Fr. Mascari opens confab on Medieval Philosophy

The Faculty of Philosophy Students’ Forum (FPSF) organized the First FPSF Conference on Medieval Philosophy that was held at the Martyrs’ Hall at the Ecclesiastical Faculties from March 7 to 8, 2019. The conference, held in commemoration of the 475 th Death Anniversary of Saint Thomas Aquinas, was endorsed by Bishop Gerardo A. Alminaza, Chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Episcopal Commission on Seminaries. Featuring four Plenary Lectures and 13 paper presentations, it brought
together seminarians, teachers and students of philosophy from various institutions.

The opening (first) and closing (fourth) plenary lectures were delivered by Fr. Michael A. Mascari, O.P., J.D. the former Socius to the Master of the Order of Preachers for the Intellectual Life and the current Academic Dean of Aquinas Institute of Theology in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA. His speeches were titled: “Here We Stand: The Intellectual Patrimony of the Middle Ages” and “Voices Past and Present: A Joint Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Truth,” for the first and fourth plenary lectures, respectively.

The second plenary speaker, Assoc. Prof. Jovito V. Cariňo, Ph.D., spoke on “St. Thomas Aquinas and the Contemporary Re(vision) of Catholic Philosophy,” while the third plenary speaker was Rev. Fr. Felix F. delos Reyes, O.P. His topic was: “Philosophy in the Service of Thought: Echoes from the Leonine Commission Seminar 2018.”

The topics for the two parallel sessions were: Session 1: Metaphysics, and God and the Human Person, and Session 2: Applications of Thomistic Philosophy, and Ethics and Morality.

Calling for a fresh approach to the wisdom of the medieval philosophers in our time, Fr. Mascari enjoined, “The great philosophers and theologians of the medieval past have much to teach us, but perhaps what they offer us more than anything else is the deepest meaning they found in their lives by their following of Christ Jesus and sharing him with others.”

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