The Jubilarian Jesuits Series chronicles the stories of three Jesuit priests from the Loyola House Jesuit Community of Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City, who are celebrating their jubilees this year. These profiles, penned by Stephen Pedroza, attempt to draw the various facets of their vocation, their ideas of the present world, and the lessons we can learn from their narratives that cut across religions and differences.
Fifty years a priest, Fr Roberto Dy SJ has a soft spot for animals. Besides feeding the pigeons that also consider the Loyola House their home, this 85-year-old Jesuit, born in Bacolod City but raised in Cagayan de Oro City, feeds some stray cats as well, shuffling around the area with his crutches as he looks out for small, hungry souls.
Fr Roberto Dy SJ, photographed by Stephen Pedroza, in July 2016.
Sunlight paints a soft, golden wash over this early morning scene: an elderly man stretching his arm out to feed the pigeons outside a building on the main campus of Xavier University. At the Loyola House Jesuit Community, the pigeons happily peck at the pellets and grains tossed onto the concrete ground.
“They used to be hungry and sickly,” Fr Roberto Dy SJ says. “Now they are healthy, and there are new pigeons coming.”
Fr Dy has made feeding the pigeons one of his passions while living out his days at Loyola House.
“We have to show our humanity even to pigeons,” he says. “This world is not just created for human beings alone.”
Fifty years a priest, Fr Dy has a soft spot for animals. He feeds some stray cats as well, shuffling around the area with his crutches as he looks out for small, hungry souls.
His stuttered statements, sporadic coughing, and frail legs belie a sharp memory that unfurls an old story, the story of Cagayan de Oro in the 1940s.
Although he was born in Bacolod City on February 21, 1931, Fr Dy came to CDO when his family transferred. He started primary school at St Augustine Parochial School (now defunct) which used to be run by the (then) Diocese of Cagayan de Oro, where the Lourdes College Coliseum currently stands. In 1945, in Grade 5, he transferred to Ateneo de Cagayan Grade School.
“During my time, the market was still in Divisoria and Cagayan de Oro was clean,” he recounts. “I have seen the development of Cagayan de Oro through the years. But now most of the roads are still narrow and short. It’s convenient at times but they cause traffic.”
He had seen how Jesuit educators contribute to the development of the city by forming its future leaders, visionaries, and competitive professionals. Fr Dy wanted to become part of this great narrative. When asked what drove him to join the Society of Jesus, he gives a simple answer.
“I just wanted to become a priest. What drove me was God and His grace.”
After a year at Ateneo de Cagayan College, he proceeded to the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, Quezon City, and became a novitiate on May 30, 1952. From 1954 to 1956, he took his juniorate at the same institution.
He obtained his MS in Library Service at Columbia University in New York where he had taken part in the library management of the university. He took his priesthood vows at the Fordham University Chapel in Bronx, New York on June 9, 1966, and his final vows at the Chapel of Malaybalay in Malaybalay, Bukidnon on December 8, 1975.
“It’s a complicated story,” he says, "to give the whole history of my vocation. I just simply wanted to become a priest.”
“Since I was a boy, I came to know the Society of Jesus through my schooling here at Ateneo de Cagayan. I didn’t know much about the world back then, about religious orders. But since I came to school over here, I learned about the Jesuits. That’s it,” Fr Dy shares.
“If I had known other religious orders, I would have thought about joining them instead,” he quips while reminiscing his good old days as a young Atenean.
In 1969, Fr Dy was assigned as the director of libraries of Ateneo de Davao; however, the situation did not flourish, so the Society transferred him to Zamboanga. At this point, disappointment seeped in and “friction” among Jesuits, he says, became apparent to him.
“Even in the Society of Jesus, there is friction because the members are just human beings,” he relates. “When I was the principal of the Ateneo de Zamboanga Grade School, they decided to close down the grade school. I was not consulted. When that happened, the teachers protested because they were not consulted also. The Jesuits decided on one side only. So the parents were almost in rebellion. During the time, there was a petition not to close the school. The city council of Zamboanga requested Ateneo de Zamboanga but they did not listen,” Fr Dy continues.
“They then transferred me to Bukidnon. When I was in Bukidnon, the Society decided to open Ateneo de Zamboanga Grade School again.”
The news broke his heart.
In that year, Fr Dy sought other places where he would feel needed and appreciated. “Since that time I did not want to come back to Zamboanga,” he bitterly recalls.
Fr Dy also remembers the tyranny of Martial Law, when it broke out in 1972. “There was only one newspaper during the Martial Law and it was controlled by the Malacañang Palace,” he says. “You have to be careful what to say.”
Fr Dy went on with his mission as a Jesuit in the highlands of Talakag in Bukidnon. He stayed there for 18 fruitful years.
“In 1992, I was told by the provincial superior during that time, Fr Renato Ocampo SJ, to come down to CDO. I’ve been here in the south for 24 years already. When I arrived here, I was assigned to be involved with XU’s campus ministries. I was not ready to teach back then,” he recounts.
Eventually, he taught Religious Studies in college. After one semester, his eyes developed cataracts so he had to stop teaching. “I could not read small prints anymore so I just stayed at Loyola and did things in the House. I was the acting minister here before. I was the treasurer for a while. What I do currently is pastoral ministry; I go wherever I am called to minister, like masses at the Metropolitan Cathedral.”
For Fr Dy, being a Jesuit is a challenging human vocation, where one has to deal with both the fraternal and bickering sides of the coin. In the end, those sides make up one goal. “We have a common goal: ‘Go, set the world on fire!’ But in my experience, how many would go? How many would set the world on fire? There are Jesuits who are true to their mission, in their apostolate. To realize those words, to make them true to life, that’s a big challenge.”
“Keep on doing the things you are supposed to do and your efforts will be rewarded,” Fr Dy says. “Everything belongs to God. It’s time to be close to God and pray for the people.”
What does Fr Dy pray for the people?
“To do what Christ said, but very often people do not know about Christ. What they know is mostly from the preaching of the priests they listened to. But very often when people go to masses, they don’t listen very well. I don’t know how much do they get.”
“When humans are just thinking about themselves, the food for this time, they are not thinking about tomorrow and that is what is happening in the world right now,” he says. “Can you blame God for that? No.”
Fr Dy recognizes that climate change is the consequence of how humans have not prioritized caring for God’s creation. He says that in Bislig, Surigao, no birds sing anymore because their homes have long been destroyed.
“Why should we be not fond of animals?” Fr Dy asks. “When God created this world, the animals were a part of His creation. God gave them habitats and in their habitats, He gave them food and water, and so on. But what happened to their habitats? They were destroyed. Humans destroyed them.”
He sees climate change mitigation and adaptation as immense challenges for all humanity. Each sector has to do its own fair share.
Fr Dy knows that he is old, but he also knows that at the age of 85, he has one more challenge to face.
“The challenge for me now is waiting to die.”
When asked if he is afraid to die, he replies so stoically: “You are afraid because it is unknown. But you know it will come so you have to accept it. You have to accept it whether you like it or not. It will come. The problem is: Are you prepared when it comes?”
Cue the song by Elton John that goes, “Just let me wake up in the morning/ To the smell of new-mown hay/To laugh and cry, to live and die/In the brightness of my day.” Fr Dy has accepted the inevitability of going home to his Creator.
In the brightness of the days when his frail arm tosses a handful of pellets and grains to a new flock of hungry pigeons, Fr Dy endures the pain that comes with his age and delicate health. He hopes that he has made those birds sing again.∎
RELATED STORIES
Fr Guillemette and his pursuit of happiness
The good old days of Fr Dacanay