Rufino Santos

Rufino Jiao Santos (August 26, 1908 – September 3, 1973) was the 29th Archbishop of Manila from February 10, 1953, until his death on September 3, 1973, and was the first Filipino elevated to the rank of cardinal.

Born in Barangay Sto.

Niño, Guagua, Pampanga, Santos was the fourth of seven children of Gaudencio Santos, an overseer of farmland near Mount Arayat, and Rosalia Jiao y Romero.

Rufino's three elder brothers were Manuel, Emiliano, and Quirino; his three sisters were Clara, Jovita, and Exequiela.

Santos, nicknamed "Pinong", grew up in a house located 30 m from what is now the Immaculate Conception Parish.

He was active in church activities as an acolyte, and was later a choir member of the Manila Cathedral School.

Two factors influenced his priestly vocation: his stint as an altar server, and the encouragement of Father Jose Tahon, Manila Cathedral's parish priest.

He entered San Carlos Seminary on July 25, 1921, and earned a baccalaureate in canon law in 1929 and a doctorate in sacred theology in July 1931 at the Pontificia Universita Gregoriana.

In 1927, the 19-year-old Santos and Leopoldo A. Arcaira, 24—both outstanding students of San Carlos Seminary—were the first recipients of the scholarships at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.

Santos was granted a papal dispensation to be ordained below the canonical age of 24.

Santos, the first Filipino cardinal, became the 29th Archbishop of Manila in a post-war scenario that saw a nation plagued with the following: a high dependency on the upper class in the country's social, economic and political growth; a growing inequality in the distribution of wealth; a critical unfairness in labor, land and tenancy—all catalysts to the resurgence of the communist movement.

It was to this disparate social order that Santos spoke upon his installation:

I have thought of organizing a social welfare for uplifting the spirit and soul of these unfortunate members of our community.

The Archdiocese will lead in this undertaking with an initial amount of fifty to one hundred thousand pesos.

Then I expect the more fortunate of the faithful in the Archdiocese to contribute their help in the amount of 1 peso a month for the same purpose, in order that we may budget some two hundred to two hundred fifty thousand pesos a year for buying food, clothing and medicines for distribution among our poor brethren, and the education of their children.

On October 25, 1931, two months shy of his 23rd birthday, Rufino J. Santos was ordained a priest at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome.

He then served as an assistant parish priest in Imus, Cavite and as a parish priest in Marilao, Bulacan.

His later successor as archbishop, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, said during the Second World War.

"Santos saved the life of Manila Archbishop Michael O'Doherty by admitting to the Japanese Army that it was he, as a secretary of the archbishop, who donated food to the poor, including Filipino guerrillas. Refusing to collaborate with the Japanese Army, Santos was sentenced to death but was plucked out by the Combined American and Filipino liberation forces on the night of his execution."

During his years in Manila, he rebuilt the Manila Cathedral, which had been destroyed by Allied bombardment during the 1945 Liberation of Manila.

On August 19, 1947, Santos was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Manila and titular bishop of Barca, in which he was ordained on October 24 of the same year.

From 1950 to 1953, he served as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Lipa and of the Prelature of Infanta, pending the appointment of their new respective bishops.

On December 21, 1950, Santos was appointed as the Archdiocese of Manila Military Ordinary.

In 1953, Santos was appointed Archbishop of Manila on February 10 and was installed on March 25 of the same year.

Santos served as Archbishop of Manila from 1953 to 1973.

Santos established the church-run Radio Veritas and built important structures including the Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary in Makati; the Pius XII Catholic Center in Paco, Manila; and Villa San Miguel, the archbishop's palace in Mandaluyong.

This plan took shape soon after when the cardinal appointed an eleven-man administrative board on October 1, 1953.

It was dedicated on December 10, 1958.

Being the Metropolitan Archbishop of Manila, he was one of the 49 bishops and archbishops from the Philippines to attend the Second Vatican Council, thus making him a Council Father.

He was a member of the conservative-wing of the Council known as the Coetus Internationalis Patrum, and greatly contributed in the drafting of documents about the Blessed Virgin Mary in the field of Mariology.

He hosted the visit of Pope Paul VI to the Philippines to attend the Asian Bishops' Meeting.

Pope John XXIII made him a cardinal on March 28, 1960.

He was the first native Filipino to become a cardinal.

Santos paved the way for the founding of Catholic Charities (eventually known as Caritas Manila) and the reconstruction of St. Paul Hospital (now the Cardinal Santos Medical Center), which was established by the Maryknoll Sisters but was damaged by American bombardment during the Second World War.

Santos also re-instituted the Philippine Trust Company and the Catholic Travel Office.

Cardinal Rufino Santos also founded the Pontificio Collegio Filippino, a college for diocesan priests from the Philippines studying at pontifical universities in Rome, Italy which was formally established as an institution with pontifical rights by Pope John XXIII on June 29, 1961, through the papal bull Sancta Mater Ecclesia.

Rosales said that Santos was a diabetic and that he suffered from a malignant brain tumor.

He died in Manila on September 3, 1973, eight days after his 65th birthday.

Following his death, a diplomatic report from the United States Embassy in Manila assessed his activities:

Santos' opposition to "Social Action" programs, which he frequently expressed in heavy-handed fashion, did much to perpetuate the Catholic Church's image as a conservative organization, allied with the country's economic and social elite.