Malaysia’s Cardinal Francis: Asian diversity is an asset, not a threat

By Joseph Tulloch

The bishops of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei are currently on their ‘ad limina apostolorum’ visit, which, twice every decade, brings them to Rome for meetings with the Pope and Vatican officials.

Among the group of bishops is Cardinal Sebastian Francis, Bishop of Penang in West Malaysia. In an interview with Vatican News, he spoke about his trip to Rome, the “vibrant” Church in his corner of Asia, and the importance of seeing diversity as an asset, rather than a threat.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for reasons of style and clarity.

Vatican News: You’re here, together with the other bishops of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, in Rome for your ‘ad limina’ visit. How is it going?

Cardinal Sebastian Francis: It's very well organised. It's very systematic, and it's not a holiday! We are expected to give reports. I find it very good - it's very disciplined, but it's also very peaceful, so I'm very relaxed, but also focused.

I think the visit will strengthen the bond among us bishops of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, and it will surely strengthen our unity with the with the Universal Church under Pope Leo. It's a wonderful feeling of solidarity that I feel. I can't explain it, but I feel it.

So far, we have met with three Vatican Dicasteries. We are going to meet the fourth today, and I am surprised at the quality of the discussions. This time it was much more intense, much more meaningful, much more focused … I think that is the spirit that I feel in Rome these days.

Moving over from Rome to your part of the world, what can you tell us about the Church in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei?

It’s peaceful. Two of the countries that we represent, Singapore and Brunei, are very developed, whereas Malaysia is a developing country. The politics are quite stable and the Church is quite vibrant, quite alive, and we have many people enquiring about the Catholic faith as adults. Many of them are requesting Baptism as adults. That keeps us on our toes ...

What are some of the challenges for the Church in these three countries?

It’s multi-religious, it’s multicultural, it's multilingual. But enough of thinking of them as challenges! Maybe we should think of them as assets: diversity is an asset, and unity in diversity is an asset. Diversity is not a threat, and within diversity, there's equality.

With these three things – unity, diversity and equality – it's really about the Trinity, and it's about us. That's very exciting, actually, and with the right orientation we can face the challenges together.

Even if other parts of Asia may still be experiencing some kind of persecution, we should not fall into a trap of having a ‘minority complex’, a persecution complex. Of course, there are real issues, but we will continue to tell the story of Jesus in Asia.