By Datuk Teddy Chin
MORE than one billion Catholics around the world are still mourning the death of Pope Francis.
In fact, millions more if non-Catholics or for that matter non-Christians are to be included.
That includes Malaysians where even our national leaders like the Agong, the Prime Minister and Sabah Chief Minister gave condolence messages.
But to one particular Sabahan, he is more than sad and has a long story to tell. His relationship with Pope Francis can perhaps be described as friends already for they met many times.
You see, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok first met the late Pope Francis in 2013 when he led a Malaysian delegation for the inauguration of previous Pope as the Catholic Church’s 266th Pontiff.
The former Sabah Chief Minister was then Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister of Malaysia in Kula Lumpur.
“It was solemn. Wonderful. After the Inauguration Mass, the Pontiff took time off to meet all the State representatives. It was both very touching and unravelling at the same time.
“My wife (Puan Sri Diana) was with me for the audience in front of St Peter’s tomb inside the St Peter’s Basilica. We requested the Pope to bless out rosaries. He obliged. And he asked us to pray for him. It all lasted about a couple of minutes, but it felt like eternity. To us, it was a very special moment.”
Having met Pope Francis, it means that he has met three Popes – Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVII and of course Pope Francis.
“I was in a delegation led by the then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed to meet Pope John Paul II 2002. That was the time we brought up the subject of diplomatic ties,” he said.
When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, Dompok led a Malaysian delegation for his funeral.
It was partly because of his death that the question of diplomatic ties was put on hold.
In 2011, Dompok was also part of a Malaysian delegation led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. It was during this meeting that Malaysia and the Holy See agreed to set up diplomatic relations.
Najib later introduced members of his delegation to Pope Benedict who included Dompok. The former Penampang MP took the opportunity to request the Pope to bless his rosary, with Najib looking on.
However, before anything could materialize, Pope Benedict resigned, one of the very few Popes in history to do so. Then the Holy Father Francis was appointed the new Pope.
Dompok presented his credentials to Pope Francis on 9 June, 2016, having received it from the Yang di Pertuan Agong.
“My wife Diana joined me together with the entire brood of children and grandchildren. After the pleasantaries and my conveying greetings from the Yang di Pertuan Agong, he asked me about my family. So I told him ‘Holy Father, 5 children and 9 grandchildren so far. ‘That’s a large family’ he said smiling”.
Coming back to Pope Francis’ inauguration, Dompok said: “I am honoured to have been asked to represent the country.
“This trip is different in the sense that Malaysia has now joined the rank of countries with diplomatic ties with the Vatican,” he added.
“Our diplomatic ties with the Vatican are blossoming especially after it was formalized in July 2011. We are progressing well…. this can only be a positive development for us and the Holy See,” he said then.
Malaysia was among the 132 countries which sent their representatives for the historic event (inauguration) at St Peter’s square, attended by some 200,000 people from around the world.
The relationship enabled Malaysia to be among those seated nearest to the Pope during the inauguration, together with world representatives including from Argentina, the United States of America and the Philippines, he said, adding “I was flanked by delegates from Irag and Mozambique”.
Dompok has a chat with then US Vice-President Joe Biden who represented his President.
This was 2013 when Dompok said this, then still a Federal Minister. Little did he realized that a few years later, in 2016, he would be Malaysia’s first Resident Ambassador to the Holy See when the first Malaysian Embassy was set up at Vatican. He was concurrently accredited to Albania and Malta.
Dompok by then was semi-retired from politics, having stepped down as UPKO president and no longer an MP or Assemblyman.
He was former MP for Penampang and Kinabalu (now Ranau) and Assemblyman for Moyog.
He not only made Sabah proud with his appointment, but also the few hundred thousand Catholics in the State.
Say what you like about Najib. It was during his Premiership that the Malaysian Embassy was finally established.
And his choice of a Sabahan Catholic to be the first Ambassador. Apart from having been a Federal Minister, a former Chief Minister and Sabah Finance Minister for 9 years, who could be more apt? Sabahans in general and Catholics in particular thank Najib for this.
Credit must also go to another Sabahan, Tan Sri Anifah Aman who was the Malaysian Foreign Minister when this took place. Anifah, the former Kimanis MP, must have played a role and gave his support. He is, after all, a Sabahan and the first Sabahan to be the Foreign Minister.
Anifah officiated the Malaysian Embassy together with Dompok a few months after it was first set up in 2016 after it moved to a permanent place from its temporary office earlier.
Priests and Bishops aside, for Sabahan Catholics to meet a Pope once in their lifetime would be a dream come true. By 2013, Dompok was in the Vatican four times and had an audience with three Pontiffs.
After his appointment as Ambassador of course, Dompok would meet the Pope at least a few more times , beginning with the presentation of his credentials to the Holy Father in 2016. As a Catholic myself, I admire him. Not many Sabahans, for that matter Malaysians, could do that.
In fact, even before Dr Mahathir’s visit in 2002, Dompok has met an earlier Pope in the early 1990s.
Being Sabah’s Agriculture Minister, he was part of Malaysia’s delegation to FAO which is part of UN led by former Agriculture Minister Tan Sri Sanusi Junid. However, on that particular day, Sanusi asked him to lead the visit to Vatican and met Pope John Paul II.
Dompok who is Chairman of SMECorp was in Kuala Lumpur a couple of days ago.
He attended the morning Mass in honour of Pope Francis together with the Nuncio before signing the Condolence Book.
Pope Francis has also made humanity the focal point in his Papacy as was obvious in his concern for the downtrodden, the victims of war, plight of migrants, the environment especially on climate change.
RIP Pope Francis.
Note: This article has appeared in the Daily Express.
