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Gregory Yong
By Peace | July 1, 2008
Archbishop Emeritus Gregory Yong
His last words, according to a close friend, “Don’t pray for me. I want to go home.”
Gregory Yong, 83-year-old former Catholic Church Archbishop died at St Joseph’s Home on 28 June 2008, at 2.40pm of Heart Failure.
Born in Penang, Gregory Yong held a doctorate in Canon Law earned in Rome in 1956, was in court to give an account of the rules that parish priests here have to abide by. His health had been faltering over the years. In June 2000, he had a heart attack and was warded at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, and underwent heart bypass surgery. He was also diabetic.
His successor, Archbishop Nicholas Chia said he had lived a good life. He said,”He was a very cordial man. He had done his best for the Church.” According to his niece, Priscilla Lee (51 years old), Archbishop Gregory Yong received his calling at a young age. She said,”He answered his own calls.” For her, what she miss most about her uncle, the fifth of 10 siblings, was his great sense of humour. “When he was bishop of Penang, he once joked that he was thankful his parents(who were Catholics) did not practise family planning, or else he would not be born,” she said.
While other kids were playing marbles, he would play priest and pretend to hold mass. In 1941, he entered the seminary and was ordained a Diocesan priest in 1951. Five years later, he was posted to Singapore, where he helped to run the Sacred Heart Church. Appointed Archbishop in 1977, he retired at 75, the mandatory retirement age for the post.
Sister Gerard Fernandez, 70, of the Good Shepherd Sisters, said she started the Roman Catholic’s prison ministry 30 years ago under his supervision. She recalled that the prisoners were touched when he visited them and held mass in the prisons. They said,”We cannot go to visit him, but he comes to visit us.”
Those who knew him remember him as a gentle, humble and down-to-earth man who did not have a secretary while he was in office. He was a foodie with a love for spicy food and durians. Every Saturday, his close friends would take him out to satisfy his cravings.
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