Dear Archbishop Murphy Pakiam

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Sep 19, 2012

Your directive does not augur well for our catholic religion in this country, if I do go for the service and receive communion despite being forbidden to do so by you does that mean I have committed a mortal sin and can lose my soul? Because ultimately why I still remain a catholic is because I believe I can go to heaven if I die.

Pakirisamy

Your Grace,

I am a devout catholic and truly believe in the teachings of the catholic church, especially in her teaching about Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist, I am “privileged” to visit Jesus preserved in the Blessed Sacrament almost everyday in the mornings before I go to work. It however baffles me why I am the only one there every morning in a RM10 million church built for 5,000 people. Its a massive church built on two layers, with a beautiful tabernacle made of gold with the sacred host preserved inside. It does not seem to make sense that you have spent so much money to built such a church but it is only filled up with the faithful only during Sunday Mass and listening to the priest who excitedly speaks about the evils of our present administration in this country.

What was more surprising was your instruction to us catholics that we are “forbidden” from receiving “holy communnion” from services held by different denominations during the Malaysia Day celebrations at Taman Melawati stadium:-

“Message from Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Most Rev Murphy Pakiam
National/Malaysia Day Prayer & Thanksgiving Celebration at Stadium Melawati, Shah Alam on Sunday, 16th September @ 3.00pm
While it is a noble act for Catholics to join fellow baptised Christians to pray for the nation, we are aware that we do not share the same beliefs, especially in the Eucharist. The Catholic belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist is different.
As such, Catholics who do join other Christians in any form of prayer gatherings or worship cannot join in the Christian Churches’ “communion” as we are not in a “common-union”.
Just as non-Catholics are not allowed to receive communion in the Catholic Church, so also, we are forbidden to join in their “communion”.

How do we know that all the people receiving Holy Communion in our Catholic mass on Sunday are really catholics and not christians? I don’t think in all fairness Jesus himself would have said this “Only catholics can receive Holy Communion because I am really present there only for catholics”, all others are forbidden from coming forward for Holy Communion. Neither would Jesus have said “don’t ever think of receiving Holy Communnion in other christian denominations because I forbid you to do so?

Maybe you could come out with guidelines as to how to spot non-catholics who come forward to receive Holy Communnion just like the Education Ministry’s guidelines on how to spot LGBE and single them out to be prosecuted.

In this Sunday’s reading St James aptly puts it :-

James 2: 14 – 18
14	What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?
15	If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food,
16	and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,”without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?
17	So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
18	But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.

Your Grace, if your faith is just faith it’s a dead faith if your directives are purely to preserve the sanctity of the the Real presence in the Eucharist. I dont think I or anyone else would go to hell if he went for the christian service at Taman Melawati Stadium and received the communnion offered there.

The FMM sisters had gone to great lengths to collect massive donations from the public, got govt grants, and built a catholic hospital for the poor and underpriviledged and called it the Assunta Catholic Hospital, (today the catholic has been removed). Even you and Peter Mooney had attended a fund raising dinner to raise funds for the hospital. Today, sad to say the hospital charges RM8,000+ for a simple appendix surgery, which you can get done in the govt hospital for less than RM450/- and the Jabatan Kebajikan pays for you if you can’t afford to pay

What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?