08/12/2025
| SMU commemorates 163 years of CICM mission and service
Saint Mary’s University (SMU) celebrated the 163rd founding anniversary of the Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae (CICM) on November 28, gathering students, faculty, administrators, and missionaries to reflect on the congregation’s long-standing mission and its influence on the university’s identity.
This year’s celebration highlighted the grounding values behind CICM’s global work. During the Mass held at the Fr. Cornelius Tonus Gymnasium, University Chaplain Fr. Nemesio Huesca, CICM, pointed to the deeper meaning of the anniversary as a reminder of faith that persists through uncertainty.
In his homily, Fr. Huesca emphasized that CICM’s legacy has been sustained by missionaries who embraced the challenges of service.
“For 163 years, the CICM has been yielded, not by flawless missionaries, but faithful and persevering ones. Missionaries who dared to go where others would not, who loved people they did not yet know, who learned languages, not their own, and who allowed the gospel to take flesh and torches far from home. We will not celebrate perfection today. We celebrate faith, made courageous with the face of doubt,” he said.
He further stressed that the congregation’s strength lies not in institutional resources but in Christ’s companionship.
“Not funding, not number, not influence, but the abiding presence of Christ the Lord,” he stated, reflecting on the promise, “I am with you always until the end of the age.”
Drawing from the Gospel, Fr. Huesca also underscored that mission begins with ordinary individuals who struggle, doubt, and rise again—echoing the human reality behind the congregation’s history. He noted that CICM missionaries carried their mission to countries such as China, Congo, Indonesia, Belgium, Haiti, the Philippines, and Latin America, guided not by certainty but by commitment.
Beyond the homily, the celebration took on a unifying role for students. Second-year Biology student Vince Jhaztin Castro shared that the event highlighted the diversity present within the campus.
“For me, the importance of the CICM celebration is to celebrate the diversity of different students who came from different places and to celebrate our differences that unites us as one community because we are embodying one mission and one vision, and that's why we are here today celebrating these kinds of events,” he said.
CICM priests who attended the commemoration included Rev. Fr. Philip A. Yu, Jr., CICM; Rev. Fr. Nemesio F. Huesca, CICM; Rev. Fr. Charlie Magne Buyayo, CICM; Rev. Fr. John Mark Barroga, CICM; Rev. Fr. Sylvain Clerveau, CICM; Fr. Joseph Pumihic, CICM; and Rev. Fr. John Couvreur, CICM.
The anniversary program continued at the Sacred Heart Center with cultural and artistic presentations
from SMU-BIBAK, The Marian Dance Troupe, The SMU Choral Society, and The SMU Band, offering a tribute to the congregation’s mission and the community it continues to inspire.
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Report by Jin Kyle Rabago and Khitana Castillo
Photos by Avril Rombaoa, Karl Locquiao, Mikaela Robino, Jay P*e Ofalsa, Maverick Ramos and Kate Balauag
