Bazaar to raise funds for Putatan church building

PUTATAN: A fund-raising bazaar will be held at the Sacred Heart Cathedral here on July 23 in aid of the new St Catherine Laboure church which is under construction on a beautiful hilltop site at Kampung Dimbaan here.

This week, Archbishop John Wong, made another site inspection to check on the latest progress of the building project.

The head of the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu of the Catholic Church was accompanied on his visit by Msgr Primus Jouil, his vicar-general, who is also the advisor of the steering committee for the project.

On hand to brief the church leaders on various aspects of progress and development of the project were Datuk Stephen Sondoh, chairman of the committee; Dr Tan Jun Kwang, the architect; Dominic Chong, committee treasurer; and other officials.

Construction work on the fourstorey structure has been slow, dictated by the availability of funds. Stephen said with roughly RM1.2 million funds in hand, there is still a shortfall required for the completion of the project.

“From the fund-raising bazaar at the Sacred Heart Cathedral on July 23, and a charity golf tournament at the Bongawan Golf and Country Club in August, we hope to raise RM300,000 to meet the shortfall,” he explained.

With the limited funds available, Archbishop Wong advised the building committee to focus its attention on the completion of the main building structures and defer other needs, like the purchase of a church bell from Europe and the installation of wooden pews, to a later date.

Dr Tan, the project architect told the visitors at the site meeting that the roof structures were completed in May and about 80 per cent of the roof coverings have so far been installed.

He said work is now centred on the construction of the structures of the bell tower at the front of the church building and this phase of work is expected to be completed in a month’s time.

After the visit, Msgr Primus made the observation that the St Catherine Laboure church here at Putation is going to be ‘a magestic building, the tallest in the area, and with a beautiful view.’

He expressed the hope that the new church would become a centre for Catholics in the area to worship, that they would fully support the ongoing fundraising efforts, thus enabling the successful completion of the project.

The committee hopes that, if all goes according to plan, the main building project would be completed in a year’s time.

Archbishop Wong (third right) during his site visit to the church building under construction on Wednesday with (from right) Dr Tan, Stephen, Msgr Primus, Dominic and Geoffrey from Stella Maris Church.

Construction work on the bell tower at the front of the new four-storey St Catherine Laboure church building in Putatan.

An overall view of the St Catherine Laboure church in Putatan now under construction. It shows progress made so far on the structures of the building, including the roof coverings that are about 80 per cent completed, and work on the bell tower at left.