John N. Schumacher

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/137486368/john-n-schumacher

Created by: Jack Williams
Added: 19 Oct 2014
Find a Grave Memorial ID: 137486368

Fr. John N. Schumacher SJ (1927-2014) was a professor emeritus of Church History at the Loyola School of Theology.

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The country lost yesterday morning one of its more respected scholars of Philippine history. Fr. John N. Schumacher, S.J., died in The Medical City, Pasig of complications from anemia and urinary infection. He had been in failing health for some years.

A native of Buffalo, New York Fr. Jack, as he was known, entered the Society of Jesus in 1944. Four years later, after early formation in Poughkeepsie, NY, he was missioned as a young seminarian to do philosophical studies at Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, just outside war-ravaged Manila. From 1951-54 he taught Latin and English, and served as Prefect of Discipline at San Jose Seminary, then located on ‘Highway 54,’ today EDSA. Fr. Jack returned to the U.S. for Theology at Woodstock College, Maryland, and was ordained a priest in 1957.

He already had an M.A. in Philosophy from his studies in the Philippines, but then embarked on five years of doctoral work in history at Georgetown University. This included, courtesy of a Fullbright grant, a year of research in the various archives of Madrid, Barcelona and Salamanca,. He returned to Manila in 1964, teaching Church History at San Jose Seminary. He was part of the pioneer faculty that opened Loyola House of Studies (and what would become Loyola School of Theology) on the campus of Ateneo de Manila in 1965. For more than forty years, Fr. Jack then taught and wrote and mentored generations of Jesuits, seminarians and students at Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila and San Carlos Seminary in Guadalupe, M.M.

Fr. Jack became a citizen of the Philippines in 1976. In 1998, the centennial of Philippine independence, he received the Ateneo de Manila’s Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi. The citation that went with that prestigious award well underscores the significant contributions of his lifetime of service, and deserves to be quoted:

“The dissertation that he wrote for the Ph.D. has since been revised and published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press as The Propaganda Movement, 1880-1895: The Creation of a Filipino Consciousness, the Making of the Revolution (revised ed., 1997; first published, 1973). A seminal work, this book depicts the efforts of Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and the other Filipino expatriates in Spain to articulate and formulate a sense of self-identity thought their propaganda movement and how their efforts served to inspire the leaders of the Revolution of 1896.

“. . . He was instrumental in introducing and developing the course, “Rizal and the Emergence of the Philippine Nation,” in the college curriculum back in the 1960’s at a time when there were hardly any Philippine history courses being offered to the Ateneo undergraduates. This course has since become an essential component of the six-unit Philippine history requirement of the revised core curriculum.

“At the Loyola School of Theology, he collaborated with the late Horacio de la Costa, S.J. on various articles on the Church, State and the Filipino Clergy’s experience in the Philippines, and compiled, wrote and edited Readings in Philippine Church History (1979). . . .

“His interest in church history and the Filipino nationalist movement merged in another seminal work entitled Revolutionary Clergy: the Filipino Clergy and the Nationalist Movement, 1850-1903 (1981) where he explores the role of Filipino priests from as far back as Pedro Pelaez and Jose Burgos in developing the mainstream of national consciousness leading to the Revolution and in sustaining the loyalty of the masses to the revolutionary cause. Fr. Burgos became the subject of another book, Father Jose Burgos, Priest and Nationalist (1972). Aside from these books, Fr. Schumacher has authored numerous articles published in various journals such as Philippine Studies, of which he was editor from 1974-1977, The Catholic Historical Review, Concilium, Unitas and Solidarity. He continued to be active in professional organizations in his field, such as the Philippine National Historical Society, International Association of Historians of Asia, the American Historical Association and the American Catholic Historical Association.

“In 1991, the Ateneo de Manila University Press published a collection of these writing in The Making of a Nation: Essays on Nineteenth Century Filipino Nationalism. In these essays, which center on the emergence of a Filipino national consciousness in the second half of the 19th century, one can perceive the mature thought of Fr. Schumacher, after over thirty years of historical writing, on the key aspects of the process by which we Filipinos formed ourselves into a nation. Just recently, he co-authored with Dr. Milagros Guerrero the fifth volume, Reform and Revolution, of the ten-volume series published by Reader’s Digest and A-Z Direct Marketing, Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People (1998).

“Indeed, Fr. Schumacher has devoted more than a lifetime to sound scholarship and historical research in Philippine and Church history in a country that he has chosen to be his own. The fruits of his labor have helped many Filipinos attain a richer and more profound appreciation of their nation’s heritage. His works are an eloquent testimony to his dedication and love for this nation, which also gratefully and proudly acknowledges him to be one of its own, bestowing upon him Filipino citizenship in 1976.”

Fr. Jack continued teaching until 2001, and then turned himself more extensively to research and writing. Bad health set in after 2007 and pretty much constrained what he could do after that. He is being waked at Loyola House of Studies, Loyola Heights. After the 8 a.m. Mass on Saturday, he will be buried in the Jesuit cemetery at Sacred Heart Novitiate, his first home in the Philippines when he arrived here 66 years ago.

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John N. Schumacher was a Filipino Jesuit historian and educator known for his work exploring the Catholic clergy's role in the 1896 Philippine revolution in Revolutionary Clergy: The Filipino Clergy and the Nationalist Movement, 1850–1903, first published in 1981. Schumacher was born in Buffalo, New York.

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