STEPPING INTO MONSIGNOR Francis Lau’s office is like a trip back in time. Inside his small office, in the Rector’s House within the grounds of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd where Monsignor Lau is associate rector, lining the walls are bookshelves containing books with yellowed pages, including files of documents concerning cases handled by the archdiocesan marriage tribunal dating back more than 30 years.
An old computer which still has its 31/2-inch floppy disk drive sits on his desk, while a 13-inch television rests in the corner of the office. Five framed art pieces hang from the walls or lean against bookshelves. “You’ll be surprised at what people throw away,” remarked the frugal monsignor, explaining that he found four of these paintings from HDB void decks, while he purchased the fifth from a roadside Indonesian painter for ten dollars.
The bookshelf behind his desk proudly displays an old photograph of the day he, as former vicar general, warmly received Pope John Paul II during the latter’s pastoral visit to Singapore in 1986.
Outside the office is Monsignor Lau’s aquarium where he keeps his fish, a hobby cultivated since a schoolboy. He prefers guppies, red swordtails, and the occasional moonfish over more expensive fish like koi. He also enjoys keeping birds, a practice which he learned from the late Father Simon Yim in his first year as a priest.
When asked why he keeps animals, Monsignor Lau simply replied, “To teach children to love animals.” As a newly ordained priest in St. Joseph Church, he often took children into the forest at Bukit Timah and returned with buckets of fish.
Monsignor Lau has served many roles in his 48 years as a priest. He has served in the parishes of St. Michael, Queen of Peace, Risen Christ, Sts. Peter and Paul, and Holy Cross. He was the first diocesan priest to become rector of St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary in 1971 after Father Pierre Barthoulot stepped down.
Monsignor Lau called Father Barthoulot, who was rector of the minor seminary for 25 years, his inspiration. “He was moved around [in the diocese] so often because he was needed. Whenever he was asked, he would go because of obedience; he made himself available,” he recalled.
For a priest, obedience is “vital”, said Monsignor Lau, whose inspiration for obedience came from the 1854 poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson about the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. The poem describes a disastrous charge of British cavalry made against Russian forces and epitomises the courage and obedience of British soldiers to obey their commanding officers without question.
“Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to question why, theirs but to do and die,” quoted Monsignor Lau of the classical poem he learned and memorised as a schoolboy. “Six hundred rode in, but they came back, not the six hundred. That’s what I remember most. ‘Not the six hundred.’ That tells us that all must obey, even to the point of death.”
“When I entered the seminary, my mother told me, ‘Be obedient’. I was warned by my father also to be obedient. I remember him saying, ‘If you know that you plant tapioca in one way, and you are asked to plant it the other way, you do it, even if you look stupid. Don’t think you know better than the superior.’ I’ve learned that in obedience, you cannot make a mistake. If anything goes wrong, the one in charge is responsible,” Monsignor Lau said, with a twinkle in his eye.
However, he recognises that obedience is “not very attractive” because “God has given us free will… to do the will of God, but God doesn’t force it on us,” he said. “Obedience is difficult because of pride and self-centredness. It is an attitude all of us have [that makes] submitting to authority, especially human authority, difficult. If we are conscious that it is God whom we obey, it will be much easier,” he said.
Indeed self-will is, for Monsignor Lau, his biggest obstacle to spiritual perfection. What stands most in the way of his spiritual perfection is that “I’m a human being”, adding that “my ordination doesn’t take away my humanity”, he said.
“[Ordination] gives us grace, but we must cooperate [with that grace]; the question is how much I cooperate,” he said.
As it is common for lay people to place priests on a pedestal as though he is better than a usual person, a priest “should be better than a usual person, because he better understands the call to perfection”, he stressed, but warned that “one unguarded moment and the devil will get you”.
A priest from the old generation, Monsignor Lau, now 76, worries for younger priests as they are not able to “chi ku” (literally in Mandarin: eat bitterness). According to him, the greatest challenge for priests in Singaporelies in “the attractions of the world, and the ease and comforts of life”.
Here and now, “priests are very well treated”, he said. “Any church you go to, security and comfort are given. This is not the case outside Singapore. For example, when I die, I have nothing to worry about. Lay people cannot say the same.”
Apart from listening to classical music on the radio, what brings Monsignor Lau most joy is “the satisfaction of service of God and man, especially in the confessional” and in his work in the diocesan ecclesial tribunal where he has been working as a judge since 1983. The ecclesial tribunal decides matters of Church law for individual cases, a majority of which deal with the validity of marriage.
The monsignor’s helpful disposition is well known among priests. Father Luke Fong, for one, does not hesitate to approach Monsignor Lau’s office even if it’s during Monsignor Lau’s nap-time. “Because I know he will oblige,” Father Luke said.
“When [I] hear the relief of the penitent [in the confessional], it brings me much joy,” the monsignor said in explanation for his easy accessibility for confessions.
“And when I hear the relief in the voices of those whose marriages have been annulled as they shout, ‘I can receive Communion again!’…,” he exclaimed, letting the satisfaction on his face finish the sentence.
you know better than the superior.’ I’ve learned that in obedience, you cannot make a mistake. If anything goes wrong, the one in charge is responsible,” Monsignor Lau said, with a twinkle in his eye.
However, he recognises that obedience is “not very attractive” because “God has given us free will… to do the will of God, but God doesn’t force it on us,” he said. “Obedience is difficult because of pride and self-centredness. It is an attitude all of us have [that makes] submitting to authority, especially human authority, difficult. If we are conscious that it is God whom we obey, it will be much easier,” he said.
Indeed self-will is, for Monsignor Lau, his biggest obstacle to spiritual perfection. What stands most in the way of his spiritual perfection is that “I’m a human being”, adding that “my ordination doesn’t take away my humanity”, he said.
“[Ordination] gives us grace, but we must cooperate [with that grace]; the question is how much I cooperate,” he said.
As it is common for lay people to place priests on a pedestal as though he is better than a usual person, a priest “should be better than a usual person, because he better understands the call to perfection”, he stressed, but warned that “one unguarded moment and the devil will get you”.
A priest from the old generation, Monsignor Lau, now 76, worries for younger priests as they are not able to “chi ku” (literally in Mandarin: eat bitterness). According to him, the greatest challenge for priests in Singapore lies in “the attractions of the world, and the ease and comforts of life”.
Here and now, “priests are very well treated”, he said. “Any church you go to, security and comfort are given. This is not the case outside Singapore. For example, when I die, I have nothing to worry about. Lay people cannot say the same.”
Apart from listening to classical music on the radio, what brings Monsignor Lau most joy is “the satisfaction of service of God and man, especially in the confessional” and in his work in the diocesan ecclesial tribunal where he has been working as a judge since 1983. The ecclesial tribunal decides matters of Church law for individual cases, a majority of which deal with the validity of marriage.
The monsignor’s helpful disposition is well known among priests. Father Luke Fong, for one, does not hesitate to approach Monsignor Lau’s office even if it’s during Monsignor Lau’s nap-time. “Because I know he will oblige,” Father Luke said.
“When [I] hear the relief of the penitent [in the confessional], it brings me much joy,” the monsignor said in explanation for his easy accessibility for confessions.
“And when I hear the relief in the voices of those whose marriages have
been annulled as they shout, ‘I can receive Communion again!’…,” he exclaimed,
letting the satisfaction on his face finish the sentence.
"What I remember most were the breakfast meetings and prayer together every morning. Without fail, Monsignor Lau would set up the breakfast table the night before, and, in the morning, would prepare a simple breakfast for us. Very often, he’ll even toast the bread! After breakfast, we would pray the rosary together, and also the Divine Office, after which we would share a little on the parish issues of the previous day, and then keep one another posted on our upcoming day’s schedule and appointments.”
– Father Valerian Cheong, who was assistant priest in Holy Cross parish in 2005. He described working with then parish priest Monsignor Lau “a joy”.
By Daniel Tay
