BANGKOK (UCAN) -- Life has not changed much for Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Hii Teck Kwong of Sibu since his episcopal ordination. He still spends his days visiting longhouse communities by boat in a jungle area of eastern Malaysia.

On May 1, the 42-year-old native of Sibu was ordained and installed as auxiliary bishop of the large, sparsely populated diocese in Sarawak state, based 1,130 kilometers east of Kuala Lumpur.

When Pope Benedict XVI appointed him auxiliary bishop on Jan. 25, he had just been assigned as parish priest of Kanowit, about 40 kilometers upriver from Sibu town.

Bishop Hii still serves as Kanowit parish priest and spends most of his time further upriver in remote longhouses, where many Catholics of the diocese live. He previously served as parish priest of Kapit, a further 100 kilometers upriver from Kanowit.

Speaking to UCA News over the phone on May 8, Bishop Hii explained that his work as a parish priest involves traveling several days at a stretch every week by both road and river. His parish includes about 160 longhouse communities, each having between five and 50 families, and his plan is to visit each community at least once in a year. A longhouse is a single one-story structure where all the families live.

A week after his installation, Bishop Hii said he had not received any new assignment from Bishop Dominic Su Haw Chiu. He predicted he would remain Kanowit parish priest for the rest of the year.

About 6,000 people attended his ordination at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Sibu, according to information provided by the Apostolic Nunciature in Bangkok. Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, the Bangkok-based apostolic delegate to Malaysia, presided at the Mass. Bishop Su and the 11 other active and retired bishops of Malaysia as well as Bishop Cornelius Sim of Brunei vicariate assisted. The others who attended included 55 priests from Malaysia and neighboring countries, as well as local dignitaries and civic leaders.

According to 2006 statistics, Sibu diocese had about 103,000 Catholics in 11 parishes and 585 outstations served by 16 priests, 21 Religious and 25 catechists. More than 575,000 people live in the diocesan territory of close to 42,000 square kilometers, which occupies the central part of Sarawak state. Sarawak and Sabah, the other eastern Malaysian state, share the northern coast of Borneo Island with Brunei.

Bishop Hii explained that his diocese requested an auxiliary bishop because "the diocese and its parishes are geographically very big and remote." Moreover, Bishop Su, who will turn 69 at the end of the month, finds it increasingly "difficult to cope" with traveling to interior longhouse communities for Church events such as confirmations as well as attending various diocesan and national-level meetings.

According to the new auxiliary, more than half of Sibu's Catholics are indigenous people while about 30 percent are ethnic Chinese, who live mainly in towns.

Speaking about his experience of working with parishioners in longhouses, Bishop Hii said these "people of the land" are very "friendly, hospitable and welcoming," and he mixes easily with them. When a priest comes, "they stop everything and go out of their way to welcome him."

The bishop, some catechists and nuns spend up to half a day in each longhouse. Besides Mass, they train lay leaders to lead prayers. Each week, in the absence of a priest, the lay leaders hold Sunday prayer services in a longhouse's raised common area. "Each longhouse forms a natural community or BEC (Basic Ecclesial Community)," Bishop Hii said.

They receive Communion only a few times a year. Apart from occasional visits by priests, they may travel to a town for Mass on major Church feasts such as Christmas.

Bishop Hii considers the shortage of Church workers, especially priests, the greatest challenge his diocese faces. At the moment he was consecrated bishop, he revealed, he prayed that Sibu diocese's current five seminarians would persevere in their vocation and be ordained priests.

The new bishop cited interest that he said his ordination and installation ceremony sparked as one reason to be optimistic. Since then, he said, "at least one young person has approached me and said he was interested in becoming a priest."

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