My Special Studies group needed to do their experiments this weekend. So I need to look for a church nearby the university having a mass at noontime. I saw there will be a 12:15 noon mass at Sta. Maria Goretti Parish, a church located few kilometers away. I have never heard of this church, so it’ll be interesting for me to go there.

Sta. Maria Goretti Parish is located inside the compound of the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center on UN Avenue in Paco, Manila. Every year, a plenary assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines is held at the Center making the former Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle to call the church “the parish church where bishops pray”.

It was built as a chapel on December 11, 1982 and was originally part of the San Vicente de Paul Parish on San Marcelino Street. It was issued the decree of canonical erection after a decade making it as a parish.

The church was built in celebration of the 100th death year celebration of St. Maria Goretti, the patron saint of chastity, rape victims, girls, youth, teenage girls, poverty, purity, and forgiveness. She was just 11 years old when the son of a family they were living with tried to rape her and killed her by stabbing her 14 times (hence her image holding a knife) in July 6, 1902. It was Pope Pius XII who canonized her on June 24, 1950 and called her the “Saint Agnes of the 20th century”.