Noted historian Fr. John Schumacher passes away

Fr. John N. Schumacher, local historian and professor emeritus of Ateneo de Manila's Loyola School of Theology, passed away at 9 a.m. on May 14 in Medical City in Pasig. He was 86.

“There is a school of thought in Philippine history that argues that foreigners cannot and should not write Philippine history,” popular historian Ambeth Ocampo wrote in his Facebook tribute to Schumacher. “Those who say and believe the above have not written as lucidly and as solidly as Fr. John Shumacher, S.J. (a naturalized Filipino) who passed away this morning after a lingering illness. His work was an inspiration to me.”

An American by birth, Schumacher first entered the Society of Jesus in 1944 and was ordained as a priest in 1957. He helped establish the Ateneo de Manila University Archives alongside fellow Jesuits Fr. Leo Cullum and Fr. Horacio de la Costa in 1958.

At Ateneo, he taught Church History.

He also wrote several books and essays on Philippine history, with a heavy focus on Philippine churches, nationalism, and Filipino Jesuits. Among the most well-known examples are:  “Father Jose Burgos: Priest and Nationalist”, “Readings in Philippine Church History”, “Revolutionary Clergy”, and “The Making of a Nation: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Nationalism.”

Schumacher also received several awards in his lifetime, including the Grant Goodman Prize in 1994 from the Philippine Studies Group and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 from the Catholic Mass Media Awards.

According to a post on the LST page, the wake will be in the Oratory of St. Ignatius, Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila University. Daily wake Masses at 8 p.m. The funeral Mass is scheduled on Saturday, May 17 at 8 a.m. at the Oratory of St. Ignatius. Interment follows at Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City.  — Vida Cruz/BM, GMA News