A visit to Bishop Julius D Gitom

Sandakan : 24 members of the St Mary’s Cathedral Parish Pastoral Council, Finance and Property Committees, formed some one year ago, led by Fr Thomas Makajil, rector of the Cathedral, paid a visit to Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom, yesterday 29th April 2010 at the Diocesan Office.

The purpose of the visit was to update Bishop Julius regarding the progress and development of pastoral matters and the current financial standing and property matters of the Cathedral.

 John Baptis, Chairman of the Parish Pastoral Council briefed the prelate through a power point presentation, regarding the development of pastoral affairs for the past one year in the Cathedral Parish. He specifically touched on the response to the recent Bishop’s pastoral letter concerning parish assembly to eventually formulate the Diocesan Vision and Mission statement. A task force for that matter has been formed and will meet soon to draw up the process for its implementation sometime towards the end of the year.

Suzanna Hon, the Chairperson of the Parish Finance Committee said that the committee will launch two parish fund raising projects in conjunction with Parish Day in mid August and the other, in conjunction with Diocesan Day in mid October.

Peter Thien, Chairman of the Property Committee, in his briefing, touched on repair work, maintenance and upgrading work to five chapels carried out and completed towards the end of 2009. The upgrading work to the Cathedral, which took some two months, was completed in time for Easter. Their next project, the construction and completion of 3 unit double storey labor quarters will commence in June.

The prelate commended the members of the three main parish teams, for their commitment, in ensuring the growth of the Cathedral. He called upon the members not to forget to place ‘pastoral affairs’ as the top priority of the Cathedral. He further went on to say, that as we journey along in building the Kingdom of God, we are bound to face difficulties and challenges. He called upon the members to work collaboratively, together with the clergy and the religious, and to persevere in all circumstances for the good of the Church.

At the end of the session, John Baptis presented a souvenir, the PPC t-shirt, to Bishop Julius.

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