Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Peace be with you!
The 17th AFCMA Congress 2021 Malaysia has been successfully concluded on 19th September 2021.The Theme of the Congress was ” Building Bridges though Healing and Spirituality.”Many of you had taken part in the Congress in some way or other eg. as Delegates or Speakers.In fact, a write up about the 17th AFCMA Congress 2021 by Dr. Freddie Loh has already been done and was published on FIAMC Website. Another write up by Dr. Sharon Gopalan was published in the HERALD a few days later.
Altogether we had 253 Delegates coming from 3 Continents and 15 Member Countries of AFCMA. This was the first time ever in the history of AFCMA that we had to hold the AFMA Congress VIRTUALLY because of the COVID 19 pandemic. Due to the immense of work we had to do we had to employ an Event Organiser called Messres vFairs but we felt it was worth it. Some of our Members both local and from AFCMA were not familiar in attending a VIRTUAL Congress but our Organising Committee Team together with vFairs technical Team were there to help them to log into the Landing page and view the entire program from the comfort of their homes by using their own password.
As you know, initially we wanted to hold the Congress physically at the ARMADA Hotel in Petaling Jaya Malaysia from 29th Oct 2020 till 1st Nov 2020. In fact everything was almost finalised and we had appointed the ARMADA Hotel in PetalingJaya as the Official Congress Venue. When the COVID-19 came and afflicted the whole of Asia, some of the Members of the Organising Committee wanted to cancel the Congress. However two of our Lady Doctors Dr. Sharon and Dr. Juliet did not want to give up especially after Malaysia had worked so hard to be selected as the Host Country for the 17th AFCMA Congress. Thanks to them and our faith in God the VIRTUAL AFCMA Congress did materialise and with your support the success of the Congress was beyond our expectation. We felt that God had answered our prayers as “We can do all things with Him in us. Pillippians 4:13”.
The Congress started with an Opening Prayer which was recorded via You Tube and presided over by His Grace Archbishop Julian Leow Archbishop of the Kuala Lumpur Diocese.This was followed by an Opening gambit which showed the various flags of our AFCMA Member Countries and a welcome in the various languages of the 15 Member Countries of AFCMA.Various places of interest like the KLCC, TWIN TOWER, CENTRAL MARKET, Famous Churches in Malaysia, were shown.
Welcoming Speeches were given by His Grace Archbishop Julian Leow, Dr. Freddie Loh Organising Chairman, Dr. Manuel Po President of AFCMA, Dr. Juliet Mathew President of CDAM and Prof Bernard Ars, President of FIAMC.
The Scientific Program started with the Alimurung Lecture given by Prof. Christopher Ng who talked on “Healing the Heart of Humanity in Times of Adversity”. The Alimurung lecture is given by the best Speaker or Scientist from the host country. This was followed by Q.&A. Session.
Altogether there were 21 Lectures which were all Video Recorded so that we can watch them in the comfort of our Homes and at any time throughout the next 30 days from the Congress. All the Lectures were good and a few were excellent and delivered by World Class Speakers.eg “Cures, miracles and Serving the Sick- a bridge between Healing and Spirituality”presented by Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis who talked about the Miracles in Lourdes and how a case can only be classified as a Miraculous cure by passing 7 criteria. For those of us who had not been able to watch all the 21 Videos I am glad to inform you that the Event Organiser Messres vFairs have kindly agreed to allow us to continue to watch all the Videos till 31st October 2021!.
On the Final Day i.e. Sunday 19th September 2021 all the various Member Countries of AFCMA presented their Country Report whereby each country will give us a Report on what their Country had been doing for the past 4 years to help their fellow countrymen, Catholic doctors and Outreach Programs.
The Congress ended with the Closing Mass presided over by Rev Father Phillip Chua Spiritual Advisor to CDAM.
Finally I must give you the important results of the AFCMA Election held on 16th September 2021 by ZOOM Meeting.At the AFCMA AGM on 16th September 2021 the following persons were elected to the AFCMA Exco. for the 2021 -2024 Term.:
(1) Dr. Shigeyuki Kano (Japan) — – President
(2) Dr. Ambrose Leung (Hong Kong) – – 1st Vice President
(3) Dr. Juliet Mathew (Malaysia) – – 2nd Vice President
(4) Dr. Masamichi Goto (Japan) – – Secretary General
(5) Dr. Bum -Soo Kim (Korea) – – Hon Treasurer
(6) Dr. Valentinus Yudy (Indonesia) – -AFCMA Representative to FIAMC
(7) Prof. Stephano Seung-Kew Yoon – -AFCMA Representative to FIAMC
(8) Rev. Father Gino -Ecclesiastical Advisor
(9) Dr. Mark Tan (Malaysia) – – Bioethics Committee Chairman
(10) Dr. Hady Syarif (Indonesia) — Mission Committee Chairman
(11) Dr. Edward Rozario Pallab ( Bangladesh) — Mission Committee Vice Chairman.
South Korea was selected as the Venue for the 18th AFCMA Congress.
Congratulations to Dr. Shigeyuki Kano Newly Elected President of AFCMA and his team for 2021-2024. I am sure that through his leadership he and his Team will bring lead AFCMA to Greater Heights and give Greater Glory to God Almighty.I sincerely hope that our AFCMA Members will give Dr. Kano and his Team their fullest co-operation as you had given to me , Dr. Manuel Po and Dr. John Lee throughout the years.
I must also congratulate South Korea for being the Host for the 18th AFCMA Congress. Presently Prof. Stephano Seung is the President of the Korean Federation of Catholic Medical Associations.We can look foward to hearing from him and his Treasurer Dr. Bum -Soo Kim in the near future regarding the 18th AFCMA Congress.
I think that is all for now. See you all in South Korea in 2024.Thank you for your kind attention and God Bless Us All! Amen.
In Jesus,Dr. Freddie Loh
Organising Chairman 17th AFCMA Congress 2021 Malaysia,Chairman FIAMC Membership Committee.
