Fr James B Reuter SJ passed away at the age of 96 in Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Manila on December 31, 2012. Jesuit Communications in the Philippines remembers Fr Reuter, to whom it owes a debt of gratitude for founding the Jesuit Communications Foundation and for championing Jesuit and Church presence in the mass media in the Philippines.
In Memoriam
James B. Reuter was born on 21 May 1916 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. At a young age, he already dreamt of becoming a missionary. After graduating from St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey, he entered the novitiate in Wernersville in 1934. He took his first vows two years later and after two more years in Juniorate, when Jesuit scholastics studied literature, writing, rhetoric and the classics, he was assigned to the Philippines, arriving in Manila in 1938. He went through the programme of Jesuit studies, completing philosophy in the Philippines, and regency in 1941 at the Ateneo de Manila University. At the Ateneo he helped produce “The Commonweal Hour,” a popular Sunday night radio programme, sponsored by the Catholic Church. He worked with young Filipinos who would make their mark in the future as prominent leaders and movers, writers, and intellectuals. The list of his co-workers includes: Fr Horacio de la Costa SJ, then a scholastic like Fr Jim, the future senators Raul Manglapus and Francisco “Soc” Rodrigo, Leon Ma. Guerrero, Ricardo Puno, and Jesus Paredes.
The seed of Fr Jim’s future Communication and Media apostolate was sown at this time.
Toward the end of year, 8 December 1941, World War II broke out in the Pacific. Fr Jim and other Americans were arrested by the Japanese and sent to concentration camps. Frail of health, he returned to the United States to recover and then to continue in his studies for the priesthood. On 24 March 1946, he was ordained together with 26 other Jesuits imprisoned in the Philippines. After ordination, he studied radio and television at Fordham.
Returning to the Philippines in 1948, he was assigned to Naga City where he founded Cathedral Players, whose cast was drawn from priests and nuns. In 1952, he was assigned to the Ateneo de Manila but in 1960, the Provincial made him head of the communication office of the Philippine Province. From then on, Fr Jim and the Communications Media were closely linked. From 1965-67, he was general manager of Radio Veritas and in 1967 he became national director for the Media arm of the Catholic Church.
Along with this work, Fr Jim was chaplain of St Paul’s College in Manila and produced countless plays with St Paul and Ateneo students and later with a cast drawn from the vast network of friends and colleges. The St Paul sisters were Fr Jim’s co-workers in media, especially Sr Sarah who assisted him in his work in radio and theatre.
During martial law, Ferdinand Marcos had Fr Jim’s media operation padlocked. But as the head of the Catholic Broadcasters, he persuaded Marcos to allow the seventeen stations of the federation to continue operation while he served as liaison to the military. He published Communicator, which was a weekly tabloid that published news that did not make it to the Marcos-controlled press. For his opposition to Marcos, he was arrested and tried, but Marcos, wary about the international reputation of Fr Jim, granted him amnesty. In 1981, John Paul II, on a visit to the Philippines, gave Fr Jim a special award for his work in Catholic Communications.
In 1985, in a prescient move, Fr Jim built a network of short-wave radios, especially among Catholic broadcasters, so that they could keep in touch. In February 1986, during the People Power Revolution, Radio Bandido continued to broadcast news as the Marcos’ military shut down communications. Warned of possible raid at his media office in Sta Ana, Radio Bandido was moved to an undisclosed site where it was the lone voice as the people and Marcos faced each other in an epic show of strength.
In 1989, Fr Jim received the Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. His work in theatre, print and the broadcast media was recognized by the award.
In 2006, he was given honorary citizenship by the Philippine Congress.
Fr Jim is a tough act to follow. Jesuit Communications mourns his passing and remembers its debt of gratitude to Fr. Jim.
Fr Reuter entered the Society of Jesus on September 7, 1934 and was ordained a priest on March 24, 1946. His funeral mass was held on January 5 at the Church of the Gesù in Ateneo de Manila University. He is buried in Sacred Heart Novitiate Jesuit Cemetery in Manila. Requiescat in Pace.