Manila Archdiocese bids farewell to Fr. Casal

A funeral Mass for Fr. Gabriel Casal, director of the archdiocesan archives and museum, will be held today at the Manila Cathedral, presided by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.

Casal, one of the Manila Archdiocese’s most dedicated priest, died of heart attack last Wednesday.

The funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Interment will be held after the Mass.

Casal, 67, was director of the National Museum for 14 years until his retirement in October 2001. He also became the director of the Ayala Museum form 1975 to 1987.

Since 2003, he served Archdiocese of Manila as director of its archive and museum and as chairman of the Manila Archdiocesan Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church.

The priest was also a member of the board of National Museum of the Philippines and consultant of the Archipelago Site Survey Foundation Inc.

Casal received his post-graduate diploma in Anthropology from the University of the Philippines in 1971 after he finished English Literature with honors from San Beda College.

He joined the Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat in 1954 immediately after graduation. He was ordained priest in 1962 and later incardinated into the archdiocese under Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin in 1983.

Casal also took graduate studies in Liturgy and Archeology in Rome from 1962 to 1966 before he moved to Freiburg in 1970 for his studies in Comparative Religion.

He authored many published works and was very active in designing oratories, sacred vessels and vestments at which he was a pioneer and a driving force in the use of local Philippine weaves, kamagong coral, capiz and local ceramics.

Casal had also been also recognized abroad. He was decorated in 1978 with the French "Palmes Academiques" and promoted to "Oficier des Palmes Academiques" in March 1986. He was a commissioner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization from 1987 to 2001.

He also became the chairman of the National Committee on Museums and Galleries from 1988 to 1992 before he was named a commissioner of the National Commission on Culture and Art.