Pope Benedict XVI has just announced in a Consistory that he will be abdicating from the Chair of Peter very soon. It has been more than six centuries since a Pontiff renounced his ministry as supreme and universal shepherd of the Church, and this makes the announcement shocking to many around the world. Here is the full script of the announcement:
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I have most recently been asked, how do Catholics in Malaysia theologise about politics? I cannot help but respond with a rhetorical question, “DO Catholics in Malaysia theologise about politics?”
I typically promise myself to write down a reflection at the end of every year; a reflection of how the year has passed and what I expect to come my way in the course of the coming year. But when life is defined by a kingdom that has come but that is yet to culminate in absolute visibility, a kingdom that is defined beyond time and space, this exercise of treading from year to year with fear and trepidation, coupled with resolutions we might most likely not fulfil, becomes rather meaningless.
The past few days have been one of the most sensational seasons in the life of the Catholic Church in West Malaysia. This began since the public sighting of an alleged image of our Blessed Virgin Mary on the window pane of Sime Darby Medical Centre in Subang Jaya. You can read more about this inconclusive phenomenon here. The purpose of this post is to provide a little catechesis for all the Catholics who are in touch with this phenomenon either by visiting the site of this alleged apparition or by following news of it through the media. This catechesis also contains the exact answers I gave to the journalist of the Star newspaper who interviewed me on this phenomenon. One of my main struggles in life is that of fighting for my own rights. Ever since I was a little boy, speaking up for myself and protecting myself against my enemies has always been a problem. I am probably too nice to retaliate and too mild to enter into a heated argument with anyone louder than myself. This failure to protect myself would often lead to private quarrels between me and God. The thing with God is, He seldom vindicated me from most of the onslaughts I had ever suffered in life. To be sure, he does help me. Help comes in the form of comforting words from loyal friends and comrades, material assistance from kind people or sometimes just the silent presence of understanding company. But still, God hardly metes out justice in the way I expect of him. Well, I didn't exactly sit on the Chair of the Pope when I preached, for "preaching from the Chair" is a liturgical privilege accorded only to the successors of the Apostles. But I was in fact really close to the Chair during the celebration of a Mass with over 60 other pilgrims at the Basilica of St John Lateran on 25 April 2012. I think it was insane that we were given such a significant spot to have our Eucharistic celebration. Nothing can buy such priceless opportunities that come by once in a lifetime. What was going through my mind? My homily on the day quite summarised what occupied my mental faculties at that celebration. I told the pilgrims that this was IT as far as our journey into the heart of the Church was concerned; one cannot get physically any closer to Mother Church than to be seated right before the Chair of the Bishop of Rome in a Eucharistic celebration. But yet, what does this mean for us all? Because millions of other pilgrims have also stood where we were standing, and perhaps most of them did so with utter ignorance about the significance of the moment Some of you have been asking me which one of the acronyms behind my name is the correct one, SFO or OFS, since you've observed that I'd been using SFO for years and have now abruptly switched to OFS.
Below is a letter I've received from a learned parishioner in Petaling Jaya who has given her response to the most recent article on ancestral veneration in the Herald. Miss Rachael Wong has given permission for her correspondence to be published on my blog.
Below are some salient points of responses I have to this week's article on the Herald (published on 24 February) about the veneration of the ancestral tablet, which is in turn a response to my earlier article published the previous week (10 February). Click here to read the article first.
If you have been lingering over the online social network Facebook recently, you would have noticed a particular picture of a priest from a Catholic parish in Malaysia venerating an ancestral tablet before his congregation during the most recent Chinese New Year. And the comments that this picture has garnered from among its viewers are all but scathing, be they reactions from non- Catholics or non-Christian peoples. For many of our friends, especially those from the Protestant denominations, this practice constitutes a great scandal of idolatry. What say we?
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