LORENZO MISSION INSTITUTE

San Carlos Pastoral Formation Complex
EDSA, Guadalupe, Makati City
M.C.P.O. Box 144, 1254 Makati City
E-mail: lrms@pacific.net.ph
Tel: 895-8855 loc. 450
Telefax: 895-9062; 890-9561
Rector: Msgr. Esteban U. Lo, LRMS
Procurator/Vice Rector/Dean of Seminarians: Fr. Jose Vidamor Yu, LRMS
Apostolate Director/Vocation Director: Fr. Benjamin S. Calsado, LRMS
Orientation year Director: Fr. Ray Victor T. Pascual, LRMS
Spiritual Directors: Fr. Joseph Feng, LRMS; Fr. Robert McConaghy
Part Time Spiritual Directors: Fr. Jose Alan V. Dialogo; Fr. Nolan A. Que and Fr. John G. Barro

Brief History

By the beginning of the communist take over in China around 1948, the Delegate of the Father General Jesuits for China felt that it would be very difficult for the young seminarians of St. Joseph Seminary in Beijing to continue their formation under a communist regime.  After consulting the Bishops concerned and having obtained the permission of the Sacred Congregation of the Proganda Fide, he decided to transfer the said St. Joseph Regional Seminary to Manila.

The first group of 30 seminarians arrived in Manila on April 19, 1949, and in subsequent months, 50 others came to the Philippines.  The Araneta Family hosted them in the Hacarin Farm at Novaliches, then the Ortigas Family offered a 12 Ha lot located today at the back of the Megamall in Ortigas Center.  The Jesuits bought the existing Quonset hut structures and rebuilt them into a Religious Complex, which was called the Chabanel Hall.  This complex comprised: the Chinese Language School, the Jesuit Scholasticate and Saint Joseph Seminary.

Seventy-two (72) out of eighty (80) seminarians were ordained priests; some of them were sent to Taiwan and others to Southeast Asian countries, but around 30 of them remained in the Philippines.  They were sent out to the different provinces, first to help a Filipino Parish, or a Chaplaincy, or to teach in any of local Chinese schools.  Later, with the permission of the Local Bishop, they founded their own parishes, a Chinese-Filipino catholic Mission or Center and or a Chinese-Filipino Catholic School.

20 years after, these priests began to think who would perpetuate their works in the future.  They posted the question to the late Bishop Juan B. Velasco, O.P., who was then the National Coordinator for the Chinese Apostolate.  Trying to find solutions to the question, some experiments were made in Cebu to open an apostolic school, which was attached to the Cebu Sacred Heart School for Boys.  But no solution was achieved.

In the springtime, of 1987, His Eminence, Jaime L. Cardinal Sin called a meeting of all Chinese Priests working nationwide in the Philippines and all the religious who were engaged in the Chinese Apostolate to establish a solution to provide the Chinese-Filipino Apostolate with the assured personnel particularly  priests.

After a day of discussion, His Eminence announced the opening of a Formation House by the name of Lorenzo Mission Institute taken after the first Chinese-Filipino-Saint San Lorenzo Ruiz for the school year 1987-1988.  Immediately, he appointed Fr. John Su and Fr. Ismael Zuloaga, S.J. as responsible for all the necessary preparations of the said project.

In June 1987, five candidates, five candidates were accepted as first members of this formation house attached  to the holy Apostles Senior Seminary and San Carlos Theologate but with its own separate faculty and staff.  Their academic formation was maintained in San Carlos Seminary.

On May 31, 1989, The Lorenzo Mission Institute building was completed and blessed by His Eminence, Jaime L. cardinal Sin, D.D. himself in the presence of Archbishops, bishops, priests, religious, the president of the land, other dignitaries, benefactors, guests and the catholic faithful particularly the Chinese-Filipino communities nationwide.

In the following years, the number of seminars increased greatly and the seminary and missionary formation were also gradually taking good shape.

The first Ordination to the priesthood in the Institute took place at the Queen of Peace Parish in Bacolod City.  Fr. Esteban Lo who is a native of New Sagay, Negros Occidental was the first fruit.  The second ordination took place Davao City on January 17, 1993.  The third was held in St. Peter Parish and School, Paco, Manila and the succeeding ordinations year after year followed. 

LORENZO MISSION SOCIETY

Another milestone for the Lorenzo Mission Institute happened on January 14, 1997, when His Eminence, in a Decree created the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society, with the Diocesan Right, a Missionary Society in Apostolic Life, living in a fraternal life in common and according to its specific rules, vision and mission:

VISION

In response to the missionary vocation of the Church in the Philippines, the concern for the Church in China, and the evangelization of the Chinese People, as expressed by Pope John Paul  II and His Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin, the Lorenzo Mission Society was established.