Our Roots
Brief Profile of the Archdiocese
The Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu is located in the "Land Below the Wind" - north of Borneo Island - in the Malaysian state of Sabah. In the past, Sabah was known as North Borneo. Sabah is one of the two states in East Malaysia, the other being Sarawak. They are bounded by Indonesia while Sarawak also shares a border with Brunei.
The Archiocese of Kota Kinabalu is located in the Malaysian state of Sabah, with the Dioceses of Keningau and Sandakan as its suffragan sees. It was erected by Pope Paul VI on 25 July 1976 and ceremonially erected on 19 May 1977. It became an archdiocese on 23 May 2008.
In 2007 after the erection of the Diocese of Sandakan, it has an estimated Catholic population of 156,098 (12.8 % of the total population of 2,000,000) with 15 parishes, 316 chapels and 324 outstations which are mostly located at the rural parishes.
The archdiocese is headed by Archbishop John Lee who is the first local bishop appointed to the archdiocese. His seat is located at the Sacred Heart Cathedral Kota Kinabalu. There are 25 priests, of whom one is a Mill Hill Missionary, one a Montfort priest while the rest are diocesan. Of the total 120 religious sisters, the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception has 25 communities while the Carmelite Sisters, the Daughters of St Paul and the Good Shepherd Sisters have only one community each. The La Salle, Mill Hill and Montfort have their brothers in the diocese as well.