By CT Soccom SHC
KOTA KINABALU – Sacred Heart Cathedral played host to a group of visitors consisting of 15 first year students from Sabah Theological Seminary, Kota Kinabalu accompanied by their lecturer, Reverend Simon Chong. The aim of the visit was to give the students an opportunity to learn more about the Catholic Church: its background, structure, ministries as well as challenges faced as part of their syllabus.
The students, mostly from Sabah from various denominations like the Basel Christian Church of Malaysia (BCCM), Sidang Injil Borneo, Methodist and PCS also included one from West Malaysia. On hand to brief and answer their questions were Fr Terans Thaddeus and Fr Wilson Francis, Sister Anita James Lintanga, members of the Parish Pastoral Council and the Bahasa Malaysia Pastoral Committee.
Earlier, the group had attended the Bahasa Malaysia Mass to observe and learn more about our rites. Most of them had never attended a Catholic Mass before and one of them shared that he was awed at the sense of reverence that was very evident during the mass and that the proceedings were very structured and orderly.
Fr Terans thanked them for coming over and taking the opportunity to learn more thus opening the door for greater understanding and the fostering brotherly love which can only lead to eventual unity. In answer to a question on the size of the congregation of SHC, he explained that SHC is the both the mother church or cathedral of the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu which has over 240,000 Catholics in over 20 parishes within its boundary stretching from Kudat to Papar, and also as the church of Sacred Heart Parish with around 20,000 parishioners made up of about 1500 families and individuals from various social, economic, language and cultural backgrounds.
Read full story in Catholic Sabah Vol 69 No 09 dated May 3 2026.
