Obituary +Fray Dustan Huberto Mamigo Decena, OAR (February 19, 1941 – February 11, 2025)

Prot. SEM 007/25
February 13, 2025

TO ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE AUGUSTINIAN RECOLLECT FAMILY

“He alone loses no one dear to him, to whom all are dear in the One who is never lost.”
(St. Augustine, Confessions, IV.9.14)

Dear brothers and sisters,

With deep sorrow and Christian hope, I hereby formally announce to you that + FRAY DUNSTAN HUBERTO MAMIGO DECENA, OAR has returned to the Heavenly Father at 9:09 p.m. of February 11, 2025, eight days short of his 84* birthday on February 19. He died of septic shock due to pneumonia after some days of confinement at the Capitol Medical Center, Quezon City. He has received the last sacraments.

Father Bert (or “Father Didi”, or “Lolo” to the younger generations) hails from Cauayan, Negros Occidental where he was born on February 19, 1941, to Lamberto and Petra. The youngest of five siblings, he finished his basic education in his hometown: his elementary, from Cauayan Central Elementary School in 1952, and his high school, from St. Columban Academy in 1956. Then, he proceeded to Colegio Apostólico de Santo Tomás de Villanueva, the Recoletos high school seminary in San Carlos City, where he spent a year of aspirancy (1956-1957) before he and his classmates transferred to a Jesuit-run San Jose Seminary in Quezon City for their philosophical studies from 1957 to 1962.

On August 23, 1962, Father Bert was accepted to the novitiate in Monteagudo (Navarra, Spain) where he donned the Augustinian Recollect habit and took the religious name with “de la Sagrada Familia” appended to it. On August 24 of the following year, in the same seminary, he made his simple profession of vows. Next stop in his formation itinerary was in Marcilla (Navarra, Spain) where he went through a theological formation (1963-1967) that was slowly transitioning to the spirit of Vatican II. At the chapel of the Recoletos seminary in Marcilla, he pronounced his solemn profession of vows on August 24, 1966 and was ordained there, five months later, to transitory diaconate on January 22, 1967, with Bishop Arturo Quintanilla, OAR, as the ordaining prelate. Six months later, in August, he went home to the Philippines and stayed at the community of San Sebastian College-Recoletos Manila where the Vicariate House was also located and where he continued to exercise his diaconal ministry. On October 23, 1967, he was elevated to the priesthood at the San Sebastian Cathedral in Bacolod by its new bishop, Most Rev. Antonio Fortich, D.D.

Father Bert’s religious and priestly life for a total of about 57 years and four months (October 1967 to February 2025) may be conveniently divided into three phases. The first phase, of almost 12 years, comprises his pre-Biblicum years. (“Biblicum” refers to the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome where he took up Licentiate in Sacred Scriptures.) Right after his ordination in Bacolod, he returned to San Sebastian Manila and stayed there until May 1968, just in time for the opening of the new school year. But his new patente (official appointment papers) brought him to Colegio de Sto. Tomas-Recoletos in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, to work as a teacher until June 1970. Then, he went back again to Manila, working particularly as assistant parish priest for a year at Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage Parish in Tondo. From 1971 to 1979, he was assigned at Seminario Mayor-Recoletos (now Casiciaco Recoletos Seminary) in Baguio City as a formator and teacher. Having been elected as a delegate of the erstwhile Vicariate of the Philippines and China, the 38-year-old friar participated in the Provincial Chapter held in Marcilla in July of 1979. What a way to top off this youthful phase!

The second phase – referring to his Biblicum years – is the shortest, spanning only for almost five years. This covers his stay at Collegio Internazionale di Sant’Ildefonso in Rome from August 1979 to April 1984. During these years, he was a student in Biblicum. Within those years, he also enrolled in Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1980-1981), and during summer, he took up three-month classes in German language in Bergheim and in Erft, Germany.

After the academic phase came the third and longest phase: the post-Biblicum years, from April 1984 to February 2025. Fresh from Rome, he stayed at San Sebastian Manila for a month (April-May 1984), then served as assistant parish priest of the Parish of Our Lady of the Abandoned in Valencia, Negros Oriental (May-December 1984). He returned and stayed at San Sebastian Manila (January-May 1985) to prepare for his academic classes at the newly-opened Recoletos Formation Center (RFC) in Miranila, Quezon City, where he taught Sacred Scriptures, from 1985 to 1987.

For reason of inter provincial collaboration, he was sent to the Province of St. Augustine, in the USA. Specifically, he worked in the East Coast, at Tagaste Monastery in Suffern, New York (1987-1988), and in the West Coast, at San Miguel Parish and Postulancy House in Los Angeles, California (in the early months of 1988). Afterwards, he went back to the Philippines and continued his teaching apostolate at Recoletos Formation Center (1988-1992). Another opportunity came when Father Bert was invited to the Recoletos Theologate in Marcilla to teach Sacred Scriptures (1992-1993). Thereafter, he resided at the RFC in Miranila where he again taught biblical subjects for six years (1993-1999).

From 1999 to 2011, although he was transferred to the St. Ezekiel Moreno Provincial Center, Quezon City, he continued his professorial stint at RFC. In the former, he held the following tasks: as resident friar (1999-2000); local procurator and assistant parish priest of the San Nicolas de Tolentino Parish (2000-2003); Editor of the Bulletin of the Province, spiritual director of charismatic groups and Marriage Encounter groups (2003-2006); local prior (2006-2009), which marked the first time that a non-major superior headed the provincialate community; and, house liturgist (2009-2011).

The succeeding 14 years until his demise (2012-2025) saw Father Bert staying put at Recoletos de Miranila where he focused on his teaching office, both in its active and, much later, “contemplative” dimensions. As his physical health began to wane, however, he also gradually shifted from being a classroom professor to being a spiritual director and/or confessor of the seminarians. He also used to actively do the English translations of the Spanish documents until, at the start of this current triennium (2022-2025), this sickly octogenarian humbly asked the major superior to be excused from “all official assignments”: “Time has come when I am of less ‘utility’ to the province. I’m sorry,” he wrote. His situation is highly understandable, and of him it could be said: “This new way of self-giving is not connected to efficiency in carrying out particular tasks, but to the completeness of the submission [to the will of God].” (Add. Code 268.5).

Father Bert has clearly demonstrated what it means to serve unconditionally and live faithfully one’s vocation until the end. He bore the weight of his sufferings in the same way that he has learned it from the Scriptures he so loved to meditate, preach, and teach. A former teacher to at least 80% of the religious of the Province today, Father Bert is happily remembered for his fatherly concern particularly for the formation of the seminarians: He did not only explain the Word but also tried to give witness to it by the way he lived his Augustinian Recollect life with joy and community-centeredness. His fondness for classical music has inspired others to view life from different perspectives. He has also touched so many lives of the lay people especially through his profound homilies, bible studies, and spiritual direction. And to many of us, his special devotion to St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin has rewarded him with a peaceful death on the feast day itself of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Let us commend our dear brother, Father Bert, to God, the alpha and the omega of everything we have and everything we are. May the Lord, in His boundless mercy, together with all the angels and saints, welcome him in Paradise.

In St. Ezekiel Moreno,

Fray Bernard C. Amparado, OAR
Prior Provincial

Fray Jose Ernil F. Almayo, OAR
Provincial Secretary