A Brief History of the Sacred Heart Parish-Shrine

The present SVD Priests' Team and Parish Staff
which manage the liturgical celebrations
in the church during this pandemic
photo: R. Mascarinas

The Vision of Quezon

It happened one sweltering day in July 1939. Manuel L. Quezon, the Commonwealth president, strolled along the Diliman area, so they say. He came to a hill on Sampaloc Avenue (now Tomas Morato Avenue ). The slope gave him a view of a vast grassy (“talahiban”) area. Quezon was impressed. He was said to have exclaimed: “This is where I would like to build a real Filipino metropolis!.”

Quezon saw the northeastern sweep of what was later known as Kamuning.

Early Kamuning

Thus, before that year ended, around 500 families had already moved in. Here’s one account of what the community had looked like then:

All the pioneer residents were government employees and were mostly young families just starting out in life. Kamuning then was very small. It had only one store, known as Guevara’s Store. There was no public market, no drugstore, no school, no church, no recreation center. There was simply no place to go to. In due time, the residents held a meeting to lay out plans for the common good of the residents. Not long afterward, an association was formed and named [it] the “Kamuning Residents Association.” Within a month after its organization, the new association had a program of activities. This included the first Christmas celebration in the area” [Layugan: 2017, 121)

People's Initiative

The history of the Sacred Heart Parish-Shrine is inextricably linked with that of Quezon City. The city was founded in October of 1939, Sacred Heart, in October of 1941. It was the new residents of Quezon City in Kamuning who had requested from a seminary nearby for a Christmas Eve Mass in December of 1940. That place was Christ the King Seminary run by the German missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). On Christmas Eve of that year, in an open-air, the community celebrated the first Mass in Kamuning. It was the seminary’s rector, Fr. Herman Kondring, SVD, who presided, assisted by his seminarians.

It was also these pioneering people, backed up by their government, who had taken the initiative to put up a parish. Here is a report filed by Fr. Anspach, then provincial superior of the SVD Philippines, to his superiors in Rome:

By the end of this year, [1940 – Ed. ], the matter [the putting up of a parish - Ed. ] would again be taken up by President [Manuel Luis] Quezon himself, who was very much interested and particularly the 300 families who were put up in a settlement near our house to get pastoral care. He and his wife urged us to start [Layugan: 1971, 124].

Parroquia del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus

It did not take long before the people’s request began to take shape. On the Feast of the Pentecost on the 1st of July 1941 Michael J. O’Doherty, then-Archbishop of Manila came to the place to lay the cornerstone for the new church to be constructed. Three months later, on October 3, the Archbishop officially declared the church to be a parish. It received the title, Parroquia del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus. He designated its primary titular patron as the Sacred Heart of Jesus, its secondary patron, the Holy Family. Having entrusted the new parish to the care of the Society of the Divine Word, the Archbishop assigned to it this territorial jurisdiction:

[F]rom the crossing of Quezon Avenue with the San Juan River and it extends towards the limits of the campus of the University of the Philippines and the boundaries of the Metropolitan Water District until the extension of the Aqueduct Road; from the Aqueduct Road to the southwest until its crossing with the first road that leads to the Marikina Road; from the Marikina Road to the southwest until the road that goes to the old provincial road of San Juan, now known as Santolan Road; from the provincial road of San Juan to the Ermitaño River until the Ermitaño River reaches the mouth of the San Juan river; it then follows the course of the San Juan River until it traverses Quezon Avenue [Layugan: 2017, 128).

The following SVD priests served as the parish priest:

• 1. Fr. Theodore Buttenbruch (1941-1944) †
• 2. Fr. Juan Simon (1944-1946) †
• 3. Fr. Antonio Albrecht (1946-1958 †
• 4. Fr. Jose Lazo (1958-1961) †
• 5. Fr. Fernando de Pedro (1962-1969) †
• 6. Fr. Adeodato Malabanan (1969-1971) †
• 7. Fr. Restituto Lumanlan (1971-1981)
• 8. Fr. Virgilio S. Mascardo (1981-1985)
• 9. Fr. Manuel B. Bongayan (1985-1990)
• 10. Fr. John O' Mahony (1990-1996)
• 11. Fr. Romeo M. Castro (1996-2002)
• 12. Fr. Manuel B. Bongayan, SVD (2002-2008)
• 13. Fr. Eduardo L. Guarin, SVD (2008-2011)
• 14. Fr. Jerome A. Marquez, SVD (2011-2018)
• 15. Fr. Randolf C. Flores, SVD (2018–present)

 † Deceased

A Diocesan Shrine of the Sacred Heart

After 75 years, the parish became a diocesan shrine. On October 1, 2016, Honesto Ongtioco, the Bishop of the Diocese of Cubao, issued this decree for its declaration:

At this shrine, the means of salvation are to supplied more abundantly to the faithful by the diligent proclamation of the Word of God, the suitable promotion of liturgical life, especially throughout the celebration of the Eucharist and of Penance and the cultivation of approved forms of popular piety. Seeing that this shrine has been so designated and approved, in virtue of the ordinary power granted by the law an in virtue of Canon 1233, I do hereby grant a partial indulgence form temporal punishment to any member of the Christian faithful who visits the shrine on the liturgical feast day of the shrine.

"Sacred Heart Parish-Shrine"

The official name then of the parish became “Sacred Heart Parish-Shrine.” Its first rector is Fr. Jerome A. Marquez, SVD. Today, the parish-shrine serves five barangays: Sacred Heart, Kamuning, South Triangle, Obrero, and Kristong-Hari.