Maria Lourdes Bernadette “Loudette” Zaragoza Banson, Marie Eugenie Awardee of Assumption College San Lorenzo, High School Class of ’76, recently presented her credentials to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. as Ambassador of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Philippines.
Her Excellency, as ambassadors are formally addressed, has lived a truly exemplary life of service to God, the Church, and humanity. On June 24, 2026, during the celebration of the National Day of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Ambassador Loudette delivered the following welcome address.
WELCOME ADDRESS
Delivered on the National Day of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
June 24, 2026 • Manila Polo Club, Makati City
Your Excellency Archbishop Charles Brown, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Our guest of honor, the Honorable Ezzedin Tago, Undersecretary for Migration Affairs, Officer in Charge, The Honorable Dr. Teodoro J. Herbosa, Secretary of Health; Your Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends, Magandang gabi po sa inyong lahat.
When I was in College; in the late 70s, my Mother was involved in the avocation of fostering babies while waiting for placement in their forever homes. In 1978, Mother Therese Vicente, the foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Face of Jesus, had asked for my mother’s help to foster some babies while these children’s papers were being prepared for adoption. We had a baby girl in our home at that time, Gretchen was her name.
But my mother was supporting another baby at the nursery of a small clinic in Tondo, Manila, where the child was abandoned by her birth mother. Sadly, each time my mother visited this infant to bring supplies to the clinic, she noticed that the child had developed serious skin eruptions all over her head and body. Her head was disfigured because she lay on her back for many hours with no one picking her up from her crib.
My Mom decided to take her home and asked me to take care of her. I was in my third year of college. All she said to me was “Here, take care of this baby! Practice” I thought then, Practice!!??? What about my papers, homework, late nights etc. but Mothers know best, I obeyed.
Sara became my roomie and the entire family’s baby until she was 1 year and one month old when the papers were in order for her adoption by two School teachers in Switzerland. The representative from Switzerland came to fetch the baby. Mom was worried that these virtual strangers did not know Sara’s routine so she made me go with Sara. I had to ask for my College dean’s permission to leave for two weeks. I took the almost 24- hour flight with a 13 -month old baby not knowing what was waiting for me on the other side of the world. Sara grew up to be a tall, olive-skinned young achiever, who eventually learned to speak three languages. She became a bright eyed, intelligent distinctive beauty, who made a mark at Credit Suisse.
That child who initially had body sores, bulging eyes, and a disfigured head grew up to be a woman who contributed to society. She left her banking career at age 30, settled in Cambodia to take care of abandoned children. She works for the Swiss government as her main source of livelihood. Here is one life of an abandoned baby changed for the better with the help of a few who dared to take her in, and the government of Switzerland.
On behalf of the Sovereign Order of Malta, I thank you dear Excellencies, family and friends for this gathering and for the shared responsibility that your presence represents. This is the first time in my life to host an event such as this. Although my late father was himself an Ambassador, my parents did not train me in the science and art of diplomacy. But… they did pass on to me the fire and passion for the care of humanity. They reared me to care for the abandoned, the orphaned, the homeless and to engage in the endless combat against illiteracy and in the promotion of family piety through family prayer; particularly the Holy Rosary and celebrating the Eucharist daily.
As your newest colleague in the diplomatic service, I place my appeal before your hearts for a renewed common action for the uplift of humanity—action rooted in the dignity of every person, attentive to the poor and open to the One source of our unity—GOD!
The world, our very circles have many conferences and cocktail receptions but maybe we have to gather more courage to translate our convictions into concrete solidarity. I dream of a world of diplomats whose vision is eternity. I dream of a worldwide revolution of charity. I believe this class of diplomacy will help end the threat of war which perennially threatens our planet.
We share a common humanity and a common destiny. Every nation represented here, and every person we meet stands on the same foundation. Each is a person, not an instrument. A brother or sister not a disposable “resource”. Our diplomatic vocation at its deepest level calls for a collaboration
that serves “(détente) or conciliation, disarmament, peace, justice, humanitarian measures and aid, development,” while also helping to “form consciences” toward the principles that guarantee authentic civilization and real brotherhood and sisterhood among peoples.
Let us unite for a diplomacy that is unarmed and disarmed. A diplomacy of tenderness and compassion.
Tonight, I dare to speak plainly about the poor, whom the Order of Malta calls our “lords”. In many places, poverty is treated as a “problem” to manage, rather than as persons to encounter. Yet we must insist on a different perspective: the poor are not merely recipients: they are teachers of what humanity is when it is purified of selfishness.
Sara was not “practice”! She was one of my greatest teachers. After her, my amazing husband and I fostered 21 more babies and adopted two girls of our own.
The poor are brothers and sisters to be welcomed and loved, not strangers; and the poor are also our “masters”; they make us understand what we all are before God: Beggars of love and mercy.
This is where the Order of Malta’s own vocation speaks to the whole diplomatic community. Our Religions Order, (we are not the Embassy of Malta, the nation.) that is almost 1000 years old has an oath: “to nurture the faith and to serve the poor.”
That oath is not nostalgia; it is a program. It says that service must never be humiliating—because help must be the hand of reconciliation, not the hand of superiority. Help must be seen not as a humiliating handout but as a sharing between brothers and sisters.
So, I ask: can our international systems be evaluated not only by growth metrics, but by how they treat those who have the least voice? The dignity of the human person requires the pursuit of the common good, and everyone should work to create institutions that improve the conditions of human life.
Lastly, if our humanity is shared, and if our duty toward the poor is real, then our unity needs a deeper anchor than diplomacy alone. The Order of Malta also insists that the dignity of the human person has an unchangeable basis in creation in the image and likeness of God whom we call by many different names.
Therefore, the common source and summit of our work is GOD, who has called us to be his children. If we forget this, we will end up negotiating human value rather than recognizing it. But if we remember it, then unity becomes more than sentiment.
It becomes a moral and spiritual commitment—a civilization of dignity. So, what could we do together—starting now? This is our appeal: Let us unite to protect human dignity in practice, especially where people are most vulnerable to “throw away” culture: violence, exploitation, neglect and exclusion.
Let us unite to treat the poor as partners in truth, not as statistics in reports—ensuring that assistance is close, compassionate and oriented toward liberation and dignity.
Let us unite to build institutions for the common good, because human communion requires that we create and support the conditions in which persons can live fully and freely.
Tonight, as I thank you for coming to celebrate the National Day of the Order of Malta, I plead with you: remember the poor, remember the homeless and the hungry, remember the unjustly imprisoned and relentlessly persecuted, remember those who cannot raise glasses in toasts because their spirit is and bodies are drowned by inhuman poverty.
To them we dedicate this gathering. They are our Lords.
May our diplomacy serve the common good with faith, justice and mercy unto eternity. Thank you. MABUHAY.