CITY of San Fernando Archbishop Florentino Lavarias will lead the canonical establishment of the San Pedro Calungsod Parish in Baranagy Santa Catalina on Sunday, May 5.

The new parish will be the first to be established by the Archdiocese of San Fernando for 2019. The new parish is the 95th parish of the Roman Catholic Church in Pampanga.

The establishment of the new parish confers unto the parish all the rights and privileges, according to the Canon law.

The parish will be under the titular patronage of San Pedro Calungsod.

Calungsod was a teenager when he went to Guam together with some Spanish Jesuit missionaries to convert the Chamorros people in 1668. He was believed to have been only 13.

Calungsod and the Spanish priest he assisted, Diego Luis de San Vitores, were believed to have died in Guam on April 2, 1672. Their bodies were tossed into the sea and never seen again.

The Roman Catholic Church declared San Vitores a saint in October 1985. Calungsod followed, some 27 years after.

The establishment of the parish is expected to better serve the spiritual needs of the barangays and areas covered by the new parish.