James Bertram Reuter ( ; May 21, 1916 – December 31, 2012) was an American Jesuit Catholic priest who lived in the Philippines since he was 22 and taught at Ateneo de Manila University. He was a well-known public figure who was a writer, director and producer in theatre, radio, print and film. He was also a prominent figure in the resistance against the two-decade rule of President Ferdinand Marcos, and played a key role in the 1986 People Power Revolution that overthrew Marcos. He educated and trained students in creative works, inspired by the works of Christ, instilling the importance of prayers most especially the Holy Rosary, working alongside and continuing the mission of the Rev. Patrick Peyton, best known as the "Rosary Priest".
Reuter received awards and recognition for promoting the Catholic Church through mass media, including the award for "Outstanding Service to the Catholic Church in the field of Mass Media", personally given to him in January 1981 by Pope John Paul II. For his work in the field of communication, and training prominent leaders and artists in Philippine society, he was made an "honorary citizen of the Republic of the Philippines" in 1984 by the Batasang Pambansa by a unanimous vote.
Reuter later retired to the Xavier House in Santa Ana, Manila, before he was transferred to the Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Parañaque, where he remained until his death on New Year's Eve 2012.
Biography
Arrival and the Second World War
Reuter first came to the Commonwealth of the Philippines as a 22-year-old seminarian from the Jesuit formation house of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, remaining in the country for almost his entire life. During the Japanese Occupation, members of the Society of Jesus were placed in an internment camp in Los Baños, Laguna. He was the last surviving member of the camp. He returned to the United States following his liberation and was ordained into the priesthood at Woodstock, Maryland. After completing studies in radio and television communications at Fordham University, he returned to The Philippines in 1948 for his life's long work serving God and The Philippine people in communications and mass media.
Family Rosary Crusade
It was in 1947 when Reuter first heard of the rapidly growing mission of Patrick Peyton, of the Congregation of Holy Cross and promoted praying of the family rosary. Both Reuter and Peyton believed that the most effective means of propagating the word of Christ, the messages of the Blessed Virgin Mary was through the use of emerging mass communication with the likes of radio, film, and television. Reuter submitted an unsolicited short drama for radio to Peyton in 1947 and it was used in the weekly broadcasts of the Family Theater radio shows that aired on the defunct American radio network Mutual Broadcasting System or MBS. The drama titled, "Stolen Symphony" was awarded as best drama by the Ohio State Awards.
Reuter returned to the Philippines in 1948, and on his own established Family Theater Productions, duplicating the efforts of Peyton in the United States, he solicited free radio airtime on radio station KZPI and got named Filipino actors and actresses to volunteer their voices and acting talent to dramatize family oriented soaps and the praying of the Rosary.
Reuter brought Family Theater to television in 1953, operating until the declaration of Martial Law on 23 September 1972, when media was forcibly shut and seized by the government of Ferdinand Marcos.
During the Marcos dictatorship
During the 14 year period of Ferdinand Marcos' authoritarian rule in the Philippines (which included the Martial Law period from 1972 to 1981, and the succeeding period in which Marcos lifted the formal declaration of Martial Law but retained most of his powers), Reuter was director of communication for the Jesuits in the Philippines, as well as the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines From his offices in the Jesuits' Xavier House facility on Herran Street (now Pedro Gil) in Manila, he spearheaded the publication of "Signs of the Times", and worked to keep Catholic radio stations going, raising concerns about the abuses of the Marcos dictatorship. He also visited political detainees in the various Martial Law "detention centers" (which the administration did not call prisons), and pleaded with diplomats for the west to stop supporting Marcos' administration.
