THE COMMUNITY OF SAINT DOMINIC’S PRIORY WISHES ALL OUR BROTHERS

GOOD BYE FR. LUCIO – WITH THANKS

On December 21, 2013, Fr. Lucio Gutiérrez was taken by the Lord from this life. He was seventy five years old (1938-2013), including his fifty years as a Dominican priest, which were spent for the Kingdom almost exclusively in Manila except nearly one year in Macau.

Fr. Lucio was born in Caleruega, Spain, on October 25, 1938. By the way, Caleruega is the birthplace of St. Dominic of Guzman, the founder and father of the Order of Preachers (OP) or Dominicans. He was ordained a Dominican Priest on June 30, 1963 in Valladolid, Spain. Besides finishing the courses in philosophy in Spain (Avila and Madrid) and of theology in England (Oxford), he pursued postgraduate studies at the Gregorian University (Rome), where he obtained his licentiate and doctorate in Church History.

Through his life, Fr. Lucio was a great teacher of Church History and preacher of the Word. He spent the greatest part of his Dominican life at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, where he held various administrative positions, including Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Editor of Philippiniana Sacra and Regent of different colleges. He authored many books on history of the Philippine Church and had an incredible memory. Fr. Lucio taught Church History at the Faculty of Christian Studies of the University of Saint Joseph Macau, the academic year 2009-2010, where he came to be the Master of Students at our Priory in Macau. As requested, he continued teaching Church History at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila for the school years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.

He was a good teacher, particularly of Church History. His students loved him. In November-December, 2009, he taught at UST Faculty of Theology. His first year students for the Bachelor’s degree in theology put together his written notes and bound them. They wrote on first page: “’Every good deed and charitable deed lasts forever.’ For the good and charitable deeds you have done to us Father, rest assured, they will remain in our hearts and you will be always in our prayers.” His Manila students called him “the smiling priest,” and “the dancing priest.”

When he came back from Manila in August 2010, he appeared very tired. We began to doubt his health. He had a persistent problem with apnea. I asked him: “Lucio, have a checkup.” He answered me: “No need. I am a servant of the Lord; He will take care of me.” He did have a checkup the result of which was not good. Still in Macau, on September 10, 2010, he told a friend: “I feel lost in the forest.” A few days after, he began to lose his mind and memory. He was taken to the UST Hospital, Manila on September 17, 2010, where he was hospitalized for three months. Little by little he became worse: the mental moments of lucidity began to decrease until he lost completely his mind and became semi-conscious or semi-comatose. The last day he recognized me was September 27, 2010, when he greeted me, “Hola Fausto,” and said good bye with the words “adios Fausto.” The doctors did not know what he really had: at first, they suspected a stroke, and afterwards: cerebral viral infection, encephalitis, herpes simplex, heart attacks… Nothing totally sure! After some days in the UST Hospital, Fr. Lucio was intubated: ventilator and nasogastric tube. On December 14, 2010, he was transferred to the Saint Martin de Porres Hospital in San Juan, Metro Manila, where he was bedridden for three years.  This hospital of the Dominican Lay Fraternities had all the facilities Fr. Lucio needed and was a few meters away from our Convent of the Holy Cross there. Our brothers took excellent care of him until the good Lord took him to his Kingdom on December 21, 2013; just four years after his Macau journey properly began.

On his first monthly lecture as Master of Students (December 16, 2010), Fr. Lucio tells them: “I am your Master, but I have not come here to command you, nor to keep vigil over you, nor to be with you all the time, but to walk with you, to journey with you. At most I am here to facilitate your full development as Dominicans, to allow you your free space, your freedom to act responsibly, to make decisions of your own.” He was fascinated by Jesus, his first love. In a lecture to the students he says: “Preaching, teaching, the apostolate… if not in communion with Jesus, we are walking in the wilderness. Whom do we preach? We preach Jesus and only Jesus – with love and joy and zest!” He was in love with Dominic whom he knew very well and also with our missionaries in Asia.

Besides being a great teacher and writer, Fr. Lucio was above all, a man of God – prayerful and compassionate. He was a prayerful priest and Dominican. He recited the complete Divine Office every day, celebrated Mass daily, prayed the five mysteries of the Rosary of Mary at least once a day, went for his individual confession frequently (after receiving absolution, he always states in his agenda the date and time and commented: “I was reconciled; Lord, thank you,” or “Señor, gracias”), read the whole Bible once a year (some chapters every day), and celebrated at least one Mass in a parish every Sunday and day of obligation. He could not say no to invitations to say one more Mass to the point that some Sundays he celebrated five Masses. We told him: “Lucio, that is too much!” He just laughed and continued doing it.

People in Manila remember Fr. Lucio for two special traits: his love for the sick and his concern for the poor. He was the infirmarian of the Saint Thomas Aquinas Priory, where the Dominican brothers ministering in the University of Santo Tomas reside. When a brother or priest was sick, he visited them every day. He extended this custom to many other patients in the hospital. Always a preacher, he could not escape any occasion to preach. Once, a brother Dominican priest was at the end of his earthly life, and conscious. So Fr. Lucio sat on his hospital bed and began to preach to him about Christ, the Cross and the Resurrection. When he had finished, the father looked at him smiling and said: “How well you have learned the lesson!”

He was a friend of many poor families and persons, including lepers, street children and old people living in the Metro Manila area. Even after being semi-comatose in the hospitals, people came to ask him for their monthly allowance from Fr. Lucio. He helped a family of lepers to build a house. In his agenda, he put the amount spent in cement, bricks, wood… Lovely! Where did he get the money? Mainly he got it, with the permission of the superiors, from donations and his extra work in parishes, his royalties from the publication of books, and the allowed individual Mass intentions.

He was a great long-distance walker. He knew well all the streets of Manila (and the name of thousand towns in the Philippines). He also knew Macau well: it took him three hours to walk around the whole Macau. Even while walking (in Manila), he tried to be helpful, at times with danger to his life. Once he saw two men fighting in a street in Manila. He approached them and tried to separate them, but both resented his help and became very angry at him – even threatening to punch him!

Fr. Lucio was a joyful friar. He loved to tell, and re-tell stories and jokes. One close friend told him at times:  “Lucio, again? Never mind, say it again” and Lucio consented joyfully and narrated the repeated story once more – as if it were the first time.

I am not trying to make Fr. Lucio a saint. He would not like that, I am sure. I am just a close friend who knows him a little and owes him much gratitude for his generosity, for being there when the going was a bit rough. After knowing that Fr. Lucio had passed away, a common friend told me: “This will be the first Christmas of Fr. Lucio in heaven.” I do think so. He was a good man of God, a joyful friar, a dedicated Dominican, a friend of the sick and the poor , He would tell me, for sure, “ That is not true, Fausto,” and add, “I am a great sinner!”

When St. Clare was dying she says: “Thank you, Lord, for creating me.” Thank you, Lord, many, many thanks for creating Fr. Lucio and giving him the Dominican and missionary vocation! Lucio hermano, may you rest in God’s peace! Requiescat in pace!

Fausto Gomez, OP

St. Dominic’s Priory

Macau, December 27, 2013.