By Richard Chia, Executive Secretary, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei (CBCMSB)
JOHOR – The Jubilee Year of Hope closed with the closing of the Holy Doors in Rome on the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan 6, 2026. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei met again for their biannual plenary meeting on Jan 5-8. For this 117th plenary meeting, Cardinal William Goh, the Archbishop of Singapore and Cardinal Sebastian Francis, the Bishop of Penang were absent as they were called away to Rome to attend the Extraordinary Consistory of the College of Cardinals.
In his address to the conference, the Apostolic Nuncio to Malaysia, Archbishop Wojciech Załuski, he highlighted a letter from Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, on the anniversary of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica on Nov 9. He reminded the bishops to commemorate this day in remembrance of all the saints, blessed and servants of God, and honour this day with initiatives in memory of these extraordinary disciples of Christ.
The focus of the 117th episcopal conference plenary meeting was on the coming Malaysia Pastoral Convention (MPC) scheduled to be held in Sibu, Sarawak on Sep 9-13, 2026, the Ad Limina visit by the episcopal conference to Vatican in May 2026, the endorsement to form two new episcopal regional commissions, and a regional team on the safeguarding for the protection of minors.
For the MPC, the Central Working Committee (CWC) headed by Monsignor Peter Ng and his team presented to the conference the overall plan beginning now until September 2026. This first ever national level pastoral convention will see the gathering of 850 attendees from the nine dioceses in Malaysia, three dioceses in Peninsular Malaysia, three dioceses from Sabah and three dioceses from Sarawak respectively. The breakdown are as follows: 250 participants from each of the regions of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, comprising of clergy, religious and laity, with another 50 invited guests and 50 volunteers.
Read full story in Catholic Sabah Vol 69 No 03 dated Feb 1 2026.
