By Peter Zeter
SIBU — The rain came down just as the Opening Mass began. It fell heavy and relentless over the open theatre of Sibu Gateway, drenching nearly a thousand Catholics gathered for the historic launch of the first-ever Malaysia Pastoral Convention 2026. Some sought shelter, some stood firm where they were, while others went up to the podium, closer to the altar, standing side by side with the bishops and clergy concelebrating the Mass. The rain somehow helped to materialise the Church, where bishops, clergy, religious, lay leaders and young people stood on the same plain, shoulder to shoulder, encircling the altar, breaking bread together. Ironically, the uninvited pour of the rain had become the bridge builder of the much-needed spirit of synodality.
In the collective mind of the assembly, it was rain from above, and for a week-worn island gasping under the annual haze of forest fires, it felt like an answer.
“The haze has been on every delegate’s lips, on the drive to Sibu, at the airport benches, in mid-air conversations,” one participant observed. “For years, we have treated it as an annual crisis we cannot solve. But when the rain poured, we all understood: the solution does not come from the ground. It comes from above.”
That symbolic downpour, many reflected, mirrored the state of the Catholic Church in Malaysia itself.
A church in the haze
For decades, each diocese has charted its own course, Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak, and Sabah moving in parallel but rarely in the same direction. While individual visions remain clear, collective vision, according to delegates, has often been shrouded in uncertainty, until Archbishop Julian Leow mooted the idea of extending the Peninsular Malaysia Pastoral Convention to Sabah and Sarawak, rebranding it the Pan Malaysia Pastoral Convention, which was later shortened to the Malaysia Pastoral Convention…
Read full story in Catholic Sabah Vol 69 No 18 dated Sep 20 2026.
