A Filipino Jesuit who promoted theater arts and native languages in his long years as a missionary died on April 9.
Father Danilo B. Isidro died at the Medical City Hospital in Pasig City, near Manila. He was 74.
He succumbed to respiratory failure. He entered the Society in 1973 (almost 52 years ago) and was ordained to the presbyterate in 1982 (43 years ago).
The wake begins likely this evening in the Oratory of St. Ignatius, Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila University campus, Loyola Heights, Quezon City. The daily wake Masses will be held at 8 p.m. We have scheduled the funeral Mass for 8 a.m. on April 12. Interment follows in the Province Cemetery at Sacred Heart Novitiate.
According to Antonio Gabriel Maestrado La Viña, a former student of Father Isidro, said, “In 1979, in my second year of high school in Cagayan de Oro, I met a young (at that time) Jesuit scholastic from Bulacan who opened my eyes to art, drama, theater, the power of the spoken word, and the beauty of the native language.
Isidro taught generations of Ateneo students on various campuses (Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Zamboanga, Naga) and was a creative force of nature.
Schooled in engineering before he joined the seminary, Fr. Isidro was an artist at heart—he drew, sang, and made songs, and he designed, translated, and staged plays with his pioneering Kapulungan ng Inang Wika (Mother Tongue Assembly), which to Bisayan-speaking students would seem to be a bad fit but which Fr. Isidro made so natural and so perfect.
“He was my elocution coach in Filipino, opening my ears to the beauty of the spoken word in Filipino,” said La Viña, associate director for climate policy and international relations and a professor of law, philosophy, politics, and governance in several universities in the Philippines.
“Isidro opened my eyes to stage design, to the technical aspects of theater, and to the idea that art and theater could be powerful media that could influence, shape thinking, and change lives,” recalled La Viña.
“In a short span of two years, Fr. Isidro shaped, influenced, and changed my life powerfully and, to borrow a line from a musical, for good,” added La Viña.
“Fr. Isidro was not just a teacher to me and class moderator for my elder brother; he was family—joining us for countless dinners and even road trips to Davao,” said La Viña on his social media post.
“After regency and ordination, we would keep in touch as he moved from assignment to assignment largely through Facebook,” said La Viña. “I regret that I never got to visit him at the Wellness Center despite our proximity."
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