First Sabahan Jesuit dies at 73

PETALING jAYA – Father Peter Kim Se Mang, the first Jesuit from Sabah, died of a bleeding tumour in the lung on 23 Sept 2016.  He was 73.

This was posted on the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocesan Website.

Born on 14 Sept 1943 in Tawau, Kim was the youngest in a brood of three boys and two girls born to Kim Hock Chu (Kim Se Kong) and Marie Lim Sui Neo.  He had his primary education at Holy Trinity Tawau, secondary at St Mary Sandakan and Sabah College Kota Kinabalu.  He had a degree in agriculture from the Adelaide University Australia.

He entered the Society of Jesuit (SJ) on 14 Aug 1968 and was ordained priest on 10 Dec 1978 at St Francis Xavier Petaling Jaya.  He took his final vows on 31 July 1982.

He served as a pastor for that parish for six years  (1979 to 1985).  From the SFX parish website:

He became parish priest at a time when the [Peninsular] Church was calling for greater participation by the Lay.  A programme to renew the parish along these lines was initiated by Kim, making SFX the leading model for the building up of basic Christian community.

He walked, prayed, planned and grew with lay leaders from these communities.  He would visit homes and encourage BEC members to meet regularly in order to understand their role as the domestic church.  Under his care BECs flourished and more lay people became involved in parish activities.  The first Parish Assembly was conducted in which the Lay had a voice and parishioners began to understand the meaning of “We are the Church.”

After his term as pastor, he took his doctorate in sociology at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.  He also took up doctoral studies at the San Francisco Theological Seminary in Berkeley California.

In 1991 he wrote Parish Councils on Mission, Bernih Publishers KL.

He helped set up the Catholic Pastoral Centre in Taman Hiburan, Penampang in 1993 and was its director from 1993-1997.

On 21 Sept 2008 he became the superior of the Jesuits in Yangon Myanmar.  He taught pastoral theology at the St Joseph Catholic Major Seminary there as well as conducted various courses on spirituality.

He returned to Petaling Jaya recently and was a member of the Xavier Hall Community when he passed away suddenly on Friday.  His funeral will be on Tuesday Sept 27 at 10:30 am at SFX and will be buried at the Holy Family Catholic Cemetery Kajang.