International Congress on rizal, 4-8 December 1961

The present International Congress on Rizal has been organized "to give definitive measure of Rizal's contribution by his life, his martyrdom and his ideas to the national heritage, and to relate all this to the experiences of other people in their struggles for political, economic and social freedom." It is worthy to note that "the fields of his [Rizal's] intellectual interest, and devoted participation in education, science, the fine arts, linguistics, ethnology, business, engineering, and others -- which show the range of his mind, the reach of his vision, the strength of his faith in his fellowmen, and the depth of his passion for their welfare" have been recognized as the central focus of the intellectual transactions envisioned for this Congress. The realization that today and perhaps at any other subsequent times in the history of our country, we need to draw inspiration from Rizal's life and works, if only to give definite direction to and indicate the multifarious facets in the development of Filipino culture, is most opportune. The oppurnity for cooperative effort to draw from this fountainhead of nationalistic inspiration, we hope shall not be the least among the achievements of this International Congress on Rizal. As the year of this centenary commemoration draws to its close it is fitting that among the culminating events figures the International Congress on Rizal which puts an accent on the intellectual leadership that Rizal offered to his people. In this Congress, at least, sympathetic minds, both Filipinos and foreigners, appreciative of Rizal's intellectual achievements in the universe of discourse shall assemble in conclave to participate moce again in the reconstruction of the thoughts which made the Filipinos and friends of Rizal recognize Rizal's greatness. It is only natural that the Filipino nation at large looks up to this International Congress with great expectation, pershaps no less than Rizal's own when he declared that the "youth is the fair hope of the Fatherland." --Preface of the book.