Socrates is the best man in the city of Athens, and Athens is the best state, yet the best state killed the best man. Something must be wrong here somewhere. How could the best state execute its best man? I do not consider myself as Socrates nor do I consider Aklan Catholic College the best. However, I have one thing in common with Socrates, he professes ignorance not because he does not know anything but because there is so much to know. I do not consider myself an expert in the field of education let alone administration. I profess ignorance not because I know nothing but because there is so much to learn. Aklan Catholic College may not yet be the best but it also shares with what is best in the city of Athens. It is the seedbed of wise men and great leaders. Yes, Aklan Catholic College is the breeding ground for wise men and great leaders. This is the timeless challenge the College faces and the College has to perpetually address. The College must be faithful to her mission for this is the ( raison d’etre) underlying reason for every learning institution. Let be there no repeat of the mistake of Athens. It did not allow the best man to live in the best state.

Our motto is: Pro Deo et Patria (for God and Country). Everything that we do in this College finds meaning in God and for the service of our fellowmen. We cry with assurance to our students: your future is our prestige. So let it be. Let us mold our students not only to be great me in the field of interest but more so great men in character and virtue.

Aristotle warns us: a little error in the beginning would be costly in the end. Or as Professor Arthur Hundert in the movie Emperors Club says, the end depends upon the beginning. It is then a must for us that we have to start the year right, to do what is right and to stand for what is right. For Aristotle again tells us that a thing to be good must be good in its entirety, that is, good in both end and means.

We are a Catholic community that adheres to the teachings and morals of the Catholic Church. Let us not trivialize and compartmentalize this very gift of faith God has given us. Let us bring it with us wherever we go, be it in the church, in our homes, in the classroom or in our working places. This is what Pope Benedict XVI tells us in his lecture in the University of Regensburg, the distinctiveness of our Catholic Faith. The university must be a where the highest things are freely spoken without fear of apology, without fear of reprisal from the political structure of society or for that matter, from the political structure of the university itself. We have to profess in words and in deeds the truths of our faith, the truth about our Lord Jesus Christ. The Pope reminds us that all disorders of politics and morals originate in the minds of the learned. As James V. Schall, S.J. puts it: heresy begins in the mind. Education of the minds of our students becomes necessary preoccupation. It is a must for us to begin to address these public issues and questions of life, of morality and what we are about. The Regensburg Address of the Holy Father tells us who we are and where we are.

My dear Faculty, our task here goes beyond the human eyes can see. For what is essential is invisible to the eye. Everything that we do here has an eternal weight. As the Holy Father again tells us in his Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est., everything that we do must have its foundation and end in Charity. As St. Paul tells us, everything is grace. Everything is a gift.

Let Aklan Catholic College be a community of love who shares to everyone his heart.