Catholic Church offers weekend donations to Tabung Harapan

Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Julian Leow says the Bishops of Peninsular Malaysia as a metropolitan province have collectively agreed to offer up one weekend’s collection from all parishes towards the Tabung Harapan Malaysia.

(MMO) – The local Catholic Church in the peninsula has offered to contribute one weekend’s worth of cash donations usually used as alms for the poor to help pay the country’s debts.

The Catholic initiative comes after a similar crowdfunding effort undertaken by the Council of Churches of Malaysia, an umbrella body representing most of the Protestant Churches in the country, last Thursday.

“The Bishops of Peninsular Malaysia as a metropolitan province have collectively agreed to offer up one weekend’s collection from all parishes towards the Tabung Harapan Malaysia as a gesture of solidarity and as a part of the local church’s commitment to assist in rebuilding our nation,” Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Julian Leow said in a statement yesterday.

He added that the contributions will be taken from the cash offerings collected during Masses held from June 22 to 24.

The peninsular Catholic Church are divided into three main regions; the northern region under the Penang diocese, the central region under the Kuala Lumpur archdiocese and the southern region under the Melaka-Johor diocese.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad previously said the country’s debt and liabilities stood at RM1 trillion.

The Pakatan Harapan coalition, which formed the federal government after winning the May 9 general election, established the Tabung Harapan Malaysia trust fund on May 30 after a number of Malaysians began cash crowdfunding drives to do their bit for the country.

The fund stands at just over RM31 million as announced by the Finance Ministry yesterday afternoon.