KL Archdiocese seeks apology from journalists

Malaysia: Church Seeks Apology From Journalists

Reporters Desecrated Eucharist, Criticized Christians

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, MARCH 5, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur will not pursue legal action against two journalists who desecrated the Eucharist, but it is looking for an apology.

The FIDES news agency reported today that Archbishop Murphy Pakiam of Kuala Lumpur made a public statement in which he said the Church wanted to move on from the incident, which had caused outrage in the Christian community.

"Forgiveness is an integral part of our mission," he said.

Last May two Muslim journalists attended a Mass and, posing as Christians, took Communion. They later criticized and ridiculed Christian beliefs in an article published in Al-Islam magazine.

The incident was reported to the police, who accused the two of having "caused disharmony, feelings of enmity and hatred, and undermining religious harmony in the country."

Penalties for this offense in Malaysia include imprisonment for two to five years.

FIDES reports that the Church in Malaysian hopes that with this gesture, they will successfully "reach out to Malay Muslims (majority in the country) in the hope of finding solutions, in an atmosphere of dialogue and friendship, to the question of the use of the name Allah for Malay-speaking Christians."

In 2007, the Catholic Church launched a legal challenge regarding legislation in the country that states that the word Allah should be used exclusively by Muslims.

The case came to a head on New Year's Eve when the Malaysian High Court ruled that Catholics should be allowed to use the term Allah.

After the ruling, protests immediately broke out and as a result the high court suspended its ruling pending an appeal, and Christians suspended the use of the word Allah.

Consecration of Bishop Dominic Vendargon

FIRST MALAYAN BISHOP VENDARGON CONSECRATED aka FIRST MALAYAN BISHOP

Carnival or Concert?

A sad day

Below is an article from Radio Vaticana regarding the recent ad limina visit of the bishops/archbishops of Malaysia to the Holy Father. Such is the sad state of affairs in the current hierarchy here in Malaysia. Oremus.

Pope learns of diversity of Malaysian Church

(02 June 08 - RV) Bishops from the South East Asian Nation of Malaysia begun their Ad Limina pilgrimage to Rome Monday.

There are around 800,000 Catholics in Malaysia - approximately 3% of the total population. The country is divided into nine dioceses including three archdioceses, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. We spoke to the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur MURPHY PAKIAM about his meeting with the Holy Father:


"The Church in Malaysia is diverse, it has four races, four languages four cultures. The Holy Father was happy to hear that we are forming them into a community of God's people and bringing them to well beyond their racial, linguistic, cultural barriers to form one community of God's people. Then he was surprised and happy to know that our priests have to speak at least three languages to preach the World of God to the people. He understands very well when I said that we have no time to teach them Latin and that this great move that is in Europe to bring Latin back does not work for people in the small young Church in Malaysia. He was surprised to hear of missionaries coming as far as Malaysia in the attempts to bring the Tridentine rite here. He was happy to learn also that we are moving a lot with inter-religious dialogue, more than dialogue of coming together of religious leaders because we are Hindus, Sheiks, Buddhists Muslims and so forth and he was happy that I had gone for a trip to China and that there was more than just talk of building relationships of friendships among the different religious leaders, because it is a good way of proceeding to put into action the Churches teaching in Nostra Aetate".
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Comment from the source who sent this: "The transformation of the Catholic Church in Malaysia into some sort of Malaysian Catholic Church. How insular. Aiya, make friends with everyone else but alienate other Catholics. Pls la... too many languages? Unite them all with Latin la... Sometimes I wonder what they are thinking and what the nuncio is thinking, creating an insular, under-trained priesthood. When the Pope speaks, they always think 'Hey, this is all and good, but it does not apply here.'. What rubbish. If the Catholic Church chooses to open a branch, I'll join. The Malaysian Catholic Church, like the Chinese Catholic Church (Communist) can go to hell."

On another note, have a look at the video below which was highlighted by Fr. Tim Finnigan with the title "Multicultural Youth Mass at Lourdes" by......surprise, surprise....the SSPX.

Read Fr. Finnigan's account about his experience here. I wonder, if the young French children at Lourdes have no problems with Latin, why does our archbishop here thinks that Asian children, youth and adults would have problems with it?