A time to reflect, repent, and pray—this is how Holy Week is intended to be.
Maybe that’s the reason why a number of universities across the country suspended their classes to give their students a buffer for this sacred time for Catholics and Christians alike.
But take it differently with this one out here—Holy Angel University—that tries to be rather unlike others of its kind by pursuing classes amidst Holy Week.
Being a Catholic university itself, it is glaringly contradicting that Angelites are required to enter in-person classes instead of being given time at home to enliven the purpose of the week that commemorates Christ’s passion.
This contradiction even becomes truer as HAU preaches about the core value of Christ-centeredness, yet fails to put Him in the center during the week that is alloted for Christ’s glory.
From reading the Bible and Pasyon to reading merely academic books; from moving across different Stations of the Cross to hopping across different university buildings, Holy Week has indeed been made different by such actions of a ‘Catholic university’, diluting the very core of Catholic faith and the most sacred week of the liturgical year.
Yet, given HAU’s previous actions of rushing academic days and stunting breaks, the non-suspension of classes this Holy Week had not come off as a surprise.
Since the beginning of the academic year, students have been forced to run along rushed weeks, having no breaks after exhausting examinations. Even vacations, such as the Christmas and semestral break, had been shortened to only two weeks—an obviously insufficient breather for what had and has been demanding semesters.
HAU tries so hard to be different by being indifferent to the needs of its students—mentally, spiritually, and holistically.
Instead, HAU should recalibrate its direction by grounding itself back to its very own core values. To be truly Christ-centered and act out its very nature of being a ‘Catholic university’ means to genuinely create policies that will immerse students deeper into their faith.
It is high time that HAU advance the needs of students by providing adequate breaks that will allow students to have a time not just to rest for their mental and physical states, but also to have a time for them and with their families to grow spiritually during this special time.
At least, for once, the university will pick, choose, and love Angelites by putting them forth and their welfare as their first and most important priority—embodying and making true its claim that of being a compassionate, Christ-centered, and student-first Catholic university.
Opinion by Godwin Pring
Layout by Yuan Simbulan
