SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In 1976, by the decree Quoniam Deo Favente, Pope Paul VI erected the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical Province of East Malaysia, embracing the Archdiocese of Kuching, Sarawak, and its two suffragan sees, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, and Miri, Sarawak. Previous to 1880 the influence of the Catholic Church on this part of Borneo was negligible. This study traces the events that brought about the establishment of the Catholic Church in East Malaysia and treats of these events in five different sections. First, it considers the contribution of the Mill Hill Missionaries and the leaders of the Church. Second, it examines the development of religious institutes within the local Church. Third, it describes the processes of expansion and maturing by which the local Church learned to stand on her own feet. The fourth section considers the Church's contribution to social changes in Borneo, that reached out beyond its own immediately internal concerns, especially linguistic studies, educational work, medical services and socio-economic projects. The final section examines the relations between the Church and the various governments that have ruled Sarawak and Sabah since 1880. It explores their many points of common interest and the issues that brought them into contention at times. The study concludes by gathering together the threads of the previous parts to illustrate that the Province of East Malaysia is a viable ecclesiastical unit that has retained its communion with the universal Church and has developed her own distinctly local character.