Malacca Johore Diocese News Update #181

Jul 19, 2024

Greetings dear friends of MJD,
The silence is incomprehensible: a preacher’s advice on secret conversions of minors; misuse of National Council of Professors’ funds; HRD Corp’s mismanagement of funds; 94.2 per cent of septic tanks in the country have not been decontaminated for over three years; phone scamming of the elders has escalated; money disbursed but misused….. is silence golden? Is silence condoning? Is silence a compromise?

“Pilgrims On the Move” Times: The Muslims have returned from Mecca. Catholics and others are on the move. Come the tail end of July, St Anne’s Bukit Mertajam and Port Klang and the many small outstation chapels with the same name, will be drawing devotees. After the pandemic, public gatherings, processions and celebrations have flourished. Come August, 550-600 clergy, religious, pastoral workers and church leaders will be converging on MAJODI Centre, Plentong.

Come December 29, 2024, the Jubilee Year 2025 will see another wave of pilgrims to churches designated as pilgrim centres. All this travelling is a call to walk with one another and walk with the Lord. May we be pilgrims of prayer, praying for the world, the sinners and the suffering.

A Thought For The Week: The Lost Key
Shifting to a new flat, Tom happily took out his luggage, and reached for his key. His key was missing. Nervously he searched through every box, no keys. As the hours passed, his troubles increased. Tired, he sat down. Then he noticed a shiny object on the ground. It was his key, right in front of him. But Tom did not see it.

The lesson from the key: Sometimes when we focus too much on an issue, we miss the solution that is right in front of us. The answer surfaces when we stop worrying about a particular issue. Finding a solution does not require constant searching, but a brief period of silence.

Announcements For The Week:
1. The diocese congratulates Msgr Peter Ng and Fr Thomas Chong who will be celebrating their Silver Jubilee (25 years as priests); and Fr Anthony Ng and Fr Lucas Ho will be Golden Jubilarians (50 years) this year. More info next.

2. The Regional Pastoral Assembly 2024, popularly known as PMPC 5, draws near. Delegates from the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, Diocese of Penang, and the Diocese of Malacca Johore numbering 500 are expected at MAJODI Centre, Plentong from August 25- 27, 2024. It will be a time to listen, learn and be led by the Holy Spirit.

3. The Mangrove Planting Project initiated by Caritas-CJC MJD with the Nature Society, will see 49 participants sponsoring and planting 450 saplings at Kukup.

QnQ? Q asks: I am wondering if robots are taking over our jobs?
This article by Antoni Shkraba attempts to show where AI fails and why human intelligence will remain essential in the workforce.

1. Well-defined cannot juggle: AI excels at handling a wide range of well-defined tasks (e.g. analyse data, compose music), but it can’t switch seamlessly between these activities or manage them simultaneously, where humans can juggle, can create and have emotional depth.

2. Interpret cannot intuit. AI can produce human-like writiwng, handle and interpret unstructured data from sources like emails, reports, and social media. Unlike AI, humans can draw on intuition, experience, and creativity to navigate dynamic situations and make spontaneous decisions.

3. Intelligent output not true human creativity. AI is able to analyse large data sets, identify patterns, and combine concepts in ways that resemble creativity, provide new ideas which results in intelligent outputs such as poetry, music, and philosophical reflections. But lacks the emotional depth, consciousness, and experiential background that drive true human creativity drawn from personal experiences, emotions, and unique perspectives to craft art, music, or literature.

4. Processes data not comprehend beyond: AI can mimic understanding of context and meaning based on patterns in training data, often producing appropriate responses and can detect subtleties in language, such as sarcasm and tone. AI is capable of processing data and identifying patterns. However, it lacks true consciousness, comprehension, or the capacity to understand beyond the data that it has been taught.

5. Works on patterns not ethics: AI that operates on algorithms and data patterns cannot comprehend the complex and subjective nature of ethics (e.g. understand an action’s impact on society as a whole). In contrast, humans can weigh ethical considerations based on empathy, societal values, and context, allowing us to make ethical decisions in many real-world scenarios!

See the Holy Spirit @ work: We can study the whole history of salvation, we can study the whole of Theology, but without the Spirit we cannot understand. It is the Spirit that makes us realise the truth or – in the words of Our Lord – it is the Spirit that makes us know the voice of Jesus. — Pope Francis

Something to tickle you: We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. – Chuck Swindoll Bishop Bernard Paul