A Dream Fulfilled
by Datuk Stephen Sondoh
Putatan was identified as one of the earliest Christian mission in North Borneo as early as 1881 by Rev. Fr Thomas Jackson, the Second Perfect Apostle based in Labuan. The other missions identified were Papar Jesselton (Api-Api) and Sandakan, including six in Sarawak namely Sibu, Kinowit, Igan, Oya, Mukah and Baram.
In 1885 Fr Alexander Prenger was assigned to go on this mission. He rowed his sail boat from the island of Labuan via Bundu, Kuala Penyu and along the coastal area of South China Sea to the northwest coast of North Borneo. He landed by the river bank of Putatan, at a small port known as Stramp Port (now known to the local native as Sitampot) where he met Aki Lokubal and his brother Aki Bunal, who happened to be at the port. Aki Lokubal and his brother, local natives known for their friendly and generous nature, took him in to stay at their house at a small village called Imbaan, which is walking distance from the port. Today, this is the present site of St Catherine Laboure Church. Aki Lokubal was the great grandfather of Madam Catherine Moinin, who has generously donated her ancestral land as the building site for the church.
Due to the people’s stronghold onto their traditional paganism beliefs during that time, Fr Prenger did not manage to realise his first mission, hence he moved from the upper river of Putatan to Inobong. Here, he was well received and taken care by the natives.
Despite their refusal to convert to Christianity faith, the natives of Putatan were kind enough to build a “Mission Transit Home” for Fr Prenger. The home was later used by other missionary priests during their frequent visits. Because of its strategic location, it was also used as a missionary transit point between Inobong, Papar, Kuala Penyu and Labuan.
At the beginning of 1890, another foreign priest known as Fr Rientjes, who was well known by kampung Imbaan villagers, was put in charge of Putatan mission. There he was to work with the Dusun native and to learn the native language.
Just like Fr Prenger he also wanted to build a church near the ‘Transit Home’ but on the 15th May 1891, he was drowned while swimming at Putaton river. His body was sent to Inobong mission for burial.
In 1906 a Priest named Fr Duxneuner who became a close friend of Aki Lakubal managed to convince him to bring his son Tuyo to missions in Penampang. While on the mission, Tuyo assisted Fr Duxneuner in church activities and at the same time attended a mission school. Tuyo, who took Ethwin as his Christian name, was baptised by Fr Duxneuner. Ethwin Tuyo, the grandfather of Catherine Moinin was the first native pagan of Putatan to be converted to Christianity. Subsequently, upon returning to his village, Ethwin’s siblings, relatives and close friends followed his steps, embracing the Christian faith together. The missionary transit home managed by Ethwin Tuyo became the meeting place for Bible studies and masses for the new converts, frequently attended by Fr Duxneuner.
In 1926, Fr Wachter set up one of the earliest Catholic Mission schools, namely St. Peter’s school, Imbaan, and with the hope to build a church for the small catholic community led by Ethwin Tuyo. At the heigh of the Second World War (1945), Fr Wachter was captured by Japanese soldiers and was never found. Unfortunately, the school had been closed ever since, and was never reopened. His plan to build a church also never materialised.
In 1940 a small church was built near the Hwa Shiong Chinese school by Putatan Chinese Catholic community led by Francis Ng Hock Lee. Among members of the community were the families of the late Rev. Fr Thomas Sham, the late Peter Chin, one of the early headmasters of St Peter Telipok and John Wong, a former headmaster of Native Voluntary School, Tansau, Putatan. Unfortunately the church was destroyed during the 2nd World War and was never rebuilt.
In the 1960’s, Putatan was made station by Rev Fr Lampe who was the Rector of Stella Maris Parish Church, Tanjung Aru. He served mass once a month held at the residence of the late John Luan, Madam Catherine Moinin’s husband. There was some initiative to build a church led byh the late John Luan where a committee was also established to look into the proposal. However, due to many obstacles, particularly the unavailability of funding caused a great setback to achieve the mission.
Emeritus Archbishop Datuk John Lee in his speech during the launching of fundraising for the new chruch held at Stella Maris Parish Hall on 15th December 2008 informed the parish church members that he had been looking around for a piece of land for 6 years to build a church in Putatan but was unable to find a suitable place.
Year 2008, Revisiting the dream of building a church
In 2008, 127 years later, the DREAM was revisited when the late Rev Fr Fundes Motiung, Stephen Sondoh the former District Officer of Penampang, Tony Mojigoh and few others met at the Wong Kwok Restaurant, Luyang on 7th February to discuss the proposal of having a church in Putatan. These initiators foresee that the rapid development in Putatan in all aspects are one of the factors that contributed to the growth of catholic population in the district. They also took into account the anticipated population growth of the catholic community in the next 10 to 20 years, and also an increase in the number of migration of Catholics from other districts. Most importantly, they wanted to fulfill the dream of the missionary to build the church, making it a reality. These reasons justified the initiators to embark on this monumental project to build a church.
In the same year on the 5th March 2008, the Steering Committee was formed under the leadership of Stephen Sondoh. To assist them in the implementation of the church project, he formed a Volunteer Technical Team made up of professionals from various organisations to commence with the design of the church. This team was led by experienced professional architect Ar. Dr. Tan Jun Kwang. The team was set to work as volunteers with ZERO budget in hand. The Technical Professional Team comprised of Civil and Structure Engineers and Volunteer Contractors. The team set up a design proposal for the church development plan together with the late Rev. Fr. Fundes Motiung and the Steering Committee. The Church Development Plan proposal was submitted to the Emeritus Archbishop Datuk John Lee for his comment, blessing and approval.
On 12th January, 2013, with full courage and confidence, the volunteer team kick-started the church project with an initial funding of only RM1.8 million. This amount was way too small, as the total estimated amount to complete the whole church project is RM10.4 million, as quoted by Quantity Surveyors. It took them 4 years (2008-2012) to raise the funds for the initial start-up.
The progress of the construction was on the basis of “AS AND WHEN FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE” . Flows of donation came in batches from the kind hearted and generous church members, public donation, individuals, as well as State and Federal funding. These sources of funding have greatly contributed to the construction of this majestic church building.
So near, yet it is still so far. Funding remains our greatest challenge.
With the blessing of our Most Rev. Archbishop Datuk John Wong and our spiritual advisor Rev Fr Johnny Raju, we the Steering Committee would therefore wish to appeal to all the kind hearted and generous individuals to continue rendering their full support in giving this church construction project a final push to completion.
Let us build OUR CHURCH together to make this 127-year missionary dream a reality: that St Catherine Laboure Church will be standing tall for the Glory of our God Almighty.
References:
- Commemorate History of Sabah (1881-1981) by Annuar Sulivan.
- Historical Development of Education. By K.M George
- The Prefecture Apostolic of Labuan & North Borneo (1880-1902)
- Catholic Sabah dated 18th January 2009
- Madam Catherine Moinin (Related the missionary history from her ancestors)
- Gundohing Tony Mojigoh (Related the missionary history from his ancestors)
- Mamai James Lingkapo (He was a former student of St Peter’s School, Imbaan) (Related the early Catholic Mission School in Imbaan)
- Madam Christina Luan (Related the missionary history from her ancestors)
- The late Mr Peter Chin (Related the history of the early Chinese Catholic community in Putatan)
