Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish Church (UPLB)

The Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus Parish, is located along Victoria M. Ela St. (formerly Silangan Road, a quick jeepney route via "UP College – Kaliwa") inside the University of the Philippines Los Baños campus and is often referred to as the unofficial UPLB Chapel. It is the first church in the Philippines dedicated to Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus as its first titular patroness (since 1927) and one of the three Roman catholic churches in the municipality of Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. The church is designated as the Diocesan Shrine of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Pablo on October 1, 2016.

Church history 
The devotion to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus started in the mid-1920s due to students and professors of the university. Upon petitioning church authorities to build a chapel outside the university's perimeter fence, a chapel was built in honor of St. Thérèse in 1927 with a seating capacity of 120 people. Since then, it became the unofficial university chapel. The parish was officially established under the Archdiocese of Lipa in 1958. It serves the spiritual needs of the former parishioners of the Immaculate Conception Parish living around the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture and College of Forestry. The first parish priest was Father John Hurley. Due to lack of priests, the parish was administered by priests from the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) for 33 years. The present church with a seating capacity of 1,500 was built and blessed in 1971. In 2000, the secular priests took charge of the parish, with Monsignor Bernardino Cortez and Father Gabriel Ma. Delfino as parish priest and assistant parish priest, respectively. When Monsignor Cortez was appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of Manila, Monsignor James Contreras succeeded as parish priest. From 2008 to 2013, the church was administered by Father Jose Thor R. Villacarlos, and was succeeded by to Rev. Fr. Luis A. Tolentino, parish priest (2013–2019) and its first shrine rector (2016–2019).

In 2013, the relics of St. Thérèse visited the UPLB community as part of its world pilgrimage. The parish church was elevated to a diocesan shrine on October 1, 2016.

Facilities 
Most of the church facilities and adjacent church structures was constructed under the Foundation of St. Thérèse Parish, Inc. (FSTPI), which caters the material needs of the church. It includes the parish rectory (including the rectory annex), Garden of Peace (ossuary), St. Thérèse Baptistry, Resurrection Chapel, and sacristy. Due to the protocols established during the COVID-19 pandemic, an open venue named as DSSTCJ al fresco was inaugurated in 2022 where major social events and formation activities are being made. In November 2022, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the first phase of the Resurrection Garden Expansion Plan, which aims to provide additional niches for cremated urns and enhance the structural aesthetics of the current columbary. The second phase, which is scheduled to begin construction in January 2024, will upgrade the two existing memorial chapels and add a second floor for more columbary units and a provision of two new memorial chapels. Currently, the choir loft of the main church is being rehabilitated to improve the structural stability and increase its load-bearing capacity so that more servers can be accommodated in all Mass service. The choir loft rehabilitation project is expected to end in time for the 2023 Fiesta Season (September 22 – October 1)

From 2019 up to the present, the Diocesan Shrine of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (DSSTCJ) is under the pastoral care of its parish priest and shrine rector, Rev. Fr. Philip B. Atienza, and is assisted by Rev. Fr. Christian Dale E. Dakila, as well as the priests from the Verbum SVD House of Studies, headed by Rev. Fr. Abraham P. Paz as its provost. Between January 30 and 31, 2023, the pilgrim relics of St. Thérèse made a stop for the 5th time in the church's history, in commemoration of her 150th birth anniversary.

References

External links 
Official Facebook page of the Diocesan Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus UPLB

Roman Catholic churches in Laguna (province)
Los Baños, Laguna
University of the Philippines Los Baños
Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Pablo