by Victoria Faicol
Fr Adolfo Nicolás started as EAPI (East Asian Pastoral Institute) Director in 1978. We began to know him better via a working relationship and especially at our nightly recreation time. His nickname at home was Fito a diminutive of Adolfo.
If we thought he got his sense of humour from his father, we were not that accurate. For example, when Cardinal Tarancón of Spain visited EAPI he asked Fr Nico what he could do for him when he returned to Spain. Fr Nico requested him to convey his greetings to his mother. His Eminence called but Nico’s mother, Doña Modesta Pachon Nicolas didn’t believe him, and when he insisted, she said: “if you are Cardinal Tarancón, then I must be the Queen of Spain.”
He requested us (me) to drop the “Father” and address him as Nico because we were all equal disciples. I explained that on my part it was awkward due to breeding, education, and cultural practices, but I promised to call him simply Nico when I turned 40. (I kept my promise and since he had already returned to Japan by then, I wrote to him and my salutation was “Dear Nico”.)
During his term as Director, EAPI offered the 19th annotation in the Spiritual Exercises within the seven-month pastoral course. I joined it with him as my Spiritual Director. Due to his tight schedule he could not continue as such. But the grace among so many that I received or learned from the experience was “inner freedom”.
On regular EAPI (Wednesday Community Nights he would be transformed into a flamenco dancer, a banduria player, and best of all, Charlie Chaplin. Oh, those Charlie Chaplin evenings! If only Charlie Chaplin could have seen him then. It was during his time as EAPI director when Fr General Pedro Arrupe met up privately with the staff community. Before his arrival, I had told Fr Nico that Fr Arrupe was the first Jesuit I read about and that he was my favourite Jesuit. Though there was no photo op of our meeting at that time, the next day when I went to the office, on top of my table was a small piece of paper with Fr Arrupe’s signature!
When Fr Nico ended his EAPI tenure, we had Mass for him and I cried a river that it made one Jesuit quip that I should charge him for all the tissue paper used.
After EAPI, he was in Korea and Japan intermittently to teach at their theologate, then he became Father Provincial of the Japanese province. During that time I had the chance to visit him and the first EAPI Director, Fr. Alfonso Nebreda in Tokyo – a memorable experience in 1993.
He spent his sabbatical year in EAPI after serving as Japan’s Father Provincial. Then it was back to Japan after his sabbatical in Manila. Upon his return to Japan, he also ministered to the Filipino community there.
In 2004, he became President of the (then) Jesuit Conference of East Asia and Oceania (JCEAO, now renamed Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific) whose head office was in the Ateneo de Manila University. He lived with the EAPI community at that time.
One day my then pre-nursery grandnephew, Elijah, asked me, “Why did God create Adam as an adult and not as a baby?” I told him that I didn’t know but that I would ask somebody. I then asked Fr Nico for his theological insight on the matter. He said: “Tell him it’s because there was so much clay in Paradise.”
This made sense to the little boy who was enlightened and said: “That’s right; also, if Adam started as a baby, there would be so much diaper wasted.” When I told this to Fr Nico, he said that Elijah ought to write a thesis on the Theology of the Diaper.
It was also as President of JCEAO that we had our annual manifestation of conscience to him as members of the community…a unique experience for me.
One morning I decided to prepare my own breakfast at the staff kitchenette. I fried an egg unsuccessfully. Unknown to me, he was watching from the open kitchen door. When I saw him, I was embarrassed. He then quipped: “Too bad you cannot cook in your typewriter.”
He left in December 2007 first for a home visit in Spain, then for the General Congregation in Rome. He was elected Father General on 19 January 2008. I was already retired from EAPI by then but a few friends remembered to call or text me about the event that evening. The inscrutable Bishop Claver sent me a one-word text: “Alleluiah” and to some degree it articulated the feeling of all those who knew him.
As a Father General, he returned to EAPI in March 2008 to get his personal belongings which were left when he flew to Europe in December for the General Congregation not knowing that he would be a permanent resident there.
Fr Jeya Rasiah SJ, EAPI Director at that time, invited me for lunch with the community. During lunch, I told him that he had changed. He smiled and said, “I didn’t change, it’s your perception of me that has changed.” Indeed, why did I not think of that?
He shared a story that while in Rome as a new Father General, when he had wanted to be alone, he would hide off to a small and old church, so old that even dogs were found inside. I exclaimed,” Whaaat, they allow dogs inside?! ” He replied,”Yes the dogs are Catholics too.”
During his retirement years, I had the chance to visit him occasionally. In one of these visits, I asked him how it was relating as Father General with Pope Francis. He said it wasn’t difficult because being a Jesuit, there was a basic understanding of topics discussed.
In one of my last visits, I asked him what was a memorable experience during his time as Father General. It took him a few seconds of quiet and then, he finally replied: “When I met a Jesuit who was true.” A few years ago, as a Father General, there was a brief video on Jesuit vocation that featured him. One of the things he said in that video was that “a person who doesn’t have humour probably does not have a vocation in the Society.” On 20 May 2020, the angels led someone to Paradise, he who had a great sense of humor and who was a true Jesuit.