By Stephen Then
MIRI — It was 25 years ago that Father Richard Ng started his priestly journey to serve God’s kingdom here in Sarawak.
Today, his seed of faith has grown into a giant tree that has seen him becoming Bishop Richard – and leading some 90,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Miri. 19 years as priest and six years as Bishop of Miri – the Holy Spirit has guided him throughout his journey.
Bishop Richard looks forward to many more years of faithfully serving God and leading the parishioners of Miri Diocese along the right path towards Heaven. Among his main priorities is to see parishioners in Miri Diocese not only building up their faith in the correct way, but also to see them incorporating in their daily life, the attributes of the Beatitudes as lived out by our Dear Lord Jesus when the Son of God walked the earth and brought salvation to the world.
Bishop Richard spoke about his spiritual adventure – in his own words.
“I was ordained together with Fr Patrick Heng on 18 Feb 1995. We were ordained by Archbishop Peter Chung at St Joseph’s Cathedral Kuching.
It was a joyful celebration and many people turned up for the ordination, including a few busloads from St Jude’s Parish, Bunan Gega where I was serving as a deacon.
After ordination, I remained in St Jude’s Parish as an assistant priest. I think that was the most enjoyable time of my priesthood.
I was young, energetic and had a passion for travelling to the interior visiting the villages. This was usually done on foot from Monday to Friday. On weekends, I would return to the parish and celebrate Sunday Mass in the bigger outstations.
The people were simple farmers and were very kind and supportive of their priests and catechists. I am very grateful to the senior priests, catechists and lay leaders who guided me with their wisdom and friendship. We had a lot of fun together enjoying the simple life in the interior. Besides, there was not much distraction as we did not have the internet and social media platform then.
After a few years, I was posted to Serian Parish, a huge parish with about 100 outstations. The main difference with Bunan parish was the better road connectivity. I did not have to walk much but had to drive and sometimes travel by boat. Again I was out most of the time visiting the different villages celebrating the Eucharist and other sacraments.
After a year, I was posted to the cathedral, my home parish. Life in the city parish was different from the rural parish. Gone was the constant travelling to celebrate Mass in the outstations, instead, the people come to meet their priests in the office and evenings were taken up with meetings and other programmes. Expectations were also different and the people were generally more educated, sophisticated and demanding.
In 1999, I was sent to Rome for further studies. This was a challenging time for me being a student again and having to learn a few new languages and more importantly, pass the exams. Through the grace of God, I persevered and graduated in 2003. My time in Italy and Rome was enjoyable and I was blessed to be able to travel to the different cities and visit the many beautiful churches and shrines. I also had the opportunity to meet Pope John Paul II.
Upon my return, I was assigned to teach Scripture in St Peter’s College. I taught in the seminary for 10 years and these were enjoyable years. I had great satisfaction seeing the students grow in confidence, wisdom and maturity as they go through the seminary formation and finally were ordained. I also had more free time compared to life in a parish and I was able to enjoy my cycling hobby and during the seminary holidays, I was able to lead pilgrimages. But there were also sad times especially at the end of each academic year when we had to make tough decisions on the future of certain students.
Overall, I was happy in the seminary until I got an unexpected call from the Nuncio to meet him in his office in Oct 2013. When I arrived, he told me that Pope Francis has appointed me Bishop of Miri and asked for my consent there and then. With a heavy heart, I said yes in obedience to the Pope. For the past 10 years, I have been trying to inculcate the virtue of obedience in the seminarians. Now it was time for me to walk the talk. I received my appointment on 30 Oct, 2013.
I served as a priest in the archdiocese of Kuching for 19 years and as Bishop of Miri for six years. The years of my priesthood in Kuching were some of the happiest moments of my life. Life as a bishop is very different with its own set of challenges as well as fulfillment. My great satisfaction comes from visiting the many longhouses and outstation parishes in the diocese and getting to know the people. Generally, the people are very kind, hospitable, generous and accepting. I find it important for me as a bishop to visit and spend time with my people. I spent about 80% of the weekends in a year visiting the parishes and longhouses and I log well over 10,000km per year.
My main focus for now is to build up the presbyterium, to set up the necessary infrastructures in the parishes and diocese, to train more catechists to evangelize and give more faith formation for the people and to build chapels, churches and other facilities to cater to the growing needs of the people.
Looking back at my 19 years as a priest and six years as a bishop, I can truly say that it is only through the grace of God and the love of Mother Mary that I persevere until today. I thank God for the gift of vocation and for holding me close to His heart in difficult moments. I also thank Mother Mary for being my mother watching over me. I thank my parents and family for their love and support. I thank all the priests, religious, seminarians, catechists and parishioners for their friendship, prayers, care and concern all these years. May God bless you all.”
