Few in Sabah will now remember Father Willem Roetenberg, but he was, together with Br. Ben Snoeren and Br John Hoekstra, the founder of Bundu Tuhan Mission station, a place that was his first love as a missionary priest and the place that he longed to return to for the rest of his life, but was not able to.
Fr Paul Lo has just completed a 4-year licentiate study in Rome and returned to Sabah to take up pastoral assignment in the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu. He has recently been assigned to assist in the parish of St Catherine Inanam effective mid-August. On being approached by CS to share his 4-year long experience, he graciously obliged.
I give thanks to the Lord for his faithful love towards me. After four and a half years’ (June 2005 to April 2010) pastoral assignment in St Mary’s Parish, Sandakan, the then Archbishop John Lee (now Emeritus) obtained a four-year scholarship (June 2010 to June 2014 from the Propaganda Fidei for me to do my licentiate study in Rome.
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis’s message for the 100th World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2014 was themed “Towards a Better World”.
“Our societies are experiencing, in an unprecedented way, processes of mutual interdependence and interaction on the global level. While not lacking problematic or negative elements, these processes are aimed at improving the living conditions of the human family, not only economically, but politically and culturally as well. Each individual is a part of humanity and, with the entire family of peoples, shares the hope of a better future. This consideration inspired the theme I have chosen for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees this year: Migrants and Refugees: Towards a Better World.
In conjunction with the local observance of Migrant Sunday on 28 September, 2014
The Holy Family in Exile
The exiled Holy Family of Nazareth, fleeing into Egypt, is the archetype of every refugee family. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are for all times and all places, the models and protectors of every migrant, pilgrim and refugee of whatever kind who, whether compelled by fear of persecution or by want, is forced to leave his native land, his beloved parents and relatives, his close friends, and to seek a foreign soil.(1)
