Friday 28th November 2008. That’s a line from a Mary Black song, by the way, in case you were wondering, although a quick Google suggests the writer was Paul Brady.
Penang is an island just off the coast of the north west part of peninsular Malaysia
Spending the weekend in Penang. What a lovely place! And what hospitality! A phone call to the Immaculate Conception Parish secured a generous offer of accommodation. And a couple of parishioners even came to meet me at the bus station!
Philomena and Mike picked me up and whisked me to the Church, where I met the Parish Priest, Fr Marshall Fernandes, and Assistant Priest, Fr Mark Michael. After a little refreshment, Father Mark took me for a visit to Penang’s historic seminary, the College General, which in its time served as a seminary for a whole swathe of Southeast Asia, and was the alma mater of an impressively long list of martyrs, especially in Vietnam.
Back in Britain, Catholic leaders have started talking about “Basic ecclesial communities” as the future of the Church and are trying to foster their growth. Here in Malaysia, they have had them for years. Father Mark was saying the annual house Mass for one of the B.E.C.s, as they are known, and invited me along to the gathering of about a dozen people in a flat outside of George Town. On the way back to the church we stopped off at a barbecue in the house of another parishioner. Life here seems to be just one long social whirl!
