Ateneo Law holds thanksgiving mass for 2025 Bar passers

The Ateneo de Manila University School of Law (Ateneo Law) held a Thanksgiving Mass on 7 January 2026, at the St. Thomas More Chapel, in gratitude for the success of its graduates in the 2025 Bar Examinations. The Mass brought together bar passers, their families, faculty members, and members of the Ateneo Law community to give thanks for a milestone marked by perseverance, faith, and collective effort.

The Thanksgiving Mass followed the official release of the 2025 Bar Examination results earlier that day. In a memorandum addressed to the Ateneo Law community, Dean Jose Maria G Hofileña announced that Ateneo Law posted an 98.11% passing rate among first-time takers and a 96.52% passing rate among Ateneo Law takers overall. Based on these results, Ateneo Law ranked first among all law schools with more than 100 examinees, both in the first-time takers category and overall.

“With respect to individual rankings,” the Dean noted, “two (2) of our students ranked among the top twenty (20) passers.”

Reflecting on the significance of the achievement, Dean Hofileña described the release of the results as “a moment of great joy—and no small measure of relief—for our Ateneo Law bar passers, considering all that they had given and endured to achieve this milestone in their quest.” He added that the success of the 2025 Bar Examinations was “eminently proud of each one of them, not any prouder, however, of each one of you who had helped so very generously in countless ways to enable them to reach this point.”

The Thanksgiving Mass served not only as a celebration of academic excellence but also as a reaffirmation of Ateneo Law’s deeper mission. As Dean Hofileña emphasized in his message, the results were announced at a time “marked by widespread corruption and serious challenges to the rule of law, both domestically and abroad.” He expressed hope that Ateneo Law bar passers would “enter the legal profession as principled lawyers animated by zeal, courage and Ignatian fervor—committed to upholding the primacy of the law as an instrument for the protection of individual rights, the promotion of the common good, the pursuit of justice, and the demand for accountability.”

Held in the St Thomas More Chapel, the Mass provided a moment of reflection amid celebration—a space to acknowledge not only achievement, but also responsibility. The Ateneo Law community gathered in solidarity, mindful that bar success is never an individual triumph alone, but the result of sustained mentorship, institutional support, and shared sacrifice.

Concluding his memorandum, Dean Hofileña extended his gratitude to all who supported the bar candidates throughout the process and offered words of encouragement to those who did not make it this year: “We are, and will always remain, here for you.”

The Thanksgiving Mass stood as a fitting expression of that commitment—gratitude for the journey, and resolve for the vocation that now begins.