Parish of The Holy Sacrifice - History

History

Before the parish of the Holy Sacrifice was created, a university chapel served in the early 1950s the University of the Philippines community, under the apostolate of the Society of Jesus. Fr. John Delaney served as the first Jesuit chaplain. The vibrant and growing U.P. Catholic community decided to reconstruct their chapel, and contributed to realize the dream of having a visible symbol of their faith. The faculty pledged a part of their monthly salary, while the students contributed from their own allowances. On December 21, 1955, the Archbishop of Manila officiated at the first mass in the newly constructed chapel.

The festive mood that came with the Christmas season and the community's gift of a newly constructed chapel was cut short by the tragic news of Fr. Delaney's death. While enjoying his post Christmas vacation in Bagiuo City that same year, Father Delaney suffered a fatal heart attack.

But life had to go on for the faithful. As time went by, different chaplains were sent to nurture the faith of the UP campus community. Finally, on May 1977, the chaplaincy was elevated to a university parish by Jaime Cardinal L. Sin. Msgr. Manny Gabriel became its first parish priest. To date, eight parish priests have served the Holy Sacrifice Parish, and two of them were later ordained bishops, namely, Bishop Mylo Vergara of the Diocese of Pasig and Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of the Archdiocese of Lipa.