ON this beautiful Feast of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, and Caritas Malaysia – with its national and nine diocese offices, are pleased to announce the launch of its website and offer you this inaugural Annual Report:
https://www.caritasmalaysia.net/who-we-are/annual-reports/
The journey of the Malaysian church and her commitment to the social mission can be traced back to the early missionaries, and later to the establishment of the catholic welfare service offices in Sabah, Sarawak and Semenanjung. The faith was planted and people served from the very beginning.
The Annual Report is like a family album, and like any family album it will help us to get to know other family members, their respective situations, efforts and needs. And we pray that it will eventually become “our” family story – a chronicle of our shared heritage, which we can share widely with all, with joy.
The report captures the efforts of the pan-Malaysian church across the three regions – Sabah, Sarawak, Semenjung – to serve the increasing number of poor and various vulnerable groups, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. It is a new perspective to ‘see’ as a Malaysian church. While the experiences, situations and personnel may vary, one spirit animates all – to serve, accompany and defend the poor.
• To serve: act as a “field hospital”, being present, bringing healing to the wounded, feeding the hungry, and doing what is needed immediately (response to emergencies).
• To accompany: build resilient communities by empowering and equipping them, so that local communities can take responsibility for their destiny and participate in building their future.
• To defend: work with civil society and authorities to bring positive changes to unjust policies and systems that will address the root causes of poverty.
The setting-up of a national office and joining the Caritas federation is an attempt by the Malaysian bishops to consolidate the church’s efforts in social ministries, to strengthen its capacity, and take it to another level – a more visible presence of the church in the marketplace.
We hope that coming together and working together gradually helps us to realise that we have a shared identity and mission – we cannot be Malaysians without one another – and being church is inclusive of all.
Our gratitude to you for giving coverage to this simple launch of the Caritas website and Annual Report – our activity webpages are still under construction. With the lockdown, we are unable to provide any printed copies. We have posted on the website two versions – a A3 two-page for reading, and A4 single page for print. We appreciate it if you could help promote our efforts or put a link on your website to ours.
Together Building His Kingdom
+Bp Bernard Paul Charles Bertille
President Exe Secretary
Executive Secretary
Caritas Malaysia
c/o APC, 5th Floor, No 5 Jalan Robertson, off Jalan Pudu,
50150 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +603-2078 5777
