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Among the 34 Jesuits who served in the first 90 years of St. Ignatius of Loyola, one of them Luis del Rosario served for two terms as Parish Priest in 1936 when Zamboanga became a chartered City (which was first a merging of Tetuan Municipality and Zamboanga Municipality and during the Japanese occupation of the city, 1941-1942). Fr. Luis del Rosario became the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Zamboanga after liberation until the early years of Martial Law when he retired to the Jesuit Community. At the end of the Spanish regime in 1898, a layman, Don Adriano Rodriguez, another prominent Tetuano, temporarily took care of the Church. In the absence of a priest and in lieu of the mass, the parishioners resorted to praying the rosary until 1900 when the Americans came and the Jesuits returned to the parish. Surprisingly, the Jesuits remained Spaniards or Filipinos. One Jesuit, who might have been an American who served after World War II, was named Andrew with a surname that sounds Italian Cirvini who must have taught at the Ateneo de Zamboanga where a hall is named after him.
The Spanish Claretians took over the parish from the Jesuits in
1953. They continued for 8
years more until the parish was secularized with the appointment of Rev.
Fr. Cesar V. Garces, a volunteer diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of
Palo, where the new Archbishop Most Rev. Lino Gonzaga came from.
Another Garces, Peter V. Garces also a diocesan priest from
Zamboanga del Sur, with no clear relations to the early Garces but long
serving in the City, served as parish priest from 1979-1982.
Two more volunteers from Leyte, Rev. Fr. Crisanto dela Cruz and
Fr. Abraham Alonzo, served as parish priest from 1982-1986 and 1986-1990
respectively, with Fr. Cris coming back from 1990-1994. Meanwhile, with the celebration in 1982 of the 100 years of the foundation of the Fraternal Order of the Knights of Columbus in the United States, it was marked in St. Ignatius Parish with the formation of the first Knight of Columbus Council outside the Immaculate Conception Parish the Centennial Council no. 8086 so first Chaplain. Within the last ten years also there were other developments further strengthening the spiritual efforts of the Church with the continuous operation of the Pastor Bonus Seminary, the establishment of the religious houses of the Daughters of St. Paul, the Spinola Sisters, Bendictine Sisters and the Medical Mission Sisters. Lay Ministers and Lectors were organized and they also visit the sick in the two hospitals in the parish at the Zamboanga Doctors Hospital and the Western Mindanao Medical Center. Catechists serve the public school. With the opening of a private high school and a public high school, the catechetical apostolate is bound to expand and to need more cathechists. The Catholic Faith Defenders, Charismatic Group, Bukas Loob sa Diyos, Couple for Christ and the Neo Catechumenate were added to the existing list of religious organizations such as the Christian Family Movement, Legion of Mary, Barangay Sang Birhen and St. Ignatius Youth Organization and the Catholic Womens Group and the Blessed Sacrament Adorers. Twice the parish participated in a Pastoral Planning Conference for an assessment of the parish and planning of the Pastoral care of the parish in union with other parishes on the Diocesan Level.
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