THE JOHN PATRICK DELANEY, S.J. MEMORIAL
Ateneo de Manila
Quezon City, Philippines
During their homecoming week, the Ateneo High School Class of 1950 blessed a statue of John P. Delaney S.J., and named the central quadrangle in the Ateneo High School "The John Patrick Delaney, S.J. Plaza." It was a beautiful gesture – the students of 51 years ago remembering their teacher with love.
Fr. John Delaney came to the Philippines first as a Scholastic in 1928, then as a priest in late 1945. In both instances his first assignment was teaching first-year high school at the Ateneo de Manila. True to the Jesuit plan of educational studies, Fr. Delaney preferred teaching at the secondary-school level, where among the various school levels the chances of forming young men in Christian values have the higher probability.
In school year 1946-47, Fr. Delaney started as teacher of Class 1-A but in the second semester, was promoted to principal of the entire high school – a post he held for three years until the second semester of the 1949-1950 school year. Then he left the Ateneo to become full-time chaplain at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
On January 12, 1956, Fr. Delaney returned to the Lord he so tirelessly served. He was, as he himself said, "Irish by descent, English by birth, American by nationality – but Filipino by choice."
(article from The Daily Tribune)