BRUNEI (UCAN): Cornelius Cardinal Sim, the vicar apostolic of Brunei Darussalam, died of heart failure on May 29 at a hospital in Taiwan, where he was undergoing treatment for cancer, the vicar general of the vicariate, Father Robert Leong, announced. Pope Francis has made him a cardinal only seven months previously (Sunday Examiner, 6 December 2020).
Cardinal Sim was hospitalised on May 8 and “gradually became weaker and lost most of his vitality. Sadly, he passed away this morning,” Father Leong said on March 29, adding that the date for the funeral date would be announced later.
In a statement, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei it was “deeply saddened to announce” the death of Cardinal Sim.
“We invite you to pray for him in your Masses and prayers,” Bishop Sebastian Francis of Penang, the conference president, said.
“Let us be in communion with his family members, clergy, religious and all the faithful of Brunei in this moment of loss and bereavement,” he added.
Cardinal Sim was born the eldest of six siblings to Catholic parents in Seria, Brunei, on 16 September 1951. He had stopped practicing the Catholic faith in university, but the death of his father in 1979 brought him back to the Church.
When he was ordained on 26 November 1989, he became the first priest from Brunei. He became vicar general in 1995.
Pope St. John Paul II appointed him prefect of the then Apostolic Prefecture of Brunei in November 1997.
Pope John Paul Brunei to the status of a vicariate in October 2004, and appointed then- Father Sim as its first vicar apostolic of Brunei. He was ordained a bishop on 21 January 2005.
