Fr. Reuter laid to rest today

MANILA, Philippines - The nation bids farewell today to Fr. James Reuter.

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle is expected to attend the funeral Mass this morning at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City. 

Tagle’s secretary Fr. Reggie Malicdem said it is still uncertain if the Manila archbishop would be the celebrant for the 8:30 a.m. Mass at the Church of the Gesu.

Apart from the Manila archbishop, another prelate who reportedly confirmed his attendance is Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco.

After the requiem Mass, Reuter will be interred at the Sacred Heart Novitiate Jesuit Cemetery in Novaliches, Quezon City. 

Last Dec. 31, Reuter died at the Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Parañaque. He was 96. 

Reuter was a former columnist of The STAR, for which he wrote the weekly column titled “At 3:00 a.m.” 

Reuter came to the country in 1938 as a 22-year-old missionary scholastic. As a Jesuit in formation, he took up philosophical studies in Novaliches and Baguio. 

He taught at the Ateneo de Manila on Padre Faura before World War II. When the war broke out, the Japanese army interned him.  But while jailed with other Jesuits at the Ateneo, and later in the prison camp in Los Baños, he wrote songs and produced plays. 

After the war, the priest went to the US to finish his theological studies at Georgetown University and was ordained a priest at Woodstock, Maryland in 1946. He spent another year at Fordham University in New York to study radio and television.

In 1948, he came back to the Philippines and taught in high school and college at the Ateneo de Naga. He was basketball coach, drama and glee club director, retreat master, confidant, and friend to his students and to those who knew him.  

Reuter also served as the director of the National Office on Mass Media. He was instrumental in organizing UNDA/ASIA, the international Catholic association for radio and TV in Asia. He is also one of the founders of the Philippine Federation of Catholic Broadcasters, a union of 41 Catholic radio stations from Laoag to Tawi-Tawi.

In seven decades of priestly ministry, he received over 20 awards citing his invaluable services to the Church and to the country in various fields.

In 1981 during the papal visit, Pope John Paul II gave him a special award for his “outstanding service to the Catholic Church in the field of mass media.” 

In 1989, he was the Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. In 2006, he was made an honorary Filipino citizen by Congress in recognition of his lifetime service to the people.

In 2008, the CBCP conferred on Reuter the Jorge Barlin Golden Cross Award. He was the second recipient of one of the highest Church awards for his pastoral work through mass media.  

Reuter was also honored with the rare and highly coveted Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award, the highest papal award given to any individual in recognition of outstanding and exemplary service to the Catholic Church and the Holy See.