ASIAN FEDERATION OF CATHOLIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATIONS

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Happy Easter & UPDATE

Dear Respected Presidents of AFCMA Member Countries, Rev. Fathers and Brothers and Sisters in Christ from AFCMA, Christ has Risen, Allelulia! I wish you all a Happy and Blessed Easter! I must apologise for this belated Greeting to you all. I could not do so earlier as I was admitted to Hospital for an operation. Thank God the worse is over and I am back to do HIS WILL as long as HE wants me to. I must now update you on two important events that is happening in AFCMA now viz. (1) As you know we are having our 15th AFCMA Congress in Bali, Indonesia from 18-21 Oct.2012. The Theme is "The Challenges of Catholic Doctors in the Changing World". Dr. Albert Hendarta is the Organising Chairman whilst Dr. Ignatius Widjaja is the President of the International Catholic Medical Community(ICMC) which is co-hosting the Congress with Perdhaki. Registration online is now available via the Secretariat's Website www.afcma2012.com. The Organising Committee has employed Ms Yanita Fajar as its Secretary. Her e-mail is the Secretariat's e-mail i.e. secretariat@afcma2012.com. We would like to remind you to Register early. Also we wish to remind the Presidents of the Member Countries to kindly prepare their Country Report for presentation at the Congress during the AFCMA Country Report Session on Sat. 20 Oct.2012. (2) Please note that AFCMA is in the midst of producing our own Hand Book on Bioethics for Catholic Healthcare Workers. We decided to produce our own Hand Book because of our local Asian values and beliefs and understanding may be different from that of our European counterparts. Dr. Edna Monzon(Phillipines) Chair Person of our AFCMA Bioethics Committee assisted by her Committee consisting of Dr. Peter Au Yeong(Hong Kong), Dr. Chong Khin Yam (Malaysia), Dr. John Hui (Singapore), Dr. Buichi Ishijima(Japan) and Prof. Yeh (Taiwan) are busily preparing the draft so that we can get the Hand Book ready for presentation at the 15th AFCMA Congress in Bali in Oct.2012.If necessary we will co-opt others in to help in this important project. This Hand Book will be most useful to help Catholic Healthcare Givers decide what is permissible according to the Teachings of the Magisterium in their daily lives at home and in their work place. Therefor please help us to pray that the Holy Spirit will guide Dr. Edna and her Bioethics Committee to succeed in producing our AFCMA's Hand Book on Bioethics for Catholic Healthcare Workers in time before our AFCMA Congress inOct.2012 in Bali. Thank you very much for your kind attention and co-operation. In Jesus Christ, Dr. Freddie Loh, President AFCMA.