By Vincent D’Silva
JOHOR BAHRU — A much-loved priest who headed the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese School of Evangelisation, Fr Raymond Chong, passed away on Thursday, May 13, aged 60.
He was admitted to hospital on Sunday, May 9 after complaining of chest pains and died of a cardiac arrest on Thursday.
He leaves behind eight siblings, relatives and friends to mourn his loss.
The funeral Mass was held on Friday, May 14, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Bishop Bernard Paul was the principal celebrant, with nine other priests concelebrating.
In his opening remarks, Bishop Bernard said that we each remember Fr Chong in our own unique way as we come together today.
“He had been a son, a brother to some, a friend to many, a priest to the clergy and to the people. Some look at him and remember him as an evangelist,” Bishop Bernard said.
He said some Catholics would remember him as being involved in the healing and deliverance ministry. Others may say that he took the path that was less travelled.
Bishop Bernard also mentioned that the late Fr Chong was his junior in the seminary.
In his homily later, the prelate said that for many of us, death is a loss. It is a heart-wrecking loss because there is a certain feeling of pain when we lose someone.
He said all of us have to face death. None of us is spared. And death has no favourites. “It favours no one and respects no persons. Nobody can say it won’t touch me, him or her,” he stressed.
But for us, he said, as Christians, death does not have the last say. Death is not the end because there is life after death. And life continues. “Jesus himself said he who believes in me, I will raise him up on the last day,” Bishop Bernard said.
He then said that while death is tragic, it is a reality. Fr Chong will be missed by his friends, family, the clergy of the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese, and Archbishop Julian Leow.
“Fr Chong loved the Lord. He died living it. And God knows him better than any of us,” he said.
After the funeral Mass, the casket was wheeled out of the church by the priests and taken to the Sungei Tiram Catholic cemetery in Ulu Tiram, where he was laid to rest.
Fr Chong was ordained on Nov 24, 1992, and served as assistant parish priest at the Church of St Anthony in Kuala Lumpur from 1992 – 1998.
In 1999, he began his sabbatical in the United States of America. Upon his return in 2002, Fr Chong requested for a leave of absence from the presbyterial ministry.
In a message to Bishop Bernard, Archbishop Leow thanked him for presiding at Fr Chong’s funeral Mass; due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed by the Movement Control Order (MCO), he wasn’t able to be present.
