Marco Carvalho
Former secretary of Dom Arquimínio da Costa and Dom Domingos Lam, the Dominican Norma Maria da Rosa died one month ago. With a discreet presence in the ecclesiastical chamber, the Macanese nun ensured that balance was kept in the transition of the local Church to a Church with a more pronounced Chinese matrix. Father Luís Sequeira also recalls the work that Norma da Rosa developed with children at risk.
A delicate and discreet presence, but fundamental to the transition process that the local Church embarked on in the years that led to Macau’s return to Chinese sovereignty. That’s how Father Luís Sequeira remembers Sister Norma Maria da Rosa, a former secretary to both bishop Arquíminio da Costa and bishop Domingos Lam.
Born in Macau in 1938, she was a member of the Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary. Sister Norma passed away on September 10th and was recently honoured by the Diocese of Macau “for her long and faithful service to God.”
The role she played while at the service of the last Portuguese bishop of Macau and, later, as the secretary of the first Chinese bishop of East Asia’s oldest Diocese, earned her the admiration and respect of many in Macau and Luís Sequeira is no exception.
The Portuguese Jesuit recalls the discretion, but also the great sense of responsibility with which Sister Norma Maria da Rosa carried out her duties: “I would say that in her simplicity, in her humility even, she was a person who, one could easily say, contributed to a certain balance in the transition from Bishop Arquiminio to Bishop Lam. In spite of this simplicity, Sister Norma was a very stable person,” Father Luís Sequeira recalls. “She was simple, always with a very delicate and modest smile, but she conveyed a certain security to the ecclesiastical chamber. In a time of transition from a Portuguese bishop to a Chinese bishop, she was a guarantor of balance in the ecclesiastical chamber. There were no surprises, no setbacks. This is an aspect that seems to me to be very correct and very important,” Father Sequeira told O Clarim. Her work – always discreet, but undeniably influential – did not confine itself to administrative duties.
In addition to performing administrative tasks as the secretary of Archbishop Arquíminio da Costa, first, and then Dom Domingos Lam later, the Dominican nun also distinguished herself by the work she has done both at Escola da Sagrada Família (Holy Family School) and at Creche Diocesana Helen Liang (Helen Liang Diocesan Nursery), where she worked with hundreds of children at risk: “Sister Norma was, at a certain moment, Superior of the Dominican community and for many years she was very involved in the work carried out by that community. The Dominicans received and helped children in difficult situations, hailing from difficult families. This is another expression of the work she developed. She worked with children, mostly of a young age, who were welcomed with the sisters,” Father Luís Sequeira recalls. “This is a different dimension of her work, but it’s a dimension that is equally important, with children who needed follow-up. Dysfunctional families, as we now call them, were already a reality at the time and she was one of the first people to understand that,” the former Superior of the Society of Jesus in Macau points out.
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