Malaysia, The Catholic Church in

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MALAYSIA, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN

Background. Located above the Equator in Southeast Asia, Malaysia comprises two distinct regions separated by a 400-mile span across the South China Sea. West Malaysia is located on the Malaya peninsula extending southward from Thailand, and East Malaysia, which comprises the two states of Sabah and Sarawak, lies in the northern region of the island of Borneo.

The earliest Malay kingdom was the Buddhist kingdom of Langkasuka in the northern region of the Malay peninsula during the 4th to the 6th centuries a.d. Between 682 and 692, the Buddhist Srivijaya empire from Palembang conquered the Malay peninsula to control maritime traffic across the Straits of Malacca. From the 13th century onward, the Siamese-Buddhist Ayudhia Empire and the Javanese-Hindu Majapahit Empire claimed competing suzerainty over the Malay peninsula as the Srivijaya empire crumbled. These empires bequeathed a lasting socio-religious legacy, significant traces of which are still present in the language, customs and court ceremonies of the Malay-Muslim community. The Islamization of the Malay community began from the 13th century onward. Indian-Muslim Gujerati missionary-traders carried out much of the Islamic missionary work, promoting a Sufi form of Islam that blended orthodox Islamic teachings with existing animistic, Hindu and Buddhist elements. Islam was firmly entrenched when a Hindu prince of the port kingdom of Melaka, Parameswara, embraced Islam in 1414 and adopted the name Megat Iskandar Shah. In

1445, Muzaffar Shah assumed the title of sultan and decreed Islam as the official religion of the Melakan empire. Under the patronage of successive sultans, Islam spread throughout the Malay peninsula.

The early years of the 16th century saw successive flotillas of warships bringing the European colonial powers and Christian missionaries: the Portuguese in 1511, the Dutch in 1641 and the British in 1786. In 1511, Alfonso d'Albuquerque captured Melaka for Portugal. Portugal lost control of Melaka to the Dutch in 1641. In 1786 English influence was extended to the Malay peninsula when Sir Francis Light claimed Pulau Pinang for the British. The British took control of Singapore in 1819, Melaka in 1824 and Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang in the 1870s and 1880s. With the transfer of the four northern states of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu from Siamese suzerainty to England in 1909 as well as Johor's acceptance of a British adviser in 1914, the entire Malay peninsula came under British control.

Sabah and Sarawak, the two northern states of Borneo island, were part of the ancient Brunei sultanate that controlled the entire island of Borneo until the 19th century. Sabah came into existence as a commercial venture when Claude Lee Moses, the American consul to Brunei, secured a 10-year lease for a vast tract of land from the Sultan of Brunei in 1865. After changing hands several times, the British North Borneo Company acquired the land in 1880 and named it British North Borneo. In 1946, British North Borneo was turned over to the British government. Sarawak was given by the Sultan of Brunei to

the English adventurist, Sir James Brooke in 1844 as a reward for pacifying the marauding pirates who plundered costal settlements. Brooke made himself the "White Rajah" and founded a dynasty that lasted three generations. Sarawak remained the private fiefdom of the Brooke family until 1946, when Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, the last "White Rajah" abdicated and surrendered the state to the British Crown.

Modern-day Malaysia is a federation of 13 states (Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Pulau Pinang, Terengganu, Selangor, Sabah and Sarawak) that was formed on September 16, 1963, following a United Nations supervised referendum that was bitterly contested by Indonesia. Originally a member of the federation, Singapore seceded in 1965 over racial and political differences.

Portuguese Missionary Activities. The coming of Christianity to the Malay archipelago is conventionally dated to the Portuguese conquest of 1511. Along with Alfonso D'Albuquerque and his fleet came eight Catholic chaplains under the flagship of the Military Crusading Order of Christ. Full-scale missionary activities began with the arrival of the Jesuit missionary St. Francis xavier to Melaka. Not only did he emphasize preaching and Christian instruction, he also built the first school during his five visits to Melaka from 1545 until his death in 1552. Converts to Christianity also came from among the resident Chinese, some local Muslims and many Indian Hindu merchants. The diocese of Melaka, which encompassed the whole of the Malay peninsula, was formally constituted and made a suffragan see of the Padroado Archdiocese of Goa by Pope Paul IV in the papal bull Pro excellenti preeminentia dated Feb. 4, 1557. When the Dutch captured Melaka from the Portuguese in 1641, they destroyed most of the churches and chapels, killed or deported most Portuguese, and enacted anti-Catholic laws. Through it all, the Catholic community survived as a result of the clandestine activities of the Catholic clergy and lay movements, including the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. The Portuguese bishops of Melaka resided in exile either in Timor or Flores, and barely exercised their apostolic ministry in the face of a Dutch blockade of all Portuguese missionaries. In 1818, the diocese of Melaka was dissolved and its territories were placed under the direct rule of the Padroado Metropolitan of Goa.

French Missionary Activities. The arrival in Melaka and Kedah of two MEP missionaries expelled from the Vicariate Apostolic of Siam in 1780 marked a revival of Catholic missionary activity in the region. The MEP missionaries quickly established themselves, working tirelessly to evangelize the local populate, thereby filling the void left by the Portuguese. The prolific activities of the MEP missionaries did not sit well with the Padroado Metropolitan of Goa, who claimed jurisdiction over the defunct Padroado diocese of Melaka and strongly opposed the MEP Vicar Apostolic of Siam's claim of jurisdiction pursuant to a decree of Pope leo xii in 1827. Pope gregory xvi intervened in 1838, removing the Malay peninsula and Singapore from the jurisdiction of the Padroado Metropolitan of Goa and placing them under the Vicar Apostolic of Ava and Pegu pursuant to the papal bull Multa praeclare of 1838. Subsequently, the region was made an independent vicarate apostolic pursuant to the papal bull Universi dominici gregis dated Sept. 10, 1831. Nevertheless the Portuguese refused to surrender their existing missions in Melaka and Singapore. This impasse was finally resolved by a concordat signed between Pope Leo XIII and the Portuguese Crown on June 23, 1886, whereby the Portuguese missions in Melaka and Singapore were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Padroado Metropolitan of Macao. On Aug. 10, 1888, Pope Leo XIII re-established the Diocese of Melaka as a suffragan see of the Pondicherry Archdiocese and under the direct control of Propaganda Fide. The Malay Peninsula and Singapore came under the jurisdiction of Propaganda Fide, except the existing Portuguese missions in Melaka and Singapore, which remained under the Padroado Metropolitan of Macau.

Borneo Missions. While there are reports of brief Portuguese and Spanish missionary visits in the late 16th century, it was not until the late 17th century that Theatine missionaries were commissioned to spearhead the mission to Borneo. The Borneo mission was made a vicariate apostolic in 1692. Missionary activities received a new impetus when Don Carlos Cuarteron, the Prefect of northern Borneo, arrived in Borneo in 1857 with two Milan Foreign Missionaries and worked there for more than twenty years. Upon his withdrawal, the Mill Hill Missionaries, who arrived in Borneo in 1881, were given charge of northern Borneo. After World War II, the Catholic Mission in East Malaysia grew rapidly, with mass conversions of the indigenous people. In the aftermath of the war, the general dislocation of society undermined some of the animistic customs and ancestral traditions of these indigenous people. In addition, the suppression of head-hunting required new patterns of leadership to take over its function as a stabilizing force in longhouse life. This stabilizing force was supplied by education and a new system of religious beliefs which the missionaries were able to provide. By the 1960s, Christianity became the largest religious denomination in East Malaysia.

Renewal of Church Life. In the wake of vatican council ii, the Catholic Church in Malaysia has enthusiastically embraced the use of vernacular languages at Mass. However, the introduction of local cultural elements into the Church's liturgical life has been limited. basic christian communities (bccs) have mushroomed as a way of circumventing governmental restrictions on the construction of new churches. Lay catechists play a major role in pastoral and missionary work, especially among rural and indigenous and tribal communities. In 1975, the Catholic Church in Peninsula Malaysia organized a month-long renewal convention for its clergy. The convention's recommendations include the development of indigenous models of church life, greater laity-clergy-religious cooperation, better clerical and lay formation, efforts at youth outreach, dialogue with adherents of other religions, and engagement in integral human development. These recommendations were affirmed at the Peninsula Malaysia Pastoral Conventions of 1986 and 1996.

Challenges. Although the federal constitution designates Islam as the official religion of Malaysia, it also guarantees freedom of religion for all, albeit with an express prohibition against the propagation of non-Muslim religions among the Muslims. Apostasy from the Islamic religion is a criminal offense under various state legislation. As a result, Christian missionary activity is effectively restricted to non-Muslim Malaysians. In addition, from the 1970s onwards the government refused to issue or renew entry permits for foreign Christian missionaries. Mission schools were nationalized in the name of integration. Permits for building new churches became almost impossible to obtain. Since the 1980s, the circulation of Malay language translations of the Bible has been restricted to Christians. Anti-Christian sentiments were greatest in Sabah from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. Sabah's chief minister, Tun Mustapha Harun, suspended civil liberties and initiated a systematic campaign of forced Islamization. He expelled all foreign missionaries and most of the clergy, and even prohibited the Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Peter Chung, a Malaysian citizen, from residing in his see. A group of dedicated lay Catholic leaders filled the leadership void by forming the Persatuan Agama Katolik Sabah, or PAX, a "parliament" comprising lay representatives and the remnant of the local clergy who escaped expulsion. PAX was formed from the statewide federation of parish councils and took over effective leadership of the Catholic Church in Sabah. With the laity stepping forward to assume pastoral and leadership roles, Tun Mustapha's plan to destroy the Catholic Church by expelling its clergy and forbidding its bishop to reside in the state failed miserably. A unique situation developed in 1976 when Pope paul vi erected the diocese of Kota Kinabalu by the decree Quoniam Deo Favente. In recognition of its efforts during the darkest days of persecution, PAX was incorporated into the diocesan leadership structure, thereby creating a unique phenomenon of a diocese that is administered jointly by a bishop and a diocesan parliamentary assembly of lay and clerical leaders.

Ecumenical Collaboration. In the face of the continuing efforts of the Malaysian government to restrict the rights of Christians to practice and propagate their faith, representatives of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) representing the mainline Protestant Churches, and the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) representing the Evangelical, Brethren and Pentecostal churches met on Feb. 6, 1985 and voted unanimously for the establishment of the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM). CFM came into existence on Jan.14, 1986 with the Catholic Church, CCM and NECF as equal partners, and with leadership positions rotated among representatives from these three organizations. CFM seeks to promote Christian unity, foster mutual collaboration among the various Christian churches, defend the rights and interests of the Christian community as a whole and present a united voice for the Christian community. The CFM is also an active member of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism (MCCBCHS), which was formed in 1983 to promote understanding and cooperation among different religions, study and resolve problems affecting all interreligious relationships, and make representations regarding religious matters. The MCCBCHS has become an organized channel for dialogue between the non-Muslims and the Malaysian government on religious freedom and Islamization.

Bibliography: m. chew, The Journey of the Catholic Church in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur 2000). f. g. lee, The Catholic Church in Malaya (Singapore 1963). k. p. goh, ed., The Malaysian Church in the 90s (Kuala Lumpur 1992). r. hunt et al., eds., Christianity in Malaysia (Petaling Jaya 1992). j. rooney, Khabar Gembira: A History of the Catholic Church in East Malaysia and Brunei, 1880–1976 (London, 1981). m. teixeira, The Portuguese Mission in Malacca and Singapore (Lisbon 1961–63). k. williams, The Church in West Malaysia and Singapore (Leuven 1976).