By Catherine Engsun
KOTA KINABALU — SACRED Heart Caritas answered the call made by Caritas Malaysia to join the global Caritas Confederation in their appeal to support the humanitarian relief efforts of Caritas Ukraine.
For two weeks from 21 Mar-3 Apr, a donation campaign for this cause was carried out in the parish. The campaign collected the total sum of RM50,870.00, which will be forwarded to the Archdiocese Caritas for onward transmission to Caritas Malaysia relief account.
While the donation campaign was running, Sacred Heart Caritas had an official opening and blessing of its new Operations Centre in the compound of Sacred Heart Complex on 26 March 2022.
The rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral, who is also the spiritual advisor of Sacred Heart Caritas, Fr Paul Lo together with the chairpersons of Parish Pastoral Council and Parish Finance and Property Council, Jason Joenoi and Anthony Lim respectively, officiated the occasion with a ribbon cutting ceremony witnessed by the Sacred Heart Caritas Committee members.
This Centre will be used to store and distribute donated goods, and symbolises the mission of the parish to continue serving the poor. The renovation of the Centre was funded by the parish.
In his opening address, Fr Paul thanked God for the timely opportunity to serve the needy with the setting up of the parish level charity and development body under the auspices of the newly launched Caritas Malaysia, a member of the international Caritas federation.
Just a year ago, Archbishop of Kota Kinabalu together with the Bishops of Malaysia established Caritas Malaysia. Subsequently Sacred Heart Caritas was formed. On its inception, Parish Caritas immediately embarked on a mission of mercy delivering food bags to the needy during the pandemic.
On the same day, a Holy Mass for peace was organized at Church of Mary Immaculate, Bukit Padang at 11.00 am. The Mass was to pray for peace in the war-torn countries of Ukraine and Russia in response to the call of the Holy Father.
Before Mass, rosary was recited with a special intention for peace in the warring countries. Many parishioners came together to pray. The statue of Our Lady of Fatima was placed at the sanctuary with lighted candles to accompany the congregation in their intercessions and prayers for peace, just as she historically appeared to the children at Fatima asking them to pray for peace.
In his homily, Fr Paul said we are uniting with the Holy Father’s call for peace to consecrate these warring countries to Mother Mary. “War happens because of the human heart which at times is so full of pride and self-centredness with the desire to conquer and manipulate at the expense of the innocent ones especially the children.”
He added that although the consecration to our Lady is not magical and that the war would not stop immediately, we entrusted this process of peace by crying out to God in prayer, asking for His mercy to redeem us, and that the war will end and we will live peacefully.
Fr Paul closed his homily with a prayer “Lord, we are your creatures. You created us for good but instead we followed our selfish intentions and brought chaos and violence to the world and to the people. So, this is our sin that we wish to repent of by asking for your forgiveness. We know that we have no power to change the course of history, that is, to stop the war immediately, but we know you will listen to the cry of the poor, of the powerless.”
