Category Archives: Mar 2018

St Mary’s Cathedral being the mother church of Sandakan Diocese, responded to Pope Francis’ call to open its doors for 24 hours for the common intention.

The prayer commenced right after the Stations of the Cross, marked by the Eucharistic celebration at 6.00pm on Friday, March 9, and concluded the next day at 6.00pm, Saturday, March 10 with Sunset Mass.

In the Opening Mass, Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom shared that it is the Holy Father’s wish that in every part of the world, the merciful, forgiving presence of Jesus be manifested during this 24-hour period through Eucharistic Adoration and the Sacrament of Penance. He also emphasised the importance of peace, which should start from our hearts, within the family, as well as to pray for peace in our country and throughout the world. With that, he ended his homily where peace means we pray for one another and, particularly, we pray for conversion around the world.

The Parish Liturgical Committee assigned the various ministries, communities and groupings in the parish to take turns on an hourly basis to lead the prayer which was well attended.

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online

528, Jalan Bukit Nanas, 50250 KL,
Tel: 603-20788828/ 20785089/ 20726606 / Fax: 603-2031 3815
chancery@archkl.org l www.archkl.org

March 22, 2018 chan/MC/05/2018

Banns of Ordination

The transitory deacons, Rev Xavier Andrew, Rev Simon Lau and Rev Dominic Tan, are to be ordained to the Order of Presbyter on May 1, 2018 at 10.00am at the Church of the Holy Family, Kajang, by His Grace, Most Reverend Julian Leow, Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur.

Canon Law obliges Catholics to reveal any impediment or circumstances that would prevent the above candidates from receiving Sacred Orders and should contact the Chancery or the Archbishop with such information as soon as possible.

You may contact the Chancery by emailing us at chancery@archkl.org.

Let us offer our prayerful support to all three candidates as they prepare themselves for presbyteral ministry and service to the People of God in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur.

Rev Fr Michael Chua
Chancellor,
Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online

Fr. George Packiasamy
We are entered to Holy Week. It is a week where we place ourselves nearer to the suffering servant, Jesus Christ. His Life, Passion and Death will bridge us to Easter and the joy of resurrection. He willingly sacrificed His life to save us from sin. He paid the price to heal and liberate us. As St Peter says, “He was bearing our sins and lived for uprightness; through his bruises, you have healed,” (1 Peter 2:24).

Lent is a time when we focus and reflect on repentance, and about making small sacrifices as a form of penance. During these past 5 weeks, we have been examining, reflecting upon, contemplating on and practicing the Lenten observances – prayer, penance and almsgiving. These three pillars are for purification and strengthening of our love for God and our neighbours. The Lenten season encourages us to live our lives with humility and simplicity.

We need a prayerful life. Our prayer life connects us with Jesus Christ and helps us to stay connected to Him. We need to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). Fasting and penance purify our hearts to live the value of the Gospel and to restore our broken lives. Almsgiving magnifies our concern for our neighbours’ needs (Matt 25: 35-36) and it gives us an opportunity to see Christ in the poor, the suffering and dying, and to embrace the “5 Ls” (lost, last, least, little and lonely).

The Holy Father in his recent encyclical, “On Care of Our Common Home (Laudato Si’) asked everyone around the world to “take good care of creation” and to care for our common home as “our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience,” (Paragraph 217).  The Church urges us to learn and practice earth care issues and take action that will honour Christ’s teachings about caring for creation.

Thus, the Church invites us to be stewards of God’s Creation and pray for the environment. We Christians, have a unique opportunity and responsibility to make efforts and be challenged to take action on the issues affecting the environment, especially on matters of water, energy, consumption and food. During this Lent, take time to reflect on creation and care, in order to bring greater Ecological harmony with all living creatures of God.

A few sacrifices we could make starting this Lent and for the rest of our lives, which would help the environment, include:

— Replace the use of plastic and paper bags with reusable shopping bags. Just keep a few of these in your car.
— Put a stop to receiving unwanted catalogues.
— Cut down the amount of food we throw away.
— Go green by using recycled and earth friendly materials. Teach our kids to reuse and recycle products.
— Send your recycled products to our parish collection point and place them in the prepared containers. We collect these for onward transmission to recycling centres and the income goes to the poor. Just for your information, every month we earn between RM200-400 from these products.

Each of us has a duty to care for God’s Creation. As Lent draws to a close with Holy Week around the corner, it is good for us to reflect and contemplate on what we buy, what we waste, how we preserve and how we spend our time during Lent. These things impact the environment and us. It is also a way of preparing for Easter, celebrating a New Creation by glorifying the goodness of our Creator through our words and deeds

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online

KOTA KINABALU – The Sacred Heart Cathedral Fiesta focuses on building the parish family manifested in its theme Oneness in Heart and Spirit: Towards Building Our Parish Family.

This was agreed upon at its inaugural organising committee meeting on 24 Mar 2018 at the Sacred Heart Parish Centre here.

The meeting was chaired by Jason Joenoi in the presence of parish priest Archbishop John Wong.

In its fifth year now, the parish fiesta is aimed to help all parishioners to grow in oneness in heart and spirit towards building the parish family.

The weeklong programme is scheduled for 4-10 June 2018.

Pre-feast day events include Taman Masses every Friday at 7:30 pm starting May 4 through June 1 and friendly badminton matches on every Sunday at 2:00 pm at the parish centre.

A triduum of prayers will be held on the first three days  – Mon-Wed, June 4-6 – at the cathedral from 6 pm – 10 pm in three languages with Benediction and inputs by Abp Wong.

The highlight will be the concelebrated trilingual Eucharist at 7:30 pm on Thursday, June 7, for the sanctification of priests and consecration of families to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  A special blessing by the priests will be said for each family at the end of Mass.  The clergy will prepare themselves for this celebration with a recollection in the morning.

On Friday, June 8, there will be a Mass for the Sick with anointing and fellowship at 9 am at the cathedral.  At 4 pm there will be friendly soccer matches between clergy, seminarians, and laity while at 8 pm a movie entitled The Book of Ruth Journey of Faith will be screened at the parish centre.

The culmination of the weeklong celebration will be the parish family carnival cum fundraising for the new Catholic Centre on Sunday, June 10, from 7 am to 2:30 pm at the parish centre.

Parishioners are encouraged not just to enjoy the day but also to give back something in return in the form of a blood donation drive in front of G1, parish centre foyer after the 7 am Mass.

Parishioners are encouraged not just to enjoy the day but also to give back something in return in the form of a blood donation drive in front of G1, parish centre foyer after the 7 am Mass.

Children will get the opportunity to play with inflatables in Room F7.

Indeed, the organisers hope that parishioners will benefit from all the events drawn up and move towards building their parish family in heart and spirit.

Article reproduced from Catholic Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu

PENAMPANG  – In conjunction with its diocesan silver jubilee in May,  Keningau Diocese will hold a diocesan-level gong beating contest on 21 Apr 2018 at the Keningau Diocesan Square from 8 am to 4 pm.

On the same day, the Jubilee Exhibition will be opened at 8 am at the Diocesan Pastoral Centre (Pusat Pastoral Keuskupan or PPK).  The exhibition will close on May 5 at 5 pm.

The gongs are Sabah’s most iconic indiophones that are found throughout Sabah, particularly among the Kadazandusun and Murut ethnics. It is considered the backbone of the traditional musical instruments found in Sabah. The gong is made of either brass or bronze. It is usually thick with a broad rim and produces a distinct muffled sound of a deep tone. In the olden days, it was originally traded in from Brunei.

There are many different rhythms and beats in which the gongs are being played according to the occasion, ritual or festivity. The gongs are created in many different sizes in order to produce different sounds.

The sopogandangan beat, which originates from the interior division of Sabah (played by the Dusun community of Tambunan), is commonly played to accompany the magarang ritual.

The Magarang ritual is usually held to commemorate the harvest festival and weddings, although traditionally, it was associated with headhunting.

Another popular gong beat is the sompogogungan which accompanies the sumazau dance. This beat is commonly played during festivities and weddings by the Kadazan community of Penampang. During funerals, the Kadazandusun play another beat called the dunsai, which decidedly has a lower-toned, less cheery sound.

Apart from being principal musical instruments, the gongs hold other cultural significance such as being a symbol of wealth for a family. In some ethnic Sabahan cultures, a set of gongs is sometimes demanded as a berian (dowry) in marriage. Therefore, before getting the woman of his dreams, a man first would have a handsome set of gongs to offer her family.

While the art of gong-making is slowly petering out in some parts of Sabah, in Kampung Sumangkap, Kudat, the gong-making industry is still going strong

Article reproduced from Catholic Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu

KENINGAU – Minawo Zone held a three-in-one celebration at St Joseph Minawo here on 17-18 Mar 2018.

The events incorporated the Solemnity of St Joseph, renewal of marriage vows, and blessing of the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes by Father Charles Chiew.

St Joseph’s Church was built in 1960 in a area of approximately 56 sq metres.  The first catechists were Thomas Yantim and the late Marinus Dualis Sulatam.

Among the activities organised to observe the feastday of St Joseph were a children’s colouring competition of the image of the Holy Family, followed by a procession of the image of St Joseph around Minawo Village.

The next day, Fr Charles celebrated the Mass in honour of St Joseph.  In his homily, he touched on the Paschal Mystery where Christ redeemed the world through his passion, death and resurrection.  He urged the faithful to prepare themselves well through the sacrament of confession.

During the Mass, eight married couples renewed their vows.

The opening of the fiesta was marked by the blessing of the grotto by Fr Charles after the welcoming speech by zone chairperson Moitah Inggit. – Tadius Kilip

Article reproduced from Catholic Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu

KOTA KINABALU: Churches the world over celebrated Palm (Passion) Sunday on 25 Mar 2018.

Palm Sunday is the final Sunday of Lent, the beginning of Holy Week, and commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified.

Palm Sunday is known as such because the faithful will bring palm fronds which they use to participate in the reenactment of Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem. In the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a young donkey, and to the lavish praise of the townspeople who threw clothes, or possibly palms or small branches, in front of him as a sign of homage. This was a customary practice for people of great respect.

Palm branches are widely recognised symbol of peace and victory, hence their preferred use on Palm Sunday.

The use of a donkey instead of a horse is highly symbolic, it represents the humble arrival of someone in peace, as opposed to arriving on a steed in war.

A week later, Christ would rise from the dead on the first Easter.

During Palm Sunday Mass, the palms are blessed and many people will fashion them into small crosses or other items of personal devotion. These may be returned to the church, or kept for the year.

Because the palms are blessed, they may not be discarded as trash. Instead, they are appropriately gathered at the church and incinerated to create the ashes that will be used in the follow year’s Ash Wednesday observance.

The colours of the Mass on Palm Sunday are red and white, symbolising the redemption in blood that Christ paid for the world.

Article reproduced from Catholic Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu

Some refugees, despite being able to earn basic income and afford rent in their host countries, often find it hard to obtain leases for long-term housing due to their perceived lack of financial credibility.

But they could soon get some help – in the form of a mobile application that records their employment and income, as well as payment history, which shows whether they are a lending risk due to past missed payments.

Based on this, the app then generates a score that indicates their level of financial credibility.

Created by Singaporean Rushika Shekhar, 27, and her four teammates from Georgetown University in Washington, the tool could help refugees with high scores to obtain leases for longterm housing that landlords would otherwise be reluctant to grant.

“We realised that many potential landlords had negative views of refugees even if they were perfectly able to afford housing,” said Ms Shekhar, who is studying for a master’s degree in international development at Georgetown University.

The group then worked under the guidance of their mentor, Mr Gege Gatt, CEO of tech startup Ebo, to create the app.

Ms Shekhar took charge of the design aspect of the app. Within days, the team created the app named Credit/Ability.

The project beat eight other entries in the Migrants and Refugees category of VHacks, a firstof- its-kind hackathon with a focus on global affairs.

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online

Some 40, marginalised in society, gathered at the Chapel of St Joseph on March 10 as guests of an Outreach Programme which included prayers, interaction, games and fellowship.

The Lenten Outreach was organised by the Chapel of St Joseph in collaboration with a group of Catholics from Kuala Lumpur.

The Chapel’s chairperson, Augustin Arokiam and his assistant, Marvin Yacob, and a few parishioners were present to welcome the guests and the Catholics from KL.

After prayers and a briefing by Augustin, the leader of the KL group addressed the guests, explaining that the Church welcomes all, irrespective of race or religion. This Outreach programme was a way to show our care and concern for their well-being.

Then a few games were held for the children and also for the adults.

A prayer was said, followed by a song presentation before the KL group served food. A few of the guests also shared their life stories.

While this was happening, Augustin, Marvin and a few parishioners were busy sorting out the provisions to be given to the 15 targeted poor families.

Fifteen Rosaries were also given to the poor Catholics. Before the event ended, everyone assembled at the front of the chapel for a group photograph.

To the KL group, it was sweet and memorable to have experienced this Outreach with the marginalised in society and to understand them better. The guest were all happy and felt welcome.

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online

A Malaysian Catholic researcher has become the first scientist from a developing country to receive the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award.

“I was speechless. I never expected to be selected because previous recipients were all very established scientists,” said Prof Dr Christopher Ng Kwan Hoong (pic) of the prestigious award that was named after Marie Curie, the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences (physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911.)

The award honours scientists who have contributed to the education and training of medical physicists, students and health personnel, and the advancement of the profession.

It is given out by the UK-based International Organisation for Medical Physics (IOMP), which represents 25,000 medical physicists worldwide.

Prof Ng, from Universiti Malaya’s Faculty of Medicine said, “It is such a humbling experience for me to be mentioned in the same breath as those I look up to. Praise the Lord,”

He is a parishioner of St John’s Cathedral who also worships at the Church of St Francis Xavier
For this grandfather-of-two, his core research is in breast cancer screening.

He is determined to improve early detection and is working with fellow researchers in Singapore to use artificial intelligence in computer-aided diagnosis.

Prof Ng will be presented with the award during the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in Prague in June.

Prof Ng, who was named IOMP’s top 50 medical physicists in 2013, said the recognition was “extra special” because it showed that scientists from developing nations could also contribute to humanity.

“This international recognition means a lot to me because the field of medical physics is still very new here.”

The Academy of Sciences Malaysia Fellow was one of the first non-physicians to be admitted into the Academy of Medicine Malaysia.

Among his proudest achievements was setting up the UM medical physics master programme two decades ago.

It is the only post-graduate medical physics academic programme outside the United Kingdom and Ireland that’s accredited by the UK Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.
In 2014, he set up the Asean College of Medical Physics.

“I’m in my 60s now. When I started teaching, I was among the pioneers of radiation medicine,” said Prof Ng, who was among the International Atomic Energy Agency consultants who worked on the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster report.

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online