St. Peter the Apostle Parish was established in 1954 following the mandate of Rufino Cardinal Santos which was to divide the Chinese Communities into four parishes namely: Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in Binondo, St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Paco, Mary, the Queen Parish in San Juan, and St. Jude Parish in Malacanang. St. Peter Parish was established on September 20, 1954. The first parish priest was Fr. Louis Fossion, CICM who served as a missionary in China. We were told historically that the lot where the parish church was being lent for the meantime but after purchasing a 1,713 sq. meters of land, the parish church began to find a bigger yet temporary place for the community.

Fr. Louis Fossion, CICM was succeeded by Fr. Jacques Mussen, CICM. It was Fr. Jacques who was able to purchase a permanent place for the parish church. Fr. Dominic Kuo became the first parochial vicar of St. Peter Parish and he was also appointed to be the National Director of the Catholic Youth from 1963-1966. Since Fr. Jacques’ illness prompted him to go back to Belgium, he was succeeded by Fr. Francis Libeer, CICM for two consecutive years. After his short term as parish priest, he was succeeded by Fr. Vincent Liu. It was during this time in 1974, that Fr. Vincent saw the need to establish a school to educate and evangelize the young. Jaime Cardinal Sin, D.D., who has the Archbishop of Manila that time agreed and supported the idea and plan. It was on June 14, 1976 that St. Peter the Apostle School began with 101 children in the nursery, kindergarten 1 and Grade 1.

On August 1, 1981 Fr. Francis Chin became the parish priest and school director after Fr. Vincent Liu served for 7 years. It was on August 25, 1986 that St. Peter the Apostle Parish ceased to be a personal parish but a territorial parish. It was from then on that various organizations and councils were established including the Parish Pastoral Council, Filipino-Chinese Catholic Youth, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Catholic Women’s Organization, Catechumenate, Legion of Mary, and the El Shaddai Catholic Charismatic Community.

Three groups of missionaries served in St. Peter the Apostle Parish namely: first, the CICM missionaries who were considered as the pioneers of the parish history; second, the Chinese priests.  After the political problems of China in 1949, the seminarians from the Mainland continued their priestly formation in the Philippines and after becoming priests, they were assigned to the parishes and schools of the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate; and third, the members of the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society.

During the second year of its existence, it utilized the second level rooms of the parish rectory. On its third year of new classes, the left wing of the old parish church was divided into three sections to accommodate the growing number of pupils who were enrolled that year. This makeshift of the church was due to the on-going construction of the new school building which was already underway. As the new building was already on its way to completion, the parish church was eventually divided into five makeshift classro0ms until in the school year 1979-1980 when the nascent high school department became an outstanding achievement and remarkable reality. The high school department initiated with 23 first year students as the pioneering and leading-edge class marked an important historical landmark of St. Peter the Apostle School.

In this monumental endeavor, Fr. Vincent Liu was accompanied by Fr. Joseph Wang and Fr. Thomas Chao in the management of the school. Fr. Francis Chin later in August 1981 became the school director and was assigned as parish priest of St. Peter the Apostle Parish simultaneously that time. It was also during that time that the kindergarten school annex was established and the additional rooftop gymnasium was created.