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school gate. Sto. Sepulchro Building rose and along Paz Street was constructed the St. Joseph's Building. Santiago Street was later closed and an old building along this street was converted to classrooms and called the Santiago Building. Later on, this building was torn down and was built a concrete edifice which is now called the Fr. Godofredo Building in honor of the founder and builder of the School. When PCS celebrated its golden anniversary in 1962, it had six buildings (including the two-storey concrete building between St. Joseph's and Holy Cross Buildings called Our Lady's Building) housing the more than 7,000 students of PCS from Kindergarten to Fourth Year high school. The St. John's Building was constructed in the 70s during the administration of Fr. Francisco Wittezaele and Fr. Jeff Demyttenaere.

Since then, PCS has become one of the most reputable educational institutions in Manila and the biggest parochial school in the archipelago.

Together with the CICM Fathers, the Belgian Sisters, now known as the ICM Sisters, continued the management and administration of the School. The ICM Sisters, however, later decided to withdraw its involvement in PCS. By this time, only the Filipino ICM Sisters were left by the Belgian Sisters as principals of the elementary department. From 1970 to 1984, the CICM Fathers remained as directors of the School and the principalship of the grade school and the high school departments was given to the hands of lay administrators.

In 1984, the CICM congregation transferred the management of the School to the Archdiocese of Manila. The last CICM priest to leave Paco Catholic School is Fr. (Karel) Carlos van Ooteghem on whose honor the Karel Hall was named. He built this mini-auditorium through funds generated from family members and friends in Belgium. He served the School until his retirement as assistant director to Bishop Teodoro C. Bacani, Jr. who was appointed by the Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal L. Sin, as the first secular and Filipino school director. The bishop constructed the San Lorenzo Building in the area where the old sisters' convent was. Msgr. Domingo A. Cirilos, Jr. was assigned to replace Bishop Bacani in 1996. He immediately embarked on the renovation of the church altar and constructed a new building where the old Holy Cross and St. Mary's Buildings used to stand. It is called Pope John Paul II Building. Last March, he and the Cardinal inaugurated another building at the corner of Pedro Gil and Paz Streets named Jaime Cardinal Sin Building. The lower two floors are for commercial purposes while the three other floors are used by the High School Girls' Department.

Today, Paco Catholic School continues to carry on the one hard task of bringing up a strong Christian foundation for the students and the unending task of erecting an institution molded under the fundamental ideals:

the formation of the whole man,

body and soul

and his mind and will.

Edited by buzz@edsamail.com.ph from reprints of the article from the GOLDEN JUBILEE BOOK of Paco Catholic School Year 1962 and the PCS Students' Manual 1995-1996 edition.