Sacred Heart Cathedral is the cathedral of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu The Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu (Latin language, Latin language: ''Archdioecesis Kotakinabaluensis''; Malaysian Malay, Malay: ''Keuskupan Agung Kota Kinabalu''; Mandarin language, Mandarin: ''哥打京那巴鲁总教区'') is a metropolitan ar ...

, and the seat of its current archbishop,

John Wong Soo Kau John Wong Soo Kau (born 6 June 1969) is a Malaysian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was named the second metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu, Archbishop of Kota Kinabalu on 24 January 2013, the Feast of Francis de Sal ...

. The current cathedral was built from 1979 to 1981, with its dedication held on 21 November 1981.

History

In early January 1903, Fr. Henry van der Heyden first arrived in

Jesselton Kota Kinabalu (; formerly known as Jesselton), colloquially referred to as KK, is the state capital of Sabah, Malaysia. It is also the capital of the Kota Kinabalu District as well as the West Coast Division of Sabah. The city is located on th ...

(present-day Kota Kinabalu). The aggressive policy of importing

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

workers by the

North Borneo Chartered Company The North Borneo Chartered Company (NBCC), also known as the British North Borneo Company (BNBC), was a British chartered company formed on 1 November 1881 to administer and exploit the resources of North Borneo (present-day Sabah in Malaysia) ...

Government soon flooded the town with the arrival of hundreds of Chinese immigrants. The bulk of the early

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

community was made up of poor

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

farmers in a completely new land striving to adjust to all the harsh conditions of a new life together with some Europeans,

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

s, Filipinos and the

Kadazan-Dusun Kadazandusun (also written as Kadazan-Dusun or Mamasok) are the largest ethnic group in Sabah, Malaysia, an amalgamation of the closely related indigenous peoples, indigenous Kadazan people, Kadazan and Dusun people, Dusun peoples. "Kadazandus ...

s who later formed the backbone of the Catholic community in Jesselton. Surrounded by experience of much struggles and suffering in their daily lives, Fr. Heyden thought of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

's compassionate love for His children in

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, and remembered that

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

also suffered and died for them, with the church was then named Sacred Heart after the

Sacred Heart of Jesus The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

. The land site of the cathedral was procured by Fr. Goossens and Fr. Prenger under Heyden's name on 9 April 1903. The first cathedral building was built by

Mill Hill Mill Hill is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is situated around northwest of Charing Cross, close to the Hertfordshire border. It was in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Middlesex until 1965, when it b ...

missionary Fr. Valentine Weber in 1911 and the second by Fr. Arnold Verhoeven in 1938. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the cathedral was nearly razed to the ground with only some pillars and the foundation survived the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

bombing. The church was rebuilt after the war and opened in 1949 by

Msgr. Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocope, apocopic form of the Italian language, Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as ...

James Buis with another major renovation by Fr. Tobias Chi was done in 1981.

Gallery

File:KotaKinabalu Sabah Sacred-Heart-Cathedral-08.jpg, Cathedral Facade File:KotaKinabalu Sabah Sacred-Heart-Cathedral-03.jpg, Rear view of the Cathedral File:KotaKinabalu Sabah Sacred-Heart-Cathedral-07.jpg, Parish Centre Facade File:KotaKinabalu Sabah SacredHeartCathedral-05.jpg, Interior during Chinese New Year Celebrations File:KotaKinabalu Sabah SacredHeartCathedral-08.jpg, Marian Grotto File:KotaKinabalu Sabah Sacred-Heart-Cathedral-10.jpg, Emmaus Home

References

Bibliography

External links

* * Roman Catholic cathedrals in Malaysia Buildings and structures in Kota Kinabalu Roman Catholic churches in Malaysia Cathedrals in Malaysia 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Malaysia {{Malaysia-church-stub

History

Gallery

See also

References

Bibliography

External links