Dec
For the parishioners of St Anne, this year’s parish pastoral assembly was quite unusual as the new parish priest, Bishop Sebastian Francis joined us and introduced the plans for 2019.
Bishop Sebastian introduced the new roles of the assistant parish priests, Msgr Henry Rajoo, Fr Leo Elias and the permanent deacon, Deacon Lazarus Jonathan.
Bishop Sebastian said that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has called for an extraordinary mission month in October 2019.
But the Malaysian Bishops has decided to extend this mission for the whole year of 2019. The first important date is the Feast of Epiphany on January 6 when the extraordinary mission year will be officially launched in all the dioceses in Malaysia.
During all the language Masses, there will be a special homily from the Bishops of the respective
diocese.“From this official opening day until June 9, there will be various formations consisting of
personal formation, family formation, BEC formation, parish formation, etc. The main focus will be on mission.
The BEC reflection papers have been prepared with the same focus. All of you, through baptism, have a direct link to the Word of God. The Word is in you and is your identity,” Bishop Sebastian said to the almost 100 parishioners who gathered at this assembly.
In May, the New Evangelisation seminar will be held in all the deaneries. From June 10 until October,
the Diocese of Penang is preparing a pilgrimage centre on missionary saints and martyrs. In the last 200 years, we have the relics of over 50 saints and martyrs who were missionaries in Vietnam, Korea, and India and were martyred for their faith.
The relics will be taken from College General, Penang and their rich history will be displayed at the Church of the Assumption, Penang, during this time.
On October 20, Mission Sunday, we will have a commissioning ceremony of all baptised Catholics in each parish. Bishop Sebastian ended the assembly with these words, “The mission is not within
the Church, but mission in the world.”
Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online
