Archdiocese of KL prepares for census in August

Aug 06, 2015

By Richard Chia
All the Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, comprising the parishes in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang and Terengganu will be embarking on a census-taking exercise. This is part of the diocese’s pastoral planning for the next decade leading towards the Peninsular Malaysia Pastoral Convention scheduled for 2016.

The Archdiocesan Census 2015 will include every Catholic living, studying, working and visiting the Archdiocese of KL. This includes infants, children and adults. It will be conducted simultaneously in every parish and chapel over two weekends; August 15-16 and 22-23. Data entry will also be undertaken by respective parishes. The census project will respect the confidentiality of information collected. Every Catholic child, youth and adult will be required to fill one census card each.

Fr Clarence Dass, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Institute Director, and also the coordinator of the Archdiocesan Census Team explained, as follows: “The last census undertaken by the Archdiocese was in April 2004 for Catholics aged 12 years and above only. Since then, we have seen a lot of changes in our demographics. There has been a large influx of foreign nationals, migrant workers, students coming from various parts of the country, and development of new townships and residential areas, especially in and around the Klang Valley”.

Fr Clarence added, “This year’s census will be very comprehensive. With participation and assistance from the local parish census teams, we hope to be able to reach out to all Catholic individuals of all ages, including those who are unable to attend Mass regularly, those who are homebound, living away from their homes, working on weekends, non-Catholics who want to belong to our Church and those currently undergoing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. We also hope to be able to identify and collect census information from the various foreign Catholic communities, special communities and those whom Archbishop Julian Leow has aptly called the 4L’s (the Lost, the Least, the Last and the Little).”

“We appeal for the cooperation of everyone to spread the word, to inform your friends, family members and colleagues who are Catholics, to contact the parish nearest you, so that members of the local Parish Census team will be able to register your census information during the month of August. Alternatively, you may write to us at [email protected]”.