KENINGAU, Malaysia (UCAN) -- Keningau diocese in eastern Malaysia's Sabah state has three new deacons, boosting local Church clergy numbers by a fifth.

Bishop Cornelius Piong of Keningau ordained the three -- Gilbert Lasius, 29; David Mamat, 35; Philip Anthony Muji, 37 -- as deacons on Sept. 23 at St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral in Keningau, 1,620 kilometers east of Kuala Lumpur.

Local Catholics look forward to the new deacons becoming priests in 2008, thereby significantly increasing the number of diocesan priests, now 14.

Earlier, on June 2, Bishop Piong ordained deacons Claudius Andrew and Rudolf Joannes as priests, so the number of Keningau priests could grow by almost a third in little more than a year.

Besides priests, 78 Religious and 200 catechists serve the "interior diocese," as it is often called. Keningau's eight parishes and two missions have 181 outstations in remote villages far from Sabah's northern coast.

Among the 412,400 people in the diocese, 102,777 are Catholics. Keningau became a diocese in December 1992 when it was cut from Kota Kinabalu diocese, based 70 kilometers to the north in the state capital. Sabah and neighboring Sarawak state stretch across northern Borneo Island and form eastern Malaysia.

The new deacons told UCA News how their vocations developed, and Muji said his interest in priesthood sprang from a spiritual renewal he experienced in 1995. "That was when the struggle started, and it took me three to four years to finally decide to enter the seminary," he recounted.

The new deacon's struggle revolved around "the thought of having to give up this material world and its luxuries," he explained. Slowly with God's grace, he said, "I started to see the priesthood as a call and gift from God."

Muji is assigned to serve in St. Anthony's Church in Tenom, 34 kilometers southwest of Keningau. He, like six of the diocese's priests, is from Tambunan town, 44 kilometers northeast of Keningau, where the Catholic Church has been present since 1917.

Lasius, also from Tambunan, recalled being very involved in Church activities in his village when he was in secondary school. "I liked to see the work of the Religious sisters and brothers in their service to the Church," he said. He also recalled observing "the priest whenever he celebrated the Mass," he added, "and it sometimes crossed my mind that one day I would be a priest."

After high school, Lasius did not seek further studies but found a job on Labuan Island, a federal territory off Borneo's northern coast. "After working for two years, I opened my heart to say 'yes' to God," recounted the deacon, now stationed at St. Peter's Church in the Bundu area of Kuala Penyu town.

Mamat looks forward to being ordained next year as the diocese's first priest from Tenom, a town in the heart of the southern mountains of the Crocker Range. "Having been a seminarian for 11 years, I have learned a lot," he said, "especially in the spiritual and social dimensions. One of the greatest realizations I had throughout my formation was making God the center of my life." Mamat is assigned to St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral in Keningau.

The diaconate is the last stage in a candidate's journey to priesthood. Deacons are ordained to a ministry of service, and in communion with their bishop and priests, they serve in the liturgy, in proclaiming the word of God and in works of charity.

At the ordination Mass, Bishop Piong called the recent diaconate ordination an "historic occasion" because "it is the first time the faithful of the diocese witnessed the diaconate ordination of three candidates together."

About 2,000 people attended the Mass, concelebrated by Keningau priests and others from Kota Kinabalu. One concelebrant was Bishop-elect Julius Dusin Gitom of newly created Sandakan diocese in southeastern Sabah, the state's third diocese. His episcopal ordination is set to take place on Oct. 15.

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