Third Inanam lad to be ordained priest

PENAMPANG – Come September 1, St Catherine Inanam will host its third priestly ordination ceremony.

Jesuit Deacon Leslie Bingkasan will be ordained priest at the Inanam church at 10:00 am by Archbishop John Wong.

Born on 27 Apr 1977, Leslie is the eldest in a brood of four boys and one girl born to Joseph Bingkasan and Mary Sodikit of Kg Kionsom Inanam.

Educated at SRJK (C) Yick Nam Inanam (1984-1989), Tshung Tsin (1990-1995), and Institut Sinaran (1996-1998), the ordinand was taking a course in microbiology at the University Malaya (1996-2002) when he resigned and worked as a journalist at the Herald Catholic Weekly (2002-2004).

He entered the Society of Jesus in 2004 and took his first vows in 2006.  After his theological studies at the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, he was ordained deacon at the university church on 29 Oct 2016.

He will be the fifth Jesuit from Sabah, and the second from KK Archdiocese – the others being Father Peter Kim of Tawau (D), Father Joseph (Jojo) Fung of Kota Kinabalu, Father Justin Joannis of Kuala Penyu, and Father Alberto David of Keningau.

Leslie will also be the third person to be ordained priest in Inanam after Father Patrick Erik Jerome (1991) and Father Maxmillianno Hontor (2014).