Parish History

When the Mill Hill missionaries were invited to bring the Good News to Borneo in the late 19th century, they landed in Kuching in 1881. From there two of them, Mgr. Jackson and Fr. Daniel Kilty,
moved northwards to North Borneo. During their exploratory trips, the first station set up was at Papar (there was no parish as such during that time).


Papar was a small village to the bank of Papar river. Fr. Kilty built himself a house at the river bank near the present district mosque. From there he visited the people and tried to spread the Good News to them. There was no record of immediate success probably due to language barrier.

In April 1883, Fr. Alexender Prenger arrived to assist the Simpudu mission while Fr. Kilty was alone in Papar. However, two months later, Fr. Prenger was transferred to Sandakan and in July Fr. Pundleider joined him there. In the same month Fr.Kilty also left Papar on his way to Madras, India. The Papar and Simpudu stations were closed for the time being.

The mission in Papar was re-opened in 1887 with the arrival of Fr. Kurz, a Tyrolese. Fr. Kurz, however did not settle at the place where Fr. Kilty was, but he set up a place at Kg. Kompimpinan, about 3 mile up river. From there he tried to develop the mission for the area. Since there was not many kadazan at Papar mission at that time, it was made an outstation. Mission work was done mainly in Limbahau area. In 1888, there were only 8 catholic in Papar. Fr.Dibona assisted him for a while in early 1888 and for a few month in 1893. Later Fr Goosens was appointed as Assistant Priest to Fr. Kuz but Fr. Goosens stayed at Kg. Kinuta. The two priests took turn to visit Papar. After Fr. Kurts death on 1st September 1985, Fr. Goosens was Left to expand the mission work.

In 1900, Papar mission (now St. Joseph's Parish) was re-opened as a proper station . Fr.Van den Besselaar was the rector with Fr. Sweele as his assistant. However, the stay of the priest in Papar was not constant. Frs. Besselaar and Sweele didi not stay very long. There were frequent changes in the rectory. This was probably because of languages difficulties. A vast section of the community in Papar was Chinese and they were not very receptive to Chistianity.

In the middle of 1981, Fr. John Tsung arrived in Papar, being a famous church-builder, he began to consolidate the various church groups.

The need of having a parish hall was urgent. During this time, the church was overflowed with parishioners for the Sunday Masses. With most of its structure deteriorating in condition, cracks here and leakages there, the idea of renovating the church arose. However, Fr. Tsung suggested that it would be proper to build a new church and turn the the old church into a parish hall. With the assistance of the parishioners, the whole plan began to materialize by the middle of 1986. Through the leadership of Fr. Tsung, St. Joseph's Parish turns to a new leaf in its history.