet of white orchids surrounding his casket.
On the day of his interment, bishops, sisters, diocesan and religious priests, all paid homage to this very humble and simple Man of God. Thousands came to pay their last respects.
In his homily during the funeral mass, Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin described him as one who “was ahead of his time, a man of vision, a man of persistent truthfulness and zealous love for what is right and just.” The Apostolic Nuncio, the Most Reverend Gian Vincenzo Moreni, read the papal message of condolence.
After the mass, the Bishop’s remains were brought in solemn procession around the Imus Cathedral to the crypt at the side of the building. The funeral entourage passed through the plaza of the cathedral in order to enable the huge number of people who could not get inside to see for the last time the remains of their beloved pastor. As the priests carrying his casket passed them by, the faithful which easily numbered in the thousands broke into continuous thunderous farewell applause. In his final resting place as in during his wake, the icon of the Soledad never left his side. During the internment it was placed in a niche atop his tomb, looking down on him.
Before he went into a coma, Bishop Perez was supposed to give a talk to the seminarians of Tahanan ng Mabuting Pastol, the diocesan seminary of Cavite. After he died, when his room was opened by the priest in charge, he found on the Bishop’s desk notes which he had scribbled for his talk. Aptly ahead of his time as always, his last meditations reflected the legacy of a holy life fully dedicated to serve an ultimate purpose—to live and to die for Christ and the people. The following are excerpts from that meditation:
“Death for Christ is life for the people. This pure and seeming contradiction is indeed a paradox… and many time an absurdity to die is to live…
“Absurdity if there is no intentionality; but for me, my reason for dying is for Jesus and the people. Therefore, my reason for living is for the same Jesus and the people… whom I have loved. The pristine example is unless a grain of wheat dies, it cannot have life.
“Death is the end of my earthly existence. All are decreed to die. Who of you can say, I will not die?
“The tragedy of death is if it has no end. But birth ends in death and death ends to give birth… A change of my existence to a new and better life.
“The more we are attached to this life, the more we fear death. To die for Christ is to give life to the people.”