Bishops Urge The Faithful To Know And Love God
PENAMPANG(CS).- In their Easter messages bishops of both dioceses urged their faithful to continue to let Jesus Christ reign in their lives and stressed the need for them to further know and love Jesus.
"Through our faith in the resurrection of Christ, we have a hope for a better world, a better future and fullness of life. To sustain such hope, we need to know Jesus better and closer," said Bishop John Lee of Kota Kinabalu.
His counterpart, Bishop Cornelius Piong of Keningau, said, "Christ's resurrection from the power of death is also our resurrection from sin if we choose to accept and give priority to his will in our journey every day."
Easter, which falls on March 30 this year, is "the greatest liturgical feast in our faith life, for if Jesus did not rise from the dead, our faith would be meaningless and our fasting and penance would have been a waste," said Lee.
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Sabah Has 39 Priests
PENAMPANG(CS).- The Catholic Church in Sabah is taken care of by 39 priests, including two bishops.
Bishop John Lee of Kota Kinabalu looks after some 160,000 faithful in the West and East Coasts of the state with the help of 28 priests, including two Mill Hill Missionaries, and one deacon.
On the other hand, Bishop Cornelius Piong of Keningau looks after his interior diocese with the assistance of nine priests.
The Church is also served by over 100 Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (FSIC), De La Salle Brothers (FSC), Mill Hill Brother (MHM), Sisters of the Discalced Carmelite Order (OCD), Daughters of St Paul (FSP) and Religious of the Good Shepherd (RGS), scores of lay catechists and lay movements.
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DPPW II To Be Held In June
PENAMPANG(CS).- Parishes throughout the KK Diocese have been urged to pray for the success of the coming Diocesan Pastoral Planning Workshop II (DPPW II) in June.
"The June 5-8 event is as essential as the first DPPW held last year and as such we need all the support we can get," said Dominic Lim, Diocesan Organisational Pastoral Planning (DOPP) Core Group Secretary.
Like last year, the four-day workshop would be held at the Bundu Tuhan Retreat Centre and facilitated by Fr Manny Guazon of the Southeast Asia Interdisciplinary Instittute (SAIDI), Philippines.
The main objective of the workshop would be "to present the DOPP. That being the case, ideally, those who attend the workshop should preferably be all the delegates for the DPPW last year," said Lim.
The other members in the Core Group are Bishop John Lee (chairman), Msgr Primus Jouil, Fr Cosmas Lee, Fr Thomas Yip, Sr Keyna Ginibun, Sr Grace Deosing, John Paujik, Vincent Chia, Daniel Kong, Neil Mah, Waky Taim, Magdalene Chu, Alice Wong and Albert Bingkasan.
To ensure that the delegates would be better prepared for the workshop, Lim said, a half day orientation for all the delegates would be held."
Delegates from Tuaran, Kota Belud, Kota Marudu, Kudat, Bundu Tuhan, Ranau and Telupid would meet in Tuaran May 10 while those from Lahad Datu, Tawau and Sandakan would meet in Lahad Datu May 17.
For the West Coast the delegates from KK, Tg Aru, Telipok, Menggatal, Inanam, Dontozidon, Penampang, Kepayan, Labuan, Limbahau and Papar would gather at the Catholic Diocesan Centre, Penampang, May 24.
The Core Group would be having a dry-run presentation of the diocesan plan April 7-9 in Bundu Tuhan.
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DYF To Be Open To All Youths
PENAMPANG(CS).- The 1998 Diocesan Youth Festival, to be held for the first time in Sandakan, will be celebrated in a different way in that it will be open to all the youths in the diocese.
"Unlike in the past where participation was limited to winners from the zones or by invitations from the organizers, the DYF this year will be open to all the youths in the diocese," said organizing chairman Dominic Lim.
While the day is yet to be announced, said Lim, it will cover a period of three nights and four days with the theme: The Holy Spirit will teach you all things.
The festival is aimed at gathering all the youths in the diocese for fellowship and celebration, to allow them to experience being church and to prepare them for the Jubilee Year 2000, Lim continued.
The main organizing team comprises Lim as chairman, Sr Terry Loukang as secretary, Alfred Lombut, Neil Mah, Magdalene Chu, Beatrice Foo, Marcia Wong, Dorothy Wong and Richelle Heng as committee members. The Sandakan youths headed by Juan Malalis will form the local organizing committee.
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