In the cardinal designate's view, Pope Francis understands that the Church exists "in those little places where there is not much publicity" but where the faith is alive.

Sim, along with 3 other priests, leads the Church of Brunei that is mostly made up of some 20,000 expatriate workers.

For him, the Church cannot merely be a subculture: "as a Church, we are not one little group of people, all isolated on our own in our little bubble."

He says Church needs to build relationships, first within the community, starting within the family and moving to elsewhere in society, like the workplace and education.

The Church cuts across boundaries of race, colour, social status, or migrant status because "all of us are children, sons and daughters of Jesus Christ" Sim told CNA.

The 69-year old native of Brunei reinforced his view, saying approximately 70% of the small Catholic population are migrant workers from the Philippines.

Another 20% are migrants from other countries such as Indonesia, India, and Malaysia. The remaining 10% are indigenous Bruneians.

Sim says the challenge of the Bruneian Church is to "provide a home away from home" for the mostly migrant community; supporting them in times of trouble such as illness or death.

It also helps with financial and feeding programmes.

He commented that the Catholic Church has had a presence in Brunei for over 90 years and its three Catholic schools are especially an area of contribution; 60% to 70% of their students are Muslim.

Brunei is a country of 2,200 square miles located on the north coast of Borneo, an island the country shares with Malaysia and Indonesia.

The wealthy oil and gas-rich nation has a population of some 500,000 people, more than 70% of whom are Muslim.

Sim said he was surprised to learn Pope Francis had chosen him to be one of 13 new cardinals.

"For me, it was a bit of a shock and unexpected," Sim told Vatican News.

At his priestly ordination in 1989, Sim became the first native priest of Brunei. Then, in 2005, Pope John Paul II appointed him Vicar Apostolic and he became the first local bishop of Brunei.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Vatican News

He said this is happening across all ethnicities.

Dunn said that while it was affecting all parishes, many were not aware it was happening, because the churches were still full.

New New Zealanders are replacing are those drifting away.

Census data showed the Catholic religion was the largest Christian denomination in 2013.

Almost half a million (492,105) people identified as Catholic.

That figure was down by 16,332 (about 3.3 percent) from 2006.

Almost one third the total number were born overseas, predominantly in the Philippines, England and Samoa.

Dunn is calling this trend "kiwi drift"

He said religion was no longer seen as a fundamental part of New Zealand culture.

He thinks 1960s propelled the separation from religion.

There was a change in society driven by television, student revolt, the sexual revolution and drugs.

Dunn says the trend is affecting every 'European' first-world country.

"I don't know what they'd call it in the USA, but there seems to be a developing disconnect in these cultures between Christianity and the mainstream culture."

Over the past 30 years, the number of New Zealand-born people attending church had been declining says Peter Lineham

He is a professor of history at Massey University.

"There's been dramatic declines in participation and involvement and adherence to all churches."

"It was slower to take effect in the Catholic Church."

Lineham agrees with Dunn that the trend is being masked by the new New Zealanders.

Migrants, he says tend to have a greater need for religion than those who have lived here for a long time.

He said there was no simple answer to the decline.

"The fact is that Kiwis in general dislike organisations, opt out of voluntary bodies, see relatively little use in organised religion."

"It's not that they've probably had any change in their level of believing in God, but they've certainly had a big change in their willingness to accept any organisational answer to those questions."

Lineham said as later generations of new migrants settled in New Zealand and became more westernised, they also might start attending church less.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz