Union of Catholic Asian News (http://www.ucanews.com)
‘Strength of the Church lies in small communities’, 7 October 2009
UCAN Interview
SANDAKAN, Malaysia (UCAN) -- Building Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) is the main program Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom of Sandakan has set for his diocese, Malaysia’s newest, which is marking its second anniversary.
Bishop Gitom was ordained the first bishop of Sandakan on Oct. 15, 2007. The country’s easternmost diocese is located in Sabah state.
Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom
According to the prelate, dialogue between Christians and Muslims, the country's majority religious community, is something ingrained within the family in Sabah. BECs, however, are new to Catholics in his diocese, previously part of Kota Kinabalu archdiocese.
Sandakan has about 64,000 Catholics, a little more than 5 percent of the estimated 1.2 million people living in the 43,110 square kilometers it serves. The diocese has just four parishes but another 96 outstations and one mission.
The formal celebration of its second anniversary is scheduled Oct. 16-17 in Tawau parish, near the border with Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island.
The interview follows:
UCA News: What have been your challenges since becoming bishop?
BISHOP JULIUS DUSIN GITOM: For almost one year after taking office, I didn’t have a place to stay. I had to stay in the parish house, the rectory. I didn’t have any personnel. I didn’t even have my own phone. I had to get help from the parish. It was difficult. Even now, this building, we borrowed from the parish. I hope in the next few years we will have our own facilities.
The diocese is big in terms of area. We have to travel great distances. We lack basic facilities and infrastructure.
Another big challenge is to get people to have a single vision, through BECs. But I am happy that the people are going for it. We are forging ahead with BECs as the pastoral thrust of the diocese.
Why BECs?
Nowadays people tend to be individualistic, going to church only to fulfill an obligation. There is the influence of materialism. People want instant gratification and immediate results. That is the general attitude today.
And then people tend to look elsewhere for greener pastures. We want to establish a strong Church, with strong communities. Even the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) is urging toward this, which they call a “new way of being Church.” I would like a Church that is walking together as a community toward the final Kingdom, and that Kingdom we have to start building here.
In the small communities -- the BECs -- we will see the real Church, in which the people support one another and pass on the faith to their children. The realities of life, such as problems concerning children and youth, are [manifested] in the communities, and we can solve these problems within the small communities. The strength of the Church lies in the small communities.
Why celebrate the diocese’s second anniversary in Tawau?
It is to give each parish a chance to celebrate, so that celebrations are not fixed in one parish but move among the four parishes. It is to create a sense of awareness among the people in the parishes that they belong to the diocese. The parishes are very far from one another.
How is the Church’s relationship with the local government?
We have had no problem so far.
How are relations with other Christians?
We have good relations with other Christians. Now and then we have activities such as joint prayers. We had this program called “Walk for Jesus” that involved processions and prayers at specific places, mainly to pray for our nation.
Bishop Gitom with catechists of Sandakan diocese
What about other religions?
At the official level, we don’t have programs that involve, say, a church and a mosque. But at the personal level, the people interact well with each other. Last year, we had a candlelight ecumenical caroling program organized by the municipality. Muslim officials came and supported it. During Hari Raya (Id al-Fitr), Christians visit their Muslim friends. And we celebrate certain events together such as Independence Day.
It is very common in Sabah that in a family there are Christians and Muslims. I have Muslim first cousins on my mother’s side. I cannot even remember how many of them are Muslims. In my immediate family, I have one Muslim brother. We accept one another. We don’t see ourselves as being divided.
Sabah is a good example of dialogue between Muslims and Christians. It is ingrained in the family.
What else is unique about the Church in Sabah?
In the Church in Sabah, the majority are bumiputra. In West Malaysia you have hardly any bumiputra Catholics. [Editor's note: Bumiputra, literally “sons of the soil," is a term used to describe the indigenous peoples of Malaysia. It includes the Malays, virtually all of whom are Muslims, indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak, and aborigines, but excludes the country’s large Chinese and Indian minorities].
This is significant when you consider the people who accuse Christianity as an imported Western religion. But here in Sabah you have local indigenous people who are Christians. And this faith is already ingrained in their culture, because the first missioners came in the 1850s. It is not something that is outside the people’s culture.
How is the Christian faith inculturated here?
Once the people understand their faith, they have to live it out in their daily lives. We should not discard everything in the culture of our ancestors. In earlier days, when all the people were farmers, they had certain rituals reflecting their beliefs in the agricultural cycle. You cannot discard all those rituals and leave a vacuum. So when Christianity came, we replaced those rituals with certain prayers. So, for example, we have a prayer of blessing for people who are starting to cultivate a plot of land.
(End)
