St. Joseph’s Private Secondary School
Fr General dialogues with colleagues at Jesuit companion school in Kuching, Malaysia
By Ria Limjap, JCAP Communication
On a sunny mid-week day in Kuching, Fr General Sosa visited St. Joseph’s Private Secondary School (SJPS) where the Jesuits of the Malaysia-Singapore Region work as teachers and administrators. Currently, Fr Stanley Goh is the Rector, while Fr Francis Lim served as the first Jesuit Principal for nearly a decade before he was appointed first as Socius and eventually Regional Superior. Established in 2012, St. Joseph’s Private Secondary School is considered one of the top educational institutions in Kuching. This private national school has 900 students, around one third of them are Catholics.
“St Joseph’s School was founded in 1881 by Mill Hill Missionaries, then the La Salle Brothers took over”, said Fr Goh. “At some point, it was handed back to the government to be run mostly by the government, I think partly because the religious were finding it difficult to staff it. This private school was started to bring back the religious ethos of the mission school, that’s why we were invited to run it”, he said.
A warm “St. Joe” welcome awaited Fr General and the visitors from Rome, including Fr Jose Magadia, Regional Assistant for Asia Pacific, Fr Tomasz Kot,Regional Assistant for Central and Eastern Europe, and Fr Robert Ballecer from the General Curia’s Communication Office.Student prefects led the school tour, from the chapel to the science lab, including the faculty room, and a classroom where students learning history were surprised to meet the Superior General of the Society of Jesus on a regular Wednesday morning.
Another stop was to a newly-inaugurated building, dedicated just a day before the visitation, where Fr General heard the school’s chamber choir beautifully render “The Lord Bless You and Keep You”. A simple reception followed with students, teachers, and staff who listened to Fr General’s address and had the opportunity to ask him questions. “I invite you to reflect on the world in which we live”, said Fr General, a world which he described as shifting beneath our feet. Despite these realities, Fr General stressed the importance of community, and called SJPS a place for interculturality and diversity. He also reminded them of the call to be caring, “to be a school of hope and discernment, helping each other become instruments of peace, bearers of hope, listeners to one another in the noise of the modern world”. He shared his hope for the school: not only prepare the students for professional success, but also to invited them “to grow in conscience, compassion and courage”.
Stephen, a student, asked Fr General about his vocation. “I studied in a Jesuit school”, answered Fr General, “and the Jesuit Brothers and Regents were the ones who were close to us”, he recalled. He learned to become passionate about football from a Brother who not only taught them love for the game, but also strategy. “My vocation is to the Society of Jesus”, says Fr General succinctly. Samantha, another student, asked him about his favorite subject: biology, for which he would dissect animals at home much to his mother’s dismay. Medicine could have been Fr General’s chosen career, if not for a traumatic visit to the doctor to accompany his mother for a minor procedure. Meanwhile, Glynis had a big question for him: how to forgive people who have hurt us? “Forgiveness is the only way to be human”, Fr General said. “You can only forgive if you have been forgiven.” The crucial point is The Lord’s Prayer which reminds us that “our capacity to forgive is the capacity to receive”.
The session ended with a concise but rich message from Fr Lim on our calling, how to be human: “Fr General has reminded us to practice it.”
Related Posts:
“Malaysia and Singapore are two nations with shared histories but divergent trajectories. While both countries are multicultural and multireligious, their distinct socio-political climates – Malaysia’s constitutional Islam and Singapore’s pragmatic secularism – shape the struggles...”
The Caring for Community and Creation (CCC) project was initiated by the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) in 2022 to address poverty and ecology as identified in the JCAP apostolic plan. The project has three specific objectives, one of which is strengthening communities through...
Fr Arturo Sosa, SJ, arrived in Kuching, Malaysia to begin his 5th apostolic visitation of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP). With a full schedule of meetings and travel between different Jesuit ministries and communities in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia...
École Fondamentale Saint Louis de Gonzague was built to give every child space to be included, to live and learn alongside others, and to recognize their dignity as human beings. When the Jesuits founded the school in September 2004, in a region greatly affected by...
As Venezuela begins the difficult task of recovering after two strong earthquakes that claimed lives, left many missing and caused widespread destruction, Father General Arturo Sosa has sent a message of closeness and hope to the Venezuelan people.
As the Society of Jesus prepares for the II Congress JESEDU-Montreal 2027, a global process of review, discernment, and foresight is now underway. This initiative seeks to evaluate how the shared vision for Jesuit education has been implemented across the worldwide network of...
