Singapore’s Catholics honor memory of founding father Lee

(Vatican Radio)  Singapore has started seven days of national mourning after the death of its founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. He died at the age of 91. Lee was Singapore's Prime Minister for 31 years - turning the city-state into a global financial hub and one of the wealthiest nations on earth.

The city-states small Catholic community, along with the rest of Singapore, is mourning the loss of their nation’s founding father.

Archbishop William Goh will celebrate a memorial Mass for Lee at St Joseph’s Church on Friday, 27 March. In a letter of condolence sent to the current Prime Minister, and son of the late leader, Archbishop William Goh Seng Chye writes:

 “Singapore owes her nationhood to him. As a nation, we have him to thank for everything we are proud to call “Singapore”. Indeed, we count ourselves truly blessed to have had such a giant of a leader at a time when Singapore counted for nothing in the eyes of the world. It now behooves us to protect and to carry on the legacy which he has left us with – a foundation built on honesty, integrity, selfless love, filial piety, commitment and responsibility. This is the highest honour we can give to one who gave his all”.

Speaking to Vatican Radio, Benedict Tang a member of the Catholic community remarks that Lee, was profoundly inspired by the horrors he had seen in World War II and that often throughout his career called on his fellow citizens to learn from the past and the sacrifices of their forbearers to build a more inclusive society.

Tang says that as Singapore prepares to mark 50 years of independence from Britain Lee’s legacy – particularly in “bringing us from days when people were fighting each other to today when we have one of the highest employment rates in the world, one of the lowest crime rates in the world and lowest poverty rates in the world.  We have achieved number 1 in many things. We need to remember our past, not to forget our history where we came from, we should never take our racial harmony for granted where we have temples, mosques, churches all side by side and people of different races living next to each other”.

 

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