A lifetime of priestly dedication
Published on: Sunday, January 07, 2018
Two Catholic priests – Rev Father Felix Chung and Rev Father Francis Tsen – celebrated their 80th and 76th birthdays, respectively, last year, but true to their calling always make themselves available to anyone who needs their services despite their age.Rev Fr Felix, now a retired priest, and Rev Fr Francis who is still serving as Rector of St Peter Claver Church, Ranau, thanked God for their longevity and ability to celebrate their birthdays together with parishioners. Praise the Lord!
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Born on Sept 22, 1937 at the Tanjung Aru Railway Station, Rev Fr Felix was ordained as a priest on Dec 14, 1969 by Bishop C. Van Melkebeka from Europe at the Stella Maris Church, Tanjung Aru. He took up his first appointment at the Sacred Heart Church, Kota Kinabalu (now Cathedral), followed by postings to Keningau, Beaufort, Kudat, Penampang, Kota Belud, Inanam, Telipok and Kota Kinabalu.In between serving at the various parishes, he spent three years in Bangalore studying for his Master's degree in Bible Theology under the Propaganda Fide (Propagation of the Faith, Rome) Scholarship. In 1983, Rev Fr Felix was privileged to meet late Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun and missionary, at the Mother House in Calcutta. She died in September 1997 and is now known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, India.
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Upon graduation with a First Class Distinction on March 8, 1985, he returned to serve at St Michael's Church, Penampang, for two years before his transfer to Kota Belud where he remained for 12 years.According to veteran volunteer Patrick Ho, this is where Rev Fr Felix started his mission of charity work to help poor and needy Christian communities in Tenghilan, Kota Belud, Kudat, Kota Marudu, Tandek and Pitas.
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His next posting was to St Catherine's Church, Inanam where he served for six years."Fr Felix invited us (myself and a few friends) to join him on his visit to Kg Melangkap at the foot of Mt Kinabalu (Kota Belud side). That was the beginning of our Sacred Heart Charity Outreach Group's regular visits to villages in the northern part of Sabah. "Today, we are covering 36 kampongs in Kota Belud, Kota Marudu, Tandek and as far as Pitas. Every month we will visit two kampongs bringing cheer to the people (rice supply, foodstuff, other necessities, used clothing, etc, thanks to church members and other generous donors in Kota Kinabalu)," Ho said.Subsequently, Fr Felix was appointed as Chaplain of the Carmelite Monastery. Years of missionary and outreach work took its toll when he suffered a stroke while visiting a village in Kota Marudu in 2012. He called it a day as Chaplain. Members of the outreach group took turns to look after him during his hospitalisation at a private hospital. Following his discharge, he was cared for by an elder sister for about three months. By God's Grace, he recovered fully and returned to "Emmaus Home", a stone's throw from the Sacred Heart Cathedral.During this period, Ho and his team unfailingly continued the retired priest's charity outreach work until today, 23 years all in all!Rev Fr Felix's contributions include penning a book entitled "The Early Christian Community in the Acts of the Apostles", the building of a chapel for the Rungus community at Kg Batutai, Kota Marudu, and construction of St Theresa Church and St Theresa Hostel in Kota Marudu (for poor children from remote villages), with blessing from then Archbishop (now Emeritus) Datuk John Lee and funding by the Government. The facility was handed over to the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (FSIC), and until today, it is being funded by a group of big-hearted lawyers. "I am so happy to see that some of the children are professionals now as teachers and nurses, doing accounting work and so on," said Rev Fr Felix.Rev Father Tsen's sacerdotal (priestly) ordination was conducted by the Right Reverend Bishop James Buis on January 9, 1966 at the Sacred Heart Church (now a cathedral), in the presence of the late Rev Father Simon Fung (who was ordained Bishop in 1975), and Rev Father John Lee (now Archbishop Emeritus of the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu).After serving at St Anthony's Church, Tenom for a year, he pursued Theology and Biblical Studies at the Gregorian University in Rome until 1973. Between 1974 and 1979, he taught Bible at Pulau Tikus, Penang, before returning to Sabah where he was assigned to St Valentine's Church, Beaufort, St Anthony's Church, Tenom, Stella Maris Church, Tanjung Aru, and St Mary's Church, Sandakan over a 25-year period.In 2005, he attended a three-month Transition Course at New Mexico, USA, before a posting to the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan. Since 2010, he has been Rector of St Peter Claver Church, Ranau, where he celebrated his 50th Golden Jubilee as a priest on January 9, 2016.Born on Sept 20, 1941, Rev Father Francis Tsen was only 10 when he joined St Anthony's Boarding School, Labuan, and was raised by Rev Father Smit. He remembers clearly that one day, the priest posed him a question. "Do you wish to be a priest?" His answer was in the affirmative.So when he turned 13, Rev Smit arranged for him to enter the Seminary in Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) as a Mini Minor Seminarian. Then 15, he completed Form Five in 1956 and joined the St Francis Xavier Seminary in Singapore the following year for a three-year training stint as a minor seminarian (1957-1959). Here, he met a few senior seminarians, namely the late Bishop Datuk Simon Fung (ordained in Dec 1963), Archbishop Emeritus Datuk John Lee (ordained in Dec 1964), Rev Father Augustine Amandus (Sabah's first Kadazan priest ordained in Dec 1966) and the late Rev Fr Michael Mewo (ordained in Dec 1966).Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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