KUCHING – The Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei lost its second cardinal to cancer. This comes six months after it loses its first, Cardinal Soter Fernandez, also to cancer.
Ironically, the 69-year-old Cardinal Sim of the Apostolic Vicariate in Brunei Darussalam was elevated to the College of Cardinal six months ago on November 28.
According to Vicar General Msgr Robert Leong, the Brunei prelate succumbed to the disease at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Taoyuan City in Taiwan yesterday at 8.28am.
Cardinal Sim was slated to undergo special cell therapy at the hospital since arriving there on May 8. He was placed under the mandatory Covid-19 quarantine requirement.
“While under quarantine, His Eminence was attended to by medical staff daily. Unfortunately, everything that was done for him did not seem to be very effective.
“He gradually became weaker and lost most of his vitality before he passed on,” said Leong.
Pope Francis sent his condolences to the Catholic faithful of the Church in Brunei late yesterday evening.
"With gratitude for Cardinal Sim’s faithful witness to the Gospel, his generous service to the Church in Brunei and the Holy See, I willingly join the faithful in praying for his eternal rest," said the Pope.
The Holy Father also extended his “Apostolic Blessing” upon all who mourn the late Cardinal, "as a pledge of consolation and peace in Jesus, the firstborn of the dead."
Following the death of Cardinal Sim, the number of cardinals worldwide now stands at 222 cardinals from 87 countries. Of these, 125 are below 80 years of age and, thus, are eligible to vote for a new pope in case a conclave is called. The rest of the 97 are non-electors.
Red hat and ring couriered to Brunei
Cardinal Sim was absent at the ceremony called a consistory where cardinal-delegates are elevated to the highest hierarchy in the Catholic Church at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The event was held on November 28 last year.
Cardinal Sim as well as another cardinal delegate from the Philippines could not be present because of the Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Speaking by phone to The Vibes from Brunei, Cardinal Sim’s assistant Rev Arin Sugit said the Pope couriered the cardinal’s red hat and ring to the Apostolic Vicariate in Borneo’s tiny oil-rich state of Brunei.
Asked if the late cardinal had had an opportunity to don the red hat and his ring at any public ceremony as he was not well and most churches were not operating due to the pandemic – Arin Sugit said he had officiated several confirmation services in the Brunei churches.
“Cardinal Sim was a very simple man. He lives by the motto: know the way, share the way and lead the way. This is what he often tells everybody in his simple exhortations,” said Arin Sugit.
“We are a small Church, perhaps the smallest ecclesial community in the world shepherded by a cardinal who only had three priests and a Catholic population of 18,000.
“We are so ‘little’ that sometimes we are referred to as a church community in a periphery within a periphery,” he quipped.
Cardinal Sim’s death comes as a surprise to many, considering his age and the recentness of his appointment to the College of Cardinals.
Before becoming a priest, cardinal Sim was an electrical engineer working with a British-Dutch multinational oil and gas company Shell in Brunei and Europe.
He obtained a master's degree in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, in 1988 and was ordained a priest a year later. He was installed as Prefect of the Apostolic Vicariate in 1998 and appointed Vicar Apostolic of Brunei in 2004 and was made Bishop a year later.
A grandson to the first Catholics in his village in Belait, Cardinal Sim was the first native clergyman of Brunei.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei released a statement saying they are “deeply saddened” by Cardinal Sim’s death and invited both faithful and clergy to pray for his soul during their prayers and weekend Masses.
According to Arin Sugit, funeral arrangements for the late Cardinal Sim will be announced at a later time as his remains are still in Taiwan which is facing a spike in Covid-19 cases and strict travel restrictions. – The Vibes, May 30, 2021
