Where Devout Catholics Must Stay When In Singapore

For some funny reasons, this year will be the third year that I spent my Easter on a holiday.

Six years ago, my husband and I were in Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island of Canada) during the Easter weekend and had to bear having many of the shops closed for the holiday.

Then in 2006, we spent a week in Peninsular Malaysia and was in Melaka during the Easter weekend. Since we were with my Sabah family, we made it for the Easter Vigil mass at the oldest Catholic church in Malaysia, St. Peter’s Church.

Last weekend was another Easter spent away from home and this time, we were in Singapore.

I was at first disappointed that my hotel of choice was fully booked but the hotel I finally settled on turned out to be the perfect one – when it comes to being a Catholic and especially on Easter.

This was because barely 300m outside our hotel doorsteps, were 3 Catholic churches which were more than 150 years old each! I could not help but stop every time we passed by any of them, amazed that such buildings exist amidst skyscrapers.

There was the Church of Sts. Peter & Paul which was opposite our hotel and the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd which was across the Bras Basah road.

But it was St. Joseph’s Church, founded in 1851 and 2 buildings down from our hotel that we got more familiar with as we attended it’s Sunday Easter mass yesterday morning.

As on the outside, the interior was very beautiful and it must be a nice motivation to have such a lovely church to attend to every weekend.

I now know which area to stay at when one is in Singapore and is a devout Catholic. With a minimum of 10 hotels and at least 3 beautiful churches in the surrounding vicinity, you cannot go wrong with the Bras Basah/Bugis area.

My sister asked me yesterday if being away for Easter was intentional – it was not as we usually make holiday plans months ahead but I now wonder where we will be spending Easter in 2009.